Thursday 6/16/22 9pm ET: Feature LP: Lynyrd Skynyrd – Second Helping (1974)

Second Helping is the second studio album by Lynyrd Skynyrd, released April 15, 1974. It features the band’s biggest hit single, “Sweet Home Alabama,” an answer song to Neil Young’s “Alabama” and “Southern Man”, which reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in August 1974, as well as drummer Bob Burns’ final recordings.

Second Helping reached #12 on the Billboard album charts. The RIAA certified it Gold on September 20, 1974, and Double Platinum on July 21, 1987.

1. “Sweet Home Alabama” 4:43
2. “I Need You” 6:55
3. “Don’t Ask Me No Questions” 3:29
4. “Workin’ for MCA” 4:49
5. “The Ballad of Curtis Loew” 4:51
6. “Swamp Music” 3:31
7. “The Needle and the Spoon” 3:53
8. “Call Me the Breeze” 5:09

Ronnie Van Zant – lead vocals
Gary Rossington – guitar
Allen Collins – guitar
Ed King – guitar, backing vocals, bass on “I Need You” and “Don’t Ask Me No Questions”
Leon Wilkeson – bass (all tracks except “I Need You” and “Don’t Ask Me No Questions”), backing vocals
Bob Burns – drums, except “I Need You”
Billy Powell – keyboards
Mike Porter – drums on “I Need You”
Merry Clayton, Clydie King, Sherlie Matthews – background vocals on “Sweet Home Alabama”
Bobby Keys, Trevor Lawrence and Steve Madaio – horns on “Don’t Ask Me No Questions” and “Call Me the Breeze”
Al Kooper – backing vocals, piano on “Don’t Ask Me No Questions” and “The Ballad of Curtis Loew”

Friday 1/14/22 12pm ET: Feature Artist: Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida. The group originally formed as My Backyard in 1964 and comprised Ronnie Van Zant (lead vocalist), Gary Rossington (guitar), Allen Collins (guitar), Larry Junstrom (bass guitar) and Bob Burns (drums). The band spent five years touring small venues under various names and with several lineup changes before deciding on “Lynyrd Skynyrd” in 1969. The band released its first album in 1973, having settled on a lineup that included bassist Leon Wilkeson, keyboardist Billy Powell and guitarist Ed King. Burns left and was replaced by Artimus Pyle in 1974. King left in 1975 and was replaced by Steve Gaines in 1976. At the height of their fame in the 1970s, the band popularized the Southern rock genre with songs such as “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Free Bird”. After releasing five studio albums and one live album, the band’s career was abruptly halted on October 20, 1977, when their chartered airplane crashed, killing Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines, and seriously injuring the rest of the band.

Lynyrd Skynyrd reformed in 1987 for a reunion tour with Ronnie’s brother Johnny Van Zant as lead vocalist. They continue to tour and record with co-founder Rossington (the band’s sole continuous member), Johnny Van Zant, and Rickey Medlocke, who first wrote and recorded with the band from 1971 to 1972 before his return in 1996. In January 2018, Lynyrd Skynyrd announced its farewell tour, and continue touring as of October 2019. Members are also working on their fifteenth album.

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Lynyrd Skynyrd No. 95 on their list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”. Lynyrd Skynyrd was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006. To date, the band has sold more than 28 million records in the United States.

Monday 1/3/22 2pm ET: RadioMaxMusic Special: The Music of 1973 A to Z – Part 5

This RadioMax special features our Library of music from 1973 A2Z.

We continue with land complete letter E into G and feature music from: Ohio Players, Doobie Brothers, Merle Haggard, Chicago, Freda Payne, Hues Corporation, Elvia Presley, Genesis, T.Rex, Chairmen of The Board, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Queen and many more.

2pm to 6pm ET

Wednesday 10/13/21 12am ET: Feature LP: Lynyrd Skynyrd – Last Rebel (1993)

The Last Rebel is the seventh studio album by American rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, released February 16, 1993. It is the last album to feature drummer Kurt Custer and the last to feature guitarist Randall Hall.

