Tag: Feature Year

Feature Year

Sunday 1/3/2021 12am ET: Feature Year: 1969


January 4 – Guitarist Jimi Hendrix is accused of arrogance by British television producers after playing an impromptu version of “Sunshine of Your Love” past his allotted timeslot on the BBC1 show Happening for Lulu.
January 12 – Led Zeppelin’s eponymous debut album released.
January 18 – Pete Best wins his defamation lawsuit against The Beatles. Best had originally sought $8 million, but ended up being awarded much less.
January 30 – The Beatles perform for the last time in public, on the roof of the Apple building at 3 Savile Row, London. The performance, which was filmed for the Let It Be movie, is stopped early by police after neighbors complain about the noise.

February – Eric Burdon & The Animals disband.
February 3 – John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr hire Allen Klein as The Beatles’ new business manager, against the wishes of Paul McCartney.
February 4 – Paul McCartney hires the law firm of Eastman & Eastman, Linda Eastman’s father’s law firm, as general legal counsel for Apple Records.
February 15 – Vickie Jones is arrested for impersonating Aretha Franklin in a concert performance. Jones’ impersonation was so convincing that nobody in the audience asked for a refund.
February 17 – Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan record together in Nashville, Tennessee. Only one song, “Girl from the North Country”, would be released from these sessions.
February 18 – Lulu and Bee Gee Maurice Gibb are married in the UK.
February 24 – Johnny Cash performs “A Boy Named Sue” at California’s San Quentin State Prison

March 1 – During a performance at Miami’s Dinner Key Auditorium, Jim Morrison of the Doors is arrested for allegedly exposing himself during the show. Morrison is officially charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, indecent behavior, open profanity and public drunkenness.
March 12 – The 11th Grammy Awards are presented. Paul McCartney marries Linda Eastman in London. George Harrison and his wife Pattie are arrested in the UK on charges of hashish possession.
March 20 – John Lennon marries Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.
March 25-31 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono host a “Bed-In” for peace in their room at the Amsterdam Hilton, turning their honeymoon into an antiwar event. Lennon also learns from a morning newspaper that publisher Dick James has sold his shares of Northern Songs to Lew Grade’s Associated Television (ATV).
March 26 -Lotti Golden records her debut LP Motor-Cycle (Atlantic SD 8223) at Atlantic Studios in New York City, featured in Newsweek (July 1969).
March 29 – At the 14th annual Eurovision Song Contest held at the Teatro Real, Madrid, Spain, the final result is a four-way tie for first place between Spain (“Vivo cantando” – Salomé); United Kingdom (“Boom Bang-a-Bang” – Lulu); Netherlands (“De Troubadour” – Lenny Kuhr) and France (“Un jour, un enfant” – Frida Boccara). As there was no tie-break rule in force up to this time, the four entries involved, who each scored 18 points, are declared ex-aequo winners.

April 1 – The Beach Boys file a lawsuit against their record label, Capitol Records, for $2,041,446.64 in unpaid royalties and producer’s fees for Brian Wilson. Capitol retaliates by deleting most of its Beach Boys catalog, severely limiting the band’s income.
April 8 – Opening for Ten Years After at the Fillmore East in New York City, Family perform their first U.S. concert, and the show is an unmitigated disaster. Vocalist Roger Chapman, on his 27th birthday, throws a microphone stand into the audience, unintentionally in the direction of Fillmore East impresario Bill Graham.
April 20 – The L.A. Free Festival in Venice, California ends early following a riot of audience members, 117 of which were arrested.
April 22 – The first complete performance of The Who’s rock opera Tommy during a performance in Dolton, Devon, UK John Lennon officially changes his name from John Winston Lennon to John Winston Ono-Lennon.
April 24 – The Beatles make a $5.1 million counter offer to the Northern Songs stockholders in an attempt to keep Associated TV from controlling the band’s music.
April 28 – Chicago releases its debut album, The Chicago Transit Authority.

May 3 – Sly & the Family Stone release their breakthrough album, Stand!, which became one of the top-selling albums of the decade and made the band one of the most popular acts in rock and soul music.
Jimi Hendrix is arrested by Canadian Mounties at Toronto’s International Airport for possession of narcotics. Hendrix is released on $10,000 bail.
May 6 – In London, representatives of Warner Brothers-Seven Arts discuss the purchase of fifteen percent of The Beatles’ Northern Songs.
May 10 – The Turtles perform at the White House. Singer Mark Volman falls off the stage five times.

June 2 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono host a “Bed-In” at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Canada. The couple records the song “Give Peace a Chance” live in their suite with Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary, and several others.
June 12 – 25 – First Annual Rock & Roll Revival fifth estate Performers include amongst others MC5, Johnny Winter, Chuck Berry, Dr. John, Sun Ra, David Peel, The Stooges, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band
June 13 – Mick Taylor joins the Rolling Stones.
June 29 – Bass player Noel Redding announces to the media that he has quit the Jimi Hendrix Experience, having effectively done so during the recording of Electric Ladyland.

