1968 - The Supremes appeared in an episode of the popular NBC show "Tarzan". The ladies played a group of nuns.
1969 - Led Zeppelin's debut album was released. The album took only about 36 hours of studio time to complete at a cost of just over $2,000, most of the tracks being recorded 'live' in the studio with very few overdubs. While the album was primarily made up of re-worked blues, it marked a significant turning point in the evolution of hard rock and heavy metal.
1971 - Janis Joplin's album Pearl is released, three months after her death from a heroin overdose. It goes to #1 and yields her only chart-topping single, "Me And Bobby McGee."
1971 - Alice Cooper released his third album Love It to Death. Their first couple of albums (Pretties for You and Easy Action) were both largely psychedelic/acid rock affairs and bore little comparison to the band's eventual rip-roaring, teenage-anthem direction. Included the hit, "I'm Eighteen".
1974 - The Steve Miller Band reached number one for the first time with "The Joker". The line in this song, "I speak of the pompatus of love," has baffled listeners for some time. Greil Marcus provided the best explanation we've seen in a 2002 article for Los Angeles Magazine titled "In The Secret Country." The word "Pompatus" does exist in the Oxford English Dictionary, and it means "to act with pomp and splendor."
1981 - It was reported that the White House had expanded its record library by including albums by Bob Dylan, the Sex Pistols, and Kiss.
1993 - Van Morrison failed to turn up at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction dinner, making him the first living inductee not to attend. The Counting Crows filled in for Van and performed "Caravan".
1995 - The Allman Brothers Band, Al Green, the late Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, Neil Young, The Orioles and the late Frank Zappa were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
2010 - Vampire Weekend release their second album, Contra, which goes to #1 in America. The cover girl, Ann Kirsten Kennis, is an unwilling subject, leading to a lawsuit. Contra was already on sale when Kennis's teenage daughter spotted her mum's face on the cover. "I was like, 'Yeah, that's strange. That's me, many years ago,'" Kennis told Vanity Fair in 2010. The Polaroid was almost 30 years old, and Kennis didn't remember posing for it. Although a photographer called Tod Brody claimed she signed a release form in 2009, Kennis, now in her early 50s, denied this. She took them all to court, seeking $2m in damages. Kennis won an undisclosed settlement. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for A+E Networks)
Birthdays:
Long John Baldry was born today in 1941.
Felipe Rose of The Village People is 67.
Big Star guitarist Chris Bell is born in Memphis, Tennessee on this date in 1951..
Raekwon of Wu-Tang Clan is 51.
Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against The Machine is 51.
Melanie Chisholm, a.k.a. Mel C, a.k.a. Sporty Spice of The Spice Girls is 47.
On This Day In Music History is sourced from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts, The Guardian, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.