1964 - The Beatles' debut U.S. album, Meet The Beatles, was released. Meet the Beatles wasn't the first Beatles album released in the U.S. (that would've been Introducing the Beatles, on Vee Jay), but as the first Beatles album released by Capitol Records, it was indeed the LP where many millions of Americans were introduced to the Fab Four. Included "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There", As an introduction, there could hardly have been one better.
1975 - Bob Dylan releases Blood on the Tracks. This is the sound of an artist returning to his strengths, what feels most familiar, as he accepts a traumatic situation, namely the breakdown of his marriage. This is an album alternately bitter, sorrowful, regretful, and peaceful, easily the closest he ever came to wearing his emotions on his sleeve. Dylan made albums more influential than this, but he never made one better. (Photo by PIERRE GUILLAUD/AFP via Getty Images)
1977 - Jimmy Buffett releases, Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes, which features his signature song "Margaritaville." Buffett and his band went to Criteria Studios in Miami to record. they worked in the studio by day and on Buffett's boat at night.
"For that album, we were trying to get the rhythms and the vibe to match the rhythm of the ocean waves against the boat," producer Norbert Putnam told Mix. "Sounds crazy, but it was working. We were getting a vibe for the record."
1982 - Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat during a concert at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, IA. Osbourne thought it was a rubber bat, so he bit its head off and was taken to a hospital after the concert to undergo a rabies injection.
1986 - Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder performed together at a concert in Washington, D.C. commemorating the first Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the U.S.
1988 - The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and The Supremes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The acceptance speech of the night went to Beach Boy Mike Love, who called out many in attendance.
“The Beach Boys did about 180 performances last year,” he said. “I’d like to see the Mop Tops match that! I’d like to see Mick Jagger get out on this stage and do ‘I Get Around’ versus ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash,’ any day now. And I’d like to see some people kick out the jams, and I challenge the Boss to get up on stage and jam.”
To put it mildly, the rest of the Beach Boys were horrified. In a 2013 interview with the Guardian, Love tried to explain himself. “I hadn’t meditated that morning,” he said.
1997 - Ben and Jerry's introduced 'Phish food', a new flavor of ice cream named after the rock group Phish. The ingredients were chocolate ice cream, marshmallows, caramel and fish-shaped fudge.
2012 - Etta James, most often remembered for her signature song, 'At Last', ( also "Tell Mama," "I'd Rather Go Blind,") at the age of 73. The celebrated producer Jerry Wexler once called her "the greatest of all modern blues singers".
Birthdays:
Leadbelly (Huddi William Ledbetter), blues musician, who wrote "Goodnight Irene", "The Rock Island Line", and '"The Midnight Special" was born today in 1889.
Billy Powell, singer from The O'Jays, ("Love Train") was born today in 1942.
Questlove is 51.
Nathan Connolly of Snow Patrol is 41.
On This Day In Music History is sourced from, Rolling Stone, Allmusic, This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.