1957 - Elvis Presley makes his third and final appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, where he performs seven songs in three segments, including "Hound Dog," "Don't Be Cruel" and "Heartbreak Hotel." He is only seen from the waist up, leaving viewers to speculate as to what the screams in the audience are about. It was the 50s folks...
1958 - Gibson guitars launched its "Flying V" electric guitar. Guitarists who played a Flying V include Albert King, Jimi Hendrix, Marc Bolan and Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top.
1964 - The Rolling Stones begin their first headlining UK tour. Opening act: The Ronettes.
1975 - Pink Floyd begin recording their album Wish You Were Here after abandoning an earlier concept of an album recorded entirely with household objects.
Household Objects, recorded during several desultory sessions over a two-year time frame, was constructed with rubber bands, wine glasses, spray cans, newspapers, brooms, and other such utilitarian gear. It was shelved. Photo credit should read PAUL BARKER/AFP via Getty Images)
1973 - Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" leads the US hit parade, stirring speculation about exactly who she was singing about. In 2015 Simon told People magazine that the subject in question is actually a composite of three different men, including actor Warren Beatty, but did not include her ex-husband, James Taylor. She later complicated the debate by claiming that she was singing about record producer David Geffen.
1976 - Peter Frampton's live double album, Frampton Comes Alive!, is released. Powered by his trusty talkbox sound, it becomes one of the best-selling live albums in history.
1979 - The Village People appear on American Bandstand, where the crowd does the soon-to-be famous arm movements spelling out "Y.M.C.A."
Birthdays:
Earl Scruggs was born on this day in 1942. Noted for perfecting and popularizing a 3-finger banjo-picking style (now called Scruggs style). Scruggs scored the hit as Flatt and Scruggs with 'The Ballad of Jed Clampett' for the TV show The Beverly Hillbillies in 1962.
Syd Barrett, the original lead singer of Pink Floyd, was born today in 1946. Like a supernova, Roger "Syd" Barrett burned briefly and brightly, leaving an indelible mark upon psychedelic and progressive rock as the founder and original singer, songwriter, and lead guitarist of Pink Floyd. Barrett was responsible for most of their brilliant first album, 1967's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, but left and/or was fired from the band in early 1968 after his erratic behavior had made him too difficult to deal with (he appears on a couple tracks on their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets). Pink Floyd classics, ‘Brain Damage’ and ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ were written about Syd.
Sandy Denny, Fairport Convention, was born on this day in 1947. Robert Plant called Sandy Denny his "favorite singer out of all the British girls that ever were." She is featured on the Led Zeppelin track 'Battle Of Evermore' on the bands fourth album. To thank her for her contribution, Zeppelin gave Denny her own symbol — three downward-pointing equilateral triangles, forming an asterisk — on the inner sleeve of IV, which accompanied the four symbols that each band member chose to represent them. This is the only song Zeppelin ever recorded with a guest vocalist.
Malcolm Young of AC/DC was born today in 1953. His younger lead guitar-playing brother Angus may be the main attraction of AC/DC in concert, but rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young was the band's musical anchor. Inspired by his older brother, George, who hit it big as a member of the Easybeats (scoring a worldwide smash with "Friday on My Mind"), young Malcolm began playing guitar in local bands, eventually forming AC/DC.
Alex Turner, frontman for Arctic Monkeys is 37. Their 2006 debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not was the fastest-selling debut album in British history and was ranked at No. 30 on Rolling Stone's list of the greatest debut albums of all time.
Orville Peck is 35. A self-styled "outlaw cowboy," Orville Peck is a purposefully enigmatic performer whose music fuses elements of goth, shoegaze, and indie rock with grand-scale vocals and iconography that honors classic country music from the '50s and '60s
On this Day in Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Ultimate Classic Rock, NPR, Song Facts, Allmusic, Classic Bands, and Wikipedia.