1968 - Johnny Cash played a show, which was recorded for his forthcoming live album at Folsom Prison, near Sacramento, California in front of 2,000 inmates. When released, the lead single, "Folsom Prison Blues" (an update of his 1956 hit) became one of the most famous recordings of his career. The song combines elements from two popular folk styles, the train song and the prison song, both of which Cash would continue to use for the rest of his career.
1973 - Eric Clapton made his stage comeback at the Rainbow Theatre, London, with Pete Townsend, Ronnie Wood, Stevie Winwood, Rebop, Jim Capaldi and support from The Average White Band. The night's two shows were recorded for the 'Rainbow Concert' album. Pete Townshend from The Who had organized the concert to help Clapton kick his heroin addiction to get out of his drug-induced depression.
1978 - With a budget of only about $2,000 borrowed from Stewart Copeland's brother Miles Copeland III, The Police started recording their debut album at Surrey Sound Studios, Surrey, England with producer Nigel Gray. The album 'Outlandos d'Amour' which was released in November of this year featured the hits 'So Lonely', 'Roxanne' and 'Can't Stand Losing You'.
1979 - The Y.M.C.A., unimpressed and certainly not amused by the Village People's song "Y.M.C.A.," sued the group, claiming the song is defaming to the organization. The suit is not only dropped, but the Y.M.C.A. adopts the song as their nonofficial commercial jingle after seeing the huge popularity boost the group brings them.
2004 - The NFL rejected Bono's request to perform "American Prayer" during the Super Bowl halftime show as part of an effort to raise awareness about the AIDS epidemic in Africa.
Birthdays:
Laurens Hammond, inventor of the Hammond organ, was born today in 1895. The sound of the Hammond is heard in countless rock and roll songs.
Trevor Rabin, guitarist for Yes, is 67.
Fred White, drummer with Earth, Wind & Fire, is 66.
Don Snow of Squeeze is 64.
Wayne Coyne, Flaming Lips frontman is 61. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Graham "Suggs" McPherson, the lead singer of Madness, is 60.
On This Day In Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts and Wikipedia.