It was one of the most surreal moments I’d ever seen on television. It was late (after 11:00) Monday night, December 8, 1980, and the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins were locked in a 14-14 tie on ABC’s Monday Night Football. And then, Howard Cosell shocked the nation with this news bulletin:
John Lennon was 40 years old. I was born a little too late to truly experience the British Invasion. When I was a kid, the Beatles were cute mop-tops, and I learned most of their early hits not from the radio, but from an animated Saturday morning cartoon series on ABC. My 3rd grade girlfriend and I would sing along with “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “Help” on the phone while the cartoon show was on. By the time I got into radio, the Beatles had long ago broken up. As a disc jockey, that wasn’t such a bad thing, because all four of them were cranking out solo hits.
Throughout the 1970s, Paul McCartney had a high profile, first on his own, and then with his wife Linda and his group Wings. I wore out the “Band on the Run” album, and still listen to it often to this day. George Harrison (then, and now my wife’s favorite Beatle) was a little too deep and serious for me to embrace. I enjoyed several of his records, and admired his charitable work, but his ties to religious gurus from India just seemed a little “out there” to me. Ringo Starr, to everyone’s surprise, scored more radio hits than the more serious Beatles early on.
John sort of mysteriously disappeared for a while in the late 1970s, but in late 1980 returned in a big way. His “Double Fantasy” album was much-anticipated, and he delivered the goods. At KZ-106. we had just started playing the first single, “Starting Over,” and it was getting great response. That’s when Mark David Chapman, a deranged Lennon “fan,” gunned him down outside his New York City apartment.
The morning after, I put aside the show I usually did, which included several attempts at humor. It’s hard to be funny, or try to be funny, just hours after a music icon has been murdered. Many had lost a friend or idol, for sure. But also, a family had lost its husband and father. And selfishly, many music fans like myself had always harbored the hope that there really would be a Beatles reunion one day. Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels had famously offered $300 to the Fab Four if they would reunite on his show, but we all thought they would somehow put aside their differences and appear on stage, or on record again in the future. Now it could never happen.
In 2001, we lost George Harrison to cancer. Thankfully Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are still going strong in their 70s. Paul, an admitted workaholic, still produces new music and performs lengthy concerts, including a highly-praised set at Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tennessee last year. Ringo and his All-Starr Band travel the globe doing an energetic oldies show (they’re scheduled to appear in Birmingham, Alabama on Sunday Feb. 15, 2o15).
Here’s a brief clip I have saved from December 9, 1980. For some reason there’s a few seconds of WDEF’s weather forecast, but then it gets into the end of WRCB’s 11 p.m. news, and the beginning of an NBC special report on Lennon’s death. The next video is a longer clip from the NBC special, and more of it can be found on YouTube.
Interesting article, David! I’m glad you included the Jane Pauley special. I videotaped it back then, but didn’t keep it. I also taped the Tom Snyder piece, but erased it as well.
BTW, for those who may not know, Mark David Chapman attended Covenant College on Lookout Mountain.
I was listening to your morning radio program while getting ready for a day in high school when you were talking about the death of John Lennon and skipping the comedy because of this tragic event.