July 3 – Brian Jones is found dead in the swimming pool at his home in Sussex, England, almost a month after leaving The Rolling Stones.
July 5 – The Rolling Stones proceed with a free concert in Hyde Park, London, as a tribute to Brian Jones; it is also the band’s first concert with guitarist Mick Taylor. Estimates of the audience range from 250,000 to 400,000.
July 31 – Elvis Presley returns to live performances in Las Vegas. The engagement ends on August 28.

August 9 – Members of would-be folk singer Charles Manson’s “family” murder film star Sharon Tate and others, in Tate’s home.
August 15-17 – The Woodstock Music and Art Festival is held at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, New York, near Woodstock, New York. Performers include Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, Joan Baez, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Country Joe and the Fish, Ten Years After, and Sly & the Family Stone.
August 21-24 – The Bilzen Jazz and Pop Festival is held in Bilzen, Belgium. Performers include Deep Purple, Shocking Blue, The Moody Blues, Soft Machine, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, The Move and The Blossom Toes.
August 30-31 – The Isle of Wight Festival is held in Wootton Bridge. Performers include amongst others The Band, Blodwyn Pig, Edgar Broughton Band, Joe Cocker, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, Bob Dylan, Family, The Who, Free, Mighty Baby, The Moody Blues, The Nice, The Pretty Things, Third Ear Band.

September 13 – John Lennon and Plastic Ono Band perform at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival 12-hour music festival, backed by Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Alan White. Other performers on the bill include Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and up-and-comers Chicago. It is Lennon’s first-ever public rock performance without one or more of The Beatles since meeting Paul McCartney in 1957. He decides before returning to the UK to leave The Beatles permanently.
September 24 – Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra perform the Concerto for Group and Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in London, in the first elaborate collaboration between a rock band and an orchestra.

October 14 – The final single by Diana Ross & The Supremes, “Someday We’ll Be Together”, is released. The single becomes the final #1 hit of 1969 (and of the 1960s). After a farewell concert in January 1970, Diana Ross leaves the Supremes for a solo career.
October 18 – Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band Live at the Fillmore East, NY

November – Simon & Garfunkel give live concert at Iowa State University, where they record the track “Bye, Bye Love” for their upcoming album, Bridge Over Troubled Water.
November 1 – After seven years off the top of the charts, Elvis Presley hits No. 1 on the Billboard chart with “Suspicious Minds”.
November 7 – The Rolling Stones open their US tour in Fort Collins, Colorado.
November 8 – Simon & Garfunkel, on tour for the first time with a band, give live concert in Carbondale, Illinois, presumably at Southern Illinois University. The concert is not released until 1999 as part of a recording compiled by Head Records, called Village Vanguard.
November 11 – Simon & Garfunkel give live concert at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. The recording is later released in the 1990s as Back to College on Yellow Dog Records and A Time of Innocence on Bell Bottom Records.
November 15 – Musik für die Beethovenhalle in Bonn, a multi-auditorium retrospective concert of the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen, with the world premiere of his Fresco presented in four different foyer spaces continuously over a span of four-and-a-half hours.
November 29 – Billboard Magazine changes its policy of charting the A and B sides of 45 singles on its pop chart. The former policy charted the two sides separately, but the new policy considers both sides as one chart entry. The Beatles are the first beneficiary of the new policy as their current 45 single featuring “Come Together” on one side, and “Something” on the other, accrue enough combined points to make the single a #1 pop hit. Similarly, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” and “Down On The Corner” accrue enough combined points to reach #3 three weeks later.
November 30 – Simon & Garfunkel air TV special Songs of America, ostensibly an hour-long show that is anti-war and anti-poverty featuring live footage from their 1969 tour.

December – The Jackson 5 release their debut album, Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5.
December 6 – Altamont Free Concert
Zubin Mehta marries Nancy Kovack.
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash perform together on The Johnny Cash Show.
Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker & Steve Winwood form Blind Faith.
Brian Eno’s musical career begins as a member of Cornelius Cardew’s Scratch Orchestra.

Feature Year

Wednesday 6/10/2020 1pm ET: Feature Year – 1967


The year 1967 was an important one for psychedelic rock, and was famous for its “Summer of Love” in San Francisco. It saw major releases from The Beatles (Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour), Small Faces (“Itchycoo Park”), Eric Burdon & The Animals (Winds of Change), Big Brother and The Holding Company (Big Brother and The Holding Company), The Doors (The Doors and Strange Days), Jefferson Airplane (Surrealistic Pillow and After Bathing at Baxter’s), Moby Grape (Moby Grape), Traffic (Mr. Fantasy), Pink Floyd (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn), Love (Forever Changes), The Beach Boys (Smiley Smile), Cream (Disraeli Gears), The Byrds (Younger Than Yesterday), The Rolling Stones (Between the Buttons and Their Satanic Majesties Request), The Who (The Who Sell Out), The Velvet Underground (The Velvet Underground & Nico), Procol Harum (Procol Harum), The Monkees (Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.), and The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold As Love).

