December 20, 1973 Bobby Darin dies at age 37 after surgery to repair his ailing heart.More
December 7, 1973 Fleetwood Mac's manager, Clifford Davis, gets fed up with the premature cancellation of a tour and sends out his own version of the group with unknown musicians. It doesn't go well: The new band lasts just a few weeks and the real band wins the rights to their name after years of litigation.
November 16, 1973 David Bowie is the host of a special edition of the NBC show Midnight Special. His show is called 1980 Floor Show, and features Bowie doing a duet of "I Got You Babe" with Marianne Faithfull, who wears a nun's habit with an open back.
November 16, 1973 Bob Dylan releases his 13th studio album, Dylan. It features various covers and studio outtakes, including versions of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" and Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles."
September 20, 1973 Jim Croce is killed in a plane crash in Natchitoches, Louisiana, at age 30. More
August 13, 1973 Lynyrd Skynyrd release their debut album, Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd. It's an impressive set, containing the Skynyrd classics "Tuesday's Gone," "Simple Man" and "Free Bird."More
August 11, 1973 At a dance party in the Bronx, DJ Kool Herc plays a set with lots of instrumental breaks that his friend MCs over, marking what many consider the beginning of hip-hop.More
August 11, 1973 The first big oldies revival kicks off in earnest as George Lucas' new film, American Graffiti, opens in theaters. Set in 1962, the film creates a wave of nostalgia for songs from the '50s and early '60s.More
July 28, 1973 The "Summer Jam" concert takes place at Watkins Glen racetrack in New York, outdrawing Woodstock with a crowd of over 600,000. The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band, and The Band play to the massive crowd that paid $10 a ticket - if they bought one.More
July 27, 1973 Thousands of people hit Watkins Glen, New York, for the "Summer Jam" one day before the music festival is scheduled to begin. The crowd is already so large and so raucous that The Band turn their sound-check into a mini-set. The Allman Brothers Band follows in similar character by rocking through "One Way Out" and "Ramblin' Man." The Grateful Dead come next with a two-set explosion. This impromptu jam tires them not at all, and the next day they still scramble psyches with two long sets.
July 15, 1973 At a festival concert in White City, London, a visibly distraught Ray Davies, newly separated from his wife, announces on stage that he's retiring from show business, leaves the concert, and checks into a local hospital for exhaustion. (A week later, he will return to the band.)
June 4, 1973 Jimmy Buffett releases A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, his first Key West-themed album with producer Don Gant. It features the country-music parody "Why Don't We Get Drunk."
May 23, 1973 Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, starring James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson, debuts in theaters. In addition to scoring and writing songs for the film, Bob Dylan makes his acting debut as a knife-wielding stranger named Alias. His acting is derided, but he lands a hit with "Knockin' On Heaven's Door."
May 19, 1973 Stevie Wonder hits #1 in America with "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life," a song inspired by his wife (and sometimes co-writer) Syreeta Wright.
May 13, 1973 The movie That'll Be The Day, starring David Essex, Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, Billy Fury and John Hawken of The Nashville Teens opens in the UK.More
April 16, 1973 Paul McCartney's first television special, James Paul McCartney, airs on ABC, featuring a few Beatles songs, new Wings tracks, sketches, and a final performance of a song called "Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance," originally written for Twiggy.
April 13, 1973 The Wailers, led by Bob Marley, release their fifth studio album, Catch a Fire. The first album on their new label, Island Records, it makes Marley and the Wailers international recording stars and brings reggae music to the forefront.More
April 12, 1973 In one of the show's most memorable moments, Stevie Wonder plays a funky, 7-minute live version of "Superstition" on Sesame Street.More
April 5, 1973 Singer/superproducer Pharrell Williams is born in Virginia Beach, Virginia. As half of the hip-hop production duo The Neptunes, he's a prime architect of the popular music landscape of the 2000s.
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March 17, 1973 The sci-fi musical Lost Horizon, scored by Burt Bacharach, bombs at the box office. The failure precipitates Bacharach's split from longtime songwriting partner Hal David and Dionne Warwick, who had performed their songs for more than a decade.More
March 8, 1973 Grateful Dead keyboard player Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, a founding member of the band, dies at age 27.More
February 8, 1973 The Jamaican cult classic film The Harder They Come is released in the US.More
January 14, 1973 Elvis Presley's "Aloha From Hawaii" special is the first concert featuring just one performer to be broadcast live via satellite. Australia, Japan and other nearby countries see it live, while most other territories watch it later on tape delay. The concert is released as a double album later in the year.
January 13, 1973 Carly Simon's album No Secrets, featuring the hit single "You're So Vain," hits #1 in America.
January 5, 1973 With a boulder on his shoulder, feelin' kinda older, 23-year-old Bruce Springsteen releases his first album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.More
December 31, 1972 Dick Clark begins a new holiday tradition as his first New Year's Rockin' Eve concert is broadcast on NBC; guests include Three Dog Night and Al Green.More
November 15, 1972 Harry Chapin's son Josh is born, which gives him a new appreciation for the poem his wife Sandy wrote (about her ex-husband) called "Cat's In The Cradle." Harry puts music to the poem and it becomes his biggest hit.
October 17, 1972 Eminem is born Marshall Bruce Mathers III in St. Joseph, Missouri. He eventually settles in Warren, Michigan.More
August 20, 1972 Stax Records commemorates the seventh anniversary of the 1965 Watts riots with a star-studded benefit concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. More than 100,000 fans show up to hear Isaac Hayes, The Bar-Kays, The Staple Singers, and Kim Weston, among others, perform at what becomes known as Wattstax.More
July 6, 1972 David Bowie performs "Starman" on Top Of The Pops, causing an uproar among the conservative British audience by singing with his arm coquettishly draped around the shoulder of guitarist Mick Ronson – a move that makes him as a household name overnight.More
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