1955 - The Chrysler Corporation launched high-fidelity record players for its 1956 model year automobiles. Known as Highway Hi-Fi, it measured about four inches high and less than a foot wide, and it mounted under the instrument panel. Seven-inch discs, spun at 16 2/3 rpm, required almost three times the number of grooves per inch as an LP. Chrysler discontinued the players in late 1958.
1965 - Working on the album Rubber Soul at Abbey Road Studios in London, The Beatles recorded the song, "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)." The track included George Harrison's double-tracked sitar part, marking the first appearance of the Indian instrument on a pop record.
It was David Crosby (when he was with The Byrds) who introduced Harrison to the sitar. A few months later, Harrison studied the instrument with the Indian musician Ravi Shankar, who helped Harrison explore Eastern music and religion.
1968 - Big Brother And The Holding Company went to No.1 on the US album chart with 'Cheap Thrills'. The cover, drawn by underground cartoonist Robert Crumb, replaced the band's original idea, a picture of the group naked in bed together. Crumb had originally intended his art to be the LP's back cover, but Joplin demanded that Columbia Records use it for the front cover. Initially the album title was to have been Sex, Dope and Cheap Thrills, but this didn't go down too well at Columbia Records.
1970 -Jesus Christ Superstar opens on Broadway, telling the story of the last seven days in the life of Jesus. The soundtrack featured Ian Gillan (Deep Purple) and Yvonne Elliman in key singing roles.
1978 - Whilst living at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City, Sex Pistol Sid Vicious called the police to say that someone had stabbed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. He was arrested and charged with murder and placed in the detox unit of a New York prison. Vicious died of a heroin overdose before the case went to trial.
1979 - Fleetwood Mac released Tusk. A sprawling, incoherent, and utterly brilliant 20-track double album. While McVie and Nicks contribute some excellent songs, Buckingham owns this record with his nervous energy and obsessive production, winding up with a fussily detailed yet wildly messy record unlike any other. Of course, that's why it bombed upon its original release, but Tusk is a bracing, weirdly affecting work that may not be as universal or immediate as Rumours, but is every bit as classic. As a piece of pop art, it's peerless.
1981 - U2 release their second album, October. U2 sounded so confident and assured on their debut that perhaps it was inevitable they would stumble slightly on its follow-up, October. The band tries too hard to move forward. But when U2 do marry the message, melody, and sound together, as on "Gloria," "I Threw a Brick Through a Window," and "I Fall Down," the results are thoroughly impressive.
1985 - Guitarist Ricky Wilson, founding member of the B-52s, died on this day in 1985 of complications from AIDS. Although Wilson passed before the band's biggest commercial success, his guitar style and unusual tunings helped make the B-52s one of the most distinctive bands in New Wave.
1987 - INXS release their breakthrough album Kick. INXS made a consistently solid album incorporating tense guitar riffs, rock & roll anthems, swing-tinged pop/rock, string-laden balladry, danceable pop-funk, horn-driven '60s soul, '80s R&B, and even a bit of the new wave-ish sound they'd started out with. Oddly enough, the label hated it. Atlantic Records president Doug Morris, ‘I’ll give you a million dollars to go and record another album. This is not happening, this is shit.'” Record companies, right? Kick went on to sell 20 million copies. (Photo credit should read TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP via Getty Images)
1997- John Denver (of course, a member of the Colorado Music hall Of Fame) was killed when the handmade, experimental airplane he was flying ran out of gas and crashed off the coast of Monterey Bay, California. When his death is announced, Colorado governor Roy Romer orders the state's flags to be lowered to half staff.
Birthdays:
Luciano Pavarotti was born today in 1935.
Sam Moore of Sam & Dave is 87.
Melvin Franklin of the Temptations was born today in 1942.
Pat Dinizio, Smithereens, was born on this day in 1955.
Martie Maguire of The Chicks is 53.
On This Day In Music History was sourced from Rolling Stone, Allmusic, This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.
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