Rock History October 6
1964, The Beatles spent the afternoon recording “Eight Days A Week” at Abbey Road studios in London. Late evening was spent at The Ad Lib Club, London, partying with The Ronettes and Mick Jagger.
1965, The Who play at the Palais de Danse in Cowdenbeath, Scotland.
1967, The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded a session for the UK BBC radio show Top Gear. Stevie Wonder who was also appearing on the show, jammed with Hendrix.
1967, The Doors appeared at the Cal State Gymnasium, Los Angeles, California. Also on the bill, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and The Sunshine Company.
1967, Pink Floyd appeared at the Miss Teenage Brighton Contest, Top Rank Suite, Brighton, England, playing the musical interlude during the contest. They played “Arnold Layne,” ” See Emily Play,” ” Matilda Mother,” and “Astronomy Domine.”
1967, The Who spent two days at spent in New York at Talentmasters Studio. Al Kooper joined The Who on organ to record two versions of “Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand.” One is released on the B-side of the U.S. release “I Can See For Miles,” while the other remained in the vaults until the 1995 edition of The Who Sell Out. Also recorded is a studio version of “Summertime Blues,” an organ overdub on “Relax” performed by Pete, and new vocals to replace the guide vocals on “I Can See For Miles.”
1968, Pink Floyd performed at The Country Club, Belsize Park, in London.
1969, George Harrison’s song “Something” was released as the “A” side of a Beatles’ 45, a first for Harrison. The track was released as a “double A-side, along with Lennon and McCartney’s “Come Together,” the single will reach the top of the charts in the next month.
1970, Genesis performs at British Legion Hall, Princes Risborough, England.
1970, The US Top 5 singles we at number 5, “All Right Now” by Free, number 4, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” Diana Ross, number 3, “Candida,” Dawn, At number two, “I’ll Be There,” Jackson Five, and the top spot belonged to “Cracklin’ Rose,” by Neil Diamond.
1971, The Allman Brothers Band performed at Pan American Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
1972, Led Zeppelin flew into Hong Kong and were mobbed by fans asking for autographs. The group was just passing through Hong Kong on its way home after concerts in Japan.
1973, Cher started a two week run at number one on the US singles chart with “Half-Breed,” the singer’s second chart topper.
1973, Slade scored their second UK number one album when Sladest started a three week-run at the top of the charts. In the US, Brothers and Sisters by The Allman Brothers entered the last of it’s five week run at number one.
1974, Eric Clapton performs at The Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1975, Roxy Music plays at Trentham Garden, Stoke, England.
1976, The Who appears at Veterans Memorial Complex, Phoenix, Arizona.
1977, Frank Zappa performed at Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo, New York.
1978, Abba members Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad married.
1979, Robert John went to number one on the US singles chart with “Sad Eyes.”
1979, The Buzzcocks, supported by Joy Division, appeared at the Odeon Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland, tickets £2.50 ($4.)
1979, Led Zeppelin’s In Through The Out Door was at number one on the US album chart. Six versions of the cover were released, each depicting the same bar scene photographed from one of six different angles.
1979, “Gotta Serve Somebody” gave Bob Dylan his twelfth US top 40 hit when it entered the chart for the first time. It was recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The song won Dylan the Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Male in 1980.
1980, The Grateful Dead performed at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco.
1981, ZZ Top appeared at Hemmerleinhalle, Nuremberg, Germany.
1984, David Bowie scored his sixth UK number one album with Tonight, featuring the single “Blue Jean.”
1984, Stevie Ray Vaughn played at the Orpheum Theater, Boston, Massachusetts.
1991, Michael Jackson gave away the bride at Elizabeth Taylor’s seventh wedding, held at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. The Groom was construction worker Larry Fortensky, whom Taylor would divorce in 1997.
2005, A Rolling Stones concert at the University of Virginia, in the US, was halted eight songs into the show at the Scott Stadium after police received a bomb threat targeting the stage area. A 45-minute police sweep of the area found nothing unusual, and the band completed the show. The Stones were touring to promote their latest album, A Bigger Bang.
2010, A set of John Lennon’s fingerprints were seized by the FBI from a New York memorabilia dealer who intended to sell them for $100,000 minimum bid. The prints were taken at a New York police station in 1976 when Lennon applied for permanent US residence. The bureau believed the card was still government property and was investigating how it landed in private hands.
2011, Jefferson Starship’s “We Built This City” was named “The worst song of the 1980s” in a poll by Rolling Stone magazine. “The Final Countdown” by the Swedish band Europe came in second, and “Lady in Red” by Chris de Burgh was third. Also making the top five were Wham!’s “Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go”) and “The Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats.
Born on October 6: Thomas McClary, guitar, The Commodores (1949); David Hidalgo, Los Lobos and Kevin Cronin, REO Speedwagon (1951); Matthew Sweet (1964); and Tommy Stinson, bass, The Replacements (1966)
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Abba, Bob Dylan, Cher, Eric Clapton, Frank Zappa, Genesis, George Harrison, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, Slade, Stevie Ray Vaughn, The Beatles, The Doors, The Grateful Dead, The Who, ZZ Top.
