1969 - Photographer Iain MacMillan shot the cover for The Beatles' Abbey Road just outside the studios of the same name where the band recorded most of its classic songs.
A policeman held up the traffic as Macmillan, from a stepladder positioned in the middle of the road, took six shots as the group walked across the zebra crossing just outside the studio.
Shortly after the shoot, McCartney studied the transparencies and chose the fifth one for the album cover. It was the only one when all four Beatles were walking in time. It also satisfied The Beatles’ desire for the world to see them walking away from the studios they had spent so much of the last seven years inside.
For you photo buffs, Macmillan used a Hasselblad camera with a 50mm lens, aperture f/22, and a shutter speed of 1/500 of a second.
1981 - MTV broadcast its first stereo concert with REO Speedwagon who performed in Denver, at the old McNichols Arena. They had just released the album Hi Infidelity.
1991 - On A Friday, (later to become known as Radiohead), appeared at The Jericho Tavern, Oxford, England. The band had met while attending Abingdon School, a boys-only public school. "On a Friday", referred to the band's usual rehearsal day in the school's music room.
2004 - There was a big stink (hey-o!) when The Dave Matthews Band tour bus dumped its sewage into an Illinois river. The band was not on the bus, and their driver denied it until he was confronted with surveillance video.
If that wasn't bad enough, passenger boat Chicago's Little Lady was hosting the 1 p.m. Chicago Architecture Foundation tour of the Chicago River. While passing under the bridge, the boat received the full contents of the tank on the seats of its open-roof terrace.
The Dave Matthews Band donated $50,000 to the Chicago Park District, $50,000 to Friends of the Chicago River, and paid the State of Illinois $200,000 in settlement.
Birthdays:
Dave Evans, "The Edge", is 62. A founding member of U2, The Edge is one of the most influential guitarists of his generation thanks to his innovative playing technique and use of echo and other effects. Along with his work as the band's lead guitarist, his contributions as a songwriter, keyboard player, and vocalist helped define U2's sound as it evolved from the atmospheric post-punk of 1983's galvanizing War to the arena-sized anthems of 1987's blockbuster The Joshua Tree to 1991's dense, electronic-drenched Achtung Baby to the streamlined approach of later albums like 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind. (Photo by Frank Micelotta/Getty Images)
R.I.P:
2017 - Glen Campbell died at 81 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. It isn't accurate to call Glen Campbell pure country, but his fusion of country mannerisms with pop melodies and production techniques made him one of the most popular country musicians of the late '60s and '70s. Campbell was one of the leading figures of country-pop during that era, racking up a steady stream of Top Ten singles highlighted by classics like "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "I Wanna Live," "Wichita Lineman," "Galveston," "Rhinestone Cowboy," and "Southern Nights." Boasting Campbell's smooth vocals and layered arrangements, where steel guitars bounced off sweeping strings, those songs not only became country hits, they crossed over to the pop charts as well, which was appropriate, since that is where he began his musical career. He was originally a Los Angeles session musician, playing on hits by the Monkees, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and Merle Haggard.
2022 - Olivia Newton-John dies at 73. Olivia Newton-John skillfully made the transition from popular country-pop singer to popular mainstream soft rock singer, becoming one of the most successful vocalists of the '70s in the process. The transition itself wasn't much of a stretch -- her early-'70s hits "I Honestly Love You" and "Have You Never Been Mellow" were country only in the loosest sense -- yet the extent of her success in both fields was remarkable. As a country singer, her first five charting singles all went Top Ten in the U.S.; as a pop singer, she had no less than 15 Top Ten hits, including five number one singles, highlighted by "Physical," which spent ten weeks at number one in 1981 and 1982. Newton-John's sweet voice suited both country-pop and soft rock perfectly, which is what kept her at the top of the charts until the mid-'80s.
2022- Lamont Dozier passes away at the age of 81. Lamont Dozier was most well-known as part of Holland-Dozier-Holland, Motown's legendary team of songwriters, producers, and arrangers. A galvanizing force in the '60s R&B and pop chart dominance of the Detroit-based label, the trio was behind number one hits such as "Where Did Our Love Go," "Stop! In the Name of Love," and "You Can't Hurry Love," among other chart-toppers for the Supremes, and "(I Can't Help Myself) Sugar Pie Honey Bunch" and "Reach Out I'll Be There," both for the Four Tops.
On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, The Beatles Bible, Allmusic, Song Facts Classic Bands, and Wikipedia.
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