This Day in Top 40 History: May 1

Breakthrough Hits and Milestones

• 1975: James Taylor dropped his sixth studio album, Gorilla. Peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, this record was more successful than his previous release, Walking Man, which stalled at No. 13 on the same chart. Glorilla delivered one Top 10 single, “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You),” Taylor's rendition of Marvin Gaye's 1964 hit. 
• 2007: Björk issued Volta, her 10-track seventh studio album, featuring “Declare Independence” and “earth intruders.” Climbing to No. 9 on the Billboard 200, it became her first project to break into the Top 10 in the U.S. In the U.K., Volta cracked the Top 10, too. 
• 2019: The Billboard Music Awards were held at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Drake won 12 awards, including Top Artist, Top Billboard 200 Artist, Top Hot 100 Artist, and Top Radio Songs Artist.
• 2019: BTS won the Top Duo/Group award, Juice WRLD was named Top New Artist, and Ariana Grande received the Billboard Chart Achievement and Top Female Artist awards.
• 2021: Silk Sonic, featuring Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak jumped from No. 3 to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 with the song "Leave The Door Open," while Polo G's "Rapstar" remained at No.1 for the second consecutive week. Other charting hits included "Peaches" by Justin Timberlake, Daniel Caesar, and Giveon, which climbed from No. 4 to No. 3, and Olivia Rodrigo's "deja vu" at No. 11, up from No. 15 the previous week.

Cultural Milestones 

• 1939: “Amazing Grace” singer Judy Collins was born in Seattle, Washington. She has over 50 albums to her name, including Wildflowers and Whales & Nightingales, which entered the Top 20 in the U.S. Additionally, Collins is a GRAMMY winner recognized for popularizing tracks written by multiple contemporary songwriters, including Joni Mitchell and Randy Newman.
• 1967: Tim McGraw was born in Delhi, Louisiana. He has dominated the country music scene for decades, selling more than 80 million records and placing over 55 Top 10 hits on Billboard's Hot Country Songs Chart. These include chart-toppers such as “My Next Thirty Years” and “Where the Green Grass Grows.”

Notable Recordings and Performances

• 1966: James Brown delivered a historic debut performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. He sang a mix of some of his biggest hits, including "It's a Man's Man's Man's World,” “Papa's Got a Brand New Bag,” “Please, Please, Please,” and “I Got You (I Feel Good).” Brown would return to the show in October of the same year, along with Rich Little and Nancy Sinatra.
• 2010: Calvin Harris performed at the Gaymers Camden Crawl in London, England. His song set included "Ready for the Weekend" and "Colours."
• 2019: Blackpink took their IN YOUR AREA World Tour to Newark, New Jersey, where they performed at the Prudential Center. The K-pop group launched this trek to support their EPs Square Up and Kill This Love, which reached No. 40 and No. 24 on the Billboard 200, respectively.
• 2024: Superstar Bad Bunny performed at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, during his Most Wanted Tour. The Top 40 rapper is known for his Latin-inspired pop/rap style, with songs such as "Tití Me Preguntó" and “Maldita Pobreza.” 
• 2024: Pop group AJR held a concert at the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California, as part of their AJR: The Maybe Man Tour. Fans enjoyed songs such as "Yes I'm a Mess" and "Burn the House Down."

Industry Changes and Challenges

• 1972: Fans celebrated “Marvin Gaye Day” for the first time at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. This was after Gaye performed songs from his 11th studio album, What's Going On, which reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200. During this event, Washington officials also honored the “Sexual Healing” hitmaker by giving him the key to the city. 
• 1980: The South African government banned Pink Floyd's No. 1 hit "Another Brick In The Wall, Part Two" after students in the country adopted the anthem to protest the apartheid regime's segregated educational system. These boycotts resulted in the loss of at least 40 lives. Unfortunately, this ban wasn't lifted until about a decade later, when the apartheid laws were repealed in the early 1990s. 
• 1984: Mick Fleetwood, who contributed to Fleetwood Mac's Top Five hits such as “Don't Stop” and “Dreams,” filed for personal bankruptcy in the U.S., claiming he owed debts of up to $3.7 million. With this move, he consented to sell all his assets to meet his creditors' demands. Unfortunately, this wasn't the last time Mick found himself in financial trouble, as he has filed for bankruptcy several other times.
• 2014: Pop star Justin Bieber's personal assistant and aspiring rapper Xavier Domonique Smith was ordered to perform community service and undergo a drug treatment program after police charged him with ecstasy possession.
• 2015: Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson had to give five members of The Gap Band writing credit for the massive hit "Uptown Funk." The Gap Band claimed the song had strong similarities to their 1979 track "Oops Upside Your Head."
• 2019: Just hours after performing at the Billboard Music Awards, Joe Jonas of the pop group The Jonas Brothers married his girlfriend Sophie Turner in Las Vegas. Country/pop duo Dan + Shay sang their hit song “Speechless” while the couple walked down the aisle.