Terry Kath, considered by many to be a guitarist that deserved considerably more admiration and accolades than he was given, was born on this day in 1946. He and his drummer younger brother Rod grew-up in the Northwood area of Chicago. Inspired by surf guitarist Dick Dale and the Ventures, Kath took up the guitar in his opening year of high school. He had some lessons, but made most of his musical progress on his own.  He joined his first band at 17 and forged musical alliances with some players that he would work with in subsequent groups before landing in a group that branded itself The Big Thing. After recruiting Peter Cetera to join them from a group called The Exceptions, the band relocated to Los Angeles and adopted the name Chicago Transit Authority.  The audacious brass section and guitar driven self-titled debut album earned the group a Grammy award as the Best New Artist of the year the group's dynamic stage presence turned Chicago into a strong concert draw.

Terry Kath's life ended tragically on January 23, 1978 when Kath, fooling around with guns, jokingly put a 9mm pistol with no magazine in it to his temple, not realizing there was a bullet in the chamber, and pulled the trigger, killing him instantly.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on the final day of January include...

1932 Rick Hall, founder of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Louisiana, born. 

1944 Blues guitar great Charlie Musselwhite is born.

1951 Roxy Music lead guitarist Phil Manzanera is born Geoffrey Targett-Adams in London..

1954 Whitesnake and Vandenberg guitarist Adrian Vandenberg born in The Hague, Netherlands.

1956 Sex Pistols  lead singer Johnny Rotten (John Joseph Lydon) is born in London.

1970 Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir busted down on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

1979 Clash open first North American tour in Vancouver, BC.

1997 Metallica’s Kirk Hammett gets married during barefoot beachfront wedding in Hawaii.

1998 Bruce Springsteen joins Jon Bon Jovi and Southside Johnny at a Red Bank, NJ benefit for a slain policeman’s family.

2001 KISS announces Eric Singer will replace Peter Criss.

2007 Deborah Koons Garcia files suit to obtain the rights to Jerry Garcia’s concert tapes.

2010 Neil Young wins his first Grammy award.

2009 Buffalo Springfield drummer Dewey Martin dies of undisclosed causes at 68.

2015 Motley Crue ends Farewell Tour with LA concert. Tommy Lee gets stranded upside down on stage rollercoaster.

2017 John Wetton of King Crimson and Asia dies of cancer at 67...

Phillip David Charles Collins was born on this day in Sheswick. England on this day in 1951.  His father was an insurance agent, but his mother had a publicity background as a theatrical agent.  An uncle gave Phil a rudimentary drum kit as a Christmas present when the future Genesis member was five.  That set him on a path to becoming quite an accomplished drummer at a young age.  After the early lineup in Genesis decided to part with two drummers, the group ran an ad seeking a drummer that was 'sensitive to acoustic music'. His audition was at Peter Gabriel's family home and the band signed him on in August, 1970. 

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 30 include...

1942 Jefferson Airplane’s Marty Balin born Martyn Jerel Buchwald.

1947 Faces & Humble Pie’s Steve Marriott born.
1969 Beatles last public performance is staged on the roof of the Apple headquarters in London.

1972 British paratroopers kill more than a dozen Catholic civil rights marchers in Northern Ireland, event inspires U2 song Sunday, Bloody Sunday.

1973 KISS make live debut in New York City.    

1988 Robbie Robertson plays Saturday Night  Live.

1989  Don Henley plays drums with Guns N Roses during American Music Awards.

1990 France honors Bob Dylan with Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters recognition

1998 Elton John awarded Knighthood.

2010 Neil Young honored as MusiCares Person of the Year...

David Bowie introduced the Rock World to Ziggy Stardust during a concert on this night in 1972 in Aylesbury, UK. The album featuring the character and title song, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars,  would get its UK release five months later, but Bowie had been working on material for the release since November of '71.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 29 include...

