The Beatles appear at the Royal Command Performances at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London. In attendance are the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and Lord Snowden. It was here that John Lennon made his now famous announcement: "For our last number, I'd like to ask for your help. The people in the cheaper seats clap your hands, and the rest of you, if you'd just rattle your jewelry, we'd like to sing a song called Twist and Shout." John would later say "I was fantastically nervous, but I wanted to rebel a bit and that was the best I could do."

Elvis Presley goes on maneuvers for the first time with the US Army's 32nd Tank Regiment near the German / Czech border

Bad Company's first Billboard chart entry, "Can't Get Enough" tops out at #5. The British quartet would go on to place eight more songs in the US Top 40, but only one, "Feel Like Makin' Love", would crack the Top 10

Buddy Holly And The Crickets started a three week run at #1 on the UK singles chart with "That'll Be The Day".

Roger Waters, who had earlier left Pink Floyd, instigated a court injunction which disallowed remaining members David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright from using the band's name. The ruling was over-turned in early 1987.

BBC Article

The MC5 record live tracks for their upcoming album at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit. The lyrics of the stage version of the single "Kick Out The Jams" are changed from "kick out the jams brothers and sisters" to "kick out the jams motherfuckers!", causing quite a stir among both teens and parents.

Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers Band was killed when he lost control of his motorcycle on a Macon, Georgia street while trying to swerve to avoid a tractor-trailer. He was three weeks shy of his 25th birthday.

Capitol Records releases The Beach Boys' "Be True To Your School". The song features the tune to the University of Wisconsin's fight song, "On, Wisconsin!", although it was meant to be a tribute to Hawthorne High School, which the Wilson brothers attended. The single, along with its B-side, "Little Deuce Coupe", were the last two songs to include original member David Marks in the 1960s.

cross-posted from: https://vegantheoryclub.org/post/603418

cross-posted from: https://vegantheoryclub.org/post/603408

After a show in Los Angeles, the police tell Elvis that he is not allowed to wiggle his hips onstage. Elvis responds by defiantly wiggling only his little finger while singing. The next night they film his entire concert, but no charges are laid.

Keith Richards issues his autobiography, Life. It was fairly well received by literary critics and topped The New York Times' non-fiction list in the first week of release. It would later receive the 2011 Norman Mailer Prize for biography

Elton John appears on The Muppet Show, where he performs "Crocodile Rock", "Bennie and the Jets", "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart".

UK Pink Floyd achieve their first #1 album in the UK album chart with "Atom Heart Mother." In the US it peaked at #55 and went Gold in March 1994.

US Santana achieve their first #1 album in America when "Abraxas" pushes CCR's "Cosmo's Factory" out of the top spot. The track list includes "Oye Como Va" (US #13) and a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Black Magic Woman" (US #4).

The Jimi Hendrix Experience record "Hey Joe" at De Lane Lea Studios in London, England. The song will become his first UK chart entry, rising to #6. It will be released in the United States on May 1st, 1967, but failed to chart.

After achieving massive success with "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", The Rolling Stones release "Get Off My Cloud" in the UK. Two weeks later it will be number one in Great Britain. The song would also top the charts in America, Canada, South Africa and Germany. Keith Richards was later quoted as saying, "I never dug it as a record. The chorus was a nice idea, but we rushed it as the follow-up."

Culture Club, featuring the lead vocals of 21-year-old George O'Dowd, perform their first UK number one hit, "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" on Top Of The Pops. The song, which was allegedly written about O'Dowd's six year relationship with Culture Club drummer Jon Moss, would reach #2 in the US.

Led Zeppelin's film, The Song Remains the Same, a mixture of concert footage and fantasy sequences, premieres at Cinema I in New York

Less than a month after leaving The Mamas And The Papas, Cass Elliot's first solo album, "Dream A Little Dream" was released on Dunhill Records. Recorded live in just ten days, the LP would be only a moderate success, selling 150,000 copies and climbing to #87 on the Billboard 200 chart. The single "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" fared much better, peaking at #12 on the Hot 100 and #11 in the UK. Among the musicians appearing on the album were Hal Blaine - drums, Harvey Brooks - bass guitar, James Burton - guitar, dobro, Jim Gordon - drums, Larry Knechtel - keyboards, John Sebastian - guitar, harmonica, and Stephen Stills - guitar, vocals.

The movie, How I Won the War, starring John Lennon as Private Gripweed, premiered in London, England, with all four of The Beatles in attendance. The film received mostly negative reviews, including one from American critic John Simon, who called it "pretentious tomfoolery."

TRAILER

A British group known collectively as Manfred Mann had the number one single on the Billboard Pop chart with "Do Wah Diddy Diddy". The song was sung by vocalist Paul Pond, who used the stage name Paul Jones. Keyboard player Michael Lubowitz would retain the band's name and continued to turn out chart hits until the mid 1980s.

Creedence Clearwater Revival split up following the failure of their most recent album, "Mardi Gras". After limited success as a solo act and some legal hassles with Fantasy Records, John Fogarty would have three big hits in 1985, "The Old Man Down The Road" (#10), "Center Field" (#44) and "Rock and Roll Girls" (#20). John's brother Tom Fogarty died in September, 1990 and the surviving members went on to tour as Creedence Clearwater Revisited.