“Good Lovin’s Hard to Find” – 3:55
“One Thing” – 5.13
“Can’t Take That Away” – 4:19
“Best Things in Life”– 3:54
“The Last Rebel” – 6:47
“Outta Hell in My Dodge” – 3:47
“Kiss Your Freedom Goodbye” – 4:46
“South of Heaven” – 5:15
“Love Don’t Always Come Easy” – 4:34
“Born to Run” – 7:25

Gary Rossington – guitar
Ed King – guitar
Johnny Van Zant – lead vocals
Leon Wilkeson – bass
Billy Powell – piano, Hammond organ, synthesizer
Randall Hall – guitar
Kurt Custer – drums, percussion
Dale Krantz Rossington – background vocals
Tim Lindsey – additional bass

Tuesday 8/31/21 12am ET: Feature LP: Lynyrd Skynyrd – Street Survivors (1977)

Street Survivors is the fifth studio album by the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, released on October 17, 1977. The LP is the last Skynyrd album recorded by original members Ronnie Van Zant and Allen Collins, and is the sole Skynyrd studio recording by guitarist Steve Gaines. Three days after the album’s release, the band’s chartered airplane crashed en route to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, killing the pilot, co-pilot, the group’s assistant road-manager and three band members (Van Zant, Gaines, and Gaines’ older sister, backup singer Cassie Gaines), and severely injuring most who survived the crash.

The album was an instant success, achieving gold certification just 10 days after its release. It would later go double platinum. The album performed well on the charts, peaking at #5 (the band’s highest-charting album), as did the singles “What’s Your Name” and “That Smell,” the former a top-20 hit on the singles chart.

On October 20, 1977, only three days after the release of Street Survivors, and five shows into their most successful headlining tour to date, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s chartered Convair CV-300 ran out of fuel near the end of their flight from Greenville, South Carolina, where they had just performed at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium, to LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Though the pilots attempted an emergency landing on a small airstrip, the plane crashed in a forest five miles (8 km) northeast of Gillsburg, Mississippi. Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray, were killed on impact. The other band members (Collins, Rossington, Wilkeson, Powell, Pyle, and Hawkins), tour manager Ron Eckerman, and road crew survived, but suffered serious injuries.

Following the crash and the ensuing press, Street Survivors became the band’s second platinum album and reached No. 5 on the U.S. album chart. The single “What’s Your Name?” reached No. 13 on the single airplay charts in January 1978.

The original cover sleeve for Street Survivors had featured a photograph of the band standing on a city street with all its buildings engulfed in flames, some near the center nearly obscuring Steve Gaines’s face. After the plane crash, this cover became highly controversial. Out of respect for the deceased (and at the request of Teresa Gaines, Steve’s widow), MCA Records withdrew the original cover and replaced it with a similar image of the band against a simple black background, which was on the back cover of the original sleeve. Conspiracy theorists have long claimed that only those band members touched by flame in the photograph were killed in the crash, but this is not true (flame appears to touch nearly all band members). Thirty years later, for the deluxe CD version of Street Survivors, the original “flames” cover was restored.

1. “What’s Your Name” 3:30
2. “That Smell” 5:48
3. “One More Time” 5:03
4. “I Know a Little” 3:26
5. “You Got That Right” 3:44
6. “I Never Dreamed” 5:21
7. “Honky Tonk Night Time Man” 3:59
8. “Ain’t No Good Life” 4:36
9. “Georgia Peaches” 3:15
10. “Sweet Little Missy” 5:10
11. “You Got That Right” Alternate Version 3:26
12. “I Never Dreamed” Alternate Version 4:55
13. “Jacksonville Kid” 4:03

Ronnie Van Zant – lead vocals
Steve Gaines – guitar, backing vocals, lead vocal on “Ain’t No Good Life”, co-lead vocal on “You Got That Right”
Allen Collins – guitar
Gary Rossington – guitar
Leon Wilkeson – bass, backing vocals
Artimus Pyle – drums
Billy Powell – keyboards
The Honkettes (JoJo Billingsley, Cassie Gaines, Leslie Hawkins) – backing vocals on “That Smell” and “One More Time”
Ed King – guitar on “One More Time”
Greg T. Walker – bass on “One More Time”
Rickey Medlocke – drums, backing vocals on “One More Time”
Tim Smith – backing vocals on “One More Time”
Barry Lee Harwood – dobro on “Honky Tonk Night Time Man”

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.

 

In Memoriam: Lawrence E. Junstrom (1949 – 2019)

Lawrence E. Junstrom (June 22, 1949 – October 6, 2019) was an American bassist, best known for having been in rock band .38 Special from 1977 until 2014. He was also one of the founding members of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Junstrom was the bass guitarist of Lynyrd Skynyrd from its formation in 1964, until being replaced by Leon Wilkeson in 1971. Donnie Van Zant, the younger brother of the Lynyrd Skynyrd leader, Ronnie Van Zant, formed .38 Special in 1974, with Junstrom joining as the bass guitarist in 1976.