1944 Early Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham born.

1947 Uriah Heep founding lead singer David Byron is born David Garrick.

1948 Bill Kirchen (aka Commander Cody of the Lost Planet Airmen) is born in Bridgeport, CT..

1952 Ramones drummer Tommy Ramone (Erdelyi) is born in Hungary.

1961 Queensryche bassist Eddie Jackson is born.

1961 Bob Dylan meets Woody Guthrie.

1964 Beatles record German vocals for I Want to Hold Your Hand, She Loves You and Can't Buy Me Love in s Paris studio.

1967 Jimi Hendrix and the Who play the Seville Theatre in London. Future Queen guitarist Brian May attends the concert.

1968 Jim Morrison gets into an altercation with a security guard after a Doors set at a Las Vega club and is charged with public intoxication and trespassing.

1969 Steve Winwood leaves Traffic, forming Blind Faith with Eric Clapton a week later.

1979 Emerson, Lake and Palmer break-up.

1979 A 16 year-old kills two and wounds nine outside a school in San Diego and tells authorities she did if because 'I Don't like Mondays', inspiring the song of that title from the Boomtown Rats.

1983 Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks marries Kim Anderson in LA home.

1989 Billy Joel sings the National Anthem before Super Bowl XXIII

1992 Blues legend Willie Dixon dies of heart failure at 76.

1998 Paul Simon musical The Capeman opens on Broadway.

2010 Neil Young receives MusiCares Person Of The Year honor in LA.

2010 Peter Frampton joins Gov’t Mule on three songs at Taft Theater in Cincinnati…

Before becoming a key member of one of Southern Rock's legendary bands, Billy Powell was one of the group's roadies.  His talent as a keyboard player was unknown to Ronnie Van Zant until Powell was overheard playing Free Bird on a piano backstage before a Skynyrd concert in 1972.  As Powell related it, the lead singer walked up to him and said, 'You mean to tell me that you've been playing the piano like that and been workin' for us for a year?!, and then proclaimed, 'We need a piano player!'

Powell became that player on the spot and his style complimented and countered the high octane, guitar driven songs of Skynyrd for the next 37 years.  His life ended suddenly on this morning in 2009 when a heart attack struck him down in his condo in Orange Park, near the group's home base of Jacksonville, Florida. 

 

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events that took place on January 28 include...

1943 Pretty Things founding guitarist Dick Taylor is born in Dartford, UK.

1959 The Alarm co-founding guitarist Dave Sharp is born in Lancashire, UK.

The Cavern Club in Liverpool closes due to heavy debts

1968 Rowdy conduct by members of the Who and Faces causes unscheduled landing in Australia so extra security can come aboard.

1968 Jim Morrison of the Doors gets arrested for drunkenness and harassing a security guard at a Las Vegas adult movie theater.

1984 Tommy Lee arrested during altercation with a Motley Crue fan who taunted Lee about his girlfriend being in the current issue of Penthouse.

1985 We Are The World recorded. The benefit song included Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Steve Perry, Daryl Hall, John Oates, Lindsey Buckingham, Bob Geldof, Paul Simon and many others.

1988 Pink Floyd floats a giant air filled bed down the Thames River to promote A Momentary Lapse of Reason, the album that featured a beach jammed with metal framed beds on its cover.

1993 Don Henley gets sued by Geffen Records for failing to deliver albums on time.

1998 Mick Jagger does commentary during online presentation of England vs West Indies cricket match.

2005 Traffic’s Jim Capaldi dies of stomach cancer at 60.

2014 Gregg Allman announces the Allman Brothers Band will stop touring by the end of the year.
2015 Sly Stone awarded $5 million in unpaid royalties from past managers.

