This day in 1956: Elvis Presley made his first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” He sang four songs, including “Love Me Tender” and “Don’t Be Cruel,” shot only from the waist up (because of his naughty hip movements). Charles Laughton was hosting in place of Sullivan, who was recuperating from an auto accident.

Ed Sullivan, never a fan of controversy, had already refused an offer to hire Elvis for $5,000. Even as he professed to the press that Elvis was ‘not his cup of tea’, Ed Sullivan had already begun negotiations with Elvis’ agent, Colonel Tom Parker. His hesitation cost him heavily, however. He would end up agreeing to shell out $50,000 for three appearances, an unprecedented sum.

The September 9th show reached 82.6 percent of the TV audience.

Today in 1975, “Rhinestone Cowboy” by Glen Campbell peaked at #1 on the pop singles chart – two weeks after it topped the country charts.

“Rhinestone Cowboy” is a song written by Larry Weiss.

Weiss wrote and recorded “Rhinestone Cowboy” in 1974, and it appeared on his 20th Century Records album Black and Blue Suite. It did not, however, have much of a commercial impact as a single. In late 1974, Campbell heard the song on the radio and, during a tour of Australia, decided to learn it. Soon after his return to the United States, Campbell went to Al Coury’s office at Capitol Records, where he was approached about “a great new song” – “Rhinestone Cowboy”.

Several music writers noted that Campbell identified with the subject matter of “Rhinestone Cowboy” – survival and making it, particularly when the chips are down – very strongly. As Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic put it, the song is about a veteran artist “who’s aware that he’s more than paid his dues during his career … but is still surviving, and someday, he’ll shine just like a rhinestone cowboy.”

This day in 1980, Johnny Lee’s “Looking For Love” which was featured in the movie, “Urban Cowboy,” reached #1 on the country charts.

Written by Wanda Mallette, Bob Morrison and Patti Ryan, it was released in June 1980 as part of the soundtrack to the film Urban Cowboy, released that year. Marcy Levy was one of the female singers who provided backing vocals on the track. “Lookin’ for Love” was reissued as the lead song on his October 1980 album of the same name.

Country music group Sawyer Brown recorded a cover of the song on the 2000 album ‘The Hits Live’. This version peaked at No. 44 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. The song is also featured in the classic Saturday Night Live sketch Buh-Weet Sings, in which Buckwheat from Our Gang (played by Eddie Murphy) sings the song as “Wookin Pa Nub”.

This day in 1991, Dottie West died at the age of 58 as a result of injuries she sustained five days earlier in a car accident. As the first female country GRAMMY winner, Dottie was considered by many as a trailblazer for female country performers.

Born Dorothy Marie Marsh on October 11, 1932, Dottie West, along with her friends and fellow recording artists Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, is considered one of the genre’s most influential and groundbreaking female artists. Dottie West’s career started in the 1960s, with her Top 10 hit, “Here Comes My Baby Back Again”, which won her a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1965, the first female in Country Music to receive a Grammy.

In the late-70s, she teamed up with country pop superstar, Kenny Rogers for a series of duets which took her career to new highs, earning Platinum selling albums and No. 1 records for the very first time.

Her duet recordings with Rogers, “Every Time Two Fools Collide”, “All I Ever Need Is You”, and “What Are We Doin’ in Love”, became country music standards. In the mid-1970s, her image and music underwent a metamorphosis, bringing her to the very peak of her popularity as a solo act, and reaching #1 on her own for the first time in 1980 with “A Lesson in Leavin'”. In 2018, West was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

This day in 2006, Tim McGraw & Faith Hill’s Soul2Soul II Tour wraps at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The couple brought in almost $89 million during the concert run, setting a record as the highest-grossing country tour in history.