26 MAY
Featured Events
2006 The right-leaning National Review reveals their list of the 50 greatest conservative rock songs. At the top is "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who, which is praised for its revolutionary spirit. Next on the list is "Taxman" by The Beatles and "Sympathy For The Devil" by The Rolling Stones.
1999 Backstreet Boys' album Millennium sells 1.13 million units in its first week, establishing a new SoundScan-era record for sales in a single week.
1996 Firemen arrive at the burning home of Eric Clapton to find the guitarist running in and out of the home to save his guitar collection. The house is gutted, with about three million dollars in damage.
1994 Michael Jackson marries Lisa Marie Presley, the child of Elvis, in a secret ceremony held in the Dominican Republic. The couple divorce 20 months later, citing irreconcilable differences.More
1977 Rock sensations and serial marketers Kiss provide Marvel Comics with a vial of their blood to be mixed with the red ink used to print their upcoming comic book. The photo op takes place at the printing plant in Depew, New York, where the comic will be made.
1974 An overenthusiastic crowd at a David Cassidy concert in London rushes the stage, injuring a thousand screaming fans and crushing 14-year-old Bernadette Whelan, who dies from her injuries four days later. A distraught Cassidy refuses to tour for the next 11 years.
1972 Mott The Hoople, on the verge of breaking up, are offered help from David Bowie, who allows them to record two songs he wrote. They pass on "Suffragette City" but cut "All The Young Dudes," which becomes their biggest hit and revives their career.
1964 Lenny Kravitz is born in Manhattan, New York, to The Jeffersons actress Roxie Roker and TV executive Sy Kravitz. He releases his debut album, Let Love Rule, in 1989.More
26 MAY
In Music History
2022 Pink, who wrote and performed the theme song to The Ellen DeGeneres Show ("Today's The Day"), appears on the last episode, where she sings "What About Us" at Ellen's request.
2022 Alan White, the drummer for Yes since 1972, dies at 72.
2022 Andy Fletcher, a founding member of Depeche Mode, dies at 60. He played keyboards in the band and also served at times as peacemaker and business manager.
2017 Chris Cornell is laid to rest at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles next to Johnny Ramone. Mourners at the funeral service include Dave Navarro, Tom Morello, Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Courtney Love and his Soundgarden bandmates Matt Cameron and Kim Thayil. Cornell hanged himself on May 18.More
2016 Gucci Mane gets out of jail after serving three years on gun charges. He goes home and records vocals for "1st Day Out tha Feds," which is released the next day.
2012 Ian Astbury, frontman of The Cult, marries the musician Aimee Nash in Las Vegas.
2008 Yale University awards Paul McCartney an honorary Doctorate of Music.
2007 Def Jam Records gives away 10,000 umbrellas to promote Rihanna's single "Umbrella." Totes later teams with the singer to launch a Rihanna line of umbrellas.
2006 Gwen Stefani of No Doubt and her husband, Gavin Rossdale of Bush, have their first child: a son named Kingston James McGregor.
2004 Days after touching down in the Democratic Republic of Congo in order to film a documentary on the war-torn country, Sum 41 are forced to evacuate from their hotel in Bukavu after serious fighting erupts. They are rescued by UN peacekeeper Chuck Pelletier. Sum 41 would go on to name their third studio album Chuck in honor of Pelletier.
2004 Fantasia Barrino wins season 3 of American Idol, becoming the first Black woman to win the competition. She later reveals that she was functionally illiterate at this time, having dropped out of high school in ninth grade.
1999 British punk band Manic Street Preachers refuse to play a concert to mark the opening of Wales' parliament because Queen Elizabeth II is present.
1997 Bob Dylan's summer tour is canceled after he is hospitalized with chest pains.
1994 Alanis Morissette and her producer Glen Ballard write "Ironic" for her forthcoming breakthrough album Jagged Little Pill.
1993 At the Ivor Novello Awards, when the duo Shakespears Sister win an award for their album Hormonally Yours, Siobhan Fahey's publicist reads a statement letting her bandmate Marcella Detroit (and the rest of the audience) know they're breaking up. "I wish Marcy all the best for the future," it reads. "All's well that end's well."
The Beatles Release Sgt. Pepper
1967The Beatles release their landmark album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in the UK.
The album is as famous for its cover as its music. Following the concept of the first two songs, where The Beatles take the form of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Ringo sings "With A Little Help From My Friends" as "Billy Shears," the striking collage shows the costumed group surrounded by likenesses of 58 different people, including Bob Dylan, Karl Marx and Marlon Brando. It comes courtesy of the husband-and-wife design team of Jann Haworth and Peter Blake. The idea is to surround the "band" with people they admire. It's done like a typical group photo arranged on bleachers or risers where only the heads are visible above the first row, but mainly with two-dimensional cutouts, giving it an unusual look that is deliberately fake. The Beatles were asked to choose the people; they came up with a list containing no women and no American blues artists - a source of much of their musical inspiration. Haworth and Blake add many of their own selections (including some women, Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich among them) and remove some of the more controversial selections, notably Jesus Christ and Hitler. Had it come with a plain white cover (something The Beatles do a year later), Sgt. Pepper would certainly be a triumph, with enduring tracks like "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," "When I'm 64" and "A Day In The Life," but the cover adds another dimension of brilliance - and mystery. Are those marijuana plants in the garden? Is Issy Bonn flashing the Hindu sign of death? Are the flowers shaped like a bass guitar a clue that Paul is dead? Plenty to ponder while listening in front of the turntable. One person shows up three times: Shirley Temple, a child actress who adds a touch of kitsch. Sgt. Pepper sells around 30 million copies and is often near or at the top of lists of the greatest albums in history. The release date is often incorrectly listed as June 1, which was when it was planned, but that date was bumped up on short notice to May 26. In the US, it was released on June 2.
Categories
©2024 Songfacts®, LLC
Comments
send your comment