1967 - Peter Green leaves John Mayall's Bluesbreakers to form Fleetwood Mac. He hires Mick Fleetwood, but it takes John McVie four months to leave The Bluesbreakers and join the band named after him. In the beginning, they were blues purist, but with subsequent line up changes and expanding musical tastes, they eventually became pop superstars we know them as today.
1973 - Motown Records released ‘Let's Get It On’ by Marvin Gaye. The track became Gaye's most successful single for Motown and helped cement Gaye's reputation as one of the greatest singers of baby-making music.
"It begins with three great wah-wah notes that herald the arrival of a vintage Fifties melody...and a long, moody fade-out that challenges you not to play the cut again."-Jon Landau, Rolling Stone
1979 - Unknown Pleasures, the debut from British post-punk band Joy Division, is released. Although it does not chart, it becomes hugely influential and is widely critically acclaimed as one of the defining albums of the post-punk era. It's an austere and atmospheric record. Pick any song: the nervous death dance of "She's Lost Control"; the harrowing call for release "New Dawn Fades," the romance in hell of "Shadowplay", "Insight" and its nervous drive toward some sort of apocalypse; all four members in perfect sync. Unknown Pleasures is visceral, emotional, theatrical, perfect -- one of the best albums ever.
1989 - Nirvana's debut album Bleach was released. Cut for about 600 dollars over just a matter of days, this captures Nirvana at a formative stage, still indebted to the murk that became known as grunge, yet not quite finding their voice as songwriters. But, even at this stage Kurt Cobain illustrated signs of his considerable songcraft, particularly on the minor-key ballad "About a Girl." its title inspired by advertisements that instructed drug users to clean up their needles to help quell the AIDS epidemic.
1999 - After a seven-year recording hiatus, Santana releases the album Supernatural. It's designed as a star-studded event, featuring Rob Thomas from matchboxtwenty (singing the big hit "Smooth"), Dave Mathews, Everlast, Lauryn Hill, Eric Clapton and others. All turn in fine performances, but this formula gives a general directionless feeling to the record. But that's nit picking. The peak moments of Supernatural are some of Santana's best music of the '90s. Photo credit should read HECTOR MATA/AFP via Getty Images)
2014 - American Top 40 host (and voice of Shaggy on Scooby Doo) Casey Kasem dies at age 82.
Birthdays:
Waylon Jennings was born on this day in 1933.
Nilsson was born today in 1941. Although he synthesized disparate elements of both rock and pop traditions, singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson was at heart a maverick whose allegiance belonged to neither. He's best-known for his versions of other people's songs (Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'," Badfinger's "Without You,") but he was a skilled composer and is recognized as a pop craftsman of the first order.
He was a favorite of the Beatles. But, palling around with the Beatles proved to be a double-edged sword. His career nearly ended when the media accused him of being a bad influence on John Lennon ( he was a constant presence during his "Lost Weekend") after the two, along with a group of friends, caused a drunken spectacle at a Smothers Brothers show in West Hollywood's Troubadour in 1974. "It ruined my reputation for 10 years. Get one Beatle drunk and look what happens," Nilsson said.
Leo Nocentelli, best known as a founding member and lead guitarist of the funk band The Meters, is 76.
Noddy Holder of Slade is 76.
Ice Cube is 53.
Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol is 46.
On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Allmusic, Song Facts, and Wikipedia.