1956 - Elvis Presley's single, "Heartbreak Hotel" was released. He was an unproven talent at the time, and some executives at the label thought it was a bad choice, since both musically and lyrically it veered from convention (they didn't think teenage girls would want to hear about a guy "so lonely he could die"). This earned Elvis his first Gold record, given for sales of over one million singles. (Photo by Getty Images)
1968 - Otis Redding's "Sittin' On The Dock of the Bay" is released, six weeks after he was killed in a plane crash. It will become the first posthumous number-one single in US chart history. Otis had intended to return to the studio at a later date to add lyrics in place of the whistling that is heard during the closing bars.
1971 - David Bowie arrived in the U.S. for the first time but was not allowed to play anywhere due to work permit restrictions. he does causes a bit of a stir by wearing a dress to a series of interviews..
Traveling by bus from Washington, D.C., to California, Bowie fell in love with the country and penned tributes to some of its most iconic artists: “Andy Warhol,” “Song for Bob Dylan” and the Lou Reed-inspired “Queen Bitch,” along with "Changes", which would wind up on his break through album, "Hunky Dory".
“The whole Hunky Dory album reflected my newfound enthusiasm for this new continent that had been opened up to me,” Bowie said in 1999. “That was the first time a real outside situation affected me so 100 percent that it changed my way of writing and the way I look at things.”
2015 - Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne were given a songwriting credit on Sam Smith's hit "Stay With Me" because of the similarities to the 1989 track "I Won't Back Down".
“About the Sam Smith thing. Let me say I have never had any hard feelings toward Sam,” Petty wrote. “All my years of songwriting have shown me these things can happen. Most times you catch it before it gets out the studio door but in this case it got by. Sam’s people were very understanding of our predicament and we easily came to an agreement.
Birthdays:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on this day in 1756. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was not only one of the greatest composers of the Classical period, but one of the greatest of all time.
Elmore James, blues guitarist and singer, known as the King of the Slide Guitar, was born today in 1918. No two ways about it, the most influential slide guitarist of the postwar period. And that influence continues to the present time -- in approach, attitude, and tone -- in just about every guitar player who puts a slide on his finger and wails the blues.
Bobby Bland was born on this day in 1930. Bland was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Clapton covered "Farther On Up The Road", Grateful Dead, "Turn On Your Love Light", Whitesnake covered and Jay Z sampled "Ain't No Love (In The Heart Of The City).
Nick Mason, drummer for Pink Floyd, is 79. Nick is the only member of the band to play on every album since the band's formation in 1965. Mason is a keen auto racing enthusiast and has taken part in many racing events such as the French 24 Heures du Mans race in Le Mans.
Margo Timmins (lead vocalist of Cowboy Junkies) is 62. Her honey-infused, ethereal whisper was a natural match with the spare but thoughtful accompaniment of her band Cowboy Junkies, she founded with her brothers..
On This Day Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Song Facts, Rolling Stone, Classic Rock History, and Wikipedia.