1969 - John Lennon writes, rehearses, and records a song about his recent heroin withdrawal entitled "Cold Turkey," where he also puts into practice his recent introduction to "primal scream" therapy. Fans and critics are shocked by the emotionally raw recording, a prelude to his eventual Plastic Ono Band album.
Lennon wanted to record this with The Beatles for their Abbey Road album, but the other Beatles rejected it.
1975 - Queen started recording "Bohemian Rhapsody" at Rockfield studios in Monmouth, Wales, (the song was recorded over three weeks). Freddie Mercury mentally prepared the song beforehand and directed the band throughout the sessions. May, Mercury, and Taylor sang their vocal parts continually for ten to twelve hours a day, resulting in 180 separate overdubs.
1981 - The Rolling Stones released Tattoo You. Like Emotional Rescue before it, Tattoo You was comprised primarily of leftovers, but unlike its predecessor, it never sounds that way. Instead, Tattoo You captures the Stones at their best as a professional stadium-rock band. Divided into a rock & roll side and a ballad side, the album delivers its share of thrills on the tight, dynamic first side.
The ballad side suffers in comparison, But "Worried About You" and "Tops" are effortless, excellent ballads, and "Waiting on a Friend," with its Sonny Rollins sax solo, is an absolute masterpiece.
An essential latter-day Stones album.
1994 - Jeff Buckley's first and only album, Grace, was released. An audacious debut album, filled with sweeping choruses, bombastic arrangements, searching lyrics, and above all, the richly textured voice of Buckley himself, which resembled a cross between Robert Plant, Van Morrison, and his father Tim. And that's a fair starting point for his music: Grace sounds like a Led Zeppelin album written by an ambitious folkie with a fondness for lounge jazz. At his best -- the soaring title track, "Last Goodbye," and the mournful "Lover, You Should've Come Over" -- Buckley's grasp met his reach with startling results.
1995 - Microsoft launched the Windows 95 operating system. The start-up music was composed by Brian Eno, founding member of Roxy Music and a pioneer in ambient music.
Eno said that he found the task funny and then addictive, considering the amount of adjectives in the brief (inspiring, universal, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional) compared to the short 3f seconds it had to last. Ironically, he created the final pieces (he ended up making 84 in total) using a Macintosh, rather than a PC.
2021 - Thirty years after appearing as a baby grasping for a dollar bill on Nirvana's Nevermind album cover, Spencer Elden sues the band and others associated with the photo shoot, claiming it caused him "extreme and permanent emotional distress." It was eventually dismissed.
Birthdays:
Blues artist Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, writer of Elvis Presley's hit, "That's All Right (Mama)", was born today in 1905.
Crudup may well have been Elvis Presley's favorite bluesman. The swivel-hipped rock god recorded no less than three of "Big Boy's" Victor classics during his seminal rockabilly heyday: "That's All Right Mama" (Elvis' Sun debut in 1954), "So Glad You're Mine," and "My Baby Left Me." Often lost in all the hubbub surrounding Presley's classic covers are Crudup's own contributions to the blues lexicon. He didn't sound much like anyone else, and that makes him an innovator, albeit a rather rudimentary guitarist (he didn't even pick up the instrument until he was 30 years old).
R.I.P.:
2021 - Charlie Watts died at the age of 80 in London. Watts was world famous as the drummer with the Rolling Stones, a position he held for nearly 60 years, and the subtle yet strong swing of his backbeat and his deceptively simple grooves would become one of the band's audible trademarks. When not busy with the Stones, Watts also enjoyed a celebrated sideline playing jazz, his first love, with a variety of British combos, both large and small. As with the Stones, Watts' jazz work didn't trade in flash, instead displaying a peerless instinct as to where to put the notes to best serve the music. (Photo credit should read PIERRE VERDY/AFP via Getty Images)
On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Song Facts, Allmusic, NPR, and Wikipedia.
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