May 16, 1974 Queen cut their first US tour short when guitarist Brian May comes down with hepatitis. They return to action November 30, touring behind their third album, Sheer Heart Attack.
May 13, 1974 An unlikely riot occurs at tonight's Jackson 5 concert at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC when impatient fans begin smashing bottles in the parking lot. 50 fans are injured; 43 are brought to jail.
May 10, 1974 Eric Clapton records "I Shot The Sheriff," a cover of a Bob Marley song. He's reluctant to do it, but it becomes the only #1 hit of his career on the Hot 100.
May 10, 1974 Led Zeppelin launch their record label, Swan Song, with lavish parties in London and Los Angeles. Bad Company and Dave Edmunds both record for the label, which shuts down in 1983.
May 9, 1974 Bruce Springsteen gets a huge career boost when he opens for Bonnie Raitt at her Boston Arena show. Playing his full two-hour set at Raitt's insistence (rare for an opening act), Bruce is so impressive that Rolling Stone's Jon Landau writes in Boston's The Real Paper, "I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time." Landau went on to become Springsteen's manager and producer.
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 22, 1974 The Who begin filming the movie version of Tommy, with Tina Turner's turn as the Acid Queen filmed first. The task of producing the complex soundtrack drives Pete Townshend to another nervous breakdown.
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 ABBA become European stars overnight when their composition "Waterloo" wins the annual Eurovision Song Contest.More
April 1, 1974 Tom Petty, with his band Mudcrutch, leaves Gainesville for Los Angeles, and never looks back. The group breaks up in late 1975, but Petty and two Mudcrutch members - guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench - soon re-team to form Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers with drummer Stan Lynch and bassist Ron Blair.
March 31, 1974 Tom Petty marries his first wife, Jane Benyo. The couple met when they were both 17, which provides the title for the Stevie Nicks song "Edge Of Seventeen." They have two daughters before their divorce in 1996.
March 30, 1974 John Denver's "Sunshine On My Shoulders" hits #1 in the US. The song first appeared on his 1971 album Poems, Prayers & Promises; it came to prominence after featuring in the made-for-TV movie Sunshine in 1973.
March 12, 1974 John Lennon and Harry Nilsson get drunk and disorderly at a Smothers Brothers comedy show at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. They get thrown out, and Nilsson takes heat in the press for being a bad influence on Lennon. Said Nilsson: "It ruined my reputation for 10 years. Get one Beatle drunk and look what happens."
March 8, 1974 Queen II (fittingly, their second album) is released in the UK, followed a month later with a US release. None of the tracks chart in America, but "Seven Seas of Rhye" lands at #10 in the UK.
March 2, 1974 Stevie Wonder wins four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for Innervisions. Gladys Knight & The Pips win for "Neither One of Us" (Best Pop Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group or Chorus) and "Midnight Train To Georgia" (Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Group).
March 2, 1974 Olivia Newton-John wins the Grammy for Best Female Vocal Country Performance for "Let Me Be There." Country veterans are miffed, but reach full outrage when she takes the CMA award for Female Vocalist of the Year.
March 1, 1974 Rush release their eponymous debut album. With drummer and creative catalyst Neil Peart yet to join the band, the sound is very different from the one that will become Rush's trademark. Still, the album's "Working Man" becomes a breakout song in blue-collar Cleveland, Ohio, after winning WMMS disc jockey Donna Halper's endorsement. One year later the band release Fly by Night, their first album to include Peart.
February 21, 1974 "Jungle Boogie" becomes the first Kool & the Gang single certified Gold. It embodies the funk sound that defines the group in the early '70s. They switch to a more melodic sound with the 1979 introduction of lead singer J.T. Taylor, who ushers them into an era of hits like "Ladies Night," "Joanna" and "Cherish."
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 14, 1974 At the Forum in Los Angeles, Ringo Starr, Neil Young and Warren Beatty are in attendance for the last stop on Bob Dylan's tour with The Band.
February 13, 1974 Robbie Williams is born in Stoke-on-Trent, England. After a run of UK hits with the boy band Take That he becomes the breakout star of the group, starting with his 1997 solo album Life Thru A Lens, which includes his classic song "Angels."
February 10, 1974 Phil Spector is seriously burned in a mysterious car crash while en route from Los Angeles to Phoenix, Arizona, leading to extensive plastic surgery that furthers his reclusiveness.
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 7, 1974 Barry White earns Gold certifications for "Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up," his album Stone Gon', and also for The Love Unlimited Orchestra's "Love's Theme" and their album Under the Influence of Love Unlimited.
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
January 17, 1974 Singer Dino Martin (not to be confused with his more famous father, Dean) is arrested on suspicion of possession and sale of firearms. He is arraigned and released the next day on $5,000 bail.
January 17, 1974 Bob Dylan releases his 14th album, Planet Waves. Dylan is backed by The Band on the project, which includes two versions of his enduring song "Forever Young."
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