1970 - Music and politics collided when Elvis Presley met President Richard Nixon at the White House.
Elvis really wanted a badge from the federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Washington. "The narc badge represented some kind of ultimate power to him," Priscilla Presley would write in her memoir, Elvis and Me. "With the federal narcotics badge, he [believed he] could legally enter any country both wearing guns and carrying any drugs he wished."
Nixon granted his wish. When it was reported that the National archives was selling pictures of the meeting, they became the most requested photographs in Archives history. (Photo by National Archives)
1992 - Bluesman Albert King died. King made his first guitar out of a cigar box, a branch from a shrub, and a strand of broom wire; he later bought a real guitar for $1.25, which he learned to play himself, left-handed with the strings upside down. known as one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with B.B. King and Freddie King). Essential song: Born Under A Bad Sign.
2012 - "Gangnam Style" by South Korean musician Psy became the first YouTube video to reach a billion views. By the end of 2012, the song had topped the music charts of more than 30 countries.
Birthdays:
Frank Zappa was born today in 1940. Composer, guitarist, singer, and bandleader Frank Zappa was a singular musical figure during a performing and recording career that lasted from the 1960s to the '90s. His disparate influences included doo wop music and avant-garde classical music; although he led groups that could be called rock & roll bands for much of his career, he used them to create a hybrid style that bordered on jazz and complicated, modern serious music, sometimes inducing orchestras to play along. As if his music were not challenging enough, he overlay it with highly satirical and sometimes abstractly humorous lyrics and song titles that marked him as coming out of a provocative literary tradition that included Beat poets like Allen Ginsberg and edgy comedians like Lenny Bruce.
Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys was born today in 1946. Carl recorded and released two solo albums in the early '80s, but he is best known as a founding member of the Beach Boys, with whom he sang and played lead guitar. He largely took over supervision of the band after his oldest brother, Brian Wilson, relinquished leadership of the Beach Boys due to psychological problems in the mid-'60s; at that time, Carl was only in his late teens. He continued to guide the group from the late '60s to his death three decades later, serving as the glue that held together the Beach Boys' often warring factions. Sang several of their hits including "God Only Knows" and "Good Vibrations".
On this Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Smithsonianmag, Allmusic, Song Facts and Wikipedia.