1955, George Martin became the head of A&R for EMI’s Parlophone label.
1956, Elvis Presley was given a screen test at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, acting the role of Jimmy Curry in a scene from ‘The Rainmaker.’
1961, The Beatles began a three-month residency at The Top Ten Club, Hamburg, playing 92 straight nights. The group played for seven hours a night on weekdays and eight hours at weekends with a fifteen-minute break every hour. It was during this visit that Astrid Kirchherr cut Stuart Sutcliffe’s hair into the style destined to become known as the “Beatle haircut” which The Beatles later adopted themselves.
1965, The Who recorded an appearance for Top Of The Pops at the Manchester television studio. The band then played a gig supporting Donovan at The Town Hall, Wembley, with Rod Stewart & the Soul Agents appearing at the bottom of the bill.
1966, Pye Records released David Bowie’s first solo single, ‘Do Anything You Say’. Bowie had previously recorded as David Jones and The Lower Third.
1966, The Troggs recorded ‘Wild Thing’ at Regent Sound Studio in London. The song went on to be a No.1 US and No.2 UK hit in June the following year. The track was recorded in one complete take (take two).
1966, John Lennon bought a copy of Timothy Leary’s The Psychedelic Experience and The Tibetan Book Of The Dead, where he read near the beginning of the book’s introduction; “When in doubt, relax, turn off your mind, float downstream,” which captured Lennon’s imagination and became the first line of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, (which he recorded 5 days later).
1969, Ambrose Slade (Slade) made their live debut at Walsall Town Hall, Walsall, England.
1969, The Beach Boys announced they were suing their record label Capitol for $2m in unpaid royalties.
1970, 50 musicians recorded the orchestral scores for The Beatles tracks ‘The Long And Winding Road’ and ‘Across The Universe’ for the Phil Spector produced sessions. The bill for the 50 musicians was £1,126 and 5 shillings, ($1.914).
1970, Earls Court in London received over one million postal ticket applications for The Rolling Stones forthcoming six concerts as part of the group’s European tour.
1970, As an April Fool’s joke, John Lennon and Yoko Ono issued a statement to the press that they were having dual sex change operations.
1972, The three-day Mar Y Sol festival in Puerto Rico took place, featuring Rod Stewart, Dr John, The Allman Brothers Band, Osibisa, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Alice Cooper, The Mahavishnu Orchestra. Security was simple as the event took place on an island accessible by ticket only.
1975, The Bay City Rollers TV series ‘Shang-A- Lang’ premiered on ITV in the UK.
1976, Making their live debut in the UK, AC/DC played at The Red Cow in Hammersmith, London.
1976, The Buzzcocks played their debut live gig when the appeared at Bolton Institute Of Technology. The power was turned off after three numbers.
1976, Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour’s house was broken into with thieves taking guitars valued at over £7,000.
1984, Marvin Gaye was shot dead by his father at his parent’s home in Los Angeles, California. The argument started after his parents squabbled over misplaced business documents, Gaye attempted to intervene, and was killed by his father using a gun he had given him four months before. Marvin Sr. was sentenced to six years of probation after pleading guilty to manslaughter. Charges of first-degree murder were dropped after doctors discovered Marvin Sr. had a brain tumour.
1985, Tom Bailey singer with The Thompson Twins collapsed from exhaustion while staying at The Holiday Inn, Chelsea. He was flown to Paris to see his private doctor.
1985, David Lee Roth quit Van Halen shortly after releasing his version of The Beach Boys ‘California Girls’, (which featured Carl Wilson on background vocals). He was replaced by Sammy Hagar later in the year.
1989, Madonna scored her third UK No.1 album with ‘Like A Prayer.’ Also a US No.1 the album spent 70 weeks on the UK chart.
1989, The Bangles went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Eternal Flame’, also a No.1 in the UK and the biggest selling single of 1989 in Australia.
1990, Country singer Willie Nelson’s tour bus crashed into a car in Riverdale, Canada, killing the car driver.
1995, The Outhere Brothers were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle). The duo from Chicago had four other Top 20 hits this year.
2000, Santana started a nine week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with, ‘Maria Maria.’
2001, It was reported that Spice Girl Mel B had been advised to sell her £3.5m Buckinghamshire mansion because she couldn’t afford to run it. The singer told friends she had to take out a £500.000 bank loan.
2004, Paul Atkinson guitarist with The Zombies died aged 58 due to liver and kidney disease. They scored the 1964 US No.2 & UK No.12 single
‘She’s Not There’. He later became an artists and repertoire executive, working for Columbia and RCA discovering and signing such bands as ABBA, Bruce Hornsby, Mr. Mister, Judas Priest, and Michael Penn.
2005, During the first leg of their Vertigo World tour, U2 appeared at the Arrowhead Sports Arena in Anaheim, Southern California, with Kings Of Leon as the opening act. By the end of the 131 date tour, 4,619,021 tickets had been sold with a total gross of $389 million.
2007, American indie rock band Modest Mouse were at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.’ The album featured former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr who joined the band in May 2006.
2007, Alanis Morissette released a tongue-in-cheek cover of The Black Eyed Peas’s ‘My Humps’, which she recorded in a slow, mournful voice, accompanied only by a piano. The accompanying YouTube video, in which she danced provocatively with a group of men received over 15m views.
2013, A signed copy of The Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band sold at Dallas-based Heritage Auctions for $290,500. The selling price far exceeded the $30,000 originally estimated for the rare LP record. The UK Parlophone copy of the album included a high gloss cover and vinyl gatefold sleeve.
2014, Recordings by U2, (The Joshua Tree), the Everly Brothers, (‘Cathy’s Clown’), Jeff Buckley, (‘Hallelujah’), Linda Ronstadt, (Heart Like a Wheel) and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s(‘Fortunate Son’) were among those newly selected for induction into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.
2015, Cynthia Lennon, first wife of The Beatles’ John Lennon died at her home in Spain following a short battle with cancer. At the height of The Beatles’ early success she was, at the insistence of the band’s management, kept in the background so their legions of female fans were not aware of her existence. The couple divorced in 1968 after Cynthia discovered her husband’s affair with Yoko Ono.
(This Day in Music)
