On this day in music history - Magical Ring, by Clannad (1983):

Magical Ring

Album by Clannad,

released March 21, 1983.

Track list:

Theme from Harry’s Game / Clannad & Máire Brennan; Tower Hill; Seachrán Charn tSiail; Passing Time; Coinleach Glas An Fhómhair; I See Red; Tá’ Mé Mo Shuí; Newgrange; The Fairy Queen; Thíos Fá’n Chósta; Coinleach Glas An Fhómhair.

On this day in movie history -The King of Comedy (1983):

The King of Comedy

directed by Martin Scorsese,

written by Paul D. Zimmerman,

was released in the United States on February 18, 1983.
Music by Robbie Robertson.

Cast:

Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Sandra Bernhard, Diahnne Abbott, Shelley Hack, Margo Winkler, Kim Chan, Frederick De Cordova, Edgar Scherick, Ed Herlihy, Tony Randall, Victor Borge, Joyce Brothers, Catherine Scorsese, Cathy Scorsese, Martin Scorsese, Charles Scorsese, Mick Jones, Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon, Kosmo Vinyl, Ellen Foley, Don Letts, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.

On this day in movie history - Videodrome (1983):

Videodrome

aka Zonekiller, 

directed and written by David Cronenberg,

was released in the United States on February 4, 1983.

Music by Howard Shore.

Cast:

James Woods, Debbie Harry, Sonja Smits, Peter Dvorsky, Leslie Carlson, Jack Creley, Lynne Gorman, Julie Khaner, David Bolt, Reiner Schwarz, Lally Cadeau, King Cosmos, Kay Hawtrey, David Tsubouchi.

Recommended reading: Stick by Elmore Leonard (1983):

Stick

By Elmore Leonard.

Published by Arbor House.

First published 1983.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0877954364

ISBN-13: 978-0877954361

Description:

After serving time for armed robbery, Ernest "Stick" Stickley is back on the outside and trying to stay legit. But it's tough staying straight in a crooked town -- and Miami is a pirate's paradise, where investment fat cats and lowlife drug dealers hold hands and dance. And when a crazed player chooses Stick at random to die for another man's sins, the struggling ex-con is left with no choice but to dive right back into the game. Besides, Stick knows a good thing when he sees it -- and a golden opportunity to run a very profitable sweet revenge scam seems much too tasty to pass up.

Recommended reading - The Exorcist (1971) and Legion (1983):

The Exorcist

By William Peter Blatty.

Published by Harper Paperbacks.

First published in 1971.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 006209436X

ISBN-13: 978-0062094360

Description:

Four decades after it first shook the nation, then the world, William Peter Blatty’s thrilling masterwork of faith and demonic possession returns in an even more powerful form. Raw and profane, shocking and blood-chilling, it remains a modern parable of good and evil and perhaps the most terrifying novel ever written.

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Legion

By William Peter Blatty.

Published by Tor Books.

First published in 1983.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0765327139

ISBN-13: 978-0765327130

Description:

“Jesus asked the man his name, and he answered, ‘Legion, for we are many.’” – Mark 5:9.

A young boy is found horribly murdered in a mock crucifixion. Is the murderer the elderly woman who witnessed the crime? A neurologist who can no longer bear the pain life inflicts on its victims? A psychiatrist with a macabre sense of humor and a guilty secret? A mysterious mental patient, locked in silent isolation?

Lieutenant Kinderman follows a bewildering trail that links all these people, confronting new enigmas at every turn, even as more murders occur. Why does each victim suffer the same dreadful mutilations? Why are two priests among the dead? Is there a connection between these crimes and another series of murders that took place twelve years ago – one that supposedly ended with the death of the killer?

Legion is a novel of breathtaking energy and suspense. But more than this, it is an extraordinary journey into the uncharted depths of the human mind and the most agonizing questions of the human condition.

The answers are revealed in a climax so stunning that it could only have been written by the author of The Exorcist – William Peter Blatty.

On this day in movie history - Christine (1983):

Christine

directed by John Carpenter,

written by Bill Phillips,

based on the novel by Stephen King,

was released in the United States on December 9, 1983.
Music by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth.

Cast:

Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, Harry Dean Stanton, Christine Belford, Robert Darnell, Roberts Blossom, Kelly Preston, William Ostrander, Steven Tash, Stuart Charno, Malcolm Danare, David Spielberg.

Recommended reading - Christine (1983):

Christine

By Stephen King.

Published by Viking Press.

First published 1983.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0670220264

ISBN-13: 978-0670220267

Description:

It was love at first sight. From the moment seventeen-year-old Arnie Cunningham saw Christine, he knew he would do anything to possess her.

Arnie’s best friend, Dennis, distrusts her – immediately.

Arnie’s teen-queen girlfriend, Leigh, fears her the moment she senses her power.

Arnie’s parents, teachers, and enemies soon learn what happens when you cross her.

Because Christine is no lady. She is Stephen King’s ultimate, blackly evil vehicle of terror…

Christine, blood-red, fat and finned, was twenty. Her promise lay all in her past. Greedy and big, she was Arnie’s obsession, a ’58 Plymouth Fury. Broken down but not finished. There was still power in her – a frightening power that leaked like sump oil, staining and corrupting. A malign power that corroded the mind and turned ownership into Possession.