1965 - The Byrds recorded Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" in Los Angeles. "Mr. Tambourine Man" changed the face of rock music. It launched The Byrds, convinced Dylan to "go electric," and started the folk-rock movement. David Crosby of The Byrds recalled the day Dylan heard them working on the song: "After the word got out that we gonna do 'Mr. Tambourine Man' and we were probably gonna be good, he came there and he heard us playing his song electric, and you could see the gears grinding in his head. It was plain as day. It was like watching a slow-motion lightning bolt."
1966 - George Harrison married Patti Boyd with Paul McCartney as Best man. George had first met Patti on the set of The Beatles movie 'A Hard Day's Night'. She inspired his songs "I Need You", "If I Needed Someone", "Something" and "For You Blue." She would also inspire songs by her second husband, Eric Clapton, "Layla", Bell Bottom Blues", and "Wonderful Tonight," among others. (Photo by Getty Images)
1968 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience began recording their cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower." Hendrix had been working on and off with the members of the band Traffic as he recorded Electric Ladyland. Traffic guitarist Dave Mason caught Hendrix at a party and the two discussed Bob Dylan's newest album, John Wesley Harding, containing "All Along The Watchtower." Hendrix, long fascinated with Dylan, decided to cover the song on the album. On the resulting track, Mason plays rhythm on a 12-string acoustic guitar. The original version of this song is very slow. Jimi Hendrix' version had a large impact on Dylan which made him make his own version "heavier."
1978 - The soundtrack album Saturday Night Fever started a 24-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album charts and stayed on Billboard's album charts for an incredible 120 weeks. It is one of the best-selling albums in history.
1982 - B.B. King donated his entire record collection of over 20,000 discs to Mississippi University's Center for the Study of Southern Culture. The collection includes 7,000 discs King aired as a disc jockey at Memphis' WDIA in the '50s.
1990 - Squeeze was the debut band on MTV's Unplugged program. It almost didn't happen as planned. An excerpt from the MTV Unplugged book...""October 1989....Our coming-out party almost didn't come off at all. For rehearsals, Chris Difford and Glen Tilbrook of Squeeze showed up with electric guitars. We thought the title of the show said it all, but it turned out we needed to be a little more explicit in our instructions: Unplugged wasn't exactly part of the American vernacular at this point. But we scrambled around town for a pair of acoustic guitars."
2012 - Adele was at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with her second studio album 21. Another stellar showcase of her titanic vocal abilities and her seemingly bottomless capacity for heartbreak.
Birthdays:
DJ Wolfman Jack was born today in 1938. In the 1960s he blasts rock 'n roll to the masses from a high-powered border blaster signal at XERF-AM in Mexico.
Folk singer Richie Havens was born today in 1941. His music career takes off when he performs as the opening act at Woodstock in 1969.
Edwin Starr was born on this day in 1942.
Mac Davis was born on this day in 1942. He writes "In The Ghetto" and "A Little Less Conversation" for Elvis Presley.
Jimmy Ibbotson of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is 75. He's a member of the Colorado Music Hall Of Fame.
Billy Ocean is 72.
Jason Mizell, aka Jam Master Jay from Run-D.M.C, was born today in 1965.
Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack is 57.
Chris Kilmore of Incubus is 49.
Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice") is 46.
On this Day In Music History is sourced from, The TVDB, Bob Dylan: Performing Artist: The Early Years, Allmusic, This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.