Pick a Day

Music History Events: Recordings

March 9, 1986 Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith go to Magic Ventures Studios in New York, where they record parts of their song "Walk This Way" so Run-D.M.C. can transform it into a hip-hop jam. Neither act is thrilled about the collaboration (Run-D.M.C.'s producer Rick Rubin spearheaded the effort), but the resulting track is a huge hit, revitalizing Aerosmith's career and delivering a new (mostly white) audience to the rappers.

August 1, 1985 Tom Waits releases Rain Dogs, widely considered one of his most important and innovative works. Synthesizers and samples - very common in the 1980s - are deliberately absent as Waits develops the unique approach he began on Swordfishtrombones.

March 1, 1984 Two days after losing to Michael Jackson at the Grammy Awards, Prince records "When Doves Cry," programming the drums and playing every instrument himself (including the bass, which he decides to take out).

September 1, 1983 Encouraged by his wife, Kathleen Brennan, Tom Waits releases Swordfishtrombones, the first album the songwriter produced himself. The album represents a significant break from mainstream norms, both musically and lyrically.

March 25, 1983 The Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever special is recorded at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium; it is broadcast on NBC in May. Highlights of the show include Michael Jackson's Moonwalk and a The Supremes reunion. A lowlight is no mention of the label's house band, The Funk Brothers. Bass player James Jamerson, who played on many of the hits performed this evening, has to buy his own ticket. He dies a few months later.

August 11, 1976 With the help of some weed and tequila, Neil Young records an album's worth of songs in a single evening at Indigo Ranch Recording Studio in Malibu, California. Featuring "Pocahontas" and "Powderfinger," the album is buried by record executives until September 8, 2017, when it's released under the title of Hitchhiker.

November 10, 1975 Queen shoot the video for "Bohemian Rhapsody," which according to director Bruce Gowers, takes about four hours. It airs repeatedly on the British show Top Of The Pops and helps the song become one of the most popular in UK history.

October 15, 1973 Neil Young releases the live album Time Fades Away.

August 26, 1973 Neil Young and the Santa Monica Flyers record "Mellow My Mind," "Speakin' Out," "World on a String," "Tired Eyes," and "Tonight's the Night." All five recordings are included on the final cut of Tonight's the Night.

August 25, 1973 Todd Rundgren puts on a free concert at Wollman Rink in Central Park, where he records the song "Sons Of 1984" for his upcoming album, Todd. The audience is given lyric sheets so they can sing along in the chorus.

March 28, 1973 Neil Young performs "Don't Be Denied" at the Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona. A few months later a recording of the performance appears on Time Fades Away.

March 1, 1973 Neil Young performs "L.A." at the Myriad in Okalhoma City. A few months later a recording of the performance is included on Time Fades Away.

June 17, 1972 The Spinners, recently signed to Atlantic after a decade on Motown, record at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia for the first time with producer Thom Bell. The session is very productive, yielding "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love," "I'll Be Around," and "How Could I Let You Get Away."

December 6, 1971 Deep Purple record the track to "Smoke On The Water" at a Montreux nightclub called the Pavilion, where they've been relocated after the Montreux Casino, where they planned to record, burned down. They get kicked out the next day because of noise complaints and complete the Machine Head album at their hotel, using the Rolling Stones' mobile unit to record.

January 30, 1971 Neil Young performs "The Needle and the Damage Done" at UCLA's Royce Hall. The song is recorded and released on the Harvest album a year later.

November 17, 1970 Elton John plays live in a recording studio, accompanied by just two musicians: Dee Murray on bass and Nigel Olsson on drums. Broadcast on WABC-FM (which would later become WPLJ), it's the first live FM broadcast from a music studio. The recording is later released as 17-11-70, Elton's first live album.

September 10, 1970 B.B. King plays for inmates at Cook County Jail in Chicago. The show is released the following year as the album Live at Cook County Jail.

May 21, 1970 At the Record Plant in Los Angeles, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young record "Ohio," a song Neil Young wrote about the Kent State Shootings from two weeks earlier.

April 25, 1970 After a show in Nashville, James Brown takes his band directly to a nearby studio and records "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine." It's the first recording with his new band, which he hired in March when his previous group complained about how they were treated. The bass player is 18-year-old Bootsy Collins, who later joins the P-Funk family.

March 7, 1970 Neil Young and Crazy Horse record "Come on Baby Let's Go Downtown" at the Fillmore East in New York City. Featuring Horse guitarist Danny Whitten on vocals, the song is later included on Tonight's the Night, the album inspired by his death.

December 2, 1969 On the way to their fateful Altamont concert of December 6, The Rolling Stones stop at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama, where they spend three days recording the songs "Wild Horses," "You Gotta Move" and "Brown Sugar."

August 11, 1969 Deep Purple record "Speed King" in Studio 2 at the Aeolin Hall. It is aired six days later on Symonds On Sunday.

January 18, 1969 Neil Young records "Cowgirl in the Sand."

January 14, 1969 Deep Purple record "Hey Bop A Re Bop" at the BBC; this alternative version of "The Painter" is not released until 2000 on the Remastered The Book Of Taliesyn.

November 10, 1968 Neil Young performs "Sugar Mountain" at the Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The recording of the song is used as the B-side for "The Loner" and is later included on the Decade compilation.

October 4, 1966 The Vince Guaraldi Trio record music for the Halloween special It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown at Desilu's Gower Street Studio in Hollywood. The session includes a new arrangement of the theme "Linus and Lucy," with distinctive flute touches by Ronald Lang.

December 15, 1965 At a demo session for Elektra Records, Neil Young records "Sugar Mountain" for the first time. This version later appears on The Archives Vol. 1 1963–1972.

February 1, 1965 James Brown records "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" at the Arthur Smith Studios in Charlotte, North Carolina. It's Brown's first recording to feature Jimmy Nolen on guitar, who becomes known for his distinctive "chicken scratch" lead guitar playing.

January 15, 1965 Bob Dylan records "Maggie's Farm" in Studio A at Columbia Recording Studios.

January 13, 1965 Bob Dylan records "Farewell, Angelina," a landmark song in the evolution of his surrealist songwriting process. The recording, however, doesn't see the light of day until it's released on The Bootleg Series Volume 1-3: Rare & Unreleased over 25 years later.