1968 - Fleetwood Mac released their debut studio album (also known as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac), a mixture of blues covers and originals penned by guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer.
This is the only album by the band not to feature keyboardist, vocalist Christine McVie in any capacity.
1975 - Led Zeppelin released Physical Graffiti. The highlights are when Zeppelin incorporate influences and stretch out into new stylistic territory, most notably on the tense, Eastern-influenced "Kashmir." "Trampled Underfoot," with John Paul Jones' galloping keyboard, is their best funk-metal workout, while "Houses of the Holy" is their best attempt at pop, and "Down by the Seaside" is the closest they've come to country. Physical Graffiti captures the whole experience of Led Zeppelin at the top of their game better than any of their other albums. (Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images)
1987 - Graceland won Paul Simon a Grammy for Album Of The Year. In 1984, after a period of depression, divorce and commercial disappointment from his previous album, Simon became fascinated with a bootleg cassette of South African township music. He then planned a trip to Johannesburg, where he spent two weeks recording with South African musicians.
2004 - After EMI refuses to let DJ Danger Mouse release his Grey Album, a mash-up of Jay-Z's Black Album with samples from The Beatles' White Album, the DJ makes the album available as a download, for free, on his website for one day.
1992 - Kurt Cobain married Courtney Love in Waikiki, Hawaii.
Birthdays:
Rupert Holmes, a singer-songwriter best known for his hit "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" is 76. Even if "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" appeared to be a satin-draped novelty of the swinging '70s, a soft rock anthem devoted to gauche promiscuity, a sentiment that further tied him to a specific era -- it didn't stop the song's omnipresence in film, television, commercials, and radio over the next few decades.
George Thorogood is 73. Originally, Thorogood was a minor-league baseball player, but turned to music in 1970. A blues-rock guitarist who draws his inspiration from Elmore James, Hound Dog Taylor, and Chuck Berry, George Thorogood never earned much respect from blues purists, but he became a popular favorite in the early '80s through repeated exposure on FM radio and the arena rock circuit.
Nicky Hopkins, a session piano player was born on this day in 1944.
Check the credits on any number of rock albums from the late '60s through the '80s, especially Rolling Stones albums, and you'll come across the name Nicky Hopkins. For almost two decades, he was the most in-demand session pianist in rock; the Beatles, Kinks, Who, Jeff Beck Group, Steve Miller Band, Jefferson Airplane -- there was hardly a major rock band in the world that hadn't benefited from Hopkins' deft touch at the keyboards.
Michelle Shocked is 61. The folk singer borrows her stage name from the term "shell shocked."
On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Allmusic, Classic Rock History, Song Facts and Wikipedia.