An avid amateur radio operator, he had the call letters K4EB, which translate to “Known 4 Electric Bass”.

Junstrom retired from .38 Special in 2014, due to a hand injury which required surgery. He died on October 6, 2019, at the age of 70.

(USA TODAY) Larry Junstrom, an original member of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd and the longtime bassist for .38 Special, has died. He was 70.

His death was announced Sunday on the official Facebook account of .38 Special, a rock band that Junstrom joined in the 1970s following his stint with Lynyrd Skynyrd.

“The Big Man on the Big Bass has left us,” the statement began. “He rocked arenas all over the world and succeeded in living his dream. He was truly one of a kind, a congenial traveling companion and a great friend to all with a humorous slant on life that always kept our spirits high – a kind man with a big heart for everyone who crossed his path. There will never be another like him.”

Junstrom formed Lynyrd Skynyrd with singer Ronnie Van Zant, drummer Bob Burns and guitarists Gary Rossington and Allen Collins in 1964, but left before the band recorded their 1973 debut album, “Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd.”

The bassist went on to join the rock band .38 Special in 1977, fronted by Van Zant’s younger brother, Donnie. Junstrom performed with the group for nearly four decades, playing on hits songs “Hold On Loosely,” “Caught Up in You” and “Rockin’ Into the Night.”

“We are sending our devoted love, strength and comfort to his wife Thania and Larry’s family. We will miss our friend and partner,” .38 Special’s statement added.

Wednesday 4pm: Sounds of The 70s

This week on the Sounds of The 70s we feature:  James Taylor, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Grass Roots, Elton John, Bill Withers, Steely Dan, Cliff Richard, Narvel Felts, Gary Glitter, David Bowie, Sylvia, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and more . . . 

Monday 9am: Labor Day Live Tracks

Today Labor Day 2016 we feature Live tracks all day from great artists all day then a special Vinyl Resting Place Labor Day at 5pm with Willie B.  Today you will hear Live tracks from Joni Mitchell, Kelly Clarkson, Cyndi Lauper, Journey, Bob Seger, Elton John, Steve Miller Band, Genesis, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Kiss, Nils Lofgren, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Madonna, Vixen, Tom Petty, Lisa Marie Presley, John Fogerty and many more.

Artist Countdown: Lynyrd Skynyrd Top 30 Hits 6pm ET @Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American rock band best known for popularizing the southern hard-rock genre during the 1970s. Originally formed in 1966 as the The Pretty Ones in Jacksonville, Florida, they then went through two name changes: The Noble Five and One Percent, before coming up with Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1969. The band rose to worldwide recognition on the basis of its driving live performances and signature tunes “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Free Bird”. At the peak of their success, three members died in an airplane crash in 1977, putting an abrupt end to the band’s most popular incarnation.

The surviving band members re-formed in 1988 for a reunion tour with lead vocalist Johnny Van Zant, the younger brother of lead singer and founder Ronnie Van Zant. The re-formed band continues to tour and record with co-founding member Gary Rossington and core members Johnny Van Zant, along with guitarist Rickey Medlocke, who recorded with the band for a short time in the early 1970s. Drummer Michael Cartellone has recorded and toured with the band since 1999. Lynyrd Skynyrd was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1	Sweet Home Alabama
2	Free Bird
3	What’s Your Name?
4	Ain’t No Good Life
5	Smokestack Lightning
6	Saturday Night Special
7	I Know A Little
8	Good Lovin’s Hard To Find
9	Keeping The Faith
10	Truck Drivin’ Man
11	Swamp Music
12	You Got That Right
13	Travelin’ Man
14	Preacher Man
15	Red White & Blue (Love It or Leave)
16	Bring It On
17	Born To Run
18	Still Unbroken
19	Double Trouble
20	Down South Jukin’
21	Need All My Friends
22	I’ve Been Your Fool
23	Gimme Three Steps
24	Don’t Ask Me No Questions
25	Gimme Back My Bullets
26	That Smell
27	Simple Life
28	Skynyrd Nation
29	That Ain’t My America
30	Last of a Dyin’ Breed

Feature Year: 1976 9am ET @RadioMax

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. Rumour 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.

(List Courtesy Wikipedia)