1963 - James Carroll at WWDC in Washington, D.C., became the first disc jockey to broadcast a Beatles record on American radio. Carroll played "I Want To Hold Your Hand", which he had obtained from his stewardess girlfriend, who brought the single back from the U.K. Due to listener demand, the song was played daily, every hour. Since it hadn't been released yet in the States, Capitol Records initially considered court action, but instead released the single earlier than planned.
1969 - Tiny Tim married Miss Vicky on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Famous for 1968, his version of "Tip Toe Through The Tulips", Tiny Tim's wedding to Miss Vicki, as he called her, was a huge television event, viewed in more than 21 million households -- a "Tonight Show" record at the time.
Their marriage, however, didn't last. Tiny Tim and Miss Vicki largely lived apart. They divorced after eight years.
1971 - David Bowie released his fourth album Hunky Dory, which opens with the anthemic "Changes." Regarded as one of Bowie's best works, it also features singles "Oh! You Pretty Things", "Life on Mars?" and "Queen Bitch". Bowie considered the album to be one of the most important of his career. In a 1999 Uncut interview, he said, "Hunky Dory gave me a fabulous groundswell. I guess it provided me, for the first time in my life, with an actual audience - I mean, people actually coming up to me and saying, 'Good album, good songs.' That hadn't happened to me before. It was like, 'Ah, I'm getting it, I'm finding my feet. I'm starting to communicate what I want to do." (Photo by Angela Weiss/Mick Rock/Getty Images)
1977 - At the last minute, Elvis Costello And The Attractions were scheduled to appear on Saturday Night Live in place of the Sex Pistols, who were unable to gain a visa to enter the country. SNL Producer Lorne Michaels asked Costello to not play "Radio, Radio" (because of the song's critique of '70s corporate rock radio). Costello launched into a few seconds of "Less Than Zero," then abruptly broke into a full version of "Radio, Radio". Michaels was not amused and banned Costello from SNL for years.
1982 - The Who performed at what was billed as the last concert of their farewell tour at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The show was simulcast nationally on pay-per-view satellite/cable TV to closed-circuit arena outlets.
1989 - The Simpsons debuted on Fox with the episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire." The show quickly attracted big-name guest stars, including many musicians. In Season 3, Michael Jackson, Sting and Aerosmith appeared.
1999 - Keith Richards decided to keep a guitar from an autograph seeker at his birthday party at the Russian Tea Room in New York. The owner of the guitar shrugged it off with, "It's Keith, man."
2010 - Captain Beefheart died aged 69 from complications from multiple sclerosis. The American musician, singer-songwriter, artist and poet born Don Glen Vliet in Glendale, California recorded 13 studio albums. The owner of a remarkable four-and-a-half-octave vocal range, he employed idiosyncratic rhythms, absurdist lyrics, and an unholy alliance of free jazz, Delta blues, latter-day classical music, and rock & roll to create a singular body of work virtually unrivaled in its daring and fluid creativity. While he never came even remotely close to mainstream success, Beefheart's impact was incalculable, and his fingerprints were all over punk, new wave, and post-rock. He and Frank Zappa were childhood friends.
Birthdays:
Art Neville, The Neville Brothers, was born on this date in 1937.
Paul Rogers, Free, Bad Company, and The Firm, is 70.
Mike Mills, R.E.M bassist, is 62.
Bob Stinson, The Replacements' guitarist, was born today in 1959.
Mick Quinn, Supergrass singer, is 51.
On This Day In Music History is sourced from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.