2015 Geezer Butler arrested on assault and other charges in a bar in Death Valley National Park.

2016 Paul Kantner of the Jefferson Airplane/Starship dies of septic shock following a heart attack.

2016 Original Jefferson Airplane lead singer Signe Anderson dies of COPD.

2017 Black Sabbath guitarist and keyboard player Geoff Nichols dies of lung cancer.

2022 Jethro Tull releases The Zealot Gene...

Drummer Nick Mason, the only member of Pink Floyd who played on every studio album the band released, was born on this day in 1944 in Birmingham, UK.  Mason, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Bob Klose met and formed a group called Sigma 6 while attending Regent Street Polytechnic in London.  Mason has most recently formed Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, a group that concentrates on early era Pink Floyd music, songs written between 1966 and 1972.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 27 include...

1918 Blues legend Elmore James is born.

1951 J. Geils Band keyboard player Seth Justman is born in Washington, DC.

1951 Thin Lizzy drummer Brian Downey born.

1967 The Beatles sign a 9 year contract with EMI.

1973 Bottles and other projectiles get thrown at Sweet during a concert in Kilmarnock, Scotland. The incident inspires the writing of Ballroom Blitz. 

1971 David Bowie visits US for first time but cannot perform due to not having a work permit.

1977 Clash signs with Columbia Records.

1980 Capricorn Records files for bankruptcy.

1984 Michael Jackson ignites his hair while filming a Pepsi commercial.

1990 Gainesville, Florida celebrates Tom Petty Day.

1998 Queensryche's prime singer, guitarist and songwriter bails on the band.

2005 R.E.M. is forced to cancel concert when equipment truck gets held at Russia/Estonia border.

2009 Bruce Springsteen release Working On A Dream.

2010 Steven Tyler’s lawyer sends band a letter threatening a suit if they replace his client as Aerosmith front man.

2014 Pete Seeger dies at 94.

2015 Singer Sam Smith has to add songwriting credits to Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne because his hit song Stay With Me sounded too much like Petty's I Won't Back Down.

2022 Spotify starts dropping Neil Young's music from the streaming service after Young insisted g conservative talk show podcast of Joe Rogan.

Edward Lodewijk van Halen born this day in the Netherlands. His middle name is the Dutch variation on Beethoven's first name, Ludwig.  Eddie's father played jazz piano, clarinet and saxophone and both Eddie and his brother and future band mate started piano lessons not long after the family relocated to Pasadena, California in 1962.  Eddie would earn top honors several years running in a regional piano performance competition staged at an LA area community college.  Alex took up the guitar before his brother, so Eddie started playing drums, but the pair switched instruments shortly after Alex blew  Eddie away with how well he could drum-up the drum solo of the Sufari's song Wipe Out.  The pair formed their first band in 1972 and changed its name to Van Halen in '74. Jaw dropping performances in southern California clubs created a buzz about the band.  Van Halen's initial break came when Gene Simmons of KISS caught an opening set VH did at a UFO concert, but Simmons' attempt to get Van Halen a contract with KISS manager Bill Aucoin didn't pan out.  The group got signed by Warner Brothers Records in 1977 and released the debut album that gave the band a roaring start on its way to becoming one of the biggest bands in rock in February, 1978.

Stage antics Eddie combined with his incendiary guitar playing took a toll on his health.  He underwent a hip replacement in 1999.  In 2000, he was diagnosed with tongue cancer. Diverticulitis necessitated an emergency surgery in 2012 and cancer returned in his throat and spread to his lungs.  He would die at 65 ater suffering a stroke while hospitalized in Santa Monica, California on October 6th, 2020.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 26 include...

