1976: Van Morrison's 1970 album, "Moondance" is awarded a Gold record. The LP, which made it to #29 on the Hot 200, contained two hits: the title track and "Into the Mystic", and would be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
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1968: The Spiral Staircase record their million selling tune, "More Today Than Yesterday", which will reach #12 on the Billboard chart and #7 on the Cash Box Best Sellers list the following Spring. Unfortunately, about 18 months following the single's release, after issuing one album and a couple of more singles, the group disbanded due to management issues and squabbles over finances.
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1962: The Four Seasons' "Big Girls Don't Cry" reaches the top spot on the Billboard singles chart, just as their first hit, "Sherry" did earlier in the year. Songwriter Bob Crewe later said that he was inspired to write the song after he heard actor John Payne use the phase "big girls don't cry" in a 1956 movie called Slightly Scarlet. In the UK, the song reached #13.
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1974: John Lennon had his only solo, number one hit in the US during his lifetime when "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" hit the top. In his homeland, it could do no better than #36. His girl friend, May Pang, would later recall that John got the inspiration for the song when he saw TV evangelist Reverend Ike utter the phrase "Let me tell you guys, it doesn't matter, it's whatever gets you through the night."
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1971: Grand Funk Railroad release their sixth album, "E Pluribus Funk". Music critics bash it, but fans think otherwise and buy enough copies to push it to number five on the Billboard Hot 200 chart. The title of the LP is a play on the former motto of the US government, E Pluribus Unum (Out of many, one).
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