On This Day in Rock & Roll History: January 26

After more than six weeks, I thought this would be a good time for another installment in my longest-running, irregular, and seemingly never-ending recurring music history feature, which looks at happenings in the music world on a specific date throughout the decades. While I started this series all the way back in June 2016, it’s amazing how many dates I’ve yet to cover. January 26 is one of them.

As always, these posts reflect my music taste and aren’t meant to give a full accounting of events. There are plenty of music history calendars out there, which take a more comprehensive look at the topic. With that reminder out of the way, let’s get to it. And, yes, everything music-related starts with The Beatles! 🙂

1964: The Beatles performed two concerts at The Olympia Theatre in Paris, France, according to The Beatles Bible. That bible may not be quite as popular as Jesus, but it does a meticulous job of documenting nearly every day in Fab Four history. The great resource tells us their set included eight songs: From Me To You, Roll Over Beethoven, She Loves You, This Boy, Boys, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Twist And Shout and Long Tall Sally. Doing some math here, I suppose this was the equivalent of one Grateful Dead jam or a ’70s prog rock track! The gig was part of a residency at the Paris venue, which began on January 16 and ended on February 4 that year and involved two shows each day. Here are some snippets from another gig during that residency.

1970: Simon & Garfunkel released their fifth and final studio album Bridge Over Troubled Water. While the album was well received and topped the charts in the U.S., UK and numerous other countries, the duo called it quits later that year. They did come back together for a number of reunion concerts, most notably a free gig in New York City’s Central Park in 1981 in front of half a million people. Here’s The Boxer, which like most of the other tracks on the album was penned by Paul Simon – what a timeless gem!

1973: Elton John’s sixth studio album Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player dropped in the U.S., four days after it had appeared in the UK. It was John’s first of three chart-topping records in a row in the UK and his second of six(!) straight no. 1 albums in the U.S. Yes, Sir Elton truly ruled the music world! The lead single Crocodile Rock also gave him his first no. 1 song in the U.S. and Canada. Notably, in the UK it would take John three more years to reach the top of the Official Singles Chart, with Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, his duet with Kiki Dee. Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player was the first of two albums the British artist released in 1973. The second, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, followed in October. Here’s Daniel, the lead single from John’s first 1973 album.

1980: Prince made his debut on U.S. national television with an appearance on American Bandstand. While he already was a musical genius, clearly, the then-19-year-old didn’t seem to be comfortable being interviewed, presenting a challenge to host Dick Clark to engage in a conversation. When Clark asked him whether it was accurate that he played all instruments on “this album” (his second self-titled release), Prince answered “maybe”. Subsequently prompted by Clark to reveal how many instruments he plays, Prince paused for a few awkward seconds before answering “a thousand.” Perhaps it was a combination of his sense of humor and being shy. Once it was time to perform Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?, a tune off his sophomore album, Prince definitely looked much more comfortable. Also, check out Dez Dickerson’s killer guitar solo.

1997: The Blues Brothers, James Brown and ZZ Top performed at the Super Bowl XXXI halftime show in New Orleans. Titled “Blues Brothers Bash”, the show was pretty dynamic, as you might expect, based on the artists. The Blues Brothers kicked it off with Everybody Needs Somebody to Love and Soul Man before the hardest-working man in show business took the stage with a medley of I Got You (I Feel Good) and Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine. This was followed by the Texan trio playing Tush and Legs. For the finale, all artists came together for a great rendition of Spencer Davis Group classic Gimme Some Lovin’. Now, that’s what I call a sizzling halftime show!

Sources: Wikipedia; The Beatles Bible; Songsfacts Music History Calendar; YouTube

On This Day In Rock & Roll History: August 5

1957: The music program American Bandstand debuted on U.S. national television. It was hosted by Dick Clark who had joined the show the previous year when it still had been known as Bandstand and aired on Philadelphia TV station WFIL-TV (now local ABC affiliate WPVI-TV). The program, which ran until 1989, featured many artists who lip-synced their latest hits. While as such it was chart-oriented, it coincided with time periods when great music was part of the mainstream. So it’s perhaps not a surprise to see which artists appeared on the show. According to Wikipedia, American Bandstand  helped introduce famous artists to Americans, such as Prince, Michael Jackson and Aerosmith. Some of the other acts who were on the program included The Animals, The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, The Doors, Marvin Gaye, B.B. King, Van Morrison, R.E.M., Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder and even Pink Floyd. Here’s a clip of a 1966 appearance of Roy Orbison performing Oh, Pretty Woman, featuring one of the coolest ’60s guitar riffs that still sounds awesome to this day.

1966: The Beatles released their seventh studio album in the U.K., Revolver, which many fans consider the band’s best record. While it’s undoubtedly a great album, if I had to choose, I would go with the follow-on release Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Revolver, apart from gems like Taxman, Eleanor Rigby and Got To Get You Into My Life, stands out for the introduction of various new recording techniques, including tape loops, backwards recordings, varispeeding and, most significantly, Artificial Double Tracking (ADT). George Martin’s string arrangement on Eleanor Rigby broke conventions by blending classical and pop music. George Harrison, who took on a bigger role in the album’s songwriting, introduced another Indian instrument to pop music after the sitar on predecessor Rubber Soul: the tambura. Here’s a clip of Eleanor Rigby.

1978: The Rolling Stones hit no. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 with Miss You, their eighth and last no. 1 single in the U.S. Credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the song was written by Jagger while jamming with Billy Preston during rehearsals in 1977. It became the lead single for Some Girls, the band’s 14th and 16th British and American studio album, respectively. Apparently, there is some disagreement between Jagger and Ronnie Wood who maintain the track wasn’t supposed to be a disco song, while according to Richards, “Miss You’ was a damn good disco record; it was calculated to be one.” To me it’s obvious that Richards hates the tune. In my humble opinion, there’s no question the Stones have released much better songs.

1984: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band played the first of 10 gigs at Brendan Byrne Arena, now called Meadowlands Arena, in East Rutherford, N.J. during the Born In The U.S.A. Tour, Springsteen’s longest and most successful tour to date. The show included two sets and an encore, with a total of 28 tracks. As is typical for The Boss, he went far beyond the album that the tour supported and dug deep into his catalog. He also played a number of covers. Here’s a cool clip of the Detroit Medley captured during the same tour two months later in Vancouver, Canada. The medley includes Devil With The Blue Dress, Good Golly Miss Molly, CC Rider, Jenny Jenny and Travelin’ Band, among others. The band is absolutely killing it – rock & roll simply doesn’t get better than this! The crazy thing is that Springsteen pretty performed with the same intensity 32 years later when I saw him last in August 2016 at MetLife Stadium, right across the highway from Meadowlands.

1992: Jeff Porcaro, best known as co-founder and drummer of Toto, passed away at the young age of 38 years. The circumstances of his death remain ambiguous. According to the band history on the official Toto website, Porcaro died from a heart attack that resulted from a severe allergic reaction to chemicals in pesticide he had sprayed in his garden earlier that day. But the Los Angeles Times reported the heart attack stemmed from atherosclerosis triggered by years of cocaine use. One thing is clear: Porcaro was an excellent, sought after session drummer, who apart from Toto worked with Steely Dan, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney and Boz Scaggs, among others. Here’s a clip of Rosanna from Toto IV, which I think features some of Porcaro’s finest drum work.

Sources: Wikipedia; This Day In Music.com; Billboard Hot 100 chart history; setlist.fm; Toto website; YouTube