1934 Apollo Theater opens in Harlem.

1945 Mountain and West, Bruce & Laing drummer Corky Laing born.

1949 Climax Blues Band's Derek Holt born.

1951 Little River band's David Briggs born.

1961 Cinderella guitarist and singer Tom Keifer born.

1968 Pink Floyd does its first concert without Syd Barrett at Southampton University.

1969 Led Zeppelin lays down a 4 hour set at the Boston Tea Party.

1970 John Lennon records Instant Karma.

1970 Tom Constanten does his final concert with the Grateful Dead.

1973 Elton John releases Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player.

1974 The Doobie Brothers make their European tour debut in London.

1977 Former Fleetwood Mac member Peter Green committed after allegedly drawing a gun and threatening an accountant.

1977 Patti Smith falls of the stage during her opening set for Bob Seger in Tampa and gets 20+ stitches in her head

1986 Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Allen Collins is paralyzed in a car wreck that kills his girlfriend. The crash of the new Thunderbird Collins was driving in South Jacksonville paralyzed him from the waist down.  He plead guilty to vehicular manslaughter and DWI.  His injuries also prevented him from being able to perform with Skynyrd again, but he did devote his attention and efforts to programs to help others with paralysis.  He passed away at just 37 on January 23, 1990 after contracting pneumonia.

1989 Bon Jovi opens the US leg of the New Jersey Syndicate Tour in Dallas.

1991 Van Halen, Bonnie Raitt and Paul Simon contribute performances to a Video produced by Cher for USS troops involved in Operation Desert Storm.

1997 ZZ Top is part of the Super Bowl 31 half time show that also features the Blues Brothers and James Brown.

2003 Billy Joel airlifted to a hospital after running his car into a tree.

2010 Mick Fleetwood Band releases Blue Again.

2011 Jimmy Buffett gets stitches in head after falling from a stage during Sydney. Australia concert

2014 Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr play together

2014 Led Zeppelin lands its first Grammy for Best Rock Album (Celebration Day, 2007 Reunion)

2014 Fleetwood Mac becomes the first band to receive the MusiCares Person of the Year Award...

1950 Tubes keyboard player Michael Cotton born.

1963 Janis Joplin performs in San Francisco for the first time.    

1971 Grace Slick and Paul Kantner of the Jefferson Airplane name daughter born on this date God, later changing it to China.

1971 Charles Manson convicted of murder.

1975 Led Zeppelin plays Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

1980 Paul McCartney gets out of jail after nine days on a marijuana charge on his arrival in Tokyo.

1985 George Thorogood releases Maverick.

1986 Albert Grossman, early manager of Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and The Band, suffers a heart attack on a flight from New York to London and die at 59.

1991 Paul McCartney records his MTV Unplugged concert.

2003 Billy Joel crashes car into a tree in Sag Harbor on Long Island.

2006 Motley Crue gets a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.

2019 Heart releases Decades Live.

2019 Steve Hackett releases At The Edge of Light.

2019 Carlos Santana releases In Search of Mona Lisa.

2020 Jon Bon Jovi joins Billy Joel on Big Shot and It's Still Rock n' Roll to me at Madison Square Garden...

Having a father who was a mob bookie in Chicago and a Mormon mother might have contributed to Warren Zevon developing such a fascinating combination of wildly irreverent and deeply poignant songwriting.  In his early teens, Zevon's family moved to California where Warren studied classical music, sometimes with the celebrated Igor Stravinsky. He bailed on high school after his parents divorced when he was 16 and headed east to tap into the New York City folk scene.  He had more success as a writer than a performer, writing a couple of songs for the Turtles and landing a track on the 1969 movie Midnight Cowboy's soundtrack.  His solo debut, Wanted Dead or Alive got released to little notice that year. He also toured as keyboard player for the Everly Brothers.

In the mid '70's Warren relocated to southern California and things started to fall into place for him. He got tight with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham just as the couple was was getting into Fleetwood Mac and did some work with Jackson Browne.  Zevon would enlist those three and, partly through their connections, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Eagles Don Henley, Glenn Frey, David Lindley, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt and Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys to help him on his major label debut.  Browne, who produced the self-titled 1976 release, also signed on to co-produce the follow-up, 1978's Excitable Boy, with Waddy Wachtel.  The title track, Werewolves of London and Lawyers, Guns and Money all became big songs.
He would write plenty of great songs from that point forward, but none would come close to gaining the recognition those did.

