1955 - CBS talent scout Arthur Godfrey turned down the chance to sign Elvis Presley. Instead, at the same audition, he signed singer Pat Boone.
1962 - Bruce Channel started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Hey! Baby'. The song features a prominent riff from harmonica player Delbert McClinton (who would go on to have a pretty good solo career) who while touring the UK in 1962 met John Lennon and gave him some harmonica tips. Lennon put the lessons to use right away on 'Love Me Do' and later 'Please Please Me'.
1966 - The Byrds release Eight Miles High. Many people believe this song is about drugs, but the band claimed it was inspired by a flight where singer Gene Clark asked guitarist Roger McGuinn how high they were in the sky. McGuinn told him six miles, but for the song they changed it to eight.
McGuinn: "Well, it was done on an airplane ride to England and back. I'm not denying that the Byrds did drugs at that point - we smoked marijuana - but it wasn't really about that."
1972 - California Governor Ronald Reagan grants a pardon to Merle Haggard, absolving him of his 1957 burglary that sent him to prison for three years.
1987 - At Fender's Ballroom in Long Beach, California, No Doubt play their first concert, a benefit for a local scooter shop that burned down. In the audience is Tony Kanal, who like No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani, is still in high school. He joins the band later that year and starts dating Stefani; their breakup inspires the song "Don't Speak."
1989 -De La Soul release their debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising. The sample-heavy, paisley-powered LP becomes a hip-hop landmark, establishing a mellow, groovy new style. Not only did it proved that rappers didn't have to talk about the streets to succeed, but also expanded the palette of sampling material with a kaleidoscope of sounds and references culled from pop, soul, disco, and even country music. Weaving clever wordplay and deft rhymes across two dozen tracks loosely organized around a game-show theme, De La Soul broke down boundaries all over the LP.
1991 - R.E.M. played the first of two nights at London's Borderline Club under the name of “Bingo Hand Job.” A mere two days following the release of Out of Time, R.E.M. played a pair of secret acoustic shows on March 14 and 15, 1991, at the London club under the assumed name.
The band appeared under pseudonyms, with Michael Stipe as “Stinky,” Peter Buck as “Raoul,” Mike Mills as “Ophelia” and Bill Berry as “The Doc”. The second night was recorded and widely bootlegged. Live At The Borderline was officially released on Record Store Day in 2019. (Photo by Scott Gries/ImageDirect vis Getty).
1995 - The Goo Goo Dolls release their breakthrough fifth studio album, A Boy Named Goo. It's the album that finally got the band across to a wide audience. The Replacements comparisons begin to fade as the band finds it's own sound. The highlight is "Name". a song about friendship, loss, and fame, it matches unfolky strumming and quiet energy, creating a song that feels like both a farewell to the American Dream and to a long-lost partner.
2005 - U2, The Pretenders, Buddy Guy, and Percy Sledge were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. U2 were inducted by Bruce Springsteen; The Pretenders were inducted by Neil Young; Eric Clapton inducted Buddy Guy; and Rod Stewart inducted Percy Sledge.
Birthdays:
Quincy Jones is 91. In a career spanning over seven decades, Quincy Jones has earned his reputation as a renaissance man of American music. Since entering the industry as an arranger in the early 1950s, he has distinguished himself as a bandleader, solo artist, sideman, songwriter, producer, film composer, and record label executive. A quick look at a few of the artists he's worked with -- Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, Lesley Gore, Michael Jackson (Thriller), Peggy Lee, Ray Charles, Paul Simon, and Aretha Franklin -- reveals the remarkable diversity of his career.
Michael Martin Murphey is 79. For a time he was known as the Cosmic Cowboy after one of his early songs. Led the country-rock group the Lewis & Clarke Expedition in the mid- to late '60s and had some pop success, and even got one song, "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?," recorded by the Monkees. He enjoyed a huge pop hit in the 1970s with "Wildfire." Essential album: 1972's Geronimo's Cadillac
Rick Dees is 74. DJ and TV host, he's best known for the novelty hit, "Disco Duck". It was a satire of the disco craze that was in full swing at the time, sung in the voice of a duck, not unlike Donald Duck. This was the last novelty song to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
R.I.P.:
2011 - Ronnie Hammond, the lead singer of The Atlanta Rhythm Section, died of heart failure at the age of 60. He led the band to two Billboard Top Ten hits, "So Into You" in 1977 and "Imaginary Lover" in 1978.
2020 - Musician, poet, and performance artist Genesis P-Orridge, died age 70. A founding member of the cult experimental bands Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, the group played an abrasive brand of industrial rock. Their 1976 exhibition at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, titled Prostitution, scandalized the art world, and prompted UK Conservative MP Nicholas Fairbairn to denounce the group as "the wreckers of civilization".
On this Day In Music History was sourced, copied, pasted, edited, and occasionally woven together with my own crude prose, from This Day in Music, Day In Music, Song Facts, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.
KBCO