Young gods smiled upon the crowd
Their music being born of love
Children danced night and day
Religion was being born
Down in Monterey

1973

First preview of the new Richard O’Brien horror comedy stage musical

The Rocky Horror Show
 
at The Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in London.

It closes in Sep. 1980 after 2960 performances.

Two years later, the film version is released to eventual world fame. They’re still doin the Time Warp … everywhere, again and again … be sure to bring your props!

Fans  (see Michael Stipe at 1:25)
Richard sings ‘Science Fiction’  Evening w/Richard (5 parts) 
 ( Musical fansite )   ( Film fansite ) 

1981

First day of the 9-day NYC Noise Fest, an influential festival of no wave noise music, curated by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth.

Many of the no wave groups were heard at The Kitchen (which got its electric power from Allen Ginsberg through an extension cord).

Founded in Greenwich Village in 1971, the fest is first directed by American composer Rhys Chatham, then by Arthur Russell. (*) (*)▷Russell bio 1▹ ▷Russell bio 2▹

1933

English electronics engineer, inventor Alan Blumlein gets a patent (UK#394325) on his discovery of many aspects of binaural, ‘stereophonic’ sound recording and reproduction (*) on disc and film.
 
The ideas are demonstrated with films in 1935. Blumlein dies in the crash of a secret radar-testing flight in 1942.  ( Website ) 
 
In the US on March 12, 1932,

Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra begin experiments with physicist Harvey Fletcher at Bell Labs.
 
One result of the experiments is the earliest surviving stereophonic recording, of Scriabin‘s Poem of Fire (‘Poeme du feu’ Opus 60).   MP3: Le poème de feu 
 
Stokowski later encourages Walt Disney to have the three-channel Fantasound process developed for the 1940 animated film Fantasia.

1968

US rock band Iron Butterfly releases In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, bound for US#4.
 
The first album to be awarded platinum status, it’s mainly known for its all-of-side-2 title track, which keeps it on the charts for 140 weeks … 81 of them in the top 10… and gives a lot of DJ’s a smoke break.
 
 ( Iron Butterfly site ) 

1971

The first Hard Rock Cafe opens in London near Hyde Park Corner.
 
The restaurant soon begins a collection of rock and roll memorabilia; in 1982 it begins expanding worldwide. There are currently over 170 Hard Rock Cafes in over 53 countries. (*)

I said Mr Purple People Eater, what’s your line?
He said eating purple people, and it sure is fine
But that’s not the reason that I came to land
I wanna get a job in a rock ‘n roll band

1978

Jeff Wayne‘s most excellent prog rock musical version of War of the Worlds (*) is released.

It spends 330 weeks on UK top-75 album charts.

Cast notes:
David Essex, playing ‘The Artilleryman’, got started as the lead in the London production of stage musical Godspell in 1971 at the age of 23.
Phil Lynott leader and composer of Thin Lizzy, who plays ‘The Parson’, dies of drug and alcohol dependency in 1986.
Most of the lyrics are by Gary Osborne, who had written lyrics for Elton John through the album A Single Man.

On June 23, 2005 the original album is re-released on a remastered 2-disc SACD set; and in a 7-disc collector’s edition. A live tour takes place in the UK, Ireland and Australia in 2006-7.

 ( Website )  Eve of the War 

2009

US hip hop and electronic music group Black Eyed Peas release fifth studio album The E.N.D..

Despite lukewarm critical response, the album quickly becomes an international top-5 hit. Lead single Boom Boom Pow became the group’s first #1, topping the US chart for 12 weeks ; second single, I Gotta Feeling does the same for 14 weeks.

Late 2010 album The Beginning does nearly as well; single The Time becomes an international #1.

1937

Premiere of German composer Carl Orff‘s best-known work — the cantata Carmina Burana — at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt.

O Fortuna (5m)  Complete (Ozawa, 63m) 

 ( Orff site )  ▷NPR:Carmina Burana ▹ ▷Carmina Burana Explorer ▹

1963

Phil Spector, along with Ellie Greenwich & Jeff Barry, teases another top-10 hit (US#3) out of the Crystals titled Da Do Ron Ron.
 
