1967 - In America, The Beatles release Magical Mystery Tour, the soundtrack to their upcoming film. The psychedelic sound is very much in the vein of Sgt. Pepper's, and even spacier in parts (especially the sound collages of "I Am the Walrus").
The music is mostly great, and "Penny Lane," "Strawberry Fields Forever," "All You Need Is Love," and "Hello Goodbye" were all huge, glorious, and innovative singles.
1969 - The Rolling Stones record Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! at New York City's Madison Square Garden. In the audience is Jimi Hendrix, celebrating his 27th (and last) birthday.
1970 - George Harrison released All Things Must Pass. Without a doubt, it's his best. Drawing on his backlog of unused compositions from the late Beatles era (the titled track had been presented to the band during the Get Back sessions), Harrison crafted material that managed the rare feat of conveying spiritual mysticism without sacrificing his gifts for melody and grand, sweeping arrangements. The first single, "My Sweet Lord," becomes the first ex-Beatle solo #1 in the US.
A very moving work, with a slight flaw: the jams that comprise the final third of the album are not for everyone. Interesting fact, those same jams, played by Eric Clapton, Carl Radle, Bobby Whitlock, and Jim Gordon (all of whom had just come off of touring as part of Delaney & Bonnie's band), proved to be of immense musical importance, precipitating the formation of Derek & the Dominos. Photo by TEKEE TANWAR/AFP via Getty Images)
Birthdays:
Jimi Hendrix was born on this day in 1942. In his brief four-year reign as a superstar, Jimi Hendrix expanded the vocabulary of the electric rock guitar more than anyone before or since. Hendrix was a master at coaxing all manner of unforeseen sonics from his instrument, often with innovative amplification experiments that produced astral-quality feedback, and roaring distortion. His frequent hurricane blasts of noise and dazzling showmanship -- he could and would play behind his back and with his teeth, and set his guitar on fire -- have sometimes obscured his considerable gifts as a songwriter, singer, and master of a gamut of blues, R&B, and rock styles.
True? In 1967, Hendrix got in a fight with then girlfriend Kathy Mary Etchingham. The story goes that she had cooked a batch of mashed potatoes, but Jimi found them wanting.
"We'd had a row over food. Jimi did't like lumpy mashed potato," she told Q magazine in 2013. "There were thrown plates and I ran off (to a friend's house). When I came back the next day, he had written that song about me. It's incredibly flattering."
The song was "The Wind Cries Mary," one of the hits of Hendrix's breakthrough album, "Are You Experienced."
On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Song Facts, SF Gate, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.