Feature Year

Wednesday 6/3/2020 2pm ET: Feature Year 1968


January 4 – Guitarist Jimi Hendrix is jailed by Stockholm police, after trashing a hotel room during a drunken fist fight with bassist Noel Redding.
January 6 – The Gibson Guitar Corporation patents its Gibson Flying V electric guitar design.
January 13 – Johnny Cash performs his famous concert at Folsom State Prison in California.
January 20 – The Who and the Small Faces start with a tour of Australia and New Zealand.
February 1 – Universal Studios offers the Doors $500,000 to star in a feature film, which is never made.
February 4 – The Bee Gees make their American television debut on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
February 12 – Jimi Hendrix is given an honorary high school diploma from Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington. Hendrix is also given the key to the city.
February 16 – The Beatles, Mike Love, Mia Farrow, Donovan and others travel to India to visit Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at Rishikesh.
February 18 – David Gilmour joins Pink Floyd, replacing founder Syd Barrett, who had checked himself into a psychiatric hospital.
February 21 – McGraw-Hill, Inc., outbids eight other publishers and pays $150,000 for the U.S. rights to Hunter Davies’ authorized biography of the Beatles.
February 22 – Florence Ballard of the Supremes is released from her contract with Motown.
February 27 – Doo-wop Singer Frankie Lymon is found dead at his grandmother’s house in Harlem, New York, of a heroin overdose
March 1 – Johnny Cash and June Carter are married in Franklin, Kentucky, with Merle Kilgore as best man.
March 8 – Bill Graham opens the Fillmore East in an abandoned movie theater in New York City.
March 25 – The 58th and final new episode of The Monkees airs on NBC.
March 30 – The Yardbirds record their live album Live Yardbirds at the Anderson Theater.
April 5 – James Brown appears on national television, in an attempt to calm feelings of anger in the United States following the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
April 6
Pink Floyd announced that Syd Barrett, who was replaced two months earlier amid deteriorating mental health, had officially left the group.
April 7 – Singer/pianist/songwriter Nina Simone’s performance at Westbury Music Fair is dedicated to the late Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. The song “Why? (the king of love is dead)” by Gene Taylor is performed for the first time. The show is partially released on the Emmy nominated album Nuff Said (1968).
April 29 – The rock musical Hair opens on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre.
May 4 – Mary Hopkin performs on the British TV show Opportunity Knocks. Hopkin catches the attention of model Twiggy, who recommends her to Paul McCartney. McCartney would soon sign Hopkin to Apple Records.
May 5 – Buffalo Springfield performs together for the last time in Long Beach, California.
May 7
Aretha Franklin records her live LP Aretha in Paris at the Olympia Theater.
Karlheinz Stockhausen begins composing his fifteen intuitive music works, Aus den sieben Tagen.
May 14 – At a press conference, John Lennon and Paul McCartney introduce the Beatles’ new business concept, Apple Corps, Ltd., an entertainment company that included a recording studio, a record label, and clothing store.
May 26 – Blues artist Little Willie John dies in prison after being convicted of manslaughter.
May 30 – The Beatles begin recording The White Album (officially titled, simply, The Beatles). Sessions would span over 4 months, ending on October 14.
June 20
David Ruffin is fired from The Temptations due to his ego and because he began inquiring into the Temptations’ financial records, demanding an accounting of the group’s money.
Martha Reeves & the Vandellas make their debut at the Copacabana in New York City, winning a rave review in The New York Times. The engagement was recorded but remains in the Motown vaults.
July – Release in Brazil of the album Tropicália: ou Panis et Circencis by Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and others, with arrangements by Rogério Duprat, inaugurates the Tropicália movement in music.
July 7 – The Yardbirds perform for the last time before disbanding.
July 9–14 – The International Eisteddfod takes place in Llangollen, North Wales
July 18 – Mina presents her Italian white soul hits “Se stasera sono qui” and “Colpo al cuore”. The performance is transmitted live without playback from the Auditorio A of the Radiotelevisione Italiana regional headquarters in Naples.
August 1 – Jeff Beck Group releases their album Truth. A seminal work of heavy metal, it incorporates blues and hard rock. It introduced the talents of Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood.
August 4 – Yes performs for the first time, at a summer camp.
August 5–10 – The Royal National Eisteddfod takes place in Barry, Wales.
August 21 – Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. At this evening’s performance of The Proms in London, the USSR Symphony Orchestra plays with Mstislav Rostropovich as soloist in Dvořák’s Cello Concerto.
August 23 – Simon & Garfunkel give a live concert at the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, California. A recording is later released on CD in 1994 by Australian company Vigotone Records as Voices of Intelligent Dissent.
September 7 – Led Zeppelin performs for the first time, billed as The New Yardbirds (the Yardbirds had disbanded two months earlier, and guitarist Jimmy Page has subsequently formed this new group). Also this day, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour premieres on NBC.
September 14 – Two sons of singer Roy Orbison, 10-year-old Roy DeWayne Orbison and 6-year-old Anthony King Orbison, die in a house fire in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Orbison’s youngest son, Wesley, is miraculously saved by Roy’s parents.
September 15
Song of Summer, Ken Russell’s noted TV documentary about Frederick Delius, is shown for the first time as part of the BBC’s Omnibus series.
PocketDiscs are released in several test markets in the United States.
September 19 – The Who begin recording Tommy, a rock opera that tells the story about a deaf, dumb and blind boy, including his experiences with life and the relationship with his family.
October 7 – Jose Feliciano at Tiger Stadium for 1968 World Series in Detroit sing a personal and controversial soul version of “Star-Spangled Banner”, this was the first time for the National Anthem in a different style.
October 8 – The soundtrack for the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet is released, containing popular “What Is a Youth” tune.
November 8 – John and Cynthia Lennon are divorced.
November 11 – Three days after their divorce, John Lennon costars with Yoko Ono in Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, which ends up being a flop.
November 17 – Diana Ross & the Supremes replace The Beatles’ hugely successful “Hey Jude” at number-one in the U.S. with “Love Child”; this would be the last of five turnovers at number-one between the two most successful music acts in America during the 1960s.
November 22 – The Beatles (also known as “The White Album”) by The Beatles is released. Also released is The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society by The Kinks.
November 26 – Cream plays their farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall. It will be the last time Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker play together until their 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
December 2
Jimi Hendrix’s manager Chas Chandler quits over differences with Hendrix during the recording of Electric Ladyland
Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company perform their last concert together before Janis goes solo.
Elvis Presley’s If I Can Dream airs on NBC and finished as not only the highest rated TV show for the week it was broadcast, but the highest rated Television Special of 1968.
December 9
A political confrontation at the Planten un Blomen Hall in Hamburg results in cancellation of the scheduled premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s oratorio Das Floß der Medusa, a score dedicated to Che Guevara.
TCB airs on NBC starring Diana Ross & the Supremes and The Temptations, becoming the first variety special in America to feature an exclusively African American cast.
Shinjuku Music Festival is broadcast for the first time by Nippon Cultural Broadcasting.
December 11 – The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus was filmed. Acts included The Rolling Stones, The Who, Taj Mahal, Jethro Tull, The Dirty Mac, and Marianne Faithfull. This is the last appearance of Brian Jones as a member of The Rolling Stones.
December 20 – Peter Tork announces he is leaving The Monkees.
December 22 – The Animals reunite for one benefit concert at the Newcastle City Hall while Eric Burdon & The Animals are disbanding.
December 31 – Small Faces break up when Steve Marriott storms off the stage.

