Rock History June 8
1967, The Beatles Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band went to number one. Costing $42,500 to produce, the album was recorded over 700 hours of studio time. It was also the first album to print the lyrics on the sleeve. The album spent 27 weeks at number one on the chart.
1967, Procol Harum went to number one on the UK singles chart with “A Whiter Shade Of Pale,” the group’s only UK chart topper. In 2004 the song was named the most played record of the past 70 years. More than 900 recorded versions by other artists are known.
1967, The Wild Kingdom, The Triumphs, Tina Mason, The Shades of Blue, Keith Allison, Steve Allison, The Critters, The Knickerbockers, BJ Thomas, and The Young Rascals appeared in concert at Foreman Field at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.
1967, The Beatles are in the studio, where Rolling Stone Brian Jones joins them to play sax on “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number).”
1968, Wilson Pickett performed at the Civic Center in Charleston, West Virginia.
1969, Founding member of The Rolling Stones Brian Jones announced that he was leaving the group, saying that he no longer saw “eye to eye” with the rest of the band.
1970, Deep Purple had their van and equipment impounded by East German police while on an European tour, after mistakenly driving too close to the border.
1970, Bob Dylan releases his Self Portrait album. Critic Greil Marcus upon hearing it is moved to publish an article titled “What Is This Sh*t?”
1972, The Allman Brothers Band performed at Ector County Coliseum, Odessa, Texas.
1973, King Crimson played at Hofheinz Pavilion, Houston, Texas.
1974, Bill Wyman became the first Rolling Stone to release a solo album with “Monkey Grip.” It peaked at No.39 in the UK and No.99 in the US.
1974, The Grateful Dead performed at the Coliseum Stadium in Oakland, California.
1974, David Bowie started a four-week run at the top of the charts with his third No.1 album Diamond Dogs. The cover art features Bowie as a striking half-man, half-dog grotesque painted by Belgian artist Guy Peellaert. It was controversial as the full painting clearly showed the hybrid’s genitalia. Very few copies of this original cover made their way into circulation at the time of the album’s release. Bowie also begins three days of rehearsals for the tour at the Port Chester Capitol Theatre, before the elaborate set is sent to the first tour stop in Montreal.
1974, AC/DC appeared at Chequers in Sydney, Australia.
1974, Dolly Parton was at No.1 on the US country chart with “I Will Always Love You.” Elvis Presley indicated that he wanted to cover the song. Parton was interested until Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, told her that it was standard procedure for the songwriter to sign over half of the publishing rights to any song Elvis recorded. Parton refused. “I Will Always Love You” later became a worldwide No.1 hit for Whitney Houston in 1992 when featured in the movie The Bodyguard.
1974, Keyboard player Rick Wakeman announced that he was leaving Yes.
1974, Paul McCartney and Wings went to No.1 on the singles chart with “Band On The Run,” his third solo No.1, and a No.3 hit in the UK. McCartney later stated that George Harrison unwittingly contributed the first line of one part of the song: “If we ever get out of here…” when he said it during one of the many Beatles’ business meetings.
1975, Aerosmith played at the Metropolitan Sports Center, Bloomington, Minnesota.
1976, Yes performed at Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinnati, Ohio.
1977, Crosby, Stills & Nash appeared at Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland.
1978, Genesis played at Ekeberghallen, in Oslo, Norway.
1979, Marianne Faithfull married Ben Brieley of punk rock band The Vibrators.
1979, On tonight’s Midnight Special, Gloria Gaynor hosts Paul McCartney & Wings, Rod Stewart, and Bad Company.
1980, The Grateful Dead performed at Folsum Field on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder, Colorado.
1980, Roxy Music appeared at Stadthalle, Bremen, Germany.
1984, Van Halen played at Tingley Coliseum, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Rock History June 8
1985, Tears For Fears started a two-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” the group’s first US number one. In 1986, the song won Best Single at the Brit Awards. Band member and co-writer Roland Orzabal argued that the song deserved to win the Ivor Novello International Hit of the Year award, claiming that the winner, “19” by Paul Hardcastle – was not an actual song, but only a “dialogue collage.”
1987, Yogi Horton a session drummer with Luther Vandross, jumped to his death from a 17th floor hotel window, having told his wife he was tired of Living in the shadow of Vandross Also worked with The B-52’s, Diana Ross and Debbie Harry.
1996, The Fugees scored their first UK No.1 single with their version of the Roberta Flack 1973 hit “Killing Me Softly.”
2003, Led Zeppelin were at No.1 on the US album chart with their triple live album How The West Was Won, the band’s seventh US No.1 album. The performances were from the band’s 1972 tour of the United States, recorded at the LA Forum on June 25, 1972 and Long Beach Arena on June 27, 1972.
Born on this day: Nancy Sinatra (1940); Chuck Negron, Three Dog Night (1942); Boz Scaggs (1944); Alex Van Halen (1953); and Nick Rhodes, Duran Duran (1962)
Get more Today in Rock History
AC/DC, Aerosmith, Bob Dylan, Boz Scaggs, Crosby Stills & Nash, David Bowie, Deep Purple, Dolly Parton, Genesis, King Crimson, Paul McCartney, Procul Harum, Roxy Music, Tears For Fears, The Allman Brothers Band, The Beatles, The Fugees, The Grateful Dead, The Knickerbockers, The Rolling Sones, The Young Rascals, Van Halen, Wilson Pickett, Yes.
