1965 - Queen Elizabeth II awarded The Beatles with MBEs — Member of the British Empire, an order of chivalry of British democracy — at Buckingham Palace in London. According to an account by John Lennon, the group smoked marijuana in one of the palace bathrooms to calm their nerves. Harrison later said it was just tobacco...Following the Beatles' investiture, many previous recipients returned their MBEs in protest, to which John Lennon responded, "Lots of people who complained about us receiving the MBE received theirs for heroism in the war, for killing people … We received ours for entertaining other people. I'd say we deserve ours more."
Harrison and Paul McCartney put the awards on their jackets for the Sgt. Pepper album cover; Lennon sends his back in 1969.
1970 - Elton John released "Your Song,” which becomes his first hit. This was one of the first songs John wrote with Bernie Taupin. "...one of the most naïve and childish lyrics in the entire repertoire of music, but I think the reason it still stands up is because it was real at the time", said Taupin. He wrote it when he was 17.
2004 - Apple launched the U2 Special Edition iPod as part of a partnership between Apple, U2 and Universal Music Group. The new U2 iPod held up to 5,000 songs and featured a red Click Wheel and custom engraving of U2 band member signatures. The iPod was being introduced as the band released their new album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Did you still have one?
2010 - Keith Richards releases his autobiography, Life. Takeaways from the book:
He went a personal record of 9 days without sleep.
Snorted his father's ashes? "As I took the lid off of the box, a fine spray of his ashes blew out on to the table," he wrote. "I couldn't just brush him off, so I wiped my finger over it and snorted the residue." (Early reports that he snorted it with coke were dismissed by his manager as said in jest).
Richards and saxophonist Bobby Keys were invited to stay at the Playboy Mansion by Hugh Hefner and nearly set it ablaze while doing drugs in a bathroom.
One of his favorite meals: Shepherds Pie
As a teenager, Keith spent two years in the Boy Scouts. But this brief flirtation with public service ended after he smuggled a couple of bottles of whiskey into a jamboree
And there's this quote: "I loved a good high. And if you stay up, you get the songs that everyone else misses because they're asleep."
It would later receive the 2011 Norman Mailer Prize for biography.
(Photo by GERARD JULIEN/AFP via Getty Images)
2019- The beat-up sweater Kurt Cobain wore on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged special sells at auction for $334,000. After Cobain died, Courtney Love gave it to the family's nanny, who sold it to pay for cancer treatments.
Birthdays:
Mahalia Jackson referred to as "The Queen of Gospel" was born on this day in 1911. A major crossover success whose popularity extended across racial divides, she was gospel's first superstar, and even decades after her death remains, for many listeners, a defining symbol of the music's transcendent power.
William Earl "Bootsy" Collins is 72 today. A singer and songwriter who rose to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s, and later with Parliament-Funkadelic. His driving basslines and humorous vocals established him as one of the leading names in funk. Bootsy is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with 15 other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.
Natalie Merchant is 60. Merchant came onto the scene in the 80s as the singer and songwriter for 10,000 Maniacs. After seven albums together, Merchant left the band. Her ensuing solo career soon took off with the critically acclaimed album Tigerlily.
R.I.P.:
2019 - Paul Barrere died at age 71. He was a member of Little Feat, which he joined in 1972. Barrere later played with Phil Lesh and Friends and also toured with Bob Dylan.
On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Song Facts, Rolling Stone, Allmusic, Classic Bands, and Wikipedia.
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