Calendar Search Results: this is it
October 22, 1976 Bob Seger releases Night Moves, his first studio album to make an impact outside of Michigan.More
August 29, 1976 The British music magazine Sounds publishes letters responding to Eric Clapton's racist rant at his Birmingham concert earlier in the month. "Own up, half your music is black," one of them states. "You are rock music's biggest colonist."
This particular missive includes a call to action with an address to join Rock Against Racism, "A rank and file movement against the racist poison in rock music." Rock Against Racism soon becomes a viable movement, holding a series of concerts and festivals in support of tolerance.More
August 11, 1976 Keith Moon trashes a hotel room - no surprise there. But this time The Who drummer is hospitalized after beating up his room at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami.More
April 30, 1976 Human rock stereotype Keith Moon of The Who adds to his legend when he pays nine New York City cab drivers $100 each to block both ends of a street so he can throw furniture out of his room at the Hotel Navarro. Details of this story may have been exaggerated or embellished, but it is consistent with his behavior.
April 12, 1976 Bob Seger, beloved in Michigan but an obscurity elsewhere, releases Live Bullet, which captures the intensity of his live performances and makes him a national act.More
January 6, 1976 Peter Frampton's live double album, Frampton Comes Alive!, is released. Powered by his trusty talkbox sound, it becomes one of the best-selling live albums in history.More
October 27, 1975 Bruce Springsteen appears on the covers of both Time and Newsweek amid acclaim for his third album, Born To Run.More
October 11, 1975 Saturday Night - a title later changed to Saturday Night Live - makes its debut on NBC. Music is a big part of the show, and the first episode features two musical guests performing two songs each: Janis Ian doing "At Seventeen" and "In the Winter," and Billy Preston playing "Nothing from Nothing" and "Fancy Lady."More
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
February 16, 1974 Planet Waves becomes the first Bob Dylan album to reach #1 in the US.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
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 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
December 3, 1971 "This Is How We Do It" singer Montell Jordan is born in Los Angeles, California.
June 14, 1971 Emerson, Lake & Palmer release their second album, Tarkus. The creature on the cover is a weaponized armadillo.More
May 22, 1971 The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers album, with a working zipper on the cover, hits #1 in the US.More
February 28, 1971 Johnny Cash is pleasantly surprised when the taping of his variety show is revealed to be an episode of This Is Your Life, with friends and family paying tribute.
December 21, 1970 Music and politics collide when Elvis Presley meets President Richard Nixon at the White House. A famous photo of the two shaking hands horrifies many Elvis fans.More
September 18, 1970 Jimi Hendrix is found dead in his basement. He had taken nine pills of the barbiturate Vesparax, that along with alcohol, caused a fatal overdose.More
August 26, 1970 The five-day Isle of Wight festival kicks off in England, boasting a very impressive lineup, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Donovan, Jethro Tull, Miles Davis, Emerson, Lake And Palmer, The Doors, The Who, Spirit, The Moody Blues, Chicago, Procol Harum, Sly and the Family Stone, Free, and in his last concert appearance in England, Jimi Hendrix.More
July 27, 1970 A free concert in Chicago becomes a riot when fans pelt the stage with rocks and bottles before Sly & the Family Stone can go on. The band titles their next album There's a Riot Goin' On.More
June 3, 1970 With the BBC refusing to air The Kinks' new single "Lola" because of its reference to "Coca-Cola" (brand names being a no-no for the corporation), lead singer Ray Davies flies all the way from London to New York to re-record the line as "Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like cherry-cola."More
May 4, 1970 Later memorialized in the Neil Young song "Ohio," the Ohio National Guard fires on protesters at Kent State University, killing four students, two of whom weren't even protesting. This shameful event in American history leads to the formation of Devo, as Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale are both on campus and horrified by the events.More
April 17, 1970 Paul McCartney releases his first solo album, McCartney. Unlike the grand Beatles' productions, this one is stripped-down, with Paul playing all the instruments himself.
April 10, 1970 In publicity materials released to promote his first solo album, McCartney, Paul McCartney indicates that he's done with The Beatles. Paul's comments in the press release are considered official confirmation that the band has broken up.More
December 6, 1969 The Rolling Stones headline the Altamont concert at a speedway in California. It's a free event with Jefferson Airplane and Santana also on the bill, but it turns violent when the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, who are hired as security, kill a crowd member. The concert is documented in The Stones movie Gimme Shelter.More
November 10, 1969 Sesame Street debuts on American public television. Many of the lessons are taught with songs, and in later seasons, musicians drop by to help out: Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Ray Charles, Dixie Chicks and Alicia Keys are among the many to appear on the show. The two big names that turn down offers: Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand.More
November 7, 1969 After Life magazine tracks down Paul McCartney at his farm in Scotland, they put him on the cover with his family, dispelling the "Paul is dead" rumors with the headline, "Paul Is Still With Us."More
October 18, 1969 Promoter Richard Nader puts on the first "Rock and Roll Revival" concerts, with performances by Chuck Berry, The Coasters, The Shirelles, Sha Na Na and Bill Haley. Held at Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum, the two shows sell out, leading to a series of similar concerts and the emergence of the "oldies" format.More
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