Feature Year

Wednesday 5/27/20 2pm ET: Feature Year: 1981

This week on Feature Year, 1981.

January – Nearly a year after the suicide of Ian Curtis, the surviving members of Joy Division plus Gillian Gilbert, now under the name New Order, release their debut single “Ceremony”; the single and its B-side, “In a Lonely Place”, are both re-recordings of songs originally written and performed by Curtis. The single’s release marks the band’s first public use of the “New Order” moniker, which they would retain for the remainder of their career.
10 January – A revival of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance opens at Broadway’s Uris Theatre, starring Linda Ronstadt and Rex Smith.
18 January – Wendy O. Williams of The Plasmatics is arrested in Milwaukee for simulating masturbation with a sledgehammer on stage. In a scuffle with the police Williams is pinned to the floor and receives a cut above the eye requiring twelve stitches.
24 January – Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler is injured in a motorcycle crash that leaves him hospitalized for two months.
9 February – Phil Collins releases his first solo album, Face Value; while the album would end up a smash success, Collins would remain a member of Genesis until 1995.
12 February – Rush release the highly regarded album Moving Pictures which eventually becomes the band’s sixth platinum album.
14 February – Billy Idol leaves the band Generation X to begin a solo career.
14 March – Suffering from bleeding ulcers, Eric Clapton is admitted to United Hospital in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. Clapton’s 60-city tour of the US is cancelled, and he remains in hospital for a month.
27 March – Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off a dove at a CBS record label gathering in Los Angeles.
1 April – The Go-Go’s sign to IRS Records.
4 April – British pop group Bucks Fizz wins the 26th Eurovision Song Contest, held at the RDS Simmonscourt Pavilion, Dublin, with the song “Making Your Mind Up”.
11 April – Van Halen’s lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen marries actress Valerie Bertinelli.
18 April – Yes announce that they are breaking up. (They would reunite frequently in years to come).
20 April – The Mamas & the Papas’ John Phillips is sentenced to five years in jail after pleading guilty to drug possession charges. Phillips’ sentence would be suspended after thirty days in exchange for 250 hours of community service.
22 April – Eric Clapton is taken to the hospital suffering from bruised ribs and a lacerated shin, following a car accident in Seattle, Washington.
27 April – Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach marry, in London, England.
2 May – British vocalist Sheena Easton hits No. 1 in the US with “Morning Train (9 to 5)” following a swift rise to fame as the result of a reality TV show.
14 May – Diana Ross signs with RCA Records (EMI internationally), leaving Motown Records, her label of two decades. The $20,000,000 deal is the most lucrative recording contract in history at that time.
15 May – A riot breaks out at The Ritz rock club in New York when Public Image Ltd plays behind a videoscreen while completely different music plays over the club’s speakers.
4 June – U2 appears on the Tomorrow show with Tom Snyder, their first U.S. television appearance.
5 June – The TV series Night Flight, a variety show featuring music documentaries and videos, is premiered on the USA Network.
6 June – Kerrang! magazine publishes its first issue. Angus Young of AC/DC is on the cover.
30 June – Jerry Lee Lewis is rushed to hospital in Memphis for emergency surgery for a tear in his stomach. Despite being given less than a 50% chance of survival, he eventually pulls through.
1 August
MTV broadcasts for the first time on cable television in the United States, playing music videos 24 hours a day. First to air is “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles.
The success of Stars On 45 leads to a short-lived medley craze. The most successful imitator of the Stars On 45 format is, rather unexpectedly, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, whose “Hooked On Classics (Parts 1&2)” reaches number two in the charts.
23 August – The Violent Femmes are discovered by members of The Pretenders busking outside a Milwaukee venue and are invited to play a 10-minute acoustic set as a second opening act in the Pretenders’ show that night.
11 September – Iron Maiden fires lead singer Paul Di’Anno.
19 September – Simon & Garfunkel perform a free reunion concert in New York City’s Central Park attended by over 500,000 fans.
25 September – The Rolling Stones open their US tour in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
26 September – Iron Maiden hires Samson lead singer Bruce Bruce AKA Bruce Dickinson to replace Paul Di’Anno. Dickinson will finish off the last 7 dates of the Killer World Tour.
26 October – Iron Maiden plays its first show with Bruce Dickinson as the new lead singer in Bologna, Italy.
27 October – The British Phonographic Industry takes out newspaper ads unveiling its new slogan: “Home Taping Is Killing Music”. The ads advocate a levy on blank cassette tapes.
31 October – Punk band Fear makes a memorable appearance on Saturday Night Live. A group of fans storm the stage and damage TV equipment while moshing, resulting in the show cutting to commercial.
18 November – While sitting in Tom’s Restaurant in New York City, Suzanne Vega composes the song “Tom’s Diner”.
18 December – An estimated 35 million people around the world watch a live satellite transmission of a Rod Stewart concert at the Los Angeles Forum. It is the first broadcast of its kind since Elvis Presley’s “Aloha from Hawaii” special in 1973.
31 December – The tenth annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve special airs on ABC, with appearances by Four Tops, Rick Springfield, Barry Manilow, Alabama and Rick James.
Also in 1981
The organ at the famous Heinävesi Church in Finland is renewed, using locks from the original organ.
Alice Cooper drastically changes his appearance, leaving behind his trademark make-up and donning a military uniform.
Synthpop enjoys mainstream popularity in the UK, with groups such as Ultravox, Depeche Mode, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and The Human League releasing hit singles and albums.
Menudo’s golden era (1981–1985) begins in Latin America, parts of Europe and Asia.
Brad Whitford leaves Aerosmith and is replaced by Rick Dufay.
Hal Willner “invents” the modern tribute album with Amacord Nino Rota.

