Soundtrack Sunday — The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Happy (early) Halloween! The Rocky Horror Picture Show was not successful in its initial theatrical run, but then a strange thing happened. In 1976, the Waverly Theater in New York’s Greenwich Village began showing the film at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Soon, a cult of repeat viewers began turning up every week; they began to dress like the characters, call out their own comments at strategic moments, sing along, and add their own theatrical effects. The phenomenon spread across the U.S., with fans rivaling Trekkies and Deadheads for loyalty and eccentricity, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show took on a life Richard O’Brien never could have antici…pated.

This Day in Music History — September 26

1975 : The Rocky Horror Picture Show opens in Westwood, California. Featuring a young Meat Loaf along with Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon, the movie tanks but later becomes a cult classic, with audience members shouting back at the screen and bringing toast, toilet paper, and other assorted items to enhance the viewing experience.

1992 : Gloria Estefan headlines a show featuring Paul Simon, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Jimmy Buffett at a Miami concert to raise money for Hurricane Andrew relief.

2008 : In some very unshocking news, Clay Aiken announces that he is gay in People magazine, saying: “It was the first decision I made as a father. I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn’t raised that way, and I’m not going to raise a child to do that.”

2012 : Artist Pink, aka “P!nk,” scores her first #1 album on Billboard’s album charts with The Truth About Love. The album had sold 280,000 copies at the time.