On this day: May 21, 1979

Rock finally came to Russia on May 21, 1979 when Elton John played the first of eight concerts in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. John was the first solo Western rock artist to undertake a tour of the USSR, as it was then known. The shows in Russia were an extension of his first tour of any sort since 1976, when he had announced he was going to retire from road work due to an exhausting six years spent nearly entirely on the road.

 It was later discovered there were very few tickets to any of the shows available to the general public in Russia, instead most had been reserved for members of the Communist Party. John was very upset about the news, but was unable to do anything about it.

 Even with a smaller general audience, John still brought Eastern rock music to the West for the first time, and was able to begin breaking down barriers which had previously seemed unbreakable.

Other notable events for May 21:
-'Little' Stevie Wonder, who had celebrated his 13th birthday only eight days before, recorded his first million selling single, Fingertips, on May 21, 1963
-Pete Townshend of the Who married dress designer Karen Astley, whose brother Jon Astley was a record producer, and whose sister, Virginia Astley, was a recording artists and member of the all-female group the Ravishing Beauties, on May 21, 1968
-Wet Wet Wet's charity single, their version of With a Little Help from my Friends, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney topped the UK singles chart on May 21, 1988