1897 - A US patent is granted to inventor Guglielmo Marconi for transmitting electrical signals, leading to the invention of radio.
1964 - The Beatles released "A Hard Day's Night" in the U.S. Not only was the record the de facto soundtrack for their movie, not only was it filled with nothing but Lennon-McCartney originals, but it found the Beatles truly coming into their own as a band by performing a uniformly excellent set of songs. All of the disparate influences on their first two albums had coalesced into a bright, joyous, original sound filled with ringing guitars and irresistible melodies. They had certainly found their musical voice before, but A Hard Day's Night is where it became mythical.
1974 - George McCrae started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Rock Your Baby," his only U.S. No. 1. Regarded by some as the first disco No. 1 single, it gathered momentum as a hit in New York City clubs.
1985 - At 12.01 Status Quo started the Live Aid extravaganza, held between Wembley Stadium, London and The JFK Stadium, Philadelphia. The cream of the world's biggest rock stars took part in the worldwide event, raising over $55 million. TV pictures beamed to over 1.5bn people in 160 countries made it the biggest live broadcast ever known. Artists who appeared included Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, The Who, U2, David Bowie and Mick Jagger, Queen, Tina Turner, The Cars, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Bryan Adams, Hall and Oates, Lionel Richie and Led Zeppelin.
1996 - At Riverfront Park in Nashville, Chet Atkins, Steve Earle and the Goo Goo Dolls join about 1000 other guitarists to jam on "Heartbreak Hotel" for nearly 80 minutes. They come up short in their bid to break the record for largest jam session, set in 1994 when 1,320 guitarists played "Takin' Care Of Business" in Vancouver.
1999 - The New Radicals called it a day after just one album and a worldwide hit single, "You Get What You Give." Frontman, songwriter and driving force Gregg Alexander said he wanted to concentrate on producing and writing. On January 20, 2021, Gregg Alexander re-fired The New Radicals to perform this song at Joe Biden's inauguration concert. The song is very important to Biden because his son, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015, often played it.
Birthdays:
Leon Bridges is 32. While working as a dishwasher at a Ft. Worth Del Frisco's, Leon hit open night mics and began to attract followers. His break into the music industry has been attributed to meeting guitarist Austin Jenkins and Joshua Block of White Denim. They recorded an album with vintage equipment, It attracted the attention from several record labels with Bridges eventually signing with Columbia Records in December 2014. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Roger McGuinn of the Byrds is 79. As the frontman of the Byrds, Roger McGuinn and his trademark 12-string Rickenbacker guitar pioneered folk-rock and, by extension, country-rock, influencing everyone from contemporaries like the Beatles to acolytes like Tom Petty and R.E.M. in the process.
Richard Anthony "Cheech" Marin is 75. As half of Cheech & Chong, at their peak in the 1970s, they represented the mainstream embodiment of the attitudes and lifestyles of the underground drug culture. Much as W.C. Fields shot to fame by making alcohol the focus of his act, the duo of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong emerged from a cloud of pot smoke, simultaneously championing and lampooning the stoner community that became the team's most ardent supporters; although derided by critics and dismissed by the general populace, the team's stature as counterculture heroes was unquestioned, and for both aging hippies and dazed-and-confused teens, their comedy defined an era.
On This Day In Music History sourced from This Day in Music, Song Facts, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.