1969 - "The Israelites" by Desmond Dekker became the first single by a Jamaican artist to be a bona fide hit in the U.K. and later in the U.S. The song was a success despite Dekker's strong Jamaican accent, which made his lyrics difficult to understand for audiences outside Jamaica. The opening line, "Get up in the morning, slaving for bread, sir" was often misheard, with one common example being, "Wake up in the morning, baked beans for breakfast".
1972 - In Cannes, France, The Rolling Stones informally celebrated the launch of their label, Rolling Stones Records. The first album they released on it was Sticky Fingers.
1974 - Queen make their US live debut at Regis College in Denver, supporting Mott the Hoople. Tickets were available for $7.50 at the campus bookstore.
Former Denver Post writer G. Brown told 9 News: “They came on stage and they started a little slow,” Brown remembered. “Denver is categorized as a dusty old cow town back then and I’m not sure everyone was ready for Freddy Mercury’s satin and black fingernail polish and the theatrical presentation. His showmanship won everyone over and by the end of the set they’d conquered Denver!”
Their trek ends early when Brian May develops hepatitis a month later.
1991 - The Temple of the Dog album is released. The one-off project is a tribute to Andrew Wood, the Mother Love Bone lead singer who died in 1990. Temple of the Dog is comprised of Soundgarden members Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron, along with Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam.
The album's strength is its mournful, elegiac ballads, but thanks to the band's spontaneous creative energy and appropriately warm sound, it's permeated by a definite, life-affirming aura. That may seem like a paradox, but consider the adage that funerals are more for the living than the dead; Temple of the Dog shows Wood's associates working through their grief and finding the strength to move on. Highlights include: Hunger Strike and Say Hello 2 Heaven
1992 - Nirvana appear on the cover of Rolling Stone with Kurt Cobain wearing a T-shirt that reads, "Corporate Magazines Still Suck."
Cobain had abruptly canceled an earlier interview, partly because of the anti-Nirvana letters that recently dominated Rolling Stone‘s Correspondence page.
“I don’t blame the average seventeen-year-old punk-rock kid for calling me a sellout,” Cobain adds. “I understand that. And maybe when they grow up a little bit, they’ll realize there’s more things to life than living out your rock & roll identity so righteously.”
All I need is a break and my stress will be over with,” says the twenty-five-year-old Cobain. “I’m going to get healthy and start over.”
1999 - Tom Waits releases Mule Variations. The album uses the ragged cacophony of Bone Machine as a starting point, and proceeds to bring in the songwriter aspects of Rain Dogs, along with its affection for backstreet and backwoods blues, plus a hint of the beatnik qualities of Swordfish.
In other words, a heck of a record. Waits is still writing terrific songs and matching them with wildly evocative productions; furthermore, it's his lightest record in years -- it's actually fun to listen to, even with a murder ballad here and a psycho blues there. Highlights include: Big In Japan, Hold On, the title track, Picture In A Frame.
Birthdays:
Composer Henry Mancini was born on this day in 1924. Mancini is best known for his iconic film scores, which include such well-known numbers as "The Pink Panther Theme," the "Peter Gunn Theme," and "Moon River."
Robert Stigwood was born today in 1934. Manager/producer Robert Stigwood leveraged his involvement with key British pop and rock stars of the '60s into a series of music-oriented movies in the '70s. At his height, his projects achieved a synergy in which recording artists he managed performed the music for and sometimes appeared in movies he produced, and the soundtracks for which were released on his own record label.
He managed and resurrected the careers of Eric Clapton and The Bee Gees. He produced the films Jesus Christ Superstar, Tommy, Saturday Night Fever, and Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band...OK, they can't all be winners.
Dusty Springfield, was born today in 1939. Britain's greatest pop diva, Dusty Springfield was also the finest soul singer of her era, a performer of remarkable emotional resonance whose body of work spans the decades and their attendant musical transformations with a consistency and purity unmatched by any of her contemporaries; though a camp icon of glamorous excess in her towering beehive hairdo and panda-eye black mascara, the sultry intimacy and heartbreaking urgency of Springfield's voice transcended image and fashion, embracing everything from lushly orchestrated pop to gritty R&B to disco with unparalleled sophistication and depth.
Gerry Rafferty — “Stuck in the Middle With You,” “Baker Street” — was born today in 1947. The song was used in Quentin Tarantino's 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs, during the famous 'ear' scene.
That his bluesy Bob Dylan-aping Stealers Wheel hit sounds so different from his late-'70s soft rock masterpiece "Baker Street" is a testament to his versatility and range. Although Rafferty's popularity had peaked by the dawn of the '80s, the reclusive and self-contained artist continued to make interesting and occasionally excellent records up until his death in 2011.
Midnight Oil lead singer Peter Garrett is 71. Australia's Midnight Oil brought a new sense of political and social immediacy to pop music: not only did incendiary hits like "Beds Are Burning" and "Blue Sky Mine" bring global attention to the plight of Australia's indigenous people and the working class, but the group also put its money where its mouth was; in addition to mounting benefit performances for groups like Greenpeace and Save the Whales, frontman Peter Garrett later became a member of the Australian House of Representatives on the Labor ticket. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)
R.I.P.:
1999 - Skip Spence died of lung cancer aged 52. Like a rough, more obscure counterpart to Syd Barrett, Skip Spence was one of the late '60s' most colorful acid casualties. The original Jefferson Airplane drummer (although he was a guitarist who had never played drums before joining the group), Spence left after their first album to join Moby Grape.
With Moby Grape, Spence had a rough time, flipping out and (according to varying accounts) running amok in a record studio with a fire axe; he ended up being committed to New York's Bellevue Hospital. Upon his release, Spence cut an acid-charred classic, Oar, in 1969.
Sadly, it was his only solo recording; more sadly, mental illness prevented Spence from reaching a fully functional state throughout the remainder of his lifetime. Seek out Oar or maybe start with, the tribute album, More Oar: A Tribute to Alexander "Skip" Spence, featuring performances by Robert Plant, Beck, and Tom Waits.
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, 9News, Music This Day, Allmusic, Song Facts and Wikipedia.
KBCO