1968 - Eric Clapton stepped in to record the famous guitar solo on the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." By this time George Harrison had built up a back catalogue of songs and some resentment towards John and Paul for they dismissed his songs.
When he came up with “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” for the White Album, he tried something different. George asked Eric Clapton to play lead guitar on the track so John and Paul would give the song the attention it deserved. It worked.
“I said, ‘Eric’s going to play on this one,’ and it was good because that then made everyone act better,” he said. “It’s interesting to see how nicely people behave when you bring a guest in — because they don’t really want everybody to know that they’re so bitchy. It made them all try a bit harder; they were all on their best behavior."
1989- -Lenny Kravitz releases Let Love Rule. Here he split the difference between John Lennon, Curtis Mayfield, David Bowie, and Prince, sometimes exhibiting too clear of a debt to his idols but more often getting by on a combination of chutzpah and pastiche, something that winds up as an enormously appealing guilty pleasure. Photo by Scott Gries/ImageDirect
1989 - After initially refusing to play it, MTV gives Neil Young's "This Note's For You" the Video of the Year award at the MTV Video Music Awards.
1997 - Elton John sings a new version of "Candle In The Wind" at Princess Diana's funeral. This rendition, which replaces "Goodbye Norma Jean" with "Goodbye England's Rose," becomes the best-selling single of all time in the UK.
Birthdays:
Roger Waters, founding member of Pink Floyd, is 80. Roger Waters is Pink Floyd's grand conceptualist, the driving force behind such albums as Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall. In the wake of Syd Barrett's departure, Waters emerged as a formidable songwriter, but it's this stretch of '70s albums -- each one nearly symphonic in its reach -- that established him as a distinctive, idiosyncratic voice within rock, one with a sober morality and sardonic sense of humor.
Dolores O'Riordan, lead singer for The Cranberries, was born today in 1971. As lead vocalist of the Cranberries, Dolores O'Riordan was one of the most visible females in early-'90s alternative rock. Born the youngest of seven children on September 6, 1971, the Limerick native grew up finding solace in music, singing from an early age as well as playing classical piano and harmonium in church. In 1990, she auditioned for a Limerick-based band named Cranberry Saw Us and received the position of lead singer, having impressed her future bandmates with her lilting vocals.
R.I.P.:
1994 - Keyboard player Nicky Hopkins died aged 50. Was a highly respected session musician, worked with The Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, Small Faces, Led Zeppelin, John Lennon, George Harrison, and the Jerry Garcia Band.
On this Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Cheat Sheet, Classic Bands, Allmusic, Song Facts, and Wikipedia.
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