1967 - The debut studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced was released. It sounded both futuristic and rooted in the best traditions of rock, blues, pop, and soul. And, of course, mind-boggling guitar work. The LP was an immediate critical and commercial success, and it is widely regarded as one of the greatest debuts in the history of rock music. The album established a new direction in psychedelic and hard rock. (Photo NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP via Getty Images)
1977 - “Too beautiful to live, too young to die,” he used to brag in the heady days. Today in 1977, Pioneer Brit pop legend Marc Bolan of T. Rex died in an automobile crash in England. Bolan was one of the first pioneers of the glam rock movement of the 1970s. Girlfriend Gloria Jones was driving the Mini 1275GT when the accident occurred. She sang 'Tainted Love,' which Soft Cell would later cover with great success. Bolan was one of the first pioneers of the glam rock movement of the 1970s.
1977 - Talking Heads release their debut album, Talking Heads: 77. Loaded with staggered rhythms and sudden tempo changes, the odd guitar tunings and rhythmic, single-note patterns, the non-rhyming, non-linear lyrics that came across like odd remarks overheard from a psychiatrist's couch, and that voice, singing above its normal range, its falsetto leaps and strangled cries resembling a madman trying desperately to sound normal. A landmark album.
1979 - The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" was released. Although it was not the first single to feature rapping, it is generally considered to be the song that first popularized hip hop in the United States and around the world. The song's opening lyric, "I said a hip hop, the hippie, the hippie to the hip-hip-hop and you don't stop," is world-renowned.
1984 -The TV series Miami Vice makes its debut with a two-hour episode that includes a scene featuring the Phil Collins hit "In The Air Tonight." Embracing the MTV era, the show incorporates lots of contemporary music and features appearances by many popular musicians, including Glenn Frey, Frank Zappa, Sheena Easton, Frankie Valli and Miles Davis (Collins appears in a Season 2 episode).
1985 - Kate Bush released Hounds of Love. The album's lead single, 'Running Up That Hill', became one of Bush's biggest hits and the album produced three further successful singles, 'Cloudbusting', 'Hounds of Love', and 'The Big Sky'.
2006 - Bob Dylan was at No.1 with ‘Modern Times.’ Entering the U.S. charts at No.1, making it Dylan's first album to reach that position since 1976's Desire, 30 years prior. At 65, Dylan became the oldest living musician to top the Billboard albums chart. (85 year-old Tony Bennett broke this record in 2011 with his Duets album).
Birthdays:
B.B. King was born today in 1925. He passed in 2015.
Ron Blair (original bassist for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) is 73.
Bilinda Butcher, vocalist and guitarist for My Bloody Valentine, is 60.
Singer-songwriter Richard Marx is 58.
Salsa pop star Marc Anthony is 53.
Nick Jonas is 29.
Justine Frischmann frontwoman of Elastica is 52.
On This Day In Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Song Facts, The Guardian, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.