1960, Elvis Presley won his first Gold record for his second studio album ‘Elvis’. It spent four weeks at No.1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, making Presley the first recording artist to have both albums go straight to No.1 in the same year.
1966, Nancy Sinatra was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’, Frank’s eldest daughters first No.1. Written by Lee Hazlewood Sinatra’s recording of the song was made with the help of Los Angeles session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew.
1967, The Beatles started recording a new John Lennon song ‘Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite’. at Abbey Road studios, London. John’s lyrics for the song came almost entirely from an antique poster advertising a circus performance scheduled to take place in Rochdale, Lancashire, in February 1843. John had purchased the poster in Sevenoaks on January 31 while The Beatles were on location for the filming of the ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ promotional film.
1969, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash recorded ‘Girl From The North Country’ together in Nashville at CBS Studios. The track appeared on Dylan’s ‘Nashville Skyline’ album.
1970, Joni Mitchell announced she was retiring from live performances during a concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Joni was on stage again by the end of the year.
1971, James Taylor made his TV debut on The Johnny Cash Show. Other guests included Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt and Tony Joe White.
1975, AC/DC released their debut album ‘High Voltage’. The album featured a cover of ‘Baby, Please Don’t Go’ a blues song first recorded by Big Joe Williams and ‘She’s Got Balls’ which was written about singer Bon Scott’s ex-wife Irene – the first AC/DC song for which he wrote lyrics.
1978, Kate Bush released her debut studio album The Kick Inside which contained her UK number one hit, ‘Wuthering Heights’, (marking the first time a female singer-songwriter topped the charts with a self-penned song). Bush was just 19 years old and had written some of the songs when she was only 13.
1979, Blondie scored their first UK No.1 album when ‘Parallel Lines’ started a four-week run at the top of the charts, featuring the singles ‘Heart Of Glass’, ‘Hanging On The Telephone’ and ‘Sunday Girl.’
1979, The Clash opened the US leg of their ‘Pearl Harbour ’79’, North American tour at New York’s Palladium.
1989, David Coverdale married actress Tawny Kitaen (known for her provocative appearances in Whitesnake’s music videos ‘Here I Go Again, ‘Is This Love’ and ‘Still of the Night’). The couple divorced in 1991.
1996, A Platinum American Express card once belonging to Bruce Springsteen was sold for $4,500 at a New York memorabilia sale. The singer had given the expired card to a waiter in a LA restaurant by mistake and let them keep it as a souvenir.
2000, John Lennon’s Steinway piano, on which he composed ‘Imagine’, went on display at the Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool, England. The piano was set to be auctioned on the Internet later in the year and was expected to fetch more than £1 million ($1.7 million).
2003, The man behind the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC was being investigated over complaints that aspiring stars paid $1,500 to feature on his website. Lou Pearlman was accused by Florida authorities of getting young actors and models to pay upfront to appear on his Trans Continental company’s website by saying he would also help them to find work.
2004, Prosecutors in the murder case of producer Phil Spector demanded that a fingernail overlooked by police investigating Lana Clarkson’s shooting should be put forward as evidence. They claimed the fingernail, blackened with gunpowder, could indicate that the 40-year old actress killed herself at Spector’s Los Angeles mansion. Spector, had denied murdering Clarkson.
2005, A 1965 Fender Stratocaster guitar belonging to Jimi Hendrix sold for £100,000 at an auction in London. Other Hendrix items sold included a poem written two weeks after his appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival which went for £10,000 and the first Jimi Hendrix Experience’s single ‘Hey Joe’, signed by all the band sold for £2,000.
2005, Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand made music history after taking two top prizes at the NME Awards. The band, who won best album and best single, became the first act ever to win the Mercury Music Prize, Brit Awards and NME awards in the same year.
2008, British soul singer Duffy started a five week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Mercy’, from the Welsh singers debut album ‘Rockferry’. ‘Mercy’ was the UK’S best selling single of 2008, and won Duffy a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
2014, American musician and sound engineer Bob Casale, best known as a guitarist and keyboardist in the new wave band Devo died of heart failure in Los Angeles, California. He engineered the first solo album for Police guitarist, Andy Summers.
(This Day in Music)