In 2002, Zevon was diagnosed with a cancer associated with asbestos exposure.  Deciding he wanted to record a final album, he declined treatments that would possibly have prolonged his life but would have made recording or performing  difficult.  Long time musical friends Jackson Browne, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Emmylou Harris encouraged and helped him do his final album.  The Wind was released just under two weeks before Warren died on September 7, 2003.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 24 include...

1949 John Belushi born.

1958 Squeeze pianist and singer Jools Holland is born in London.

1958 Three years before the Beatles did their first Cavern Club gig, members appeared on stage on this night as the Quarry Men.

1960 Bob Dylan plays the Cafe Wha? on his first night in New York City.

1962 Beatles sign management contract with Brian Epstein.

1969 New Jersey threatens to charge record store owners in the state with distributing pornography if they sell John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Two Virgins album without blocking the frontal nudity of the couple on the cover.

1969 Jethro Tull plays first US concert at the Fillmore East opening for Blood, Sweat & Tears.

1979 The Clash releases I Fought The Law as a single in the US.

1980 A Hollywood billboard promoting Pink Floyd's The Wall album goes up, with one brick being added to the album cover graphic each day.

1981 Steven Tyler lands in hospital after crashing his motorcycle.

1995 Van Halen releases Balance.

2000 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young open first tour in 4 years in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

2008 Grand Ole Opry inducts Charlie Daniels.

2010 Bruce Springsteen does benefit for a New Jersey school at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park.

2014 Scorpions announce plan to break-up after one last tour…

Happy birthday to Robin Zander.  The Cheap Trick lead singer and rhythm guitarist was born in Beloit, Wisconsin on this day in 1953, but was raised in Loves Park, Illinois.  An impressively accomplished guitar player in his teens, Zander played in bands in high school and formed the duo Zander and Kent with Brian Kent in 1970.  He joined Cheap Trick in 1974 and remains with them to this day. Zander and the other members were inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame in  2016.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 23 include...

1950 E Street Band organ and accordian player Danny Federici is born.

1969 The Beatles record Get Back with Alan Parsons engineering for the first time with the band..

1971 Bruce Springsteen's early band Steel Mill does its final gig at the Upstage Club in Asbury Park.

1973 Neil Young announces the end of the Vietnam War to fans at his Madison Square Garden concert.

1976 Kinks release Schoolboys In Disgrace.

1976 David Bowie releases Station To Station.

1978 Chicago singer and guitarist Terry Kath accidentally shoots himself to death.

1979 Beach Boy Brian Wilson divorces wife Marilyn.

1981 Elvis Costello releases Trust.

1982 The Allman Brothers Band appears on Saturday Night Live.

1990 David Bowie announces his Sound and Vision tour will be the last he does.

1990 Allen Collins of Lynyrd Skynyrd dies of pneumonia.

1998 George Harrison sings at the funeral of Carl Perkins.

2007 John Mellencamp releases Freedom’s Road.

2010 J. Geils Band plays benefit for Big Brothers & Big Sisters at Boston Convention Center.

2020 Court ruling against Joey Kramer upholds Aerosmith's right to replace him with another drummer at the band's Grammy's performance. The group contends Kramer wasn't physically or emotionally capable of performing.

2023 Melanie Safka, singer of (Lay Down, Candles in the Rain), a song inspired by her time and performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival dies at 76.

Stephen Ray Perry was born on this day in 1949 in Hanford, California.  Hearing Sam Cooke, who coincidentally was born on the same day of the year 14 years before him, sing Cupid on the radio inspired Perry to want to sing, but his first foray into music was as a drummer for his high school marching band and other school ensembles.  Perry joined the choir when he attended the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, California.  After college, he moved to Sacramento, where he started a band called Ice that disbanded soon after demo session recordings the group did failed to attract label contract or management offers.  Relocating to the LA area, Perry next joined a group named Pieces that also included Jeff Beck collaborator Tim Bogert.  That group was also short lived, but Perry caught wind that the bay Area band Journey's manager, Herbie Herbert, was looking for a new front man for the band.  Impressed with Perry, Herbert signed him and Steve made his Journey live debut on October 28 , 1977.

