1966 - A great Beatles single came out: "Paperback Writer," with "Rain" on the B-side. The latter was an early psychedelic effort, primarily the work of Lennon, featuring the band's first experiments with backwards tracking. There are different accounts of who first stumbled upon this effect (John Lennon or producer George Martin), but the most entertaining account comes from Lennon, claiming he accidentally loaded the tape backwards while "stoned out of [his] mind."
1969 - The Who released their fourth album Tommy, which was the first album to be billed as a rock opera. (Splitting hairs here, Frank Zappa and the Mothers Of Invention released Freak Out! in 1966, recognized as one of the first "concept" albums.)
Hailed as a breakthrough upon its release, its critical standing has diminished somewhat in the ensuing decades because of the occasional pretensions of the concept and because of the insubstantial nature of some of the songs that functioned as little more than devices to advance the rather sketchy plot. Nonetheless, the double album has many excellent songs, including "I'm Free," "Pinball Wizard,", "We're Not Gonna Take It," and the dramatic ten-minute instrumental "Underture." Though the album was slightly flawed, Townshend's ability to construct a lengthy conceptual narrative brought new possibilities to rock music. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
1973 - Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, starring James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson, debuts in theaters. In addition to scoring and writing songs for the film, Bob Dylan makes his acting debut as a knife-wielding stranger named Alias. His acting is derided, but he lands a hit with "Knockin' On Heaven's Door."
2019 - Richard Ashcroft regained rights to his song ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ after more than two decades. The Verve singer lost the rights to his most recognizable song, which ended up in the possession of The Rolling Stones’ Sir Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Released in 1997 on Urban Hymns, the track sampled The Rolling Stones’ song ‘The Last Time’, using a composition by Andrew Oldham, and became the centre of lawsuits, which saw Ashcroft stripped of rights and royalties.
Birthdays:
Robert Moog, inventor of the synthesizer, was born today in 1934. Before Moog's invention, synthesizers were big, unruly instruments that could easily take up a whole room (laboratory). Unveiled in 1970, the Minimoog was the first, easily-portable synthesizer and brought what had been lab-bound electronic music to the masses and the stage; thus laying the foundation for the latter-day keyboard and MIDI-based marvels. The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Yes, and ELP, were early users of the Moog.
Singer-songwriter Jewel Kilcher (Jewel) is 49. Her debut, Pieces of You was not an immediate hit., but Jewel and Atlantic worked it steadily, with the singer/songwriter touring the country and the label releasing single versions that eventually caught hold over a year after the album's release, beginning with "Who Will Save Your Soul." "You Were Meant for Me" and "Foolish Games" followed over the course of 1996, helping send Pieces of You to an astonishing 12-times-platinum level, making it one of the best-selling debuts of all time
On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, , Song Facts and Wikipedia.