1965 - The Beatles "Help!" was released.
John Lennon has described this time of his life as his "fat Elvis period." In a 1971 interview with Rolling Stone, Lennon said this is one of his favorite Beatles records, because, "I meant it - it's real." He added: "The lyric is as good now as it was then. It is no different, and it makes me feel secure to know that I was that aware of myself then. It was just me singing 'Help' and I meant it."
1980 - David Bowie begins his run as The Elephant Man in Denver. The show does well, and Bowie takes the lead in the Broadway production later that year.
Here’s a line from a review in Variety:
“The acting debut on the American stage of rock singer David Bowie was greeted by a standing ovation in Denver when the singer, noted for his flamboyant musical style, took on the role of physically misshapen John Merrick, the human monster with a liking for culture.”
Bowie went on to triumph on Broadway with his stunning performance at The Booth Theatre in New York, opening there on 23 September 1980, with unanimous praise for his portrayal of Merrick.
1985- Joan Jett called up-and-coming heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson before his fight with Larry Sims, which Tyson won handily. The superstitious Tyson insisted on getting a call from Jett before every fight, which he did until breaking tradition for his bout against Buster Douglas on February 11, 1990 - Tyson's first loss.
1995 - Clueless debuts in theaters, reviving the teen movie genre and boosting the film career of Alicia Silverstone. On the soundtrack Counting Crows do an acoustic take on the Psychedelic Furs' "The Ghost in You", it was recorded in KBCO Studio C.
Birthdays:
Bernie Leadon, guitarist for Eagles, is 76. Felder came up with the musical idea for this song. According to his book Heaven and Hell: My Life in The Eagles, he came up with the idea while playing on the beach. He had the chord progressions and basic guitar tracks, which he played for Don Henley and Glenn Frey, who helped finish the song, with Henley adding the lyrics.
Felder says they recorded the song about a year after he did the original demo, and in the session, he started to improvise the guitar part at the end. Henley stopped him and demanded that he do it exactly like the demo, so he had to call his wife and have her play the cassette demo over the phone so Felder could remember what he played.
Brian May, guitarist for Queen, is 76. Few rock guitarists possess a playing style as instantly recognizable as Queen's Brian May. With his orchestrated guitar armies (multi-tracked guitar lines overdubbed on top of each other) and instantly memorable, well-constructed melodic leads, May is in a class all by himself. In addition to rock music, May retained his interest in astronomy, and in 2006 he returned to his studies in astrophysics, completing his doctoral thesis and earning his PhD from Imperial College London in 2007. (Photo by Alberto Pezzali - WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Keith Godchaux, keyboardist for The Grateful Dead, was born today in 1948. The Grateful Dead has always been a focus of synchronicity -- of magic "coincidences" happening at just the right time. In early fall 1971, the Dead really faced up to the fact that they needed a keyboard player. Pigpen was too frail (he'd entered the hospital), and T.C. had left long ago. One day his wife, Donna jean, grabbed Garcia at a Keystone Korner show in San Francisco and introduced her husband. He'd never studied the Dead and had gone to only a couple of shows, but she somehow knew that he was the new piano player. And after playing with Garcia and then the complete band -- it turned out to be so.
Commander Cody was born on this day in 1944. George Frayne IV and his band, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, were equally adept at stripped-down basic rock & roll, R&B, and gritty country-rock. The band's country-rock rocked harder than the Eagles or Poco -- essentially, the group was a bar band. Much like English pub rock bands like Brinsley Schwarz and Ducks Deluxe, Commander Cody resisted the overblown and bombastic trends of early-'70s rock, preferring a basic no-frills approach. Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen never had the impact of the British pub rockers, yet their straightforward energy gave their records a distinguishing drive; they could play country, Western swing, rockabilly, and R&B, and it all sounded convincing.
On this Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Song Facts, Colorado Music Experience, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.
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