1966 - Percy Sledge started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "When A Man Loves A Woman". Before the recording session, the song had no title or lyrics. When it came time to record the vocals, Sledge improvised the lyrics with minimal pre-planning, using the melody as a guide for rhythm and phrasing. Percy Sledge said that when he originally sang this, he had in mind Lizz King, his girlfriend of three years who left him for a modeling job in Los Angeles. Said Sledge: "I didn't have any money to go after her, so there was nothing I could do to try and get her back."
1966 - Ike and Tina Turner's sweeping, majestic version of "River Deep, Mountain High" released and tanked. It so embittered producer Phil Spector that he went into seclusion for two years, beginning his personal decline. The track was recorded using Spector's "Wall of Sound" production technique, cost a then-unheard of $22,000, and required 21 session musicians and 21 background vocalists. Due to Spector's perfectionism in the studio, he made Turner sing the song over and over for several hours until he felt he had the perfect vocal take.
1968 - Creedence Clearwater Revival released their debut album. Released a year after the summer of love, but still in the thick of the Age of Aquarius - Creedence Clearwater Revival's self-titled debut album was gloriously out-of-step with the times, teeming with John Fogerty's Americana fascinations. Fogerty's obsessions and CCR's signatures are in place -- weird blues ("I Put a Spell on You"), Stax R&B (Wilson Pickett's "Ninety-Nine and a Half"), rockabilly ("Susie Q"), winding instrumental interplay, the swamp sound, and songs for "The Working Man." (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)
1977 - Bruce Springsteen is finally free to record after a legal battle with his former manager Mike Appel kept him out of the studio for two years. Springsteen learns that it's not a good idea to sign a contract on the hood of a car.
1982 - "Rocky III'' hit theaters. The film featured a new theme song written around a key line of dialogue in the film: "Eye of the Tiger." Sylvester Stallone asked the upstart Chicago band Survivor to write and record the song when he couldn't get permission to use the Queen song "Another One Bites The Dust."
1983 - Apple's Steve Wozniak hosts the second US Festival, intending it to be the "Super Bowl of rock." The lineup is even more impressive than that of its 1982 predecessor, and the attendance is substantially larger. Wozniak splurges on David Bowie with two million dollars of his own money, simply because he "really loves him." This leads event promoter Barry Fey to call Wozniak's bookings the "most expensive backstage pass in history." The Clash, U2, The Pretenders, Van Halen, Stray Cats, Men At Work, Judas Priest, Stevie Nicks, Willie Nelson. INXS, Joe Walsh, Motley Crue and Ozzy Osbourne also appear. Over 750,000 fans attended the festival.
Birthdays:
Blues guitarist T-Bone Walker was born today in 1910.
Blues violinist Papa John Creech was born today in 1917.
Gladys Knight is 77.
John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival is 76.
On This Day In Music History is sourced from This Day in Music, Allmusic, Song Facts and Wikipedia.