1968 - Marvin Gaye released “I Heard It Through The Grapevine,” it would become his first #1 song. Though the Norman Whitfield/Barrett Strong song is now a soul classic affiliated with Gaye, that wasn’t always the case. Gaye’s rendition was actually the third to be released, following versions by The Miracles (1966), as well as by Gladys Knight & the Pips, who also scored a major hit with the song in 1967.
1970 - Elton John released his third studio album Tumbleweed Connection. A loose concept album about the American West, Tumbleweed Connection emphasized the pretensions that always lay beneath their songcraft. Half of the songs don't follow conventional pop song structures; instead, they flow between verses and vague choruses. These experiments are remarkably successful, primarily because Taupin's lyrics are evocative and John's melodic sense is at its best. As should be expected for a concept album about the Wild West, the music draws from country and blues in equal measures, featuring "Ballad of a Well-Known Gun", "Country Comfort", "Burn Down the Mission", and "Amoreena."
1971 - Pink Floyd released their sixth studio album, Meddle, in the U.S. Opening with a deliberately surging "One of These Days," Meddle spends most of its time with sonic textures and elongated compositions, most notably on its epic closer, "Echoes." If there aren't pop songs in the classic sense (even on the level of the group's contributions to Ummagumma), there is a uniform tone, ranging from the pastoral "A Pillow of Winds" to "Fearless," with its insistent refrain hinting at latter-day Floyd. Pink Floyd were nothing if not masters of texture, and Meddle is one of their greatest excursions into little details, pointing the way to the measured brilliance of Dark Side of the Moon.
1975 - Bob Dylan performs the first show of his Rolling Thunder Revue at the War Memorial Auditorium in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Later the subject of two documentaries, the unusual tour is no ordinary cash grab.
Dylan has planned the Revue as a way to escape the soulless super-stardom he's been living and return to his roots. Most of the shows are in intimate settings in small towns - a distinct contrast to the big productions he's gotten accustomed to.
The second half of the tour would land at Hughes Stadium in Fort Collins, May 23, 1976. The show was filmed for the September 1976 NBC television special Hard Rain; the Hard Rain live album containing selections from that and another late May date was released simultaneously.
1982 - "Who Can It Be Now?," the first single from Men at Work, hits #1 in America. Colin Hay said: I was living in St. Kilda in Melbourne, which is a great part of Melbourne. At that particular time it was a very interesting area, it was frequented by everybody from punks, drug movers, all kinds of different people. Who can it be now indeed. (Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)
2002 - The entire episode of The Late Show with David Letterman is dedicated to Warren Zevon, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He plays three songs (his last performances), chats candidly with the host, and offers this sage advice: "enjoy every sandwich."
2016 - With the Cubs in the World Series for the first time since 1945 (they hadn't won since 1908), longtime fan Eddie Vedder led the crowd in "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch.
2021 - Carole King, Tina Turner, Jay-Z, LL Cool J, Todd Rundgren, the Go-Go's and Foo Fighters are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Birthdays:
Eddie Holland of Motown's legendary Holland-Dozier-Holland production team is 84. He was a very important to the creation of the Motown Sound. The number of songs that include his name as credit pretty impressive: "Love Is Like A] Heat Wave", "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love,", "Come See About Me," "Stop! In the Name of Love," "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)," "You Can't Hurry Love," "Reach Out I'll Be There," "You Keep Me Hangin' On," and "Reflections," "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep," and "(I Know) I'm Losing You".
Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and The Great Society is 84. She was a model before music. Slick was asked to replace Jefferson Airplane singer Signe Anderson and joined the group in time for the recording of its second album, Surrealistic Pillow. She brought with her both "Somebody to Love" and her own composition, the bolero-paced "White Rabbit," with its references to drug-taking and Alice in Wonderland. Both songs were included on the album with her lead vocals.
Timothy B. Schmidt bass guitarist for Eagles and Poco, is 76. He's in the Colorado Music Hall Of Fame as a member of Poco.
On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Allmusic, Song Facts and Wikipedia.
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