1971 - The Faces release A Nod Is As Good As A Wink... To A Blind Horse. It finally gave the group their long-awaited hit single in "Stay with Me." "Nod" is the tightest record The Faces ever made. Granted that may be a relative term, since sloppiness is at the heart of the band, but it serves up tremendous song after tremendous song, starting with the mean, propulsive "Miss Judy's Farm" and ending with the rampaging good times of "That's All You Need." (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)
1975 - Tommy Bolin's debut solo album, Teaser, is released. It's an impressive display of the guitarist's prowess and range, and is a natural progression from the previous Bolin-dominated James Gang albums Bang and Miami, and his work with drummer Billy Cobham. Jazz-rock, reggae, Latin and boogie are all represented. Phil Collin's plays percussion on Savannah Woman. Tommy was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall Of Fame in 2019.
1980 - John Lennon releases Double Fantasy, the last album he'd release during his lifetime, As legend has it, the years before it's release, Lennon spent those in domestic bliss, being a husband, raising a baby, and, of course, baking bread. Double Fantasy was designed as a window into that bliss. These are really nice tunes, and what's special about them is their niceness -- it's a sweet acceptance of middle age, which, of course, makes his assassination all the sadder.
1997 - An all-star rendition of Lou Reed's 1972 song "Perfect Day" featuring Reed, Elton John, David Bowie, Tammy Wynette, Bono and several others, is released as a single in the UK, with proceeds going to the BBC's Children In Need charity. It debuts at #1 on the UK singles chart and raises over £2 million for the appeal.
Bowie produced the original version of the song, which appeared on Reed's album Transformer.
2000 - Nickelodeon releases the film Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, an event significant in the music world because its soundtrack includes "Who Let The Dogs Out" by Baha Men. The song becomes a worldwide hit.
2003 - Let It Be... Naked, a stripped-down version of The Beatles' Let It Be album, is released. Phil Spector produced the original, and the new release removed his lavish strings and other accoutrements. This alternate take on Let It Be enhances the album's power, reclaiming the raw, unadorned quality that was meant to be its calling card from the beginning.
2010 - Patti Smith won the National Book Award for her memoir, "Just Kids". Smith became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses. Called the "punk poet laureate", she fused rock and poetry in her work.
2020 - Shazam announces the most-Shazamed songs in history. A couple that KBCO listeners are very familiar with, "Let Her Go" - Passenger and "Wake Me Up" - Avicii, are in the top 5.
Birthdays:
Gordon Lightfoot is 83. One of the leading singer/songwriters of the 1960s and '70s, Gordon Lightfoot is Canada's most successful contemporary folk artist, establishing himself as an important songwriter in the mid-'60s and becoming a major international recording star in the following decade.
Gene Clark of The Byrds was born today in 1944. He also made psychedelic pop singles in the mid-'60s, helped invent country-rock with 1968's Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers album, then teamed with Doug Dillard in the late '60s to make two records that served as a blueprint for Americana.
East Bay Ray, guitarist for The Dead Kennedys, is 63. Whereas most punk guitarists of the time were one-dimensional, Ray effortlessly rolled off surf rock riffs and other styles (including '60s spy movies and Ennio Morricone-esque spaghetti Western scores), in addition to creating spacey sounds courtesy of an Echoplex effects box. DK's singer, Jello Biafra, use to call Boulder home.
Jeff Buckley was born on this day in 1966. Buckley's voice was grand and sweeping, which fit with the mock-operatic grandeur of his Van Morrison-meets-Led Zeppelin music. His audacious debut, Grace, made him one of the most popular alternative artists of the '90s, accentuated by his early and tragic death in 1997, and his cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" virtually redefined the song for a modern audience. Listen below.
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On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Allmusic, Song Facts and Wikipedia.