The song — which Rolling Stone ranks #114 in its top-500 songs — is way better than the name. In 1977 a cover by teen idol Shaun Cassidy tops the charts (US#1,CA#1). Live  After a decade or so of acting, Cassidy becomes a TV executive producer.
 
 ( Crystals site ) 

1969
Brit ‘super group’ Blind Faith plays a live concert in Hyde Park, London in front of 120,000 people. Concert (57m) 

 
The band’s only album is immediately UK#1 and US#1 on release … but the band feels it doesn’t sound good. Album (74m) 

1969

Pioneer Jamaican ska and reggae singer, songwriter Desmond Dekker and the Aces chart in the US top-10 (UK#1 April 16) with his self-penned Israelites.

It’s the first reggae song to top the charts.

See also: List of number-one singles from the 1960s, The Loco-Motion, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da  ~ ReggaePedia  

1970

German electronic music group Tangerine Dream, always led by Edgar Froese, releases first album Electronic Meditation. Album 
 
It’s recorded in a rented factory in Berlin using just a two-track Revox tape recorder. Beginning with Krautrock, the group moved on to New Age music. They’ve released over 100 albums, and made 60 film soundtracks.
Cyclone (1978) 
 
Three studio albums appear in 2011 called the ‘Eastgate’s Sonic Poems Series’ —  The Island of the Fay, The Angel of the West Window and Finnegan’s Wake, based on James Joyce’s book. FW Album 
 
 ( Website ) 

1965

Rock and roll singer Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs have a US#2 hit with single Wooly Bully.

Domingo Zamudio was born in Dallas in 1937 and ‘hauled his equipment in a 1952 Packard hearse with maroon velvet curtains’. While the conjunto-influenced single — recorded for the Pen label in Memphis — is kept out of the top spot by Help Me, Rhonda, Billboard still names it the record of the year.

Sam, with a new group of Pharoahs, has another hit in 1966 with Li’l Red Riding Hood — which also reaches US#2,CA#2 !!

 ( Website )  ▷CB:Sam the Sham ▹

See also: List of Billboard Year-End number-one singles and albums

1966

US pop-rockers The Cyrkle (*) (ex-Rhondells), reach the top 10 for the one-and-only with their #2 pop hit Red Rubber Ball. ▷Songfacts▹

The jaunty tune, half-written by Paul Simon, is in concert (sorry) with its up-beat era. Managed by Brian Epstein, they open for The Beatles on 14 dates that summer. on August 27 The Cyrkle returns to the top-20, yes a second time, with US#16 hippie-surfer feelgood single Turn-Down Day.

Epstein’s death … and the fact that they could and did turn down recording 59th Street Bridge Song … brought an end to the band’s fortune, tho one of them went on to write the ‘Plop-plop fizz-fizz’ commercial jingle.

▷Classic Bands:Cyrkle▹

1976
The Sex Pistols play the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester. A few dozen are there for the ‘transforming experience’. BBC:I swear that I was there (49m) 

1984

Bruce Springsteen releases his best-selling album Born in the U.S.A.

An international #1 hit, it spawns seven US top-10 singles, including Dancing in the Dark (US#2) , I’m on Fire (US#6) and Glory Days (US#5). The title track is about how Americans have been affected by the Vietnam War.

The Boss has won 21 Grammies, and in 1999 joined the Rock HoF and the Songwriter’s HoF.

 ( Website )  ▷Backstreets mag▹

1983

Brit rock, new wave band The Police release 5th studio album Synchronicity.
 
With considerable help from MTV, their last and most successful studio album makes US,UK,AU#1. It includes hit singles Every Breath You Take (US,UK,CA,IE#1) and King of Pain .
 
They break up in 1986 with over 15 UK top-40 hits. They’re inducted into the Rock HoF in 2003. In 2008 they were the world’s highest-earning musicians after a successful reunion tour.
 
 ( Website ) 

1999

Pop punk band Blink-182 release their smash 3rd studio album Enema of the State.
 
