Studio musician and producer Jimmy Page released a solo single today in 1965. She Just Satisfies backed with Keep Moving featured Jimmy Page playing everything except drums, even singing lead vocals, and he produced it himself as well, but the first solo effort from England's second-most sought after studio guitarist (Jimmy went by 'Lil Jim Pea to avoid confusion between him and Big Jim Sullivan) didn't sell well at all, and wouldn't again see the light of day until the 1989-90 two-disc release Jimmy Page: Session Man, which has songs mostly from a list of forgotten performers, with the exception of Lulu, Billy Fury, Brenda Lee, and a man who would go on to be somewhat famous for his collaborations with Donovan, Mickie Most.
The Beatles topped the American album charts for the 6th time today in 1966 when Rubber Soul went to #1, knocking the soundtrack to The Sound of Music out of that spot. It was their first record to be completed during a dedicated time period rather than recorded during breaks from other commitments, and the first where all of the songs were written by the band: 11 Lennon/McCartney songs, 2 George Harrison numbers, and the Lennon/McCartney/Starr song What Goes On. Paul McCartney had come up with the title after hearing another musician describe Mick Jagger's singing as "Plastic Soul".
David Bowie and The Buzz played a show at the Corn Exchange in Chelmsford England tonight in 1966. Already having been heavily influenced by The Rolling Stones and The Who, and shortly The Buzz would release Bowie's 5th unsuccessful single, Do Anything You Say.
Elvis Presley had been spending quite a lot of time riding horses recently, and delayed a trip to Hollywood today in 1967 where he was supposed to start filming his 25th movie Clambake! Barbara Little, the girlfriend of a Memphis disc jockey, suggested he visit her doctor, George Nichopoulos, to get his saddle-sores looked at. Elvis had already discovered amphetamines in the Army, but he and the good doctor started a relationship that day that would lead him on various pharmaceutical adventures until his death 10 years later.
The Rolling Stones played the first of two nights at the Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney Australia tonight in 1973. They'd just finished recording Goat's Head Soup in Kingston Jamaica, but their whole Pacific tour had been in jeopardy when they were denied entry into Japan (and almost Australia as well) because of their various previous drug busts.
The Eagles had their 3rd #1 hit today in 1977 with New Kid In Town from their Hotel California album of the previous year. It would win them a Grammy Award for vocal arrangement, and the "B" side, Victim of Love, would do fairly well too.
Having released a single and an EP in Ireland only for CBS Records Irish division, U2 played a show at Dublin's National Boxing Stadium tonight in 1980 to some 2400 people, who included two talent scouts from England's Island Records who offered them a contract afterward.
Michael Jackson's album Thriller, produced by former Seattleite Quincy Jones, went to #1 on the U.S. album charts today in 1983. It would go on to eclipse Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon as the best-selling album of all time.
Rush became the first dirtbag rock and rollers made members of The Order of Canada today in 1997.
A 10-minute version of The Beatles Revolution 1 was leaked to the interwebs today in 2009, giving Beatle purists rare insight into their 1968 White Album sessions. Only two copies of that version had been made, one left Abbey Road with John Lennon the day it was finished, the other stayed behind at the studio, and it was never discovered which one had been made public.
Rock and Roll Birthdays
Antoine "Fats" Domino Jr. would be 92 if he hadn't left us in 2017...which wasn't the first time we thought he'd died. Someone had spray-painted "RIP Fats...You will be missed" on his flooded lower 9th ward New Orleans house following hurricane Katrina in 2005. The message was shown all over U.S. mainstream media coverage of the storm's aftermath before anyone found out he'd been plucked off the roof of his home by a Coast Guard helicopter.
The Man in Black, country and rockabilly pioneer Johnny Cash would be 88 if he'd made it past 71.
Canned Heat singer and harmonica player Bob "The Bear" Hite would be 77 if he'd made it past 38 when he snorted an entire vial of what he thought was cocaine given to him by a fan that turned out to be heroin.