1968 - George Harrison released his first solo album Wonderwall Music on the Apple label. It was also the first solo album released by a member of The Beatles. The songs which were mostly Harrison instrumentals, featured Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and an unaccredited banjo contribution by Peter Tork of The Monkees. The title inspired the title of the Oasis song of the same name.
1969 - The Beatles scored their 13th U.S. No. 1 album with Abbey Road. Chronologically it was released before Let It Be, but it was the last album the band recorded. Abbey Road truly seized the possibilities of the studio and, in doing so, pointed the way forward to the album rock era of the 1970s. Many of the studio tricks arrive during that brilliant suite of songs, a sequence that lasts nearly a full side of an album. What makes Abbey Road transcendent is how the album is so much greater than the sum of its parts. While a single song or segment can be dazzling, having a succession of marvelous, occasionally intertwined moments is not only a marvel but indeed a summation of everything that made the Beatles great.
1975 - Elton John started a three-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Island Girl." It was off the album Rock Off The Westies, recorded at Caribou Ranch in Nederland.
1980 - Bruce Springsteen scored his first No.1 US album with 'The River.' Springsteen sought to expand on the themes on the previous two albums, while also offering more of the tough, bar-band rock that was his trademark (and often conspicuous in its absence on Darkness), and by the time it was released it had swelled into Springsteen's first two-LP set.
1985 - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) agrees to some demands made by another initialed organization, the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). As a result, any album deemed to contain offensive lyrics must be issued with a warning label, or the lyrics must be printed on the sleeve. Most record companies go with the labels, which don't seem to hurt sales.
2012 - Metal Hammer magazine published a list of the "Top ten rock and heavy metal moustaches…Ever". The list which included moustaches worn by the likes of Frank Zappa, all the members of Black Sabbath, (except Ozzy Osbourne). James Hetfield, and Lemmy placed Freddie Mercury at the top of the list.
Birthdays:
Country singer Lyle Lovett is 63.
Anthony Kiedis, of Red Hot Chili Peppers, is 58. As the frontman for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kiedis has inspired a generation of musicians with a hankering for both punk and funk; however, the maturation of Kiedis' songwriting -- from the goofy party music of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' early albums to the group's reflective commercial breakthrough "Under the Bridge" -- is one of rock's biggest surprises. Interesting fact: He played Sylvester Stallone's son in the movie F.I.S.T. (Photo by Santiago Bluguermann/Getty Images)
Rick Allen, Def Leppard drummer, is 57.
On this Day In Music History is sourced from, Allmusic, This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.