1964 - The Beatles become the first Rock Stars displayed in Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London. They later use their wax versions on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
1967 - Working on sessions for the new Beatles album Sgt. Pepper at Abbey Road studios in London, John Lennon recorded his lead vocal for ‘Good Morning Good Morning’, and Paul McCartney added a lead guitar solo to the track. Lennon had decided he wanted to end the song with animal sound effects, and asked that they be sequenced in such a way that each successive animal was capable of scaring or eating the preceding one.
1973 - Led Zeppelin released Houses of the Holy. The approach is looser and more relaxed than previous records. Jimmy Page's riffs rely on ringing, folky hooks as much as they do on thundering blues-rock, giving the album a lighter, more open atmosphere. While the pseudo-reggae of "D'Yer Mak'er" and the affectionate James Brown send-up "The Crunge" suggest that the band was searching for material, they actually contribute to the musical diversity of the album. Throughout the record, the band's playing is excellent, making the eclecticism of the songwriting sound coherent and natural. The album title was a dedication by the band to their fans who appeared at venues they dubbed 'Houses of the Holy'.
1973 - Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon hits No. 1. Although it held the number one spot in the US for only a week, the album remained in the Billboard 200 albums chart for 736 nonconsecutive weeks and became one of the best-selling albums of all time.
1981 - Blondie started a two week run at No.1 with 'Rapture', the first No. 1 song in the US to feature rap and its lyrics, notable for name-checking hip-hop pioneers Fab Five Freddy and Grandmaster Flash. Harry's rap is so goofy that it sounds like she could be mocking the genre, but this was very early in the evolution of hip-hop, and many of the rhymes that came out of the New York block parties were just as silly. Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie championed rap and got involved in the community, often attending these block parties.
1982 - David Crosby was arrested after crashing his car on the San Diego Highway. Police also found cocaine and a pistol in his car. When the police asked Crosby why he carried the gun, he replied, "John Lennon."
1995 - Wilco released their debut album, A.M. It is by far the one with the closest resemblance to Uncle Tupelo. The attack sounds more than a bit like the twangy roar of UT's final album, 1993's Anodyne, without the dour tone Jay Farrar (who would form Son volt) brought to the band. A.M. beat Trace, the first album from Jay Farrar's Son Volt, into record shops by six months, but in the minds of many alt-country fans, Tweedy's album was the weaker effort. However, viewed in the context of Wilco's catalog more than 20 years on, A.M. sounds like the point where Jeff Tweedy and his collaborators let go of Uncle Tupelo and took a bold, smart step into their future. (Photo credit should read BJORN LARSSON ROSVALL / SCANPIX/AFP via Getty Images)
Birthdays:
Cheryl James, aka "Salt" of Salt-n-Pepa, is 56.
Dave Keuning of The Killers is 46.
Lady Gaga is 36.
On This Day In Music History is sourced from Allmusic, This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.