Happy Birthday Patti Smith, born on this day in 1946. Punk rock's poet laureate Patti Smith ranks among the most ambitious, unconventional, and challenging rock & rollers of all time. With her androgynous, visual presentation echoing her unabashedly intellectual and uncompromising songwriting, Smith followed her muse wherever it took her, from structured rock songs to free-form experimentalism. (Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images for NARAS)
1967 - "Hello, Goodbye" off Magical Mystery Tour by The Beatles was the No. 1 single in the country. Paul McCartney wrote this. His friend Alistair Taylor, who was visiting McCartney, asked Paul one day how he wrote his many songs, and how he came up with his ideas. As an experiment, Paul asked Taylor to shout out the opposite of whatever he sang, such as black and white, yes and no, hello and goodbye, etc. From this, the song was born.
1969 - Peter Tork quit The Monkees, buying himself out of his contract which left him broke. He went on to form a group called Release and played banjo on George Harrison's soundtrack to the film "Wonderwall".
1970 - Elvis Presley was given a private tour of the FBI headquarters in Washington DC. Elvis requested and was given a permit to carry a gun in every U.S. state.
1999 - George Harrison was stabbed repeatedly during an attempted early morning robbery at his home near London. He and his wife Olivia struggled with the intruder and were able to hold him until the authorities got there.
Harrison was admitted to hospital and treated for a collapsed lung and various stab wounds. When questioned by the police as to the nature of the crime, Harrison replied: “wasn’t a burglar, and he certainly wasn’t auditioning for the Traveling Wilburys.”
Birthdays:
Bo Diddley was born today in 1928. He grows up on the South Side of Chicago, where he and his friends perform music on street corners. The Bo Diddley beat -- bomp, ba-bomp-bomp, bomp-bomp -- is one of rock & roll's bedrock rhythms.
Mike Nesmith of The Monkees was born today in 1942.
Davy Jones of The Monkees was born today in 1945.
The Monkees were talented singers, musicians, and songwriters who made a handful of the finest pop singles of their day. The hipper echelons of the music press often lambasted the Monkees, largely because they didn't form organically but through the casting process for a television series, and initially they didn't write the bulk of their own material or play all the instruments on their records. However, time has ultimately vindicated the Monkees (who did take control of their creative process to create some of their best recordings) and their finest music still sounds fresh and engaging decades after it was recorded.
On This Day In Music History is sourced from Far Out magazine, Allmusic, This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.