1966 - The Rolling Stones release Paint It Black. Keith Richards explained how this song came together: "We were in Fiji for about three days. They make sitars and all sorts of Indian stuff. We had the sitars, we thought we'd try them out in the studio. To get the right sound on 'Paint It Black' we found the sitar fitted perfectly. We tried a guitar but you can't bend it enough." Brian Jones played the sitar.
1969 - The Who release "Pinball Wizard." From the album Tommy, about a young man who is deaf, dumb, and blind, but becomes a pinball champion and gains hordes of adoring fans.
"Pinball Wizard" was written to impress a rock critic. Pete Townshend knew the whole "rock opera" concept was a tough sell. Influential UK rock critic Nik Cohn was a pinball fanatic so Pete proffered that Tommy could be a pinball savant. Cohn loved the idea and gave the project a favorable review that helped build momentum for it.
1972 - The Rolling Stones released their classic double album Exile On Main Street, the second album on their own label. By now, the boys were truly in exile. On the run from the media, British drug police, and the country's onerous tax code, They set up shop in the south of France and began to bang out the heart of this double album. The Stones dive deep into rock & roll, blues, soul, and country, buoyed by the dog fight riffing of Richards and Taylor, the caged animal bark and burned soul croon of Jagger, and all held together by the rhythm engine of Watts and Wyman. Their ultimate statement of outlaw pride and dedication to grit.
1973 - Pink Floyd release Money. Filled with Roger Waters' anti-capitalist sentiments in his sarcastic snipes that money "is a gas" and a "hit," and paraphrasing the New Testament that "money, so they say, is the root of all evil today."
20 years after it's release, Waters would confess, "I'm still keen on a general welfare society, but I became a capitalist. You have to accept it. I remember coveting a Bentley like crazy...I very much wanted all that material stuff."
It was Waters who introduced the idea of rhythmic clinking coins, crashing cash bags and cash register keys that were meticulously created by the band and engineer Alan Parsons -- pieced together with razor blades and splicing tape and synced to the band's playing.
1973 - George Harrison releases Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth). He explained in his autobiography I Me Mine: This song is a prayer and personal statement between me, the Lord, and whoever likes it."
It became George Harrison's second US #1 following "My Sweet Lord." It pushed Paul McCartney and Wings' "My Love" from the top position, marking the only occasion that two former Beatles have held the top two chart positions on the Hot 100.
1972 - Reginald Dwight legally changed his name to Elton John. Flying back to the UK after a US tour after his last gig with the band Bluesology, Reginald gave some thought for a stage name he could use for his burgeoning solo career. In the cabin, he came across the band's horn player Elton Dean and lead singer Long John Baldry, and asked them if he can appropriate their names to concoct a new one for himself. They agree, and Elton John is born.
1984 -It's the the release date of Legend, the compilation album rounding up Bob Marley and the Wailers’ greatest hits. The classic Marley album, the one that any fair-weather reggae fan owns, Legend contains 14 of his greatest songs, running the gamut from "I Shot the Sheriff" to the meditative "Redemption Song" and the irrepressible "Three Little Birds." Some may argue that the compilation shortchanges his groundbreaking early ska work or his status as a political commentator, but this isn't meant to be definitive, it's meant to be an introduction, sampling the very best of his work. (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images)
1992 - John Frusciante quits the Red Hot Chili Peppers in the middle of their Japanese tour. Frusciante, is disillusioned with their newfound popularity and is falling apart and melts down completely. Early on the morning of May 7, he calls their tour manager and demands passage back to Los Angeles immediately. The band convinces Frusciante to play their show in Tokyo that night, but the next day, he heads back home.
Frusciante eventually rejoins the band.
Birthdays:
R&B singer Jimmy Ruffin (“What Becomes of the Brokenhearted”) was born today in 1936.
Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann is 77. While he may have been hidden behind a drum kit and the well-known frontmen of the Grateful Dead, Bill Kreutzmann spent 30 years stretching and surpassing the percussive limits of music as a drummer for the infamous jam band. Paired with drummer Mickey Hart, the two "Rhythm Devils" kept Deadheads spinning in time to the band's vast vault of tunes.
Eagle-Eye Cherry is 56. Known for his hit "Save Tonight," he's the son of trumpet player Don Cherry and half-brother of Neneh Cherry.
R.I.P.:
2022 - Mickey Gilley dies at 86. He had 39 Top 10 Country hits and owned a bar in Dallas called Gilley's that was known as "the world's biggest honky-tonk." Inspired the film, Urban Cowboy.
On this Day In Music History was sourced, curated, copied, pasted, edited, and occasionally woven together with my own crude prose, from This Day in Music, Ultimate Classic Rock, This Day In Music History, Music This Day, Allmusic, Rolling Stone, IMDB, Song Facts and Wikipedia.
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