1963 - Reviewing The Beatles' concert the night before in Cheltenham, England, the British paper Daily Mirror uses the headline "Beatlemania!", effectively inserting the phrase into the popular consciousness for the first time.
1967 - Cream released Disraeli Gears. It was a move towards psychedelia, but the blues still courses throughout Disraeli Gears -- the swirling kaleidoscopic "Strange Brew" is built upon a riff lifted from Albert King -- but it's filtered into saturated colors, as it is on "Sunshine of Your Love." Cream are still a heavy rock trio and Disraeli Gears is a quintessential heavy rock album of the '60s.
1969 - Creedence Clearwater Revival released Willy and the Poor Boys, the third studio album the band released that year, arriving just three months after Green River. Perhaps the breeziest album CCR ever made, although Fogerty's rage remains, blazing to the forefront on "Fortunate Son," a working-class protest song that cuts harder than any of the explicit Vietnam protest songs of the era. But joy runs throughout the album, from the gleeful single "Down on the Corner" to the great rockabilly spiritual "Don't Look Now". (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
1978 - The Police release their debut album, Outlandos d'Amour. The working title, "Police Brutality," is changed to make is sound more romantic. The title loosely translates as "Outlaws of Love". It's by far their most direct and straightforward release. Sting was already an ace songwriter, as evidenced by all-time classics like the good-girl-gone-bad tale of "Roxanne," and a pair of brokenhearted reggae-rock ditties, "Can't Stand Losing You" and "So Lonely. One of the finest debuts to come out of the '70s punk/new wave movement.
1979 - The Who's musical film Quadrophenia, featuring a small part played by Sting (as Ace Face, his first acting role), opens in US theaters.
1987 - George Harrison releases Cloud Nine, it would be the last album he puts out in his lifetime. Teaming with legendary Beatles obsessive Jeff Lynne, George Harrison crafted a remarkably consistent and polished comeback effort. He reined in Harrison's indulgences, keeping the focus on a set of 11 snappy pop/rock numbers. Cloud Nine one of his very best albums.
1992- Neil Young releases Harvest Moon. After 20 years, Neil Young finally decided to release the sequel to Harvest, his most commercially successful album. Harvest Moon is in some ways a better album, without the orchestral bombast that stifled some of the songs on the first album and boasting a more diverse overall selection of songs. Harvest Moon manages to be sentimental without being sappy, wistful without being nostalgic.
1999 - Foo Fighters released their third studio album, There Is Nothing Left to Lose. It was the band's first album to feature current Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. It has a stripped-down sound and an immediate attack that makes even the poppier numbers rock hard, but the album also benefits from the strongest set of songs Grohl and Foo Fighters have yet written. Includes the hit Learn to Fly.
2018 - The Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, starring Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, opens in theaters. It wins four Oscars, including Best Actor for Malek.
Birthdays:
Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake and Palmer was born today in 1944.
JD Souther is 77. Roommates with Glenn Frey, they would form Longbranch Pennywhistle. Souther's connections with Frey would prove fruitful later when he collaborated on some of the Eagles' biggest hit songs like "Best of My Love," "Heartache Tonight," and "New Kid in Town." Would also be a founding member of The Souther, Hillman, Furay Band.
Carter Beauford, drummer and founding member of the Dave Matthews band, is 64.
kd Lang is 61.
Chris Walla, producer and former guitarist with Death Cab for Cutie, is 47.
On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Song Facts, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.