On this day in 1980: The Paul McCartney single ‘Coming Up’ became one of the few ‘live’ recordings to reach the top of Billboard’s Hot 100. American disc jockeys preferred it to the studio version on the flip side of the record.

In a ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine interview, McCartney explained how the song came about:

“I originally cut it on my farm in Scotland. I went into the studio each day and just started with a drum track. Then I built it up bit by bit without any idea of how the song was going to turn out. After laying down the drum track, I added guitars and bass, building up the backing track.

Then I thought, ‘Well, OK, what am I going to do for the voice?’ I was working with a vari-speed machine with which you can speed up your voice, or take it down a little bit. That’s how the voice sound came about” Paul McCartney

The music video for “Coming Up” features Paul McCartney playing ten roles (himself, two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, a keyboard player, and four horn players) and Linda McCartney playing two (one female and one male backup singer.) The “band” identified as “The Plastic Macs” on the drum kit (a homage to Lennon’s conceptual Plastic Ono Band), features Paul and Linda’s imitations of various rock musician stereotypes, as well as a few identifiable musicians:

On this day in 1986: Wham! were at #1 on the U.K. singles chart with their fourth and final U.K. #1 ‘The Edge Of Heaven’. Also on this day Wham! played their farewell concert in front of 80,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, London.