Including international top-10 first hit All the Small Things , the album eventually sells 17 million, going 5x Platinum. 2001 follow-up album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket includes The Rock Show (US,CA,DE#1). 2003′s I Miss You is their hottest Youtube track.
 ( Website ) 

The Guardian’s Michael Hann recalls LA’s mid-80s Paisley Underground. (*)

Dream Syndicate: Days of Wine & Roses 

MeFi’s Filthy gets deep into plunderphonics, a word which it seems was coined in 1985.An unrelated MeFi post looks at sasakure.UK ,a “Japanese songwriter/artist who often produces [anime-cute] songs using Vocaloid, a singing voice synthesizer program.” The program was developed (backed by Yamaha) in Spain in 2000. (Vocaloid website) See also: Hatsune Miku.

1963

 First US Lennon-McCartney hit 

Del Shannon‘s cover of the Len-Mac song From Me to You becomes their first song to make the US charts.

At the time it is The Beatles first #1 in some of the UK.

1965

The Beach Boys have a US#1 hit with pop song Help Me Rhonda.

In a VERY little-known chapter in radio history: unknown comic DJ Garrison Keillor looped this one morning in the early 1970s to promote a ‘Rhonda Lunchbox’.

1973

English multi-instrumentalist, musician, composer Mike Oldfield releases his ambient/prog rock masterpiece album ‘Tubular Bells‘.

The music is famous for being an essential part of the soundtrack of film The Exorcist.
1981, Montreaux 

1962

English jazz clarinettist Acker Bilk gets a rare US#1 instrumental with his self-penned, wistful tune Stranger on the Shore.

 
It’s so rare that it remains the biggest-selling instrumental single of all time. On the UK charts for 55 weeks, it also becomes the second British record to top the US Billboard charts, the first (post-war anyways) being Vera Lynn‘s 1952 version of Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart.
 
Other US top instrumentals of those halcyon days: Baxter’s Poor People of Paris ; Stoloff’s Moonglow ; Prado’s Patricia ; Cortez’ The Happy Organ ; Santo & Johnny’s Sleep Walk ; The Shadows (1960!) Apache ; Faith’s Theme from A Summer Place ; The Ventures’ Walk, Don’t Run ; Welk’s Calcutta ; The Tornados’ Telstar ; Mancini’s Moon River ; and The Chantays’ Pipeline .
 
Phew.

See also: List of 1960s one-hit wonders in the United States, List of million-selling singles in the United Kingdom

1968

R&B singer Little Willie John (*), 31, supposedly dies of a heart attack in Walla Walla Penitentiary (Washington) while serving time for manslaughter. (*)(*)

His best known songs include Fever, a US R&B #1 (US#24) in 1956 which he cuts when he’s barely 18. It later becomes Peggy Lee‘s signature song.

He’s inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. One of his two sons has sung backup with Stevie Wonder for years.  ( Website ) 

2009

French alt-rock group Phoenix releases 4th album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (US#37,AU#13) on the same date that The Mars Phoenix lander landed on Mars a year earlier. Cute?

Because of that, no doubt, the free-download single 1901 is used in the trailer for film New York, I Love You and was used as the theme for TV’s Melrose Place. (*).

Not surprisingly, soft landing (what’s the target of those bombs?) did not hurt their next, Apr. 22, 2013 album Bankrupt! (FR#3,US,CA#4). Score!! … although it’s utterly like most of the cotton-candy fluff of its era. Rock? Think so? I mean, just look at the art-work. Entertainment 

1969

The Haight-Ashbury ‘Rock of Ages’ Festival takes place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park Panhandle.

It includes Country Joe McDonald (best-known for his ‘fish cheer’ song), Johnny Sunshine, The Pitschell Players & more.
 
It’s one of countless events listed in the intriguing San Francisco History Calendar.
 
On May 26, John and Yoko begin a week-long bed-in in Montreal.

See also: ▷SF Chronology ’65-69▹ , History of the hippie movement  ~ Love Haight    ~ Folklore  

1969

William Oliver Swofford’s version of song Good Morning Starshine from 1968 musical Hair climbs to #3 on the charts.
 
The title also appears on the 4th and last studio album by LA psych bubblegum band Strawberry Alarm Clock. Incense, Peppermints 
 
In the fall of 1969, Oliver has a US#2 hit with Jean, written by beatnik poet Rod McKuen. Then he goes into the real estate business.
 
