1966 - The first session of what would become The Beatles album Revolver started in the evening at Abbey Road studios London, with the recording of the basic track of "Tomorrow Never Knows." Like "A Hard Day's Night," the title came from an expression Ringo Starr used. The proper idiom is "tomorrow never comes," meaning that when tomorrow arrived, it would become today. Ringo's variation of the phrase took the edge off the heavy philosophical lyrics. Working titles for the song before Ringo gave them inspiration were "Mark I" and "The Void." It was inspired by Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert's book The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based On The Tibetan Book Of The Dead. The book states: "Whenever in doubt, turn off your mind, relax, float downstream."
1968 - The Graduate soundtrack hits #1 in America thanks to Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson," which tops the Hot 100 less than two months later.
"Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?" asks Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), who attempts to cure his post-college malaise by falling into bed with the character played by Anne Bancroft, only to fall for her daughter.
Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson," originally titled "Mrs. Roosevelt" after the former First Lady, is woven throughout the film in bits and pieces as the adulteress' theme, because that's all Simon had completed. After the movie, he fleshed out the song and it became a #1 hit less than two months after the soundtrack topped the albums chart. Other than an incidental score by Dave Grusin, "Mrs. Robinson" was the only song written expressly for the film.
1971 - The Rolling Stones launched their own record label, 'Rolling Stones Records. The first album to be released was Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka in 1971, and is widely credited with being the first world music LP.
1983 - Ronald Reagan's secretary of the Interior, James Watt, cancels an appearance by The Beach Boys at Washington DC's Independence Day festivities, infamously stating that the band would attract "an undesirable element." The Beach Boys?
1992 - Annie Lennox releases her first solo album, Diva.
1998 - American country singer Tammy Wynette died aged 55. She scored 12 hit singles including 'Stand By Your Man', and sold over 30 million records world-wide, married five times and once filed for bankruptcy. Known as the first lady of country music. Wynette had the 1991 hit with The KLF 'Justified and Ancient' which became a No. 1 hit in eighteen countries.
2016 - Merle Ronald Haggard died on this day in 2016 (and was born on this day in 1937). Haggard was a country music legend, with 38 No. 1 hits on U.S. Country charts, 4 Grammys, 19 Academy of Country Music, 6 Country Music Association awards and well over 100 albums - studio albums, collaborations, gospel albums, Christmas albums, live albums and compilations. Haggard's son said Merle knew he was going to pass away on his birthday, and on Facebook he said "He loved everything about life and he loved that every one of you gave him a chance with his music. He wasn't just a country singer...he was the best country singer that ever lived." (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Birthdays:
Merle Ronald Haggard was born today in 1937 (and died on this day in 2016). For the first years of his life, he lives in an abandoned boxcar that his father converted into a home.
Louis Shelton, member of The Wrecking Crew, is 80.
Tony Connor of Hot Chocolate is 74.
Frank Black, aka Black Francis, born Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV, from the Pixies, is 56.
On This Day In Music History is sourced from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts and Wikipedia.