Feature Year

Wednesday 2pm ET: Feature Year: 1976

January 5 – Former Beatles road manager Mal Evans is shot dead by Los Angeles police after refusing to drop what police only later find is an air rifle.
January 7 – Kenneth Moss, a former record company executive, is sentenced to 120 days in the Los Angeles County Jail and four years probation for involuntary manslaughter in the 1974 drug-induced death of Average White Band drummer Robbie McIntosh.
January 13 – A trial begins for seven Brunswick Records and Dakar Records employees. The record company employees are charged with stealing more than $184,000 in royalties from artists.
January 19 – Concert promoter Bill Sargent makes an offer of $30 million to the Beatles if they will reunite for a concert.
February 15 – Bette Midler bails seven members of her entourage out of jail after they are arrested on charges of cocaine and marijuana possession.
February 19 – Former Tower of Power lead singer Rick Stevens is arrested and charged with the drug-related murders of three men in San Jose, California.
February 20 – Kiss have their footprints added to the sidewalk outside Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theater. February 24 – Having been released one week before, The Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) compilation becomes the first album in history to be certified platinum by the RIAA. The new platinum certification represents sales of at least 1 million copies for albums and 2 million copies for singles.
March 4 – ABBA arrive at Sydney airport for a promotional tour in Australia.
March 6 – EMI Records reissues all 22 previously released British Beatles singles, plus a new single of the classic “Yesterday”. All 23 singles hit the UK charts at the same time.
March 7 – A wax likeness of Elton John is put on display in London’s Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum.
March 9 – The Who’s Keith Moon collapses onstage ten minutes into a performance at the Boston Garden.
March 15 – Members of The Plastic People of the Universe are arrested in communist Czechoslovakia. They were sentenced from 8 to 18 months in jail.
March 20 – Alice Cooper marries Sheryl Goddard in an Acapulco restaurant.
March 25 – Jackson Browne’s wife Phyllis commits suicide.
March 26 – In Paris, France, Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch breaks one of his fingers when he slips in his hotel bathroom after the final performance on the band’s European tour. The injury ended up delaying the band’s United States tour by three weeks.
April 3 – British pop group Brotherhood of Man win the 21st Eurovision Song Contest in The Hague, Netherlands, with the song “Save Your Kisses For Me”. It goes on to be the biggest selling Eurovision winner ever.
April 14 – Stevie Wonder announces that he has signed a “$13 million-plus” contract with Motown Records.
April 24 – Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels makes a semi-serious on-air offer to pay the Beatles $3000 to reunite live on the show. In a 1980 interview, John Lennon stated that he and Paul McCartney happened to be watching the show together at Lennon’s apartment in New York and considered walking down to the SNL studio “for a gag” but were “too tired”. On May 22, Michaels raises his offer from $3000 to $3,200.
April 28 – The Rolling Stones open their European tour in Frankfurt, Germany.
April 29 – When his tour stops in Memphis, Tennessee, Bruce Springsteen jumps the wall at Elvis Presley’s mansion, “Graceland”, in trying to see his idol. Security guards stop Springsteen and escort him off the grounds.
May 3 – Paul McCartney and Wings start their Wings over America Tour in Fort Worth, Texas. This is the first time McCartney has performed in the US since The Beatles’ last concert in 1966 at Candlestick Park. Paul Simon puts together a benefit show at Madison Square Garden to raise money for the New York Public Library. Phoebe Snow, Jimmy Cliff and the Brecker Brothers also perform. The concert brings in over $30,000 for the Library.
May 19 – Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is involved in a car accident northwest of London. Cocaine is found in his wrecked car. Richards is given a court date of January 12, 1977. Rumor spread by German press: ABBA members killed in plane crash, only Anni-Frid survived.
May 25 – Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour ends.
June – Former Spring Canyon keyboardist Mark Cook joins Daniel Amos.
June 6 – Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg suffer tragedy when their 10-week old son Tara dies of respiratory failure.
June 10 – Alice Cooper collapses and is rushed to UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles, three weeks before the Goes To Hell tour would begin. The tour is cancelled.
June 18 – ABBA perform “Dancing Queen” for the first time on Swedish television in Stockholm on the eve of the wedding of King Carl XVI Gustaf to Silvia Sommerlath.
June 25 – Uriah Heep performs its last show with David Byron as lead singer in Bilbao, Spain. Byron is sacked shortly afterward.
July 2 – Composer Benjamin Britten accepts a life peerage, only a few months before his death. Brian Wilson performs on stage with The Beach Boys for the first time in three years at a Day on the Green concert in Oakland, California.
