1972 - The Rolling Stones released their classic double-album Exile On Main Street, the second album on their own label. A sprawling, weary double album encompassing rock & roll, blues, soul, and country. Recording for the album began in 1969 in England during sessions for Sticky Fingers and continued in the summer of 1971 at a rented villa in the South of France named Nellcôte while the band lived abroad as tax exiles. A collage of various images, the album's artwork, according to Mick Jagger, reflects the Rolling Stones as "runaway outlaws using the blues as its weapon against the world", showcasing "feeling of joyful isolation, grinning in the face of a scary and unknown future". The album would prove to be one of the band's most influential.
1972 - Reginald Dwight legally changed his name to Elton John. It's a homage to two members of his old band Bluesology: saxophonist Elton Dean and vocalist Long John Baldry.
1977 - The Eagles went to No. 1 with the song, "Hotel California." Don Henley appeared on 60 Minutes, where he was told, "everyone wants to know what this song means." Henley replied: "I know, it's so boring. It's a song about the dark underbelly of the American Dream, and about excess in America which was something we knew about." The "steely knives" lyric is a nod to Steely Dan, whose 1976 song "Everything You Did" has the line, "Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening." (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images)
1983 - Paul Weller unveiled his new group The Style Council at an anti-nuclear benefit gig in London. The former singer and guitarist with The Jam chose a much more soul-oriented sound for his new project which ran for six years and produced five studio albums and one EP.
Birthdays:
Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann is 75.
Thelma Houston is 75. She had the 1977 US No. 1 single 'Don't Leave Me This Way' which won the Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
Prairie Prince, drummer with American band The Tubes
Jerry Nolan, drummer for New York Dolls, was born today in 1946.
Mic Gillette of Tower of Power was born today in 1951.
Motorhead guitarist Phil Campbell is 60.
Eagle-Eye Cherry is 53.
Matt Helders, drummer for Arctic Monkeys, is 35.
Highlights for Today in Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts and Wikipedia.