1948 - Columbia Records launched a new vinyl disc that played at thirty-three and one third RPM in New York City, sparking a music-industry standard so strong that the digital age has yet to kill it.
1966 - Jimmy Page made his live debut with The Yardbirds at the Marquee Club, London. The group is notable for having started the careers of three of rock's most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page, all of whom were in the top five of Rolling Stone's 100 Top Guitarists list (Clapton at No. 2, Page at No. 3, and Beck at No. 5).
1966 - Working at Abbey Road studios in London, The Beatles recorded a new John Lennon song "She Said She Said". The song was inspired by the actor Peter Fonda, who was on an acid trip along with George Harrison and John Lennon while they were together at a party. Accounts vary as to how events unfolded, but there is a consensus that Fonda kept saying "I know what it's like to be dead," which ended up being a key line in the lyric.
2001 - John Lee Hooker, American blues singer and guitarist, died in his sleep at age 83. Some of his best known songs include "Boogie Chillen'", "Crawling King Snake", "Dimples", "Boom Boom", and "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer". Despite being illiterate, Hooker was a prolific lyricist and often employed an improvisational style in his music.
2002 - Widespread Panic headline the first Bonnaroo Music Festival, held on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee. The inaugural four-day event - named for the Creole slang for "good stuff," borrowed from a Dr. John album - focuses on jam bands and folk acts, welcoming Trey Anastasio, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Jurassic 5, and The String Cheese Incident to the line-up.
Birthdays:
Ray Davies, of The Kinks, is 77.
Joey Molland, singer and guitarist for Badfinger, is 74.
Guitarist Nils Lofgren (E Street Band, Crazy Horse) is 70.
Pat Sansone, multi-instrumentalist for Wilco, is 52.
Brandon Flowers (The Killers) is 40.
Lana Del Rey is 36. Born Elizabeth Grant. But before settling on her current moniker, the singer toyed with a number of different stage names including Sparkle Jump Rope Queen and May Jailer. "I was going to Miami quite a lot at the time, speaking a lot of Spanish with my friends from Cuba - Lana Del Rey reminded us of the glamour of the seaside. It's also been suggested the name came from actress Lana Turner and the Del Rey Ford sedan. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
On This Day In Music History is sourced from This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.