This Day in Music
An enormous date in classic album releases and Elvis is special at midnight, on this day in music.
Releases
1963: The pop and rock scene is taken by storm when four young lads from Liverpool known as The Beatles release their debut studio album “Please Please Me” in the U.K., on EMI’s Parlophone label.
There would never be an American release of the album, but its songs would all be released across various other LP’s by Capitol Records, EMI’s U.S. licensee, beginning in January of 1964 with “Meet The Beatles.”
Produced by George Martin, who was head of the Parlophone division at EMI, the album featured 14 songs, the standard grouping for the first eight Beatles records, except for “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” each with 13 tracks. “Please Please Me” also included the band’s first-ever single from October 1962, “Love Me Do.”
The tracks were a mixture of cover tunes and original numbers by the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership, with vocals divided mostly between John and Paul, but two sung by George, “Chains” and “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” and one by Ringo, “Boys.”
The album peaked at No. 1 on all four U.K. record charts: Melody Maker, New Musical Express, Record Mirror, and Record Retailer.
The phenomenon that was The Beatles was full speed ahead (Mr. Boatswain, full speed ahead).
1965: Legendary American singer-songwriter and musician Bob Dylan releases his fifth studio album, “Bringing It All Back Home.”
To the shock and horror of his folk fans, particularly the more pretentious ones, he introduced electric instruments into his arrangements. He sequenced the electric folk-rock songs on Side A of the record, and the acoustic folk songs on Side B.
It was a huge release for Dylan. It reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200, his highest position yet; “Subterranean Homesick Blues” became his first single to chart in the U.S., going to No. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100; and it was certified Platinum.
Critics raved about the work, earning it 5-Stars at AllMusic, the Village Voice grading it an A, and The Rolling Stone Album Guide also assigning it 5-Stars.
Several of Dylan’s early classics are introduced on this LP, including “Maggie’s Farm,” “Love Minus Zero/No Limit,” “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.” His work only got bigger and better on the subsequent albums, “Highway 61 Revisited” and “Blonde on Blonde.”
1974: Legendary American composer Frank Zappa releases his 18th album, “Apostrophe (’),” this time as a solo work, marking his fifth record without credit to a full or shortened version of The Mothers of Invention.
Produced by Zappa himself for his own label, DiscReet, and distributed by Warner Bros., it became the most successful commercial release of his career at that point, reaching No. 10 on the Billboard 200 and certified Gold. “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” and “Cosmik Debris” became two of his most famous singles among both Zappaphyles and casual listeners.
Critics, who often failed to understand Zappa, rated the album favourably, with Robert Christgau writing in the Village Voice, “Disillusioned acolytes are complaining that he’s retreated, which means he’s finally made the Top-10, but that’s just his reward for professional persistence.”
Musicians on the LP include long-time Zappa collaborators Ian Underwood (ts), Napoleon Murphy Brock (as), Bruce Fowler (tb), Tom Fowler (bg), Ruth Underwood (perc), Ralph Humphrey (d), Aynsley Dunbar (d), George Duke (key), and guests Don Sugarcane Harris and Jean-Luc Ponty on violin, among other musicians. Back-up vocalists included The Ikettes, Linda Sims and Debbie Wilson, who previously sang with Ike and Tina Turner, along with Tina Turner herself.
1974: “On the Border,” the third studio album from laid-back American rockers Eaglesis released. Led by the singles “Already Gone,” “James Dean,” “Best of My Love,” and a cover of Tom Waits’s “Ol’ 55,” the album performed well in the charts. It peaked at No. 17 on the U.S. Billboard 200, where it was certified 2x Platinum, and was No. 12 in Canada, where it reached Gold certification. It was the first Eagles album to feature Don Felder on guitar.
1982: “Woe to you, Oh Earth and Sea, for the Devil sends the beast with wrath, because he knows the time is short. Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast for it is a human number, its number is six hundred and sixty six.”
One of the most legendary albums of the heavy mental genre, “The Number of the Beast,” the third studio album by Iron Maiden, is released to widespread critical acclaim and commercial success.
Produced by famous record-maker Martin Birch, it’s the first Iron Maiden work to feature Bruce Dickinson on vocals. All eight tracks are killers (get it?), with “The Prisoner,” “22 Acacia Avenue,” “Run to the Hills,” “Hallowed be Thy Name,” and the title track, “The Number of Beast,” which features actor Barry Clayton doing his best version of Vincent Price in the spoken-word introduction quoted above, being the most popular, and still appearing in Iron Maiden’s performance setlists to this day.
The LP went all the way to No. 1 on the U.K. Albums Chart, a rare feat for a heavy metal album, and was No. 11 in Canada, No. 8 in Australia, and No. 33 on the Billboard 200. It was certified 3x Platinum in Canada, Platinum in the U.S., U.K., and Australia, and Gold in eleven other countries, and has sold 20 million copies worldwide.
1993: Depeche Mode releases their eighth studio album, “Songs of Faith and Devotion.” The band produced a darker and more aggressive rock-oriented sound than on its predecessor, “Violator,” which continued to move them more into the mainstream modern rock arena, and away from pure electronica.
Three of the tracks hit No. 1 on alternative charts in the U.K. and the U.S., “I Feel You,” “Walking in My Shoes,” and “In Your Room,” with “Condemnation” being a Top-10.
Highly-rated by critics and embraced by fans, the CD sold well, reaching Platinum certification in the U.S. and Canada, and Gold in the U.K., totalling over 4 million in global sales.
The Daily Elvis
1975: During his spring residency at The Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas, Elvis performs a midnight show to great praise and enjoyment.
Pictured: The Beatles in 1963, from L to R: Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and John Lennon.