Over the next 18 years, Perry fronted Journey on nine albums and became widely credited as one of the best vocalists in Rock. Street Talk, his 1984 solo debut, sold more than two million copies.  A second solo album he started work on four years later stalled out, although he did finally get a sophomore solo album out in 1994.  Sidelined by a hip injury complicated by a degenerative bone condition, Steve was unable to tour with Journey so the band replaced him with Steve Augeri and then Arnel Pineda, a singer with an uncannily similar voice to Perry's. Since then, Steve has done some production work, sung on albums by other artists and released a third solo album.  He joined his former band mates at Journey's 2017 Rock Hall of Fame induction but opted not to sing with them at the ceremony.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 22 include...

1935 Sam Cooke born.

1960 INXS front man Michael Hutchence born.

1965 Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler (Michael Coletti) is born in Cleveland, OH..

1969 Neil Young releases his self-titled debut solo album.

1971 The Mad Dogs & Englishmen Joe Cocker tour movie premieres in London.

1972 David Bowie tells Melody Maker magazine he is bi-sexual.

1983 Daughter is born to Pretenders Chrissie Hynde and Ray Davies of the Kinks.

1990 Slash punctuates Guns N' Roses appearance at American Music Awards with profanities.

1992 Fender issues a Stevie Ray Vaughan replica guitar.

1993 Metallica opens Nowhere Else to Roam tour.

1998 Joe Perry of Aerosmith sits in with David Letterman’s band.

2004 The Bottom Line in New York City's Greenwich Village closes.

2010 Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Neil Young and Sting participate in Hope For Haiti earthquake relief telethon.

Neil Young and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top appear on last Tonight Show hosted by Conan O’Brien.

2012 Steven Tyler sings national Anthem before AFC Championship game between Baltimore Ravens and New England in Foxboro (Patriots win 23-20).

2017 Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, John Popper play small club at Sundance Film Festival before the premiere of Long Strange Trip, the Martin Sorcesse Grateful Dead documentary.

2017 Mott The Hoople bassist Overland Watts dies of throat cancer.

2020 Neil Young granted US citizenship after delays because of previous marijuana use and charges...

The recording of a song plenty of Classic Rock fans consider the best cover version ever took place at Olympic Studios in London on this day in 1968. Bob Dylan's original of All Along the Watchtower got recorded in early November of the previous year in Nashville and was released on December 27, 1967.

Bob's publicist reportedly gave Hendrix a tape recording of the track before its release. Jimi loved it and wanted to include a version on the double album he was working on. Eddie Kramer was engineering the Electric Ladyland sessions in London and said Hendrix laid down so many takes of the song that Experience bass player Noel Redding got fed-up and walked out, so Traffic's Dave Mason, who played 12 string guitar in the sessions, took over playing bass on some takes of Watchtower, but Hendrix himself played it on the album's eventual version. Jimi would also replace his guitar parts several times over at the Record Plant in New York before he was satisfied enough to approve it for release.

His single of the song got released on September 21, 1968, with the album following it in October. Dylan was hugely impressed with the Hendrix version, saying, 'It overwhelmed me, really' and admitting that his own live versions would later borrow from the arrangement for it Hendrix came up with.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 21 include...

1938 Wolfman Jack (Robert Smith) born.

1941 Richie Havens is born in Brooklyn, NY.

1964 An Animals concert scheduled for this night gets cancelled due to an immigration issue.

1966 George Harrison marries Patti Boyd, Paul McCartney is the Best Man at the ceremony.

1968 The Graduate soundtrack album is released.

1974 Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter hosts a post concert party for Bob Dylan at the Governor's Mansion.

