1971 -The Rolling Stones' lips and tongue logo appears for the first time when it is used on VIP passes for their show at the Marquee Club in London. The logo was designed by John Pasche, a student at the prestigious Royal College of Art in London. Pasche met with Mick Jagger, who showed him a picture of the Indian goddess Kali, rendered sticking out a long, pointed tongue. Using that as a basis, Pasche came up with the tongue and lips logo, earning £50 (about $75) for his efforts.
Pasche did not base the design on Jagger's lips, but he says he may have done so subconsciously. The logo is bold and compact - perfect for small spaces. It has an anti-authority vibe with plenty of sexual overtones, which is exactly what the band stands for.
1972 - Mott The Hoople had decided to call it all off after four albums, when David Bowie came to their rescue. He had a song called "All The Young Dudes" and Mott recorded it with Bowie producing. Singer Ian Hunter told me in KBCO Studio C that Bowie had originally offered them Suffragette City, but he thought 'Dudes' was a better song for him to sing. It became a huge hit in the U.K. and a sizable success in the U.S. as well. (Photo by Jo Hale/Getty Images)
1980 - Seven years after its release, Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon broke the record for the longest-charting pop album, a title previously held by Carole King's Tapestry. Dark Side of the Moon remained in the charts until 1988. With an estimated 50 million copies sold, it is Pink Floyd's most commercially successful album and one of the best-selling albums worldwide.
1980 - The Police became the first Western pop group to play in Bombay, India for over ten years when they played a one off gig in the city.
1985 - South African radio stations banned all Stevie Wonder songs when he dedicated the Academy Award he had received the night before to Nelson Mandela.
1987 - Nike began airing a commercial using the Beatles song "Revolution," marking the first time an original version of a Beatles song was used in an ad. The song "Help!" appeared in a 1985 commercial for Ford, but that was a new recording by Beatles soundalikes. The Nike ad uses the original "Revolution," a feat that requires permission from both the US record company and the publisher. The record company is Capitol, which gets $250,000 in the deal. The publisher is Michael Jackson, who bought the rights to about 200 Beatles songs for $47.5 million in 1985, outbidding Paul McCartney in the process.
2008 - The B-52's lose their apostrophe, becoming the B-52s with the release of their album Funplex. The apostrophe, which was grammatically incorrect, was there because the friend that designed their logo put it there.
2019 - British musician Ranking Roger (born Roger Charlery) died at age 56. In January 2019 it was announced that Roger had undergone surgery for two brain tumors, and was undergoing treatment for lung cancer. He was a vocalist in the 1980s two-tone band the Beat (known in North America as the English Beat) and later General Public.
Birthdays:
Rhythm-and-blues, funk, soul and blues singer Rufus Thomas, born today in 1917.
Teddy Pendergrass, soul singer, was born today in 1950.
Diana Ross is 77.
Steven Tyler is 73.
Guitarist James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins is 53.
Country singer Kenny Chesney is 53.
On This Day In Music History is sourced from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts and Wikipedia.