1969, Appearing live on The Lulu Show on UK TV, Jimi Hendrix was booked to perform two songs, “Voodoo Child,” which is performed in its entirety. Then, he stopped midway through the performance his new single “Hey Joe,” announcing, “We’d like to stop playing this rubbish and dedicate this song to The Cream.” The Experience then launched into a version of “Sunshine Of Your Love” as a tribute to the group who had split a few days earlier. Hendrix then proceeded to continuing jamming, running over their allocated time slot on the live show, preventing the show’s host Lulu from closing the show properly.
1970, Davy Jones quits the Monkees, following Peter Tork who left one year earlier.
1970, BJ Thomas started a four week run at number one on the singles chart with “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.” The song was featured in the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
1970, Working on the Get Back sessions at Studio Two of EMI Studios, London, three Beatles (Paul, George, and Ringo) record 16 takes of the George Harrison song “I Me Mine.” John Lennon was away in Denmark at the time. A decade later it became the title of George Harrison’s auto-biography.
1971, Hawkwind appears at the Eyes Club, Chelmsford, England.
1972, Two weeks of rehearsals for Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon tour began at the Bermondsey in London, England. The venue was owned by The Rolling Stones.
1973, The Who tape an appearance on Russell Harty Plus at London Weekend Television Studios. After The Who mime (with live vocals) their way through their new single “Relay,” Pete Townshend “accidentally” tips over his speaker stack and the fun begins as Keith Moon and Pete, with some help from Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle, quickly take over the interview.
1973, Two thousand international fashion editors and experts voted Mick and Bianca Jagger two of the top dozen best-dressed men and women of 1972.
1973, Bruce Springsteen played the first of a four-night run at The Main Point, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, opening for the comedy rock duo Travis Shook & The Club Wow.
1974, Bob Dylan and The Band started a 39-date US tour, Dylan’s first live appearance for over 7 years. There were more than 5 million applications for the 660,000 tickets.
1976, Bob Dylan’s song “Hurricane” peaked at number 33 on the Billboard singles chart, helping to cause enough publicity to eventually get former boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter released from jail. The song promoted Carter’s innocence and a movie about Carter’s life, starring Denzel Washington, was released in 2000.
1976, The Bay City Rollers went to number one on the US singles chart with “Saturday Night.”
1977, Rush performed at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
1979, The Hype, later to be known as U2 appeared at McGonagils in Dublin, Ireland.
1980, American rhythm and blues singer Amos Milburn died aged 52. He was famous for his drinking songs including, “Let Me Go Home, Whiskey” and “One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer.”
1981, David Bowie made his final appearance as the Elephant Man in the Broadway show in New York City.
1987, Aretha Franklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
2000, Luciano Pavarotti agreed to pay the Italian authorities £1.6 million ($2.72 million) after losing an appeal against tax evasion charges. It was reported that the singer was worth £300 million ($510 million) at the time.
2003, The February issue of Playboy publishes a fictional short story about The Who by Jim Shepard. It is “told” by John Entwistle and concerns the history of The Who. The story is later published in his Shepard’s collection Love and Hydrogen.
2014, Phil Everly, one half of the Everly Brothers, died of complications from lung disease aged 74, in California. In their heyday between 1957 and 1962, the Everly Brothers had 19 Top 40 hits, including “Bye Bye Love,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” and “All I Have to Do Is Dream.” They influenced acts such as The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and Simon & Garfunkel.
Born on January 3rd: George Martin (1926); Van Dyke Parks, songwriter, producer (1943); Stephen Stills (1945); John Paul Jones, Led Zeppelin (1946); Dave Dobbyn, New Zealand singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer (1957); Thomas Bangaltier, Daft Punk (1975)