July 4 – Many outdoor festivals and shows are held all over the United States as the country celebrates its bicentennial. Elton John performs for 62,000 at Shaffer Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, while The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac play for 36,000 at Tampa Stadium, and Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top draw 35,000 at Memphis Memorial Stadium.
July 7 – 50,000 fans brave the rain in New York to attend a free Jefferson Starship concert in Central Park.
July 27 – Tina Turner files for divorce from husband Ike.
August 5 – Eric Clapton provokes an uproar over comments he makes on stage at a Birmingham concert, voicing his opposition to immigration using multiple racial slurs while exhorting the audience to support Enoch Powell and to “keep Britain white”.
August 11 – Keith Moon is rushed to hospital for the second time in five months, collapsing after trashing his Miami hotel room.
August 13 – The official ABBA logo with the reversed ‘B’ is adopted.
August 16 – Cliff Richard becomes one of the first Western artists ever to perform in the Soviet Union when he gives a concert in Leningrad.
August 21 – An estimated 120,000 fans pack Knebworth House to see The Rolling Stones. Todd Rundgren, Lynyrd Skynyrd and 10cc also perform.
August 31 – a U.S. district court decision rules that George Harrison had “subconsciously” copied The Chiffons’ hit “He’s So Fine” when he wrote the song “My Sweet Lord”.
September 1 – Ode Records president Lou Adler is kidnapped at his Malibu home and released eight hours later after a $25,000 ransom is paid. Two suspects are soon arrested.
September 3 – Rory Gallagher joins the short list of Western popular musicians to perform behind the Iron Curtain with a show in Warsaw, Poland.
September 8 – In a candid interview appearing in the October 7 edition of Rolling Stone published today, Elton John publicly discloses his bisexuality for the first time.
September 14 – The one-hour Bob Dylan concert special Hard Rain airs on NBC, coinciding with the release of the live album of the same name.
September 18 – Queen performs a massive free concert at London’s Hyde Park for over 150,000 people. The second annual Rock Music Awards air on CBS. Peter Frampton wins Rock Personality of the Year, while Fleetwood Mac wins for Best Group and Best Album.
September 20 & September 21 – 100 Club Punk Festival, the first international punk festival is held in London. Siouxsie and the Banshees play their first concert.
September 25 – Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr form a band called Feedback in Dublin. The band would later be renamed U2.
October 2 – Joe Cocker performs a duet of “Feelin’ Alright” with himself (as portrayed by John Belushi) on Saturday Night Live.
October 8 – English punk rock group the Sex Pistols sign a contract with EMI Records.
October 11 – Irish singer Joe Dolan is banned for life by Aer Lingus after an air rage incident en route to Corfu from Dublin.
October 20 – The Led Zeppelin concert film The Song Remains the Same premieres at Cinema I in New York.
October 31 – George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic begin “The P-Funk/Rubber Band Earth Tour” in Houston, a national live series highlighting one of the biggest and revolutionary stage shows in the history of the music industry (the rock group Kiss would be the other group to do a similar act), relying on elaborate costumes, special lighting and effects, and extremely large props including “the Mothership”, which would arrive and land on stage, all of what this band is generally known for. This live set would vary in length (on average of 3 to 5 hours long) and at high volume.
November 18 – Former Tower of Power lead singer Rick Stevens and another person are found guilty on two counts of murder.
November 23 – Thin Lizzy are forced to cancel their U.S. tour when guitarist Brian Robertson injures his hand in a bar fight. Jerry Lee Lewis is arrested after showing up drunk outside Graceland at 3 a.m., waving a pistol and loudly demanding to see Elvis Presley. Presley denied his request.
November 25 – The Band gives its last public performance; Martin Scorsese is on hand to film it.
November 26 – The Sex Pistols’ debut single “Anarchy in the U.K.” is released by EMI.
December 1 – In the UK, the Sex Pistols cause a national outcry after swearing on Thames Television’s Today show.
December 2 – The Bee Gees perform at Madison Square Garden and give the proceeds to the Police Athletic League in New York. In January 1979, they will receive the Police Athletic League’s “Superstars of the Year” award.
December 3 – A Pink Floyd album cover shoot in South London goes awry when a large inflatable pig balloon being used for the shoot breaks free of its moorings and drifts out of sight.
Bob Marley and several others are injured when gunmen burst into his home in Kingston, Jamaica and open fire.
December 8 – The Carpenters air their “Very First Television Special” on ABC. The Eagles release Hotel California.
December 12 – Ace Frehley is shocked on stage during a Kiss concert in Lakeland, Florida after touching an ungrounded metal railing. The incident inspires the song “Shock Me”.
December 31 – The fifth annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve special airs on ABC, with performances by Donna Summer, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, The Four Seasons, and KC and the Sunshine Band.