UB40 was enjoying the top tune in America with a Reggae version of Neil Diamond's "Red, Red Wine". Diamond's 1968 rendition only made it to #62.

Runnin' Down a Dream, a documentary film about Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, makes its debut at the New York Film Festival. The four hour movie, which chronicles the history of the band, would go on to win a Grammy Award for Best Music Film at the 2008 ceremony.

Queen released their single, "Fat Bottomed Girls" in the UK. With "Bicycle Race" on the flip side, the record will reach #11 on the British chart.

20-year-old Nancy Spungen, the girlfriend of former Sex Pistol, Sid Vicious, is found dead of abdominal knife wounds in their room at Chelsea Hotel in New York. Vicious, nearly unconscious due to the effects of several different drugs, is charged with her murder, jailed and then released. He would die of a heroin overdose on February 2nd, 1979, before the case could come to trial. The New York City Police Department closed the case after his death.

Rod Stewart officially became Sir Roderick David Stewart when he received knighthood from Prince William at Buckingham Palace in London, England. The 71-year-old singer was honored for his services to the music industry and charity work, which includes supporting the British Red Cross, Breast Cancer Care and Elton John's AIDS Foundation. In a statement he told the press, "I've led a wonderful life and have had a tremendous career thanks to the generous support of the great British public. This monumental honor has topped it off and I couldn't ask for anything more. I thank Her Majesty and promise to wear it well."

Singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry of Aerosmith are injured at a Philadelphia concert after a firecracker is thrown on stage. From then on, the group performs from behind a cyclone fence.

"We were going back up on the stage to do the encore," guitarist Brad Whitford later told Goldmine. "I was going up the stairs right behind [singer] Steven [Tyler] and [guitarist] Joe [Perry], and I felt the concussion of the cherry bomb going off. Steven immediately covered his face and there was blood shooting up out of Joe’s arm, literally. So pretty quickly we got ourselves to the emergency room."

The incident reportedly burned Tyler's cornea, ruptured an artery in Perry's hand and forced the band off the road for a while. Understandably angry, Aerosmith declined offers for a return to the City of Brotherly Love for a while. "I have to say we were shaken by it and extremely pissed off," Whitford added. "We had a few offers to come back and we passed on it."

Eventually, of course, Aerosmith did return to the scene of the crime. But Tyler was once again injured onstage at a Philadelphia show.

"Five songs into a sold-out show, someone threw a beer bottle from the balcony," Whitford recalled in Aerosmith's Walk This Way autobiography. "It hit the stage dead center, right in front of the monitor, and exploded – sending shards of glass into Steven's face. I think some glass went right through his mouth. That's it. Backstage, Steven's holding a towel to his bloody face, and he wants to go back on! The vote was four-to-one against, and we were in the limos two minutes later. Fuck this."

1940 - Alfred and Julia Lennon celebrate the birth of their son, John.

1975 - John Lennon and his wife Yoko celebrate his 35th birthday with the birth of their only child, Sean Taro Ono Lennon.

1985 - Marking what would have been John Lennon's 45th birthday, Yoko Ono formally dedicated a two and a half acre landscaped section in New York's Central Park called Strawberry Fields. The entrance to the memorial is located on Central Park West at West 72nd Street, directly across from the Dakota Apartments where Lennon had lived during the later part of his life and where he was murdered in 1980. To this day, fans still gather there to reflect and sing Lennon songs.

2002 - John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman was denied parole for a second time on October 9th, the same day that Lennon would have turned 62. The state parole board issued a statement that said releasing Chapman after twenty-two years in prison would "deprecate the seriousness" of the crime and while Chapman had "acceptable" behavior in prison, that didn't guarantee he wouldn't pose a threat to society. At his first parole hearing two years earlier, Chapman said he did not deserve to go free. The 48-year-old prisoner lived in a housing unit separate from the general population for his own safety and worked as a clerk.

Cream drummer Ginger Baker collapsed on a Sussex University stage after playing a twenty minute drum solo. He recovered in a local hospital.

The Youngbloods receive Gold certification for their rendition of "Get Together". The song had been around for a number of years and was originally recorded as "Let's Get Together" by the Kingston Trio and used as an album track. We Five took it to #31 in 1965 as a follow-up to "You Were On My Mind". Jefferson Airplane included it on their 1966, debut album, "Jefferson Airplane Takes Off".

Eddie Van Halen, who established himself as one of the all-time greatest guitar players in Rock history as a member of the group Van Halen, died after a long battle with cancer. He was 65

Atlantic Records releases "Led Zeppelin III", which would top both the US and UK album charts. It would include "Immigrant Song", which would rise to #16 in America. The LP would go Platinum in Great Britain for sales of 300,000 and 6X Platinum in America for moving over six million copies.

"Abbey Road", the last album recorded by The Beatles, enters the UK charts at number one. The LP would go on to be the group's biggest seller in Britain, although "The Beatles" (the white album) sold more in North America.

Then in 2019…

"Abbey Road" returned to number one in the UK nearly fifty years after it first topped the British album charts. The gap of 49 years and 252 days set a new UK chart record for an album's return to number one. "It's hard to believe that Abbey Road still holds up after all these years," tweeted Sir Paul McCartney, "but then again, it's a bloody cool album."