1955 - Bo Diddley's "Bo Diddley" with "I'm a Man" on the flip side appeared on the R&B chart. It climbed to No. 2, making it Bo's most successful record. The A-side introduced to the world what would become known as the "Bo Diddley beat," (akin to the rhythmic pattern known as "shave and a haircut, two bits"),a rhythmic pattern later utilized by Buddy Holly, the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and many others.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse release, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. It marked the beginning of Young's recording association with Crazy Horse, the trio of Danny Whitten (guitar), Ralph Molina (drums), and Billy Talbot (bass) that Young had drawn from the struggling local Los Angeles group the Rockets. With them, Young quickly cut a set of loose, guitar-heavy rock songs -- "Cinnamon Girl," "Down by the River," and "Cowgirl in the Sand" -- proving this singer songwriter was also a rock & roll artist.
1977 - During a U.K. tour, Talking Heads played a gig at The Rock Garden in London, where Brian Eno was among the audience. After seeing Talking Heads perform, Eno later went on to produce them.
1982 - The Clash release Combat Rock. Inspired by old interests like raucous punk, jumped-up rock & roll, and spooky dub, they also folded in rap, spoken word (courtesy of Allen Ginsberg), world music, and disco on the way to Combat Rock. It was almost a double album titled Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg with songs reaching epic lengths, a move lead by Mick Jones. The others thought it sounded too much like Sandinista!, so they decided to hire big-name producer Glyn Johns to do a more commercial mix. The resulting straight-ahead revamp gave the band their two biggest hits ("Should I Stay or Should I Go" and "Rock the Casbah") but luckily for fans who admired the band's quest to push the limits of punk, it retained enough left-of-center artistic vision to make it interesting.
2004 - Chris Martin of Coldplay and his wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, have a daughter they name Apple.
Birthdays:
Jack Bruce, bassist for Cream, was born on this day in 1943. Although some may be tempted to call multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and composer Jack Bruce a rock & roll musician, blues and jazz were what this innovative musician really loved.
Bruce's most famous songs were, in essence, blues tunes -- "Sunshine of Your Love," "Strange Brew," "Politician," "White Room" -- and they were ones he penned for Cream, the legendary blues-rock trio he formed with drummer Ginger Baker and guitarist Eric Clapton in July 1966. Although their trio only lasted until November 1968, the group is credited with bringing blues to a worldwide audience.
David Byrne is 72. Although best-known for his groundbreaking tenure fronting the new wave group Talking Heads, David Byrne is also acclaimed for his adventurous solo career, encroaching upon such diverse arenas as world music, filmmaking, and performance art in the process. The creatively restless Byrne has taken his work in numerous directions since striking out on his own -- Latin rhythms, adventurous pop, electronic dance-pop and collaborations with other artists of note. But Byrne's passion for rhythms and sonic colors, his gift for angular but catchy melodies, and his keen and cooly witty but thoughtful observations of diverse characters are the through-lines that bring his catalog together.
Dan Auerbach is 45. Rising to fame as the singer, guitarist, and leader of the raw and imaginative blues-rock duo the Black Keys, Dan Auerbach has become one of the key movers and shakers in the American roots music community. Easy Eye Sound is an independent record label and studio in Nashville, TN owned and operated by Dan, launched in the Spring of 2017.
R.I.P.:
1976 - Keith Relf (lead vocalist for The Yardbirds) dies at age 33 after being electrocuted while playing an improperly grounded guitar in his basement. He was found by his eight year old son, still holding the plugged-in electric guitar. The Yardbirds had the hits 'For Your Love', 'Heart Full of Soul', and 'Shapes of Things'.
Although the Yardbirds will forever be associated first and foremost with their extraordinary roster of guitarists during their career (Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page), Relf was an integral ingredient of the band's sound.
1998 - Frank Sinatra passed away at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at age 82. Frank Sinatra was arguably the most important musical figure of the 20th century, his only real rivals for the title being Elvis Presley and the Beatles. In a professional career lasting 60 years, he demonstrated a remarkable ability to maintain his appeal and pursue his musical goals despite countervailing trends. He came to the fore during the swing era of the 1930s and '40s, helped to define the "sing era" of the '40s and '50s, and continued to attract listeners during the rock era that began in the mid-'50s.
He founded Reprise Records in 1960, in order to allow more artistic freedom for his own recordings. One of the label's founding principles under Sinatra's leadership was that each artist would have full creative freedom, and at some point complete ownership of their work, including publishing rights. Despite his feelings about rock 'n roll ( “It is sung, played and written for the most part by cretinous goons...") Reprise would be home to Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, The Kinks, Frank Zappa, Fleetwood Mac, and many more.
2015 - Blues singer, songwriter and guitarist B.B. King died in his sleep at age 89. Universally hailed as the king of the blues, the legendary B.B. King was without a doubt the single most important electric guitarist of the last half of the 20th century. His bent notes and staccato picking style influenced legions of contemporary bluesmen, while his gritty and confident voice -- capable of wringing every nuance from any lyric -- provided a worthy match for his passionate playing.
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, Music This Day, Allmusic, Song Facts and Wikipedia.
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