1974 - Bonnie Raitt played two shows at Harvard Square Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts; opening act was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Rolling Stone critic John Landau saw Springsteen and wrote 'I have seen rock & roll's future and his name is Bruce Springsteen'.
He went on to write, "And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time." Landau went on to become Springsteen's manager and producer.
1987 - The Grateful Dead shoot the video for "Touch Of Grey" after a concert in Monterey, California. After the show, the shoot is set up and the audience brought back in to watch two different performances of the song: one by the band and another by their skeleton likenesses - the "Dead Ringers." It's the first music video by the band, and it goes into rotation on MTV, giving the group their first hit single.
2006 - The Red Hot Chili Peppers release their ninth album, Stadium Arcadium. It's a long, winding path of alternately spacey and sunny pop, ballads, alt-rock power chords, and the occasional funk workout. The two-disc album, says bass player Flea, is "the sum of everything we are as a band." It's their first album to hit #1 in the US. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
2020 - Little Richard died at the age of 87. Of the great artists from the first era of rock & roll, few were as powerful and exciting as Little Richard, and no one bested his magnetism and flamboyance. Blessed with a singularly forceful voice (his piercing "Whooooo!" is still one of the most eloquent screams in American music) and a rollicking piano style, Little Richard fused gospel, rhythm & blues, and boogie woogie into a sound that was purely electric, and he startled audiences with his flashy clothes, outrageous persona, and willingness to present a sexually ambiguous image at a time when such things were all but unknown in popular culture.
Birthdays:
Dave Gahan, Depeche Mode is 62. While synth pop wasn't intended to be soulful, Gahan's baritone, stage swagger, and charismatic ways infused Depeche Mode's music with a passion and vulnerability that helped propel the band to the tops of charts around the world, and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Billy Joel is 74. A New York icon and one of the most successful singer/songwriters of the late 20th century, Billy Joel rose to success in the mid-'70s with a melodic piano-led pop sound that merged Beatlesque hooks with elements of rock, jazz, Tin Pan Alley, and even Broadway.
Richie Furay is 74. he was a member of buffalo Springfield, a founding member of Poco, and The Souther, Hillman, Furay Band. He's a member of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Buffalo Springfield and the Colorado Music Hall Of Fame with Poco.
On This Day In Music History was sourced from Allmusic, Songfacts, This Day In Music, and Wikipedia.