1971 - Five months after her death, Janis Joplin started a nine-week run at No.1 (over taking "Jesus Christ Superstar") on the US album chart with her second and final solo studio album Pearl. Joplin sang on all tracks except 'Buried Alive in the Blues', which remained a Full Tilt Boogie instrumental because she died before adding her vocals.
1977 - Keith Richards' Toronto hotel suite was raided by Royal Canadian Mounted Police while he was sleeping. Police seized 22 grams of heroin and five grams of cocaine as well as narcotics paraphernalia. Richards was arrested and charged with possession of heroin with intent to traffic, and with possession of cocaine. There was the possibility of a life sentence. While things eventually worked out, the Stones future at the time, was put in serious doubt.
(Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)
1981 - The Who release "You Better You Bet," their first single since the death of their drummer, Keith Moon, in 1978. Their new stickman is Kenney Jones, formerly of the Faces. Pete Townshend wrote it "over several weeks of clubbing and partying" while the still-married guitarist was dating a younger woman. He said: "I wanted it to be a great song, because the girl I wrote it for is one of the best people on the planet."
1987 - Bruce Springsteen releases "One Step Up" from the album Tunnel Of Love. The song begins by describing a house with a broken furnace and a car that doesn't start, in retrospect, it probably served as a metaphor for his marriage to actress Julianne Phillips. They divorced in 1989.
2004 - A worker in a Wal-Mart in Glenwood Springs alerted the police after seeing a man shopping with his face covered by a mask. It was Michael Jackson who was spending time in Aspen with his children. Jackson left the store and police later stopped his vehicle. He was allowed to go on his way without incident after authorities confirmed his identity.
2005 - Jamie Foxx wins a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the movie Ray. Foxx embodied the role by studying Ray's mannerisms, attending classes at the Braille Institute, and wearing special eye prosthetics that would essentially render him blind for up to 14 hours a day. He already knew how to play the piano, but spent hours mimicking Ray's fingering technique. The only thing he didn't do was sing: That was all Ray. The 73-year-old performer encouraged the filmmakers to portray him honestly, as a flawed man who struggled with heroin addiction and had a penchant for womanizing.
Birthdays:
Dexter Gordon, saxophonist, was born today in 1923. As one of the great tenors to emerge from Los Angeles' Central Avenue scene of the 1940s, Dexter Gordon led a colorful and eventful, sometimes tragic life that included three triumphant comebacks in a four-plus-decade career. Gordon was the top tenor saxophonist during the bop era and possessed his own distinctive sound, he created a large body of superior work and could successfully battle nearly anyone at a jam session.
Neil Schon of Journey is 70. The guitarist does time in Santana before founding the groups Journey and Bad English.
Paul Humphreys is 64 today. He is best-known for being the singer/keyboardist of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD). Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark were one of the earliest, most commercially successful, and enduring synth pop groups. Inspired most by the advancements of Kraftwerk and striving at one point "to be ABBA and Stockhausen," they've continually drawn from early electronic music as they've alternately disregarded, mutated, or embraced the conventions of the three-minute pop song.
R.I.P.:
2015 - Leonard Nimoy dies at age 83. The actor, best known for playing Spock on Star Trek, also made a musical impact: His albums Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space and Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy both charted in the US (#83 and #97, respectively), and his voice was sampled in the Information Society hit "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)."
On This Day In Music History was sourced, copied, pasted, edit, and occasionally woven together with my own crude prose, from This Day in Music, Rolling Stone, WLTX, Song Facts, Allmusic, Music This Day, and Wikipedia.
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