December 15, 1974 Young Frankenstein opens in theaters. When members of Aerosmith take a break from recording the Toys in the Attic album and see the film, they laugh hysterically at the scene where Igor (Marty Feldman) tells Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) to "walk this way," and the doctor imitates Igor's walk. Returning to the studio, they have the title to the track they've been working on.More
December 10, 1974 The Rankin/Bass animated holiday special The Year Without A Santa Claus airs on ABC.More
December 2, 1974 Ravi Shankar is hospitalized after suffering chest pains while touring with George Harrison.
November 21, 1974 Marty Balin, who founded Jefferson Airplane in 1965 but left in a welter of conflict with Grace Slick and Paul Kantner, reunites with the band, now known as Jefferson Starship, at a show at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. At first he claims to be a "hired gun," but he gradually comes back to the band full time, delivering their hit "Miracles" on their next album, Red Octopus.
November 9, 1974 Carole King's album Wrap Around Joy, featuring the hit "Jazzman," goes to #1 in America.
November 8, 1974 Connie Francis, who was one of the biggest stars of the '60s, is attacked in her Howard Johnson's hotel room and raped at knifepoint. Devastated by the attack, she doesn't perform for another seven years. Two years later, she is awarded more than $2 million in her lawsuit against the hotel chain.
October 30, 1974 At the "Rumble In The Jungle" in Zaire, Africa, boxer Muhammad Ali knocks out George Foreman (unbeaten in 40 fights) in the eighth round in a stunning victory that earns him the heavyweight title he was stripped of for refusing induction into the US Army in 1967. The fight is recounted in the 1975 hit "Black Superman" by Johnny Wakelin & the Kinshasa Band.More
October 25, 1974 The Pointer Sisters become the first Black female group to play the Grand Ole Opry. They earn their invite from their song "Fairytale," which goes on to win a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance By A Duo Or Group.
October 18, 1974 Al Green's "Grits Incident": When a stewardess friend of Green's shows up to meet the singer, he ends up at his Memphis home with her and his companion, Mary Woodson, who is dangerously obsessed with the singer. When Green goes into the bathroom to brush his teeth, Woodson bursts in and pours a pot of boiling grits on him, burning him badly before going in the next room and killing herself with his gun. Green takes these disturbing events as a sign from God and focuses his career on gospel music and preaching.More
October 15, 1974 Tom Waits releases his second album, The Heart of Saturday Night. Written as a tribute to Beat novelist Jack Kerouac, its songs celebrate blue collar (and no collar) life lived "cruising the strip" and exploring pool halls, nightclubs, and all-night restaurants. It fails to capture Waits mainstream radio success, but moves him closer to the cult-hero status that will shape his career.
October 14, 1974 Nashville veterans worry about the sanctity of country music when Olivia Newton-John wins Female Vocalist of the Year at the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards.More
October 6, 1974 While promoting their Nightbirds album, featuring the hit "Lady Marmalade," R&B trio Labelle becomes the first Black vocal group to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
September 24, 1974 James Brown plays to 80,000 in Zaire, closing out a festival timed to coincide with the Ali-Foreman "Rumble In The Jungle," which has been postponed.
September 22, 1974 The Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman boxing match (the "Rumble In The Jungle") in Zaire is postponed, but a concert festival promoting the event goes on anyway, with Bill Withers, The Spinners and Celia Cruz performing along with the African artist Tabu Ley Rochereau.More
August 24, 1974 Paul Anka's "(You're) Having My Baby" hits #1 for the first of three weeks despite condemnation from feminist groups.More
August 10, 1974 Roberta Flack's "Feel Like Makin' Love" hits #1 in America, becoming the first song produced solo by a woman to top the chart. Flack produced it herself under the name Rubina Flake.
June 8, 1974 Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" goes to #1 on the Country chart. Nearly two decades later, Whitney Houston's R&B version tops the Hot 100 and becomes one of the best-selling singles of all time.More
May 4, 1974 The Sting soundtrack, featuring Marvin Hamlisch's adaptations of Scott Joplin's ragtime piano tunes, hits #1 in America, where it stays for five weeks.
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April 25, 1974 "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" is released as the first single from Steely Dan's third album, Pretzel Logic. The song becomes the band's highest-charting US single, reaching #3 on August 3, 1974. Featured on backing vocals on the track is Poco bassist Timothy B. Schmit, who later joins the Eagles.
April 20, 1974 The Soul Train theme song ("TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)" by MFSB featuring The Three Degrees) hits #1 in America. MFSB, which stands for Mother Father Sister Brother, is a studio group established by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff at Philadelphia International Records.
April 14, 1974 On Easter Sunday, the concert documentary Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones, premieres at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York. It's the first of its kind with quadraphonic sound, requiring a special system. It's a grand event, but Mick Jagger declares the film "boring."
April 6, 1974 Blue Swede's "Hooked On A Feeling" hits #1.
April 6, 1974 ABBA become European stars overnight when their composition "Waterloo" wins the annual Eurovision Song Contest.More
March 19, 1974 Jefferson Airplane re-form with most of their original members and kick off their tour at Auditorium Theatre in Chicago as Jefferson Starship. They drop the "Jefferson" in 1984 and become simply "Starship."
February 20, 1974 Cher files for divorce from Sonny. The famous pair had been putting on a happy front for the public for the past two years until Sonny finally filed for a separation, citing "irreconcilable differences." A week later, Cher files for divorce, claiming "involuntary servitude" due to Sonny allegedly withholding her earnings.
February 16, 1974 Planet Waves becomes the first Bob Dylan album to reach #1 in the US.More
February 9, 1974 At The Palace in Detroit, The Stooges play their last show until their 2003 reunion. An imploding Iggy Pop taunts the crowd, which responds with various projectiles. The opening act is a young band called Aerosmith.More
February 4, 1974 The Stooges play a bar in Wayne, Michigan, where a biker gang called The Scorpions is initiating a new member by having him hurl eggs at lead singer Iggy Pop, who responds by going into the crowd to fight him.More
February 2, 1974 Barbra Streisand scores her first #1 when "The Way We Were" hits the top spot.More
December 25, 1973 The Sting, a crime caper starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford as con men in 1930s Chicago, debuts in theaters. With Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" as its theme, the film's soundtrack goes to #1 and revives the ragtime genre.More
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