January 19, 1971 The Beatles' "Helter Skelter" is played at Charles Manson's murder trial as evidence. Manson claimed the song was about an impending race war, and led to murderous acts.
January 19, 1971 Alan Passaro, a member of the Hells Angels biker gang who stabbed 18-year-old Meredith Hunter to death during a concert by The Rolling Stones at their Altamont Speedway concert in Livermore, California on December 6, 1969, is acquitted of murder after 17 days of testimony in which the jury sees footage of the documentary Gimme Shelter that shows the stabbing. The Hells Angels were hired as security at the concert, and when Hunter brandished a gun, Passaro killed him. The Stones kept playing, unaware that a fan had been killed.
January 18, 1971 The McCann-Erickson advertising agency takes a meeting with British songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway to record a Coca-Cola commercial with the group the New Seekers, which becomes "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing."More
January 18, 1971 Korn frontman Jonathan Davis is born in Bakersfield, California. With a talent for bagpipes and beatboxing, he brings a unique sound to the band. Many of their songs deal with his childhood traumas in a rather visceral way, including "Mr. Rogers" and "Daddy."
January 17, 1971 Halftime entertainment at Super Bowl V in Miami comes courtesy of the Southeast Missouri State Marching Band. Marvin Gaye does the national anthem.
January 12, 1971 Janis Joplin's album Pearl is released, three months after her death from a heroin overdose. It goes to #1 and yields her only chart-topping single, "Me And Bobby McGee."
January 2, 1971 George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, his first album released after the breakup of The Beatles, begins a seven-week run at the top of the US albums chart.More
December 31, 1970 Paul McCartney sues to dissolve The Beatles partnership and breaks ties with Allen Klein, whom the other three members have chosen to manage their affairs. The case drags on for years until the partnership is finally dissolved in a 1975 private agreement.
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
December 21, 1970 Traffic's John Barleycorn Must Die, Judy Collins' In My Life, and the original British cast recording of Jesus Christ Superstar are all certified gold.
December 18, 1970 Segregationist Georgia governor Lester Maddox walks off The Dick Cavett Show when the host implies his supporters are bigots. Randy Newman writes a song about it, "Rednecks," which begins: Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show
November 27, 1970 George Harrison releases All Things Must Pass, his first solo album since the breakup of The Beatles. The first single, "My Sweet Lord," becomes the first ex-Beatle solo #1 in the UK and also in the US.
November 24, 1970 Guitarist Chad Taylor of Live is born in Baltimore, Maryland. By age 13, he moves to York, Pennsylvania, where he meets his future bandmates in middle school.
November 23, 1970 Cat Stevens releases his fourth album, Tea For The Tillerman. It's his breakthrough in the US, where "Wild World" becomes his first hit.
November 16, 1970 Stephen Stills releases his first (self-titled) solo album, with the hit "Love The One You're With."
November 10, 1970 Warren G, a purveyor of G-Funk known for his 1994 hit "Regulate," is born Warren Griffin III in Long Beach, California.
November 9, 1970 Rapper Scarface is born Brad Terrence Jordan in Houston, Texas. Borrowing his stage name from the 1983 Al Pacino film Scarface, he joins the Geto Boys before going solo.
November 9, 1970 Badfinger release the album No Dice in the US. The song "No Matter What" becomes a hit for the group, but another song on the album, "Without You," becomes a much bigger hit when Harry Nilsson covers it.
November 8, 1970 Reggae singer Diana King is born in Spanish Town, St. Catherine, Jamaica. She cameos on The Notorious B.I.G.'s 1994 song "Respect" before landing a recording contract with Sony Music.
November 7, 1970 MGM Records president Mike Curb announces that his label is dumping 18 acts that "exploit and promote hard drugs through music."More
November 5, 1970 Long since retired from touring with his group, Brian Wilson joins The Beach Boys on stage at the Whisky A Go-Go in Los Angeles only to suffer inner ear damage in his good ear from an excessively loud sound system. After losing his balance a few times, he is helped backstage.
November 1, 1970 The Festfolk Quartet, which later becomes ABBA, play their first-ever concert at a Gothenburg, Sweden restaurant.
October 24, 1970 Santana land their first #1 album in America as Abraxas claims the top spot. The tracklist includes "Oye Como Va" and their Fleetwood Mac cover, "Black Magic Woman."
October 24, 1970 "Lola" peaks at #9 in the US, giving The Kinks their first American Top 10 since "Tired of Waiting for You" in 1965. After their US tour in 1965, they were denied visas for the next three years, killing their momentum in that country. Following their return in 1969, "Lola" gets them back on the airwaves.
October 21, 1970 Bob Dylan releases his 11th album, New Morning, which includes the songs "If Not For You," "Day Of The Locusts" and "The Man In Me.
October 19, 1970 Working from a design sketched out by his wife and himself, Elvis Presley orders a dozen 14-karat gold pendants from a Beverly Hills jeweler featuring the letters "TCB" set around a lightning bolt. Designed as totems for the Memphis Mafia (and also for security issues), the symbol stands, in Elvis' words, for "Taking Care of Business in a Flash." They would eventually come to symbolize the '70s era for Presley.
October 19, 1970 The Australian outlaw film Ned Kelly, featuring Mick Jagger in his first starring role, is released to scathing reviews.
October 15, 1970 Music video director Chris Cunningham is born in Reading, Berkshire, England. Before working with artists like Björk ("All Is Full Of Love"), Madonna ("Frozen"), and Aphex Twin ("Windowlicker"), Cunningham starts his film career in model-making and prosthetic make-up. Hand-picked by renowned director Stanley Kubrick, he does animatronic work on what becomes the Stephen Spielberg film AI: Artificial Intelligence.More
October 12, 1970 Jesus Christ Superstar opens on Broadway, telling the story of the last seven days in the life of Jesus.More
October 10, 1970 The head of the FCC issues a statement in rebuttal to Vice President Spiro Agnew's complaint that radio stations were playing too many songs about drugs. The statement reads: "If we really want to do something about drugs, let's do something about life... The song writers are trying to help us understand our plight and deal with it. It's about the only leadership we're getting. They're not really urging you to adopt a heroin distribution program, Mr. Vice President."
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