Pick a Day

Music History Events: Odds And Ends

August 5, 1972 Music mogul Clive Davis catches Aerosmith's act at Max's Kansas City in New York and immediately signs them with CBS Records for $125,000.

June 3, 1972 Joe Cocker, The Beach Boys, Melanie, Richie Havens and Sha Na Na all appear at the Crystal Palace Garden Party in England.

May 2, 1972 Bruce Springsteen auditions for Columbia Records' John Hammond, who is the guy that signed Bob Dylan. The planned 15-minute session runs 2 hours, and the next day, Bruce records a 14-song demo. He signs with the label five weeks later.

February 13, 1972 Led Zeppelin is forced to cancel a gig in Singapore when local officials, seeing their long hair, refuse to let them off the plane.

December 8, 1971 Reginald Dwight legally changes his name to Elton Hercules John. He had been using the "Elton John" name since 1968, but had never made it official. The middle name he picked in honor of the mythological hero, which also happened to be the name of a horse on one of his favorite British TV shows: Steptoe and Son.

September 24, 1971 The Jackson 5 appear on the cover of Life magazine, with the headline "Rock Stars At Home With Their Parents."

July 11, 1971 The first stage performance of Jesus Christ, Superstar takes place in Pittsburgh.

June 1, 1971 The two-room shack in Tupelo, Mississippi, where Elvis Presley was born is opened to the public as a tourist attraction.

May 13, 1971 Motown child prodigy Stevie Wonder turns 21, and is by law released from his recording contract and given $1 million of the $30 million he has earned while at the label. Nevertheless, after gaining complete artistic control, Wonder re-signs to Tamla.

March 4, 1971 One the eve of their new UK tour, The Rolling Stones become rock's first tax exiles by announcing that they're moving from England to France.

January 31, 1971 The Jackson 5 are given the key to their hometown of Gary, Indiana, by Mayor Robert Pastrick.

January 27, 1971 David Bowie arrives in the United States for the first time, not to perform, but to do a series of interviews. He creates a stir by wearing a dress to many of the appearances.

January 17, 1971 Halftime entertainment at Super Bowl V in Miami comes courtesy of the Southeast Missouri State Marching Band. Marvin Gaye does the national anthem.

November 18, 1970 Elvis Presley meets actor Paul Frees in Los Angeles and notices Frees' BNDD (Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs) badge. Elvis becomes determined to acquire one for himself.

October 19, 1970 Working from a design sketched out by his wife and himself, Elvis Presley orders a dozen 14-karat gold pendants from a Beverly Hills jeweler featuring the letters "TCB" set around a lightning bolt. Designed as totems for the Memphis Mafia (and also for security issues), the symbol stands, in Elvis' words, for "Taking Care of Business in a Flash." They would eventually come to symbolize the '70s era for Presley.

August 22, 1970 Elton John signs with Uni, a division of MCA, as a solo act.

April 13, 1970 It's the first sellout of the Montreal Forum, thanks to Led Zeppelin.

April 2, 1970 Janis Joplin get tattoos on her wrist and heart, the one on her chest reading "One For The Boys."

January 14, 1970 John Lennon's erotic "Bag One" lithographs are exhibited publicly in London (and removed by Scotland Yard two days later).

December 25, 1969 16-year-old Robbie Bachman of Winnipeg, Canada, receives his first drum kit for Christmas and begins to play along with his older brother, guitarist Randy. Just three years later, Randy asks him to join his new band, named Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

December 23, 1969 Elton John meets for the first time with what would become his classic team - songwriter Bernie Taupin, arranger Paul Buckmaster, and producer Gus Dudgeon - to begin work on his first solo album.

November 15, 1969 Hamburg, Germany's famous rock and roll venue, the Star Club, announces it will permanently close its doors at the end of the month.

November 13, 1969 John Lennon purchases the island Dorinch off the Ireland coast and invites any hippie who wishes to live there.

October 12, 1969 Russ Gibb, a DJ at WKNR in Detroit, takes a call from a listener who tells him that if you play The Beatles song "Revolution 9" backwards, a voice says, "Turn me on, dead man." Gibb plays the record in reverse on the air, and the phone lines light up with astonished listeners offering more clues as to why Paul McCartney might be dead. For about a week, Gibb entertains a stream of rumors on the show, as ratings explode and the story goes national. Other clues include a voice at the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever" that says "I Buried Paul" (actually John Lennon saying "Cranberry Sauce") and the cover of the Sgt. Pepper album, where Paul is wearing an armband that says "OPD" - "Officially Pronounced Dead."

August 19, 1969 Cleanup begins at Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, New York, where the Woodstock festival has finished up. Bulldozers are used to wrangle the trash into a pit, where it is burned.

July 1, 1969 Sam Phillips sells the legendary Sun Records studio in Memphis.

June 6, 1969 Rod Stewart signs to the Mercury label.

June 4, 1969 Hundreds of people in Glenrowan, Australia, sign a petition protesting against the casting of Mick Jagger in the role of the Australian folk hero Ned Kelly for the film of the same name. Jagger plays the part anyway.

May 26, 1969 Still on their honeymoon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono check in to the Queen Elizabeth Hotel (the "Hotel La Reine") in Montreal, where they start their second week-long "bed-in" for peace. At the end of their stay, they record "Give Peace A Chance" with a chorus that includes Timothy Leary, Tommy Smothers and Dick Gregory.

May 13, 1969 The Beatles pose for the photo that becomes the cover of their The Beatles 1967-1970 compilation, re-creating the cover of their first album, Please Please Me, now with far more hair on their heads and faces.