 ( SAC site ) 

Address: Wellington Street, London WC2.
Dates: 1960s to 1985.
Capacity: 2,000.
Past Use: Theatre. Built on the site of a previous theatre in 1834. Rebuilt in 1904 with only the façade retained. In 1951 converted into a ballroom for the Mecca Leisure Group.
Current Use: Closed as a ballroom in 1985. It was unused until the Theatres Trust acquired the lease and it was reconverted back to a theatre in 1996.As a Mecca Ballroom in the 1950s and 1960s the main performers were swing/dance bands like those of Ray McVay, Oscar Rabin and Cyril Stapleton. However, sometimes other forms of music got a look-in. For example in January 1960 there was an “All Night Carnival of Jazz” with all the British trad jazz favourites – Chris Barber, Acker Bilk, Ken Colyer, etc. From the late 60s it was used with occasionally as a rock/pop venue with gigs by the Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Faces and Sly & the Family Stone (plus some Marquee Club All Nighters as its licence terms prevented these happening in Wardour Street). …

1964

 SKA 

17-year-old Jamaican Milly Small‘s cover of My Boy Lollipop enters the charts.
 
Her ska/bluebeat version of the song by members of The Cadillacs was precocious, topping the charts in Britain and Ireland, and becoming a US#2 — giving a big boost to Island Records. ▷Songfacts ▹
 
▷AMG bio ▹

1973

Release of the ‘last’ western, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, by Sam Peckinpah (*), who was raised on a ranch.
 
The 1973 edit is done without Peckinpah and fails. A 1988 director’s cut is widely respected. The film is also important because the film score is the first written by a popular artist … Bob Dylan. The July 1973 album includes US#12 single Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.
▷AllMovie ▹.

1988

Release of UK#1 single Doctorin’ the Tardis (UK,NZ#1) by The Timelords aka ‘Time Boy’ and ‘Lord Rock’…
 
Their June 1987 debut album — 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?) by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu or JAM — was also produced with ‘extensive unauthorised samples’.
 
Later as KLF (‘Kopyright Liberation Front’) they (Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond) explain how the song is a mashup — and become infamous for burning a million quid and for The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way). In all they make 7 albums by 1997.
 
 The Manual  ( Lazlo FTP archives fansite )  ▷KLF at Tumblr ▹

1961

25-year-old New Orleans native Ernest Kador, Jr., aka Ernie K-Doe gains a US#1 hit (his only US top-40 hit) with Mother-in-Law.

It’s the biggest hit evar for Minit Records. The song is written and produced by 23-year-old up-and-coming NOLA composer, producer Allen Toussaint. ▷Songfacts▹

K-Doe -will- have two more top-40 USR&B hits: Te-Ta-Te-Ta-Ta (1961 #21) and Later For Tomorrow (1967 #37).

 ( Website )  ▷Allmusic bio ▹

1997

UK alt-rock band Radiohead releases self-produced 3rd studio album OK Computer. Paranoid Android  (UK#1,US#21)

It begins the band’s major success; all albums since (including the 8th The King of Limbs, released Feb. 18, 2011) have gone platinum.

In a pioneering 2007 move, 7th album In Rainbows is released as a digital download — fans told to pay what they want. A couple months later it’s released as an album  — and makes top-10 everywhere. Nude 

1998

Release (at Cannes) of film Velvet Goldmine(*), about the early 70s glam rock era. It stars Ewan McGregor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

US release was Nov. 6. Box office fail; but important noless, loads of well-known musicians are heard in the soundtrack credited to bands The Venus in Furs and Curt Wild’s Wylde Ratttz.

▷Ziggy Stardust Companion▹ , 1/12 clips 

2010

Perth Australian psych rock group Tame Impala (originally the Dee Dee Dums) releases debut album Innerspeaker.

Lead track It’s Not Meant to Be garners much college radio airplay.

The album wins the 2010 J Award and becomes a Rough Trade top-10 album. A 2nd album is expected in July, 2012.  ( Website ) 

2013

French EM duo Daft Punk releases its first new album in 8 years, Random Access Memories. If you don’t count their Dec. 3, 2010 filmscore for the Tron: Legacy soundtrack.
 
