1969 - T. Rex kicked off their tour of the U.K. at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. Their opening act on this night was David Bowie performing a one-man mime act. At Bolan's insistence, Bowie performed his one-man mime routine depicting China's invasion of Tibet. Bowie was an experienced mime, But concert goers were apparently not fans of the act, and Bowie was often met with boos and heckles. But Bowie would be fine, as Space Oddity was released that summer and the rest was history.
1977 - The Eagles released 'Hotel California' the title track from the Eagles' album of the same name. Written by Don Felder, Glenn Frey and Don Henley, this song is about materialism and excess. Don Henley: It's a song about the dark underbelly of the American Dream, and about excess in America which was something we knew about."
1978 - The Police appeared in a Wrigley's Chewing Gum commercial for US TV. Wrigley’s asked the band to die their hair blonde to look more “punk rock”. The band liked to look, kept it as their signature style. BTW, the commercial never aired.
Summers tells BlogTalkRadio.com, "We needed the money. There's a shot of us carrying a six-foot-long packet of Wrigleys across the room.
"The crazy thing is we go on to become the biggest band in the world, and they never used the ad! I wonder if we could contact Wrigley now and find it in their archives." (Photo by Scott Gries/Getty Images)
1987 - Andy Warhol, the artist who painted the album cover of The Velvet Underground's debut album and designed the cover of The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers died after a gallbladder operation in New York City. He was 58 years old.
1989 - The very unheavy Jethro Tull win the first Grammy for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, beating out Metallica.
The Grammys aren't known to embrace new forms of music, so it isn't until 1989 that they recognize heavy metal for the first time, finally acknowledging the headbangers that have been filling stadiums throughout the decade.
Tull's record company places an ad in Billboard to congratulate them, pointing out that the flute - often a lead instrument in their songs - is indeed made of heavy metal.
1993 - Radiohead released Pablo Honey, the band's debut album. A promising collection that blends U2's anthemic rock with long, atmospheric instrumental passages and an enthralling triple-guitar attack that is alternately gentle and bracingly noisy. Contains the breakthrough song, "Creep."
The album is named after a Jerky Boys prank call skit in which the prank caller says, "Pablo, honey? Please come to Florida!" which is sampled on the song "How Do You?"
Birthdays:
Sublime lead singer Brad Nowell was born on this date in 1968.
Tom Higgenson of Plain White T's is 43.
On this Day In Music History is sourced from express.co.uk, norselandsrock.com, This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.