1975 - “I think fame itself is not a rewarding thing. The most you can say is that it gets you a seat in restaurants.”
David Bowie's "Fame" was released. John Lennon had been in on the recording session, lending guitar and vocals, and Bowie felt Lennon's contributions during the recording was significant enough that he gave him co-songwriting credit. The main riff of the song was based on an improv devised by Bowie's guitarist Carlos Alomar. Bowie walked in and said, 'Oi, I want that,' and that started the process." "Fame" became Bowie's biggest hit to that point in the U.S. It was his first number one hit on the chart.
1997 - The classic Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon spent its 1056th week on US album charts. It was rumored at the time that if the album was played while watching The Wizard of Oz movie, and started exactly when the MGM lion roared the third time during the movie's intro, very interesting connections could be made between the two.
2012 - The Flaming Lips break the Guinness World Record for the most live shows performed in multiple cities within 24 hours. The feat is part of MTV's O Music Awards which honors achievements in the digital music realm.
Starting in Memphis, Tennessee, a day earlier, the band plays a series of eight mini-concerts (at a minimum of 15 minutes each in accordance with Guinness guidelines), which are livestreamed online. The feat ends at the House of Blues in New Orleans, where The Lips take the title with just 20 minutes to spare. (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Sound Harvest Music Festival)
2010 - Jake Holmes finally gets around to suing Led Zeppelin for plagiarizing his 1967 song "Dazed And Confused." Led Zeppelin released a very similar song with the same title on their 1969 debut album, but Holmes waited decades to take legal action. The case is eventually settled, with the writing credit on the song changed to "Jimmy Page, Inspired By Jake Holmes." Listen to Jake's original below.
R.I.P.
Scotty Moore passes on this day in 2016. He was one of the great pioneers of rock guitar. As the guitarist on Elvis Presley's Sun recordings, he may have done more than anyone else to establish the basic vocabulary of rockabilly guitar licks, as heard on classic singles like "That's All Right," "Good Rockin' Tonight," "Baby Let's Play House," and "Mystery Train." Moore took the stinging licks common to both country music and blues, and not only combined elements of country & western and R&B, but added a rich tone through heavier amplification. His concise, sharp phrasing and knack for knowing both what to play and when not to overplay were perfect accents to Presley's vocals.
On this Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Song Facts, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.
See insights and ads