Also in 1976
– The last practitioner of the rekuhkara form of throat-singing dies, in Hokkaido, Japan.
– Tenor Franco Corelli retires from the stage at the age of 55.
– Cheryl Byron performs rapso in calypso tents for the first time, beginning the popularization of rapso.
– Peter Brown’s solo career begins.
– Peter Tosh’s solo career begins.
– Bunny Wailer’s solo career begins.
– Leif Garrett’s solo career begins.
– .38 Special’s musical career begins.
– Y&T (Yesterday & Today)’s musical career begins.
– Sergio Franchi becomes TV spokesman for Chrysler Corporation’s Plymouth “Volare” and media spokesman for Hills Brothers coffee.
– Steve Martin signs a contract with Warner Bros.
– Eddie Money signs a contract with CBS.
– “Ten Percent”, by Double Exposure, becomes the first 12-inch single commercially available to the public (as opposed to DJ-only promotional copies).
– The Chinese Music Society of North America is founded.
– Gabin Dabiré embarks on a tour of Italy.

 

Feature Year

Wednesday 3pm ET: Feature Year: 1970


January 3 – Former Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett releases his first solo album The Madcap Laughs.
January 4 – The Who drummer Keith Moon fatally runs over his chauffer with his Bentley trying to escape a mob outside a pub. The death is later ruled an accident.
January 7 – Max Yasgur, owner of the New York farm where the 1969 Woodstock Festival was held, is sued for $35,000 in property damages by neighboring farmers.
January 14 – Diana Ross and the Supremes perform for the last time together at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas.
January 16 – John Lennon’s London art gallery exhibit of lithographs, Bag One, is shut down by Scotland Yard for displaying “erotic lithographs”
January 24 – James Shep Sheppard, of The Heartbeats and Shep and the Limelites, is found murdered in his car on the Long Island Expressway
January 26 – Simon & Garfunkel release their final album together, Bridge Over Troubled Water. The title track and album stay #1 on the Billboard charts for six weeks and go on to win a record six Grammys at the 13th Grammy Awards, including “Record of the Year”, “Song of the Year”, and “Album of the Year.” In Britain it tops the album chart at regular intervals over the next two years, and becomes the best-selling album in Britain during the 1970s.
January 27 – Miles Davis makes the final recordings for his experimental album Circle in the Round, featuring sitar and tabla.
January 28 – The newly formed Band of Gypsies breaks up when guitarist Jimi Hendrix walks out after playing just two songs, telling the audience “I’m sorry we just can’t get it together”.
February 11 – The film The Magic Christian, starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr, is premiered in New York City. The film’s soundtrack album, including Badfinger’s “Come and Get It” (written and produced by Paul McCartney), is released on Apple Records.
February 13 – Black Sabbath release their self titled debut album in England.
February 14 – The Who records Live At Leeds in Yorkshire, England. The Grateful Dead plays an equally historic concert on the same date at the Fillmore East, New York City.
February 17 – Joni Mitchell announces that she is retiring from live performances, following her show at London’s Royal Albert Hall. She would be back performing concerts within a year.
February 23 – Ringo Starr appears on the television show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.
February 27 – Jefferson Airplane is fined $1,000 for using profanity during a concert in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
February 28 – Led Zeppelin perform in Copenhagen under the pseudonym The Nobs, to avoid a threatened lawsuit by Count Eva von Zeppelin, descendant of airship designer Ferdinand von Zeppelin.
March 4 – Janis Joplin is fined $200 for using obscene language during a concert performance in Tampa, Florida.
March 6 – Cult leader and suspected murderer Charles Manson releases an album titled Lie: The Love and Terror Cult to help finance his defense.
March 15 – West German pavilion at Expo ’70 in Osaka features 5½ hours’ daily live performances of the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen (to September 13).
March 19 – David Bowie marries model Angela Barnett.
March 21 – In Amsterdam, Dana wins the 15th annual Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland with the song “All Kinds of Everything”. She is elected to the European Parliament some 29 years later.
March 25 – José José gives a masterful performance of the song “El Triste” at the “Latin Song Festival II”, predecessor of the OTI Festival.
March 26 – Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary) pleads guilty to “taking immoral liberties” with a 14 year old girl in Washington, D.C., on August 31, 1969
