1979 - Frank Zappa's one and only rock opera, Joe's Garage, is released. The opera mixes styles of blues, jazz, doo-wop, lounge, orchestral, rock, pop and reggae. It draws controversy for profane lyrics but is hailed as a cultural milestone and landmark album. The work also looks forward to Zappa's later crusade against the PMRC with its themes of government censorship, and introduces a few memes into the Zappa lexicon, including "The Central Scrutinizer," "a little green rosetta," and of course, the term "roto-plooker." (Photo credit JOEL ROBINE/AFP via Getty Images)
1982 - Led Zeppelin release their final studio album, Coda, a collection of unused songs recorded before drummer John Bonham died in 1980. Coda gathered much of what was floating around in the wake of their demise, including three blistering rockers that were rejected for In Through the Out Door, "Ozone Baby," "Darlene," and "Wearing and Tearing." "Walter's Walk" was a Houses Of The Holy outtake and "Poor Tom" came from the Led Zeppelin III sessions. It amounts to a good snapshot of much of what made Led Zeppelin a great band: when they were cooking, they really did groove.
1983 - Tina Turner made the charts for the first time in a decade with her rendition of "Let's Stay Together." Heaven 17 were asked to write a new song for Tina, but declined. "God, how would we start writing a song for Tina Turner?' Seriously. She was a legend in our eyes. We said, 'Well, I don't really feel confident with that, but I really would like to do a cover version, or a couple of cover versions, so we ended up drawing up a shortlist."
1990 - The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences strips the 1989 Best New Artist Grammy from Milli Vanilli because Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan didn't actually sing on their debut album, "Girl You Know It's True." It is the first time a Grammy has ever been revoked.
1994 - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers play "You Don't Know How It Feels" and "Honeybee" on Saturday Night Live with Dave Grohl on drums, who considers joining the band full time.
Grohl has completed the bones of the first Foo Fighters album on his own, so the idea of being in a band appeals to him. The performance goes really well and Grohl considers coming on as their permanent drummer, but Petty won't let him.
"We're an older bunch of guys and I thought he would be happier doing his own thing with this great talent that he wasn't using and with this great opportunity," he says. "Not that I wouldn't have hired him in a second – it was discussed and I know he thought about it."
Birthdays:
Joe Hunter was born on this day in 1927. He was a veteran session musician as one of the Funk Brothers who helped craft the distinctive Motown sound.
Jason Pierce of Spiritualized is 56.
On This Day In Music History is sourced from Allmusic, This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.