1967 - The Monkees begin a U.S. tour with Jimi Hendrix opening. They were one of the first mainstream rock acts to recognize Hendrix’s greatness. Unfortunately, the Monkees’ young fans weren’t quite as enthusiastic when Micky Dolenz came up with the seemingly bizarre idea to hire Hendrix as the opening act for the Monkees’ first U.S. tour in 1967. Hendrix ended up playing only seven of that tour’s 29 dates, dropping out after having to contend nightly with thousands of nasty, impatient, jeering teenyboppers. “Yeah, it was kind of embarrassing,” Dolenz admits to Yahoo Entertainment.
1968 - Three years after Eric Clapton's departure and eight months after Jeff Beck left the band, The Yardbirds disbanded, guitarist Jimmy Page put together a new lineup to fulfill some contractually obligated concerts and began referring to the group as The New Yardbirds, eventually changing the name to Led Zeppelin.
1969 - The Beatles release "Here Comes The Sun." George Harrison wrote this in Eric Clapton's garden using one of Clapton's acoustic guitars. When the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein died in 1967, the band had to handle more of their accounting and business affairs, which Harrison hated. He wrote "Here Comes The Sun" after attending a round of business meetings. This song was inspired by the long winters in England which Harrison thought went on forever. Tom Petty: "No piece of music can make you feel better than this. It's such an optimistic song, with that little bit of ache in it that makes the happiness mean even more."
1978 - Talking Heads released their second studio album More Songs About Buildings And Food. The first of three Talking Heads LPs produced by collaborator Brian Eno, featured the group’s first Top 30 single, a cover of Al Green's 'Take Me to the River.' Concerning the album's title, bassist Tina Weymouth was quoted in a 1979 interview with Creem:
"When we were making this album I remembered this stupid discussion we had about titles for the last album," Tina smirked. "At that time I said, 'What are we gonna call an album that's just about buildings and food?' And Chris said, 'You call it more songs about buildings and food."
1978- The Grateful Dead play Red Rocks for the first time. The band and Red Rocks Amphitheatre started becoming synonymous. The Dead considered the outdoor venue “a sacred place,” likening it to Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt. “We played better,” venerable guitarist Jerry Garcia explained. “It’s a cumulative thing as we adapt to the environment. The realities of touring keep you from playing more than one-nighters in a different venue every night. At Red Rocks, we played several nights in one place. It gave us fine tuning possibilities that we couldn’t do before, and the live show is what we really do.” In total, GD played Red Rocks 20 times and performed their swan song at the venue on August 13, 1987 to cap off their final three-night run. (Photo credit ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
1980 - The original Led Zeppelin lineup performed its final show, in Berlin Germany.
1984 - Prince started a five-week run with his first No. 1 with "When Doves Cry." Prince wrote this song for his movie Purple Rain. There is no bass on this song. Prince took out the bass track at the last minute to get a different sound, though he hated to see it go.
"Sometimes your brain kind of splits in two - your ego tells you one thing, and the rest of you says something else. You have to go with what you know is right," he told Bass Player magazine.
1989 - It was announced that for the first time, compact discs were out selling vinyl albums.
2001 - Fred Neil, a folk singer-songwriter known for writing Harry Nilsson's hit "Everybody's Talkin'," dies at age 65.
2006 - Syd Barrett died from complications arising from diabetes at age 60. The singer, songwriter and guitarist was one of the founding members of Pink Floyd, and active as a musician for only about seven years before he went into seclusion. After leaving music, Barrett continued with painting and dedicated himself to gardening. Pink Floyd wrote and recorded several tributes to him, most notably the 1975 album Wish You Were Here, which included "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", as an homage to Barrett.
Birthdays:
Joe Zawinul, pianist, Miles Davis band and jazz fusion band Weather Report, was born on the day in 1932.
Ringo Starr is 81.
David Hodo (the construction worker in The Village People) is 74.
On This Day In Music History is sourced from This Day in Music, Song Facts, Jambase, Colorado Music Experience and Wikipedia.