Rock History January 15
1965, The Who released their first single “I Can’t Explain,” with Jimmy Page on guitar and The Ivy League on backing vocals. It went on to reach number eight on the singles chart.
1966, The Who play at The Two Puddings Club in Stratford and the In Crowd Club in Hackney, London, England.
1967, The Rolling Stones were forced to change the lyrics of “Lets Spend The Night Together” to “Lets Spend Some Time Together” when appearing on the US TV’s The Ed Sullivan Show, after the producers objected to the content of the lyrics.
1967, Donovan appeared at The Royal Albert Hall, London. Paul McCartney and George Harrison both attended the show.
1967, Jimi Hendrix played in Kirklevington, North Yorkshire, England.
1969, George Harrison had a five-hour meeting with John, Paul and Ringo where he made it clear that he was fully prepared to quit The Beatles for good. Harrison wasn’t happy with plans for live performances and the current Let It Be film project.
1970, Bag One, an exhibition of John Lennon’s lithographs, opens at the London Arts Gallery.
1971, The Allman Brothers Band performed at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.
1972, Don McLean’s “American Pie” started a four week run at number one on the singles chart.
1972, Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog” made its debut on the US singles chart. The group’s third single peaked at number 15 and spent eight weeks on the chart. The song’s title is a reference to a nameless, black Labrador retriever that wandered around the Headley Grange studios during recording.
1973, The Rolling Stones announce a benefit concert for Managua, Nicaragua. The hometown of Bianca Jagger had been recently devastated by an earthquake.
1973, Led Zeppelin appeared at Trentham Gardens in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England.
1973, Genesis performed at Stadthalle, Heidelberg, Germany.
1976, Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here was on the UK album chart. The album’s packaging, designed by Storm Thorgerson, featured an opaque black sleeve inside which was hidden the album artwork. Thorgerson had noted that, in the US, Roxy Music’s Country Life was sold in an opaque green cellophane sleeve – censoring the cover image – and he adopted the idea, concealing the artwork for Wish You Were Here in a dark-colored shrink-wrap.
1976, Paul Simon auditioned for The London SS, the band went on to become The Clash.
1977, The Eagles went to number one on the album chart with Hotel California the group’s third chart topping album.
1977, Leo Sayer went to number one on the singles chart with “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing,” it was the first of two chart toppers for the singer.
1979, The Grateful Dead played at the Civic Center Arena in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1980, The Ramones appeared live on UK BBC TV music show The Old Grey Whistle Test.
1980, Aerosmith played at Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky.
1981, Roxy Music performed at the Odeon, Birmingham, England.
1982, Harry Casey of KC and the Sunshine Band was seriously injured in a head-on car crash.
1982, The Police kicked off the North American leg of their 119-date Ghost In The Machine world tour at Boston Garden, Boston, Massachusetts, supported by The Go-Go’s.
1983, Phil Collins had his first UK number one single with his version of “You Can’t Hurry Love,” a hit for The Supremes in 1966. Collins’ version was the first track on the very first Now That’s What I Call Music CD.
1992, Dee Murray bass player with the Elton John band died after suffering a stroke. He was just 45. He first appeared with Elton on the 1970 album Tumbleweed Connection and the milestone albums Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.
1994, American singer songwriter Harry Nilsson died in his sleep of heart failure after spending the previous day in the recording studio. He recorded “Everybody’s Talkin'” from the film Midnight Cowboy and wrote hits for Three Dog Night and The Monkees. Had the UK and US number one single with his version of Badfinger song “Without You.”
1998, Harmonica player Junior Wells died following long term complications from cancer and a heart attack. He worked with Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Van Morrison, Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt and The Rolling Stones.
2006, James Blunt was at number one on the UK album chart with his debut album and biggest selling UK album of 2005 Back To Bedlam.
Born on January 15: Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart (1941); Ronnie Van Zandt, Lynyrd Skynyrd (1948); Martha Davis, The Motels (1951); Melvyn Gale, cello, Electric Light Orchestra (1952); Douglas Elwin Erikson, Garbage (1953); and Adam Jones, guitarist, Tool (1965)
Get more Today in Rock History .
Aerosmith, Don McLean, Donovan, Genesis, James Blunt, Jimi Hendrix, Junior Wells, KC and the Sunshine Band, Led Zeppelin, Leo Sayer, The Allman Brothers Band, The Beatles, The Eagles, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Sones, The Who.
