1966 - The Beatles show up for a photo shoot with photographer Robert Whitaker, who has butcher smocks, doll parts and raw meat waiting for them. The shoot results in their "butcher cover" photo used on the Yesterday And Today album before it is recalled. It was meant to conveyed the idea that the Beatles were in danger of being dismembered – both physically and psychically – by their celebrity. Negative reaction to the cover photo was so strong Capitol recalled 750,000 copies from distributors to replace the cover. The total cost to Capitol to replace the cover and promotional materials was $250,000, wiping out their initial profit.
1972 - Deep Purple's album Machine Head is released in America. Most of it was recorded in their hotel after the Montreux Casino, where they planned to record it, burned down, a story told in the song "Smoke On The Water."
1985 - Prince won an Oscar for Best Original Song Score for the film Purple Rain. Even without the movie, Purple Rain is regularly called one of the greatest albums in music history, but as a soundtrack, it is even more highly praised; in 2007, Vanity Fair magazine named it "the best soundtrack of all time."
Prince designed Purple Rain as the project that would make him a superstar, and, surprisingly, that is exactly what happened. Simultaneously more focused and ambitious than any of his previous records, Purple Rain finds Prince consolidating his funk and R&B roots while moving boldly into pop, rock, and heavy metal with nine superbly crafted songs.
2019 - Scott Walker, singer with the Walker Brothers, died at age 76. The star found fame as a teen idol in the Walker Brothers, scoring hits with “The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore” and “Make It Easy On Yourself.” His stage fright was so acute, he once faked a car accident to get out of a gig.
Birthdays:
Celebrated American songwriter Hoyt Axton was born on this day in 1938. He wrote "Joy To The World" and many more hits for other artists.
Aretha Franklin was born on this day in 1942. Aretha Franklin was one of the giants of soul music, and indeed of American pop as a whole. More than any other performer, she epitomized soul at its most gospel-charged. Her astonishing run of late-'60s hits with Atlantic Records -- "Respect," "I Never Loved a Man," "Chain of Fools," "Baby I Love You," "I Say a Little Prayer," "Think," "The House That Jack Built," and many others -- earned her the title Queen of Soul
Elton John is 75. Elton exploded like a supernova in the early 1970s, generating headlines and hits with ease. Songs he wrote with his lifelong collaborator Bernie Taupin--climbed into the Top Ten on either side of the Atlantic, John was inescapable during the first half of the '70s, five years that turned out to be the first act in a remarkable career that kept him at the top of the charts for decades.
He's connection to Colorado is the albums recorded at Caribou Ranch near Nederland. Those titles included Caribou, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, and Rock Of the Westies. He lured John Lennon there for his cover of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and inspired by the tennis playoffs in Denver ( he was an ardent supporter of Billie Jean King’s team, the Philadelphia Freedoms) wrote Philadelphia Freedom at Caribou.
“It really is luxurious,” John raved. “The only thing you have to get used to is that it’s so high up, you keep gasping for breath all the time.” (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for NARAS)
On This Day In Music History is sourced from Trouser Press, Colorado Music Experience, Allmusic, Rolling Stone, On this Day In Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.