On This Date In Music

1938 - On Armistice Day, on her radio show, Kate Smith sings the Irving Berlin song "God Bless America" for the first time, introducing it to the country. Berlin composed the song for a 1918 musical he wrote, but decided not to use it.
("This is the original FIRST broadcast radio performance of God Bless America by Irving Berlin as introduced by Kate Smith on November 10, 1938. She later recreated it for the Warner Bros. film but this is the actual debut.)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1rKQReqJZg

1973 - Elton John's album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road hits No. 1 in America, where it stays for eight weeks.

 

1975 - The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks suddenly in Lake Superior during a storm, killing all 29 men aboard and inspiring Canadian folkie Gordon Lightfoot to write a song about the tragedy, "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald."

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuzTkGyxkYI

1979 - The Eagles went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Heartache Tonight', the group's 5th and final US No. 1.