1949 - Hank Williams went into Herzog Studio in Cincinnati to record 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry'. Williams wrote the song originally intending that the words be spoken, rather than sung. The song about loneliness was largely inspired by his troubled relationship with wife Audrey Sheppard.
1969 - The Birmingham band Earth changes its name when lead singer Ozzy Osbourne announces on stage that the band's new name is Black Sabbath.
1995 - Sleeps With Angels by Neil Young & Crazy Horse was a Top 10 album on this day. The record was Neil's reaction to the suicide death of Kurt Cobain. The album thus has a tired, mournful feel that is both compelling and off-putting. Young had not investigated such forbidding territory since the days of Tonight's the Night and On the Beach, and Sleeps With Angels is on a par with those often harrowing works.
1995 - Sterling Morrison of the Velvet Underground died of cancer at his home in New York City two days after his 53rd birthday. The guitarist left the group in August 1971 and re-joined in 1992 for a European tour. During the 80s he became the Captain of a Houston tugboat.
2002 - Bruce Springsteen released The Rising, his first album with the E Street Band since 1987 and his first material since 9/11. The many voices that come out of the ether on Bruce Springsteen's The Rising all seem to have two things in common: the first is that they are writing from the other side, from the day after September 11, 2001, the day when life began anew, more uncertain than ever before. The other commonality that these voices share is the determination that life, however fraught with tragedy and confusion, is precious and should be lived as such.
2016 - The 2017 edition of Guinness World Records said that Ringo Starr's copy of The Beatles' White Album was officially the most expensive LP ever sold at an auction. Guinness confirmed that a December 2015 sale set a new high for album prices when the first-edition copy with the catalog number 0000001, which was kept in a vault in perfect condition by Starr for more than 35 years, sold for $790,000. (Photo by Krafft Angerer/Getty Images)
Birthdays:
Influential British DJ John Peel was born today in 1939. He passed away in 2004.
John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas was born today in 1935. He passed away in 2001.
Paul Oakenfold, DJ, producer, is 58.
Rachael Price of Lake Street Dive is 36.
On This Day In Music History is sourced from This Day in Music, Song Facts, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.