1966 - David Jones issues his first recording under the name "David Bowie." Jones changed his last name to Bowie in order to avoid confusion with the Monkees' Davy Jones. The single is called "Can't Help Thinking About Me" and is credited to David Bowie and the Lower Third.
1972 - Paul Simon releases his second solo album, Paul Simon. If any musical justification were needed for the breakup of Simon & Garfunkel, it could be found on this striking collection. The music reflects Simon's interest in world music as well as reggae, Latin music, jazz, and blues.
1973 - Elvis Presley performed his "Aloha from Hawaii" concert which was broadcast on television worldwide via satellite to an audience of one billion.
1977 - David Bowie released his eleventh studio album Low, the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno termed the "Berlin Trilogy". The Berlin Trilogy consists of three consecutively released studio albums: Low (1977), "Heroes" (1977) and Lodger (1979). The albums were recorded after Bowie took up residence in West Berlin in late 1976, and saw him experiment with elements of electronic, krautrock, ambient, and world music. In 1976, he was eager to escape the drug culture of Los Angeles. He called the period "the darkest days of my life" and confessed to having no memory of the recording of Station to Station in Los Angeles in late 1975 due to his "astronomic" cocaine addiction. Bowie, along with friend Iggy Pop retreated to Berlin in a further attempt to escape his addiction and the spotlight:
"For many years Berlin had appealed to me as a sort of sanctuary-like situation. It was one of the few cities where I could move around in virtual anonymity. I was going broke; it was cheap to live. For some reason, Berliners just didn't care. Well, not about an English rock singer, anyway".
1978 - The Sex Pistols played their last live gig at Winterland in San Francisco. Johnny Rotten famously closed the show by asking the crowd, "Ever feel like you've been cheated?" The group would reunite in 1996, 2003 and 2007.
1978 - Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album hits #1 for a record 31st week on the US chart.
2000 - We learn the paternity of Melissa Etheridge's two children when Rolling Stone reports that David Crosby is the surrogate father.
2005 - A $100,000 statue honoring the late punk guitarist Johnny Ramone was unveiled by his widow Linda at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Birthdays:
Clarence Carter, singer and guitarist, is 85.
Allen Toussaint, singer, songwriter, producer, was born today in 1938.
James Todd Smith (LL Cool J) is 53.
Dave Grohl is 52. (Photo by Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images)
Caleb Followill, lead singer for Kings of Leon, is 39.
On This Day In Music History is sourced from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.