1965 - James Brown releases "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag." It would become Brown's first song to reach the Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten.
Brown recorded this song in one take - the released version was merely supposed to be a run-through, but sounded so good it was kept anyway. Brown, who still hadn't memorized the song's lyrics, read from a sheet in front of him; at the beginning of the original take, he can be heard saying "There's a lot of words here, man." He also can be heard exclaiming "This is a hit!" just before the band kicks in.
Considered seminal in the emergence of funk music as a distinct style.
1967 - The Beatles single "All You Need Is Love" was released in the U.S.
The concept of the song was born out of a request to bring a song that was going to be understood by people of all nations. The writing began in late May of 1967, with John and Paul working on separate songs. It was decided that John's "All You Need Is Love" was the better choice because of its easy to understand message of love and peace.
John was fascinated by how slogans effect the masses and was trying to capture the same essence as songs like "We Shall Overcome."
Said John: I'm a revolutionary artist. My art is dedicated to change."
1975 - Bob Marley and the Wailers played the first of two nights at The Lyceum, London, and both nights were recorded for the November released 'live' album, featuring the single 'No Woman No Cry.'
The theater had an approximate capacity of 2100 people. When tickets went up for sale they were gone in a few hours, which was quite a feat for an artist that didn’t have a large amount of record sales to his name. What stood out was that the audience white-black mix was 50-50. Bob Marley’s crossover appeal was huge.
A spirit of revolution hung heavy in the air, along with the sweet-smelling smoke for which Kingston, Jamaica was already famous. The critic from The Times remarked on the “curious odor” in the air which he could not identify but which reminded him of “newly-pressed shirts.”
The Live! version of “No Woman, No Cry” immediately became the definitive recording of the song.
Birthdays:
Spencer Davis was born today in 1939. A Welsh guitarist, harmonica player, and vocalist, Spencer Davis became one of the elder statesmen of mid-'60s British rock. As part of the Spencer Davis Band, which formed in Birmingham in 1963, Davis scored chart-topping hits on both sides of the Atlantic, including "Keep on Running" and "Somebody Help Me" in the U.K. and a pair of Top Ten singles, "Gimme Good Lovin'" and "I'm a Man," in the United States. The band -- which also featured a teenaged Stevie Winwood on vocals, guitar, and organ, Muff Winwood (Stevie's brother) on bass,
Vince Guaraldi was born today in 1928. Vince Guaraldi was a well-respected jazz pianist whose greatest success came from avenues usually closed to contemporary jazz artists: he enjoyed a hit single at a time when jazz had largely been exiled from the pop charts ( "Cast Your Fate"), and he scored a series of very successful animated television specials (namely the Charlie Brown seasonal specials scores and soundtracks for which his name has become synonymous), a medium where cookie-cutter pop music was traditionally the order of the day.
Ron Asheton, guitarist, bassist and co-songwriter with Iggy Pop and The Stooges, was born today in 1948. As a founding member of the legendary Stooges, guitarist Ron Asheton forever changed the face of rock & roll, his raw, primordial riffs presaging the rise of punk by a decade. While The Stooges albums sold poorly, their long-term impact was incalculable -- in effect, their aggressive, take-no-prisoners approach laid the groundwork for the emergence of punk.
R,I,P.
John Coltrane died on this day in 1967. A towering musical figure of the 20th century, saxophonist John Coltrane reset the parameters of jazz during his decade as a leader. At the outset, he was a vigorous practitioner of hard bop, gaining prominence as a sideman for Miles Davis before setting out as a leader in 1957, when he released Coltrane on Prestige and Blue Train on Blue Note. Coltrane quickly expanded his horizons, pioneering a technique critic Ira Gitler dubbed "sheets of sound," consisting of the saxophonist playing a flurry of notes on his tenor within the confines of a few chords.
Billie Holiday died on this day in 1959. The first popular jazz singer to move audiences with the intense, personal feeling of classic blues, Billie Holiday changed the art of American pop vocals forever. More than a half-century after her death, it's difficult to believe that prior to her emergence, jazz and pop singers were tied to the Tin Pan Alley tradition and rarely personalized their songs; only blues singers like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey actually gave the impression they had lived through what they were singing. Billie Holiday's highly stylized reading of this blues tradition revolutionized traditional pop, ripping the decades-long tradition of song plugging in two by refusing to compromise her artistry for either the song or the band.
On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, A Pop Life, U Discover Music, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.