April 2 – The London Magistrate’s Court hears arguments on John Lennon’s indecency summons for his exhibition of erotic lithographs during his art exhibit on January 16.
April 3 – Minneapolis nightclub the Depot opens, eventually renamed to First Avenue.
April 10 – Paul McCartney publicly announces the break-up of The Beatles.
April 14 – Michael Nesmith announces he has left The Monkees
April 17 – Johnny Cash performs at the White House at the invitation of President Richard M. Nixon.
April 20 – Paul McCartney’s first solo album, McCartney, is released.
April 24 – Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane is invited to a tea party at the White House by Tricia Nixon, daughter of U.S. President Richard Nixon. Slick arrives at the party with Abbie Hoffman, who is on trial for conspiring to riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The pair planned to spike Nixon’s tea cup with a heavy dose of LSD. Slick is recognized (although Hoffman is not) and told to leave because she is on the FBI list.
May 4 – Charles Wuorinen, 32, becomes the youngest composer ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
May 8 – The Beatles’ last LP, Let It Be, is released.
May 16 – Randy Bachman leaves The Guess Who to start up Bachman–Turner Overdrive.
May 20 – The Beatles’ film Let It Be premières in London and Liverpool. None of the four band members are in attendance at either screening.
May 23 – 24 – Grateful Dead make their first British appearance at Hollywood Festival, Newcastle-under-Lyme, on a bill also featuring Black Sabbath, Free, and Jose Feliciano. Everyone is completely upstaged by the previously unknown Mungo Jerry, whose debut single “In the Summertime” becomes the best-selling hit of the year.
June 13 – “The Long and Winding Road” becomes the Beatles’ last U.S. Number 1 song, though it is never released as a single in Britain. The Stooges play at the Cincinnati Pop Festival.
July 4 – The music countdown show American Top 40 debuts.
July 17 – The Guess Who perform at the White House for President Nixon and his guest The Prince of Wales. At Pat Nixon’s request, they do not play their breakthrough hit “American Woman” due to the song’s supposed anti-American lyrics.
July 26 – Guitarist Jimi Hendrix plays at his hometown of Seattle at Sicks Stadium where, under the influence of drugs, he starts verbally abusing members of the audience.
August 3 – Janis Joplin makes her final TV appearance, on the Dick Cavett Show.
August 26 – August 30 – The Isle of Wight Festival 1970 takes place on East Afton Farm off the coast of England. Some 600,000 people attend the largest rock festival of all time. Artists include Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Doors, Chicago, Richie Havens, John Sebastian, Joan Baez, Ten Years After, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Jethro Tull.
August 30 – The Rolling Stones open their European tour in Malmö, Sweden.
September 6 – During his final European tour, guitarist Jimi Hendrix is greeted by booing and jeering by German fans as a result of his late appearance on stage and incoherent stage performance. Bassist Billy Cox quits the tour and returns to the United States.
September 17 – Jimi Hendrix makes his last appearance, with Eric Burdon & War jamming at Ronnie Scotts Club in London. Hendrix, aged 27, dies the following day from a barbiturate overdose at his London hotel.
October 4 – Janis Joplin is found dead in her bedroom. She died from a heroin overdose, at the age of 27.
October 10 – Newly-independent Fiji adopts God Bless Fiji as its national anthem.
October 30 – Jim Morrison of The Doors, found guilty of indecent exposure and profanity because of his behavior during a March 1, 1969 concert, is sentenced to eight months of hard labor and a $500 fine.
November 23 – The Electric Factory concert venue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’ closes its doors.
December 8 – John Lennon conducts a lengthy and intensely candid interview with Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone magazine. He discusses his new solo album and the influence of primal therapy on its creation, as well as his personal traumas dating back to childhood. He also makes many revelations about his time in The Beatles, including his account of the group’s breakup. Dalida, still unable to cut a UK record deal, leaves Barclay Records for Orlando Records. Derek Bailey and Evan Parker found Incus Records, specialising in releasing free improvised music and said to be the first independent artist-owned record label. Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew is widely considered the first successful full-fledged fusion of rock and roll and jazz, as well as being one Davis’s best-known albums.