16
Featured Events
2007Dan Fogelberg dies of prostate cancer at age 56.
2003Shania Twain becomes the first woman with three Diamond albums when the RIAA certifies her fourth album, Up!, with 10 million in sales. Her second and third albums, The Woman in Me (1995) and Come On Over(1997) also went Diamond.
1993Nirvana's Unplugged concert airs on MTV. A rare look at the band in an acoustic setting, it is one of Kurt Cobain's last performances, as he is found dead less than four months later.
1983The Who issue a statement making their breakup official, a formality considering they called their last shows in 1982 their "Farewell Tour." It's far from the end, as they reunite for a seemingly unending series of "reunions," starting with Live-Aid in 1985.
1972"Me and Mrs. Jones," a song about a man cheating on his wife, knocks Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman" out of the top spot on the Hot 100.
1969At the Fillmore West in San Francisco, Keith Emerson's band The Nice shares a bill with Greg Lake's band, King Crimson. The pair enjoy a jam session before the show and discuss a partnership, which with the addition of Carl Palmer from Atomic Rooster, becomes Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
196017-year-old George Harrison is deported from Germany for being too young to perform with The Beatles.
1770Ludwig van Beethoven is born in Bonn, Germany.
16
In Music History
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2013Country singer Ray Price dies of pancreatic cancer at age 87.
2013Brantley Gilbert releases his country chart-topper "Bottoms Up."
2011Yeah Yeah Yeahs host a special benefit concert for New York DJ and good friend Jonathan Toubin, who a week earlier was seriously injured in a car accident in Portland, Oregon.
2011The Swedish House Mafia plays the first ever Dance Music event in New York's Madison Square Garden.
2007Beyoncé hits #1 in America with the Ne-Yo-penned single "Irreplaceable," which spends an astonishing 10 weeks at the top spot.
2000Eminem lands his second UK #1 when "Stan" tops the chart. The song, which tells the story of a deranged, obsessive fan, samples the lilting Dido song "Thank You," giving her a huge boost in America.More
1997Nicolette Larson dies of cerebral edema and liver failure at age 45.
1984Just six weeks after first meeting, Bette Midler marries Martin von Haselberg of the UK performance duo The Kipper Kids. Unlike many showbiz unions, this one lasts.
1983Hoping to jumpstart her flagging acting career after the box-office bomb Xanadu, Olivia Newton-John reunites with Grease co-star John Travolta in the fantasy film Two of a Kind. It flops, but yields the Top 10 hit "Twist Of Fate."
1981Ray Charles receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1973Stephen Stills loses a paternity suit filed by a Mill Valley, California, woman.
1971Michael McCary (original bass singer for Boyz II Men) is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1968Christopher Thorn (rhythm guitarist for Blind Melon) is born in Dover, Pennsylvania.
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"Hey Joe" Released As First Hendrix Single
1966
The first Jimi Hendrix single is released: "Hey Joe." The song is about a guy shoots his "old lady" after catching her cheating.
Hendrix is fronting the band Jimmy James and the Blue Flames in 1966 when he leaves for the fertile musical fields of England at the urging of his manager, Chas Chandler of The Animals. Chandler sets him up with a new band: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, a power trio of Hendrix, drummer Mitch Mitchell, and bass player Noel Redding. They record "Hey Joe" and a Hendrix original called "Stone Free," and peddle it to Decca Records, where it is rejected by the same guy who turned down The Beatles. Polydor takes it in a one-single deal and issues the song in the UK, where it lands at #6 in February 1967. Reprise Records issues it in America a few months later, but it goes unnoticed.
England is enthralled by Hendrix, whose next two singles, "Purple Haze" and "The Wind Cries Mary," reach the Top 10 in the UK. It takes a while for Americans to discover Hendrix, whose debut album Are You Experienced gradually earns him a following, but not before he suffers the indignity of opening for The Monkees. By 1969, his native country is all-in, and Hendrix is the headliner at Woodstock, where he suffers another (although well-paid) indignity: going on the morning after the festival was scheduled to end, since it ran long. The last song in his set is "Hey Joe."
A scorching blues number, "Hey Joe" was written by a singer named Billy Roberts, who played it in and around New York City in the early '60s. In 1966, The Byrds, The Leaves, and Love released uptempo renditions, and a folk singer named Tim Rose did a slower version, which is what Hendrix used as a template, adding a more appropriate backing to the murder ballad.
The Hendrix cover becomes the standard, but many other artists record it as well, covering an array of styles. Among the most popular by genre:
Pop: Cher, 1967
Hard Rock: Deep Purple, 1968
Avant-garde: The Mothers Of Invention, 1968
Soul: Wilson Pickett, 1969
Punk: Patti Smith, 1974
Jazz: Brad Mehldau, 2012
England is enthralled by Hendrix, whose next two singles, "Purple Haze" and "The Wind Cries Mary," reach the Top 10 in the UK. It takes a while for Americans to discover Hendrix, whose debut album Are You Experienced gradually earns him a following, but not before he suffers the indignity of opening for The Monkees. By 1969, his native country is all-in, and Hendrix is the headliner at Woodstock, where he suffers another (although well-paid) indignity: going on the morning after the festival was scheduled to end, since it ran long. The last song in his set is "Hey Joe."
A scorching blues number, "Hey Joe" was written by a singer named Billy Roberts, who played it in and around New York City in the early '60s. In 1966, The Byrds, The Leaves, and Love released uptempo renditions, and a folk singer named Tim Rose did a slower version, which is what Hendrix used as a template, adding a more appropriate backing to the murder ballad.
The Hendrix cover becomes the standard, but many other artists record it as well, covering an array of styles. Among the most popular by genre:
Pop: Cher, 1967
Hard Rock: Deep Purple, 1968
Avant-garde: The Mothers Of Invention, 1968
Soul: Wilson Pickett, 1969
Punk: Patti Smith, 1974
Jazz: Brad Mehldau, 2012
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