They leave behind the faltering EMI label for Sony. Their first, 1997 debut monster Homework made UK#8. Two singles made USDance#1, Da Funk and international #1 Around the World. Second, Mar. 13 2001 album Discovery did similarly well and was used as a soundtrack for feature-length anime Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem.

With her head tucked underneath her arm
She walks the bloody tower,
With her head tucked underneath her arm
at the midnight hour.

1924

New York critics see a hastily concocted, last-ditch Marx Brothers vaudeville stage revue called ‘I’ll Say She Is‘. (*)
 
The critics are there only because the opening night of a dramatic play was cancelled … and are stunned uproariously. The rest, as they say …
 
Their second film, 1929′s The Cocoanuts is based on the 1925 musical written for the Marx’s — Irving Berlin‘s first book musical. It features an oddly staged dance number built around a very clever piece of music (Monkey Doodle-Doo) that any aspiring composer ought listen to closely. (And marvel at the result given the state of sound tech at that time.) Cocoanuts/Berlin 

 ( Fansite )  (*)
Horsefeathers  Animal Crackers  Mirror scene 

2009

Debut of Fox TV musical comedy-drama series Glee.
 
The widely-adored show’s fictional glee club New Directions — wearing spiffy blazers no less — for two seasons, sings only covers of known hits. In 2009, the Glee cast got 25 singles onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 2010 it put 80 on the charts.
 ( Website )  Glad You Came 

See also: List of songs in Glee, Glee Cast discography

1966

US pop-rockers The Beach Boys release their 11th studio album Pet Sounds.

Very influential, it has repeatedly been chosen as one of the top pop albums (e.g. Rolling Stone’s #2 of the top 500 albums). Brian Wilson, who co-wrote the songs with lyricist Tony Asher, has cited Beatles album Rubber soul as his inspiration.

The album which Capitol considered not releasing — and several singles, including Sloop John B (US#3) and Wouldn’t It Be Nice (US#8)  — climbs into the US top 10 and is a UK#2. Paul McCartney, like many well-known artists, pays the album high compliments. (*)

 ( Wilson site )  ‘Sloop’ promo  God Only Knows  ▷R&G’s Beach Boys▹

1966

Release of US songer-songwriter Bob Dylan‘s seventh studio, rock double-album, Blonde on Blonde (US#9,UK#3).

It’s highly ranked on many best-albums lists. ▷RS:#9 of 500 ▹ After some recording in NYC, Dylan took Al Cooper and Robbie Robertson to Nashville to gain the advantage of its session musicians. Hit singles include Rainy Day Women ♯12 & 35 and I Want You.

Despite several hit albums in the 60s, Dylan doesn’t get an album to US#1 (UK#7) until 1974′s over-rated Planet Waves, but 1976 US#1 studio album Desire lives up to its rating (RS#174). ▷Rolling Stone 500, 2012 ▹

1973
Debut of Werner Herzog film Aguirre, the Wrath of God at the Cannes Film Festival.The soundtrack includes ethereal music created by Munich, Germany’s ambient krautrock band Popol Vuh  — the first of many filmic collaborations — later released in the group’s 7th album Aguirre.

Popol Vuh (the name comes from an ancient Mayan text) (*) is a 1969 creation of composer Florian Fricke, who owns one of the first two Moog synths (a System 3) in Germany.

In 1970 the group released its debut space music album Affenstunde (‘Monkey house’) (Liberty Lbs83460); two videos were released along with the album. (*)

It’s followed by one more electronic album, In den Garten Pharaos before Fricke — the band’s one constant member — tires of fighting the Moog and ditches it. ▷Interview▹ He’s soon swept into the 1972 Aguirre project, for which he plays a mellotron-like ‘choir-organ‘. The album can be regarded as one of the earliest ambient music, space music or New Age music works; it’s the first album to use a Moog for completely original music.

By the early 1990s the group has created nearly 20 albums.

The musical themes explored by PV cover most of the world’s major religions. ▷Memorial by John Diliberto▹ Diliberto recommends ‘the one to get’, if you can only get one, is the US-released collection TANTRIC SONGS (1981).

▷PV Discog▹ ▷Transcendent Music Of▹
Improv (71)  Kyrie (73) 
BBC: Krautrock-the Rebirth of Germany