This Day in Music
January 1st
Happy New Year from This Day in Music! Elvis gets signed, important dates in music history are noted, and yes, we have both kinds of music: County and Western! All on this day in music.
Listicle
It’s my tradition to publish a listicle on holidays. With that, I give you my 20 favourite studio double albums.
The criteria are simple: Rock records initially released as either 2-LP packages or 65-minute-plus digital albums, recorded mostly in the studio. No jazz records or double-live albums for this list, but I’ll cover those in the future.
As always, these are simply my personal favourites, not an assertion of which albums are best.
Twenty Favourite Studio Double Albums
Trout Mask Replica - Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
Mule Variations - Tom Waits
Freak Out - The Mothers of Invention
You Are What You Is - Frank Zappa
Chicago - Chicago (i.e. the band’s second album)
The Beatles - The Beatles (i.e. The White Album)
The Wall - Pink Floyd
Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin
Tommy - The Who
Third - Soft Machine
L’Heptade - Harmonium
Quadrophenia - The Who
The Chicago Transit Authority - The Chicago Transit Authority
Them or Us - Frank Zappa
200 Motels - Frank Zappa
Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan
Eat a Peach - The Allman Brothers Band
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - Genesis
Exile on Main Street - The Rolling Stones
London Calling - The Clash
A few honourable mentions that are excellent albums but just a degree outside my twenty favourites include “Electric Ladyland” by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven” by Godspeed You! Black Emperor, “The River” by Bruce Springsteen, and “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” by Derek and The Dominos [sic].
Let me know your favourites in the comments, and keep on listening!
Events
1953: Legendary singer-songwriter Hank Williams dies of acute right ventricular dilation in Oak Hill, WV brought on by the consumption of chloral hydrate and alcohol, then the administration of Vitamin B-12 with morphine by a physician. He was only 29 years old.
Though his career was short, Williams charted 55 singles in the Top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart. He released two studio albums during his lifetime, and an additional nine were released posthumously, along with several live albums and compilations.
His emotionally bare songs of heartbreak and loneliness, performed in his twangy, bluesy style, are timeless laments to the adversities everyone navigates in life.
1959: Johnny Cash performs a live concert at San Quentin prison in San Rafael, California. In the audience was Prisoner A45200, 21-year old Merle Haggard, who was serving time on a burglary conviction. He had originally been assigned to the Bakersfield Jail, but after an escape attempt was transferred to San Quentin.
Cash would perform again at the institution ten years later and release a live album, “At San Quentin,” commemorating the event, a year after the huge success of his previous correctional facility album, “At Folsom Prison.”
1936: The first record chart is published by Billboard Magazine. It lists “Stop! Look! Listen!” by jazz violinist Joe Venuti as the No. 1 record.
1940: NBC begins broadcasting in frequency modulation (FM) on channel W2XDG. The FCC would grant 15 construction permits for FM broadcast towers by October of that year.
The Daily Elvis
1955: Elvis chooses his second-ever manager when he signs a representation contract with Bob Neal, who succeeded guitarist Scotty Moore in the role.
Pictured: Johnny Cash performing at San Quentin Prison in 1959.
