1956 - Elvis Presley cut his first sides for RCA Victor at the Methodist recording studios in Nashville. One of the songs recorded that day was "Heartbreak Hotel", his first number one single.
1964 - The first U.S. Beatles album, Introducing The Beatles, was released on Vee-Jay records. It's a slightly abridged version of Please Please Me, which had been released in the U.K. four months earlier. It includes two fewer tracks than its British counterpart, deleting "Please Please Me" and "Ask Me Why."
It's still an impressive set, recorded in a day. Originals sit along side covers, showing off their eclectic influences,
The album cover showed John, Paul and George with their now famous "mop top" haircuts, but Ringo had yet to convert. Vee-Jay would be forced to stop selling the disc by the end of the year because of legal complications, but by then over 1.3 million copies had been sold.
1969 - Frustrated by a film crew recording the Let It Be sessions and plans his bandmates are making for a concert he wants no part of, George Harrison quits The Beatles, writing in his diary: "Got up. Went to Twickenham. Rehearsed until lunchtime. Left The Beatles. Went home." He is lured back a few days later with assurances that the concert would be cancelled and his wishes respected.
1989 - Lou Reed released his critically acclaimed 15th album, New York What the South was to Tennessee Williams, New York was to Lou Reed. The album a set of 14 songs about the beautiful, decaying heart of New York City. The band is tight, the production is spare. A masterpiece of literate, adult rock & roll.
1999 - The Sopranos debuts on HBO. Bruce Springsteen's guitarist, Steven Van Zandt, plays Silvio Dante, a character he modeled on his relationship with Bruce: Unlike most of Tony Soprano's inner circle, Silvio doesn't want to be the boss.
Van Zandt actually reads for the lead role.
“…It was one of those weird things. (series creator David Chase) wanted unusual, new faces and he really thought I could do it, and out of pure ignorance naiveté I thought I could do it. Luckily HBO wouldn’t let him, so we ended up with one of the greatest actors of all-time, Jimmy G (Gandolfini).”
Fortunately, there was another role suitable for Van Zandt.
“(Chase) still wanted me in the show and I actually said to David, ‘Listen, I’m feeling pretty guilty about taking an actor’s job here,’ and he said, ‘OK, in that case, I’ll write you in a part that doesn’t exist,’ and (Silvio Dante) was born.” (Photo by Ross Land/Getty Images)
Birthdays:
Rod Stewart is 79. Over the course of his career, Rod Stewart has been lauded as the finest singer of his generation; he's written several songs that turned into modern standards; he's sung with the Faces, who rivaled the Rolling Stones in their prime; and he's had massive commercial success. He's one of rock & roll's best interpretive singers as well as an accomplished, innovative songwriter whose work created a raw, loose, and charming combination of folk, rock, blues, and country. After Stewart became successful, he began to lose the rootsier elements of his music, adapting his style to suit the times, leading to smash hits in the disco, new wave, and MTV eras. Stewart eased into his status as a veteran singer by releasing a series of albums where he crooned The Great American Songbook.
Donald Fagen of Steely Dan is 76. s one of the co-leaders of Steely Dan, Donald Fagen developed a smooth, sophisticated blend of jazz, R&B, pop, and rock, a fusion that relied on lyrical wit, technical acumen, and smooth groove. Along with his partner Walter Becker, Fagen honed this style over the course of the 1970s, a journey culminating with 1980's Gaucho. The pair parted ways after its release and while they'd reunite a decade later -- first on each other's solo records, then on-stage, and then ultimately in the studio with 2000's Grammy-winning Two Against Nature
Shawn Colvin is 68. Shawn Colvin is one of the leading lights of the so-called "new folk movement" that began in the late '80s. Although she grew out of the somewhat limited "woman with a guitar" school, she kept the form fresh with a diverse approach, avoiding the genre's clichéd sentiments and all-too-often formulaic arrangements in favor of a more personal, pop-influenced style. Although she never revisited that commercial peak again, Colvin still commanded a broad, loyal following well into the subsequent decades.
Brad Roberts of Crash Test Dummies is 60. Featuring clever lyrics, folk-tinged melodies, and paired with Roberts' deep baritone, their first album was a hit in their native Canada, but only gained a small cult following in other parts of the world. Thanks to former Talking Head Jerry Harrison's clean, radio-friendly production, the follow-up album, God Shuffled His Feet, broke big in the States and, in turn, Europe. The first single from the record, "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm," became a worldwide Top Ten hit.
R.I.P.:
1976 - Blues artist Howlin Wolf (Chester Burnett) died at age 66. In the history of the blues, there has never been anyone quite like the Howlin' Wolf. Six foot three and close to 300 pounds in his salad days, the Wolf was the primal force of the music spun out to its ultimate conclusion. A Robert Johnson may have possessed more lyrical insight and a B.B. King certainly more technical expertise, but no one could match him for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits.
The guitarist, singer and harmonica player's well-known songs included "Smoke Stack Lightning", "Little Red Rooster" and "Spoonful".
2013 - Claude Nobs the founder and general manager of the Montreux Jazz Festival died aged 76. During a 1971 Frank Zappa concert, at the Montreux Casino the venue caught fire. Nobs saved several young people who had hidden in the casino, thinking they would be sheltered from the flames. This act earned him a mention (as Funky Claude in the line "Funky Claude was running in and out pulling kids out the ground") in the Deep Purple song Smoke on the Water, which is about the incident.
2016 - David Bowie died at the age of 69. For many, David Bowie is much like his musical career: so varied in its scope, it’s difficult to sum up: long haired folky, androgynous, bisexual rock star from another planet, plastic soul man, cocaine-fueled paranoid.
He appeared in movies and on stage, produced Lou Reed, Mott the Hoople, Iggy Pop, and hired an unknown Stevie Ray Vaughn to play on the Let's Dance album. His influence stretched from Joy Division, Nirvana,to Lady Gaga.
As Columbia Records once declared: There is Old Wave, New Wave, and then there's Bowie. If you have the time, check out my essay on the importance of Bowie (and Elvis) I posted on their shared birthday earlier this week on this page.
2023 - Jeff Beck died at the age of 78. Jeff Beck has never been shy about speaking his mind through his music. One of the essential guitarists of the British Invasion, Jeff Beck possessed a mercurial, lyrical style that sounded equally at home in thunderous blues-rock and soft-focus fusion. Beck played both styles in his long, unpredictable career, pioneering psychedelia, heavy metal, and jazz-rock as he did so.
He nudged the Yardbirds towards a more mind bending rock. The Jeff Beck Group laid the foundation for Led Zeppelin, and set the bar for jazz groove with Blow By Blow. Throughout his career, Beck balanced his solo recordings with guest appearances on albums by other musicians -- notably, he played lead guitar on Mick Jagger's 1985 solo debut She's the Boss and Roger Waters' 1992 set Amused to Death -- and sometimes these collaborations resulted in a full duet album, as it did on 18, his 2022 album with Johnny Depp.
On This Day In Music History was sourced, copied, pasted, and occasionally woven together with my own crude prose, from This Day in Music, Song Facts, Allmusic, Deadline, Jeff Beck, The Scituation and Wikipedia.
KBCO