1967 - Ode to Billie Joe the debut album by Bobbie Gentry was at No.1 on the US chart. It was the only album to displace The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band from its 15-week reign at the top of the chart. The recording of the title track 'Ode to Billie Joe' generated eight Grammy nominations, resulting in three wins for Gentry.
1969 - Rod Stewart joins Faces, formerly known as Small Faces. After the departure of Steve Marriott from the Small Faces, not only did they add Rod, but future rolling Stone, Ronnie Wood as well. Notorious for their hard-partying, boozy tours and ragged concerts, the Faces lived the rock & roll lifestyle to the extreme. While they were together, the Faces never sold that many records and were never considered as important as the Stones, yet their music has proven extremely influential over the years. Bands from the Replacements to the Black Crowes took their cue from the Faces as much as the Stones.
1974 - Al Green was at his Memphis home when his ex-girlfriend Mary Woodson burst in and poured boiling hot grits over him. She then shot herself dead. Green suffered second degree burns. Green takes these disturbing events as a sign from God and focuses his career on gospel music and preaching.
1975 - Simon And Garfunkel reunited on the second episode of Saturday Night Live to positive reviews and good ratings. Simon performed two songs by himself.
Then Simon reunites with Art Garfunkel, who emerges from the crowd when Paul calls him onstage.
"So Artie, you've come crawling back," Simon says.
The pair perform "The Boxer," "Scarborough Fair" and one of Simon's new songs, "My Little Town."
Birthdays:
Chuck Berry is born in St. Louis, Missouri on this day in 1926. Chuck Berry is perhaps the defining musician of the early rock & roll era, the one figure responsible for the music's sound, style, and sensibility that created the blueprint for the generations that followed. A guitarist who wanted to play like T-Bone Walker and croon like Nat King Cole, Berry married these two styles to a swinging beat that spliced jump blues with juke joint R&B and hillbilly boogie -- a blend that arrived nearly fully realized with his 1955 debut single "Maybellene," a record that topped the R&B charts and crashed into the pop Top Ten. Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986, with the comment that he "laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance." (Photo credit should read MICHAL CIZEK/AFP via Getty Images)
1947 - Laura Nyro, singer songwriter, was born on this day in 1947. During the singer/songwriter movement in the late '60s and early '70s, Laura Nyro was one of the most celebrated tunesmiths of her day, penning soulful, literate songs that took the folky introspection of her peers and infused it with elements of soul, R&B, jazz, and gospel, giving them an emotional heat that set her apart. However, while she made great records, Nyro's passionate style was considered too idiosyncratic for the Top 40, and her songs were better known in versions recorded by other artists; the 5th Dimension, Three Dog Night, Barbra Streisand, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Peter, Paul & Mary all scored hit singles with her material. In 2012 she is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Drummer, vocalist and songwriter from the Doobie Brothers, Keith Knudson, was born on this day in 1952.
Peter Svensson of the Cardigans is 48.
Ben Schneider of Lord Huron is 38.
On This Day In Music History was sourced This Day in Music, Song Facts Allmusic, and Wikipedia.