1965 - Unhappy with the group's new creative direction, Eric Clapton plays his last show with The Yardbirds, leaving to join John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. He is replaced by Jeff Beck.
1966 - Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay formed Buffalo Springfield in Los Angeles. Buffalo Springfield's time was short -- they formed in 1966 and split in 1968 -- but their legacy was vast. Nominally a folk-rock band, Buffalo Springfield also showed a facility with country-rock, psychedelia, soul, and hard rock, all the while embracing the possibilities of the recording studios of Los Angeles. Stephen is in the Colorado Music Hall Of Fame as a member of Manassas and Richie as a member of Poco. (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Americana Music Festival)
1972 - Elton John released 'Rocket Man' as a single, (officially titled 'Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time)'. The song was inspired by the short story "The Rocket Man" in The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury.
1981 - U2 begin their first major tour of the US with two shows at a Washington, DC, club called The Bayou. The tour brings them to Denver and the Rainbow Club in March and May. Were you there?
After the first encore of the March show (A Day Without Me) U2 are called back a second time to play three more songs. The next day the promoter, Chuck Morris, drives the band to the Red Rocks Amphitheater and suggests they play there one day. They did.
Birthdays:
Doc Watson, bluegrass, folk, country, blues guitarist was born on this day in 1932. The present generation, folkies and country pickers alike, including Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, the late Clarence White, Emmylou Harris, and literally hundreds of others, acknowledge their great debt to Watson. Watson provided a further service to folk/country by his encyclopedic knowledge of many American traditional songs.
Robyn Hitchcock is 70. One of England's most enduring and prolific singer/songwriters, visual artists, guitarists, live performers, and genuine eccentrics, Robyn Hitchcock started his recording career with the Soft Boys, a punk-era band specializing in melodic pop merged with offbeat lyrics. Heavily influenced by Syd Barrett, John Lennon, and Bob Dylan, and prone to telling long, improvised, surrealist monologues during live performances. Hitchcock embarked on a solo career in 1981 and never looked back.
On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, U2 Setlists, Allmusic, Song Facts and Wikipedia.