1977 Pink Floyd releases Animals in England. Its US release would come on February 12.

1982 BB King donates his 20,000 lp collection to the Mississippi University Southern Culture Studies department.

1983 Lamar Williams of the Allman Brothers Band (1972-1976) and Sea Level dies of lung cancer at 34.

1984 Jackie Wilson suffers a heart attack during concert in New Jersey, enters coma and dies 8 years later.

1987 Rock Hall of Fame inducts Bo Diddley, Roy Orbison, BB King, Muddy Waters, Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins, Jackie Wilson, Smokey Robinson, T-Bone Walker, Ricky Nelson, Louis Jordan, Leiber & Stoller, Clyde McPhatter and record execs Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler.

1992 Billy Idol enters not-guilty plea to charges filed against him after a confrontation outside a Hollywood restaurant.

1996 Bruce Springsteen appears on 60 Minutes.

2004 Guitarist Warren Haynes joins the Dead.

2006 Bon Jovi members avoid injury when their plane skids off the runway at Hamilton International Airport in Canada.

2011 SCKBSTD, musical by Bruce Hornsby, opens.

2017 Joe Perry receives Les Paul Award.

2020 Ozzy Osbourne reveals he has Parkinson's Disease during interview on Good Morning America.

2022 John Mellencamp release Stricktly a One-Eyed Jack...

A slew of good albums dropped on this day through the years, including...
The US release of Meet The Beatles in 1964,
Jerry Garcia's self titled solo in 1972,
Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks in 1975,
Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes from Jimmy Buffett in 1977,
Journey's Infinity in 1978.

Def Leppard's Pyromania 1n 1983.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 20 include...

1945 Mindbenders and 10cc singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Eric Stewart is born.

1951 Judas Priest  bassist Ian Hill born.

1952 Paul Stanley of KISS born.
1965 Byrds record Mr. Tambourine Man.

1965 Alan Freed dies.

1966 First Trips Festival staged at Longshoreman’s Hall in San Francisco.

1972 Pink Floyd premieres tracks that would appear on Dark  Side of the Moon during a Brighton, England concert.

1973 Bob Dylan starts recording Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid.

1982 Ozzy Osbourne hospitalized after biting a bat during his Des Moines concert.
1986 Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder perform at the first Martin Luther King Jr. official holiday commemoration.

1988 The Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys, the Drifters, the Supremes, Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly are inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame.

1993 Don Henley plays for Bill Clinton at Presidential Inaugural Ball sponsored by MTV.

2017 Bob Weir, Matt Sorum, Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, Robert Randolph and Gene Cornish perform together as D'angelico Guitars presents an all star jam during VIP event at National Association of Music Retailers unveiling of Bob Weir custom guitars.

2018 Founding Zombies bassist and later era Kinks member Jim Rodford dies after a fall down the stairs of his home...

Janis Lyn Joplin was born on this day in Port Arthur, Texas in 1943. She was a typical young football loving, church choir singing Texan until she read Jack Kerouac's book On The Road opened her eyes and ears to an alternate universe of fast, improvisational living and music she might otherwise never have heard.  Her interpretations of songs from a number of those artists along with her extraordinary voice and compelling stage presence gained her a following that included Chet Helms, a fellow Texan that had started producing concerts in San Francisco.  Once Janis got in front of bigger audiences backed by Big Brother and the Holding Company, her career and took off. 

Although brash and exuding self-confidence on stage, out of the limelight Janis was quite shy and turned to alcohol and an array of readily available drugs to bolster her when out of the limelight.  A new and exceptionally potent strain of heroin would cut her career and life short in October, 1970. Pearl, just her 4th album, would be released posthumously just before what would have been her 28th birthday in 1971.

A lot of great singers have come and gone since Janis, but the likes of her will probably never be seen or heard again.

Though tragic, her early death was not all together shocking given her hard, fast lifestyle and frequent periods of heavy drug and alcohol abuse. The death of another Rocker born on this day in 1949 did come as a shock. The always sharp dressed and clean cut singer Robert Palmer died after suffering a heart attack at 54 in a Paris hotel room on September, 26, 2003.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 19 include...

1947 early Deep Purple lead singer Rod Evans born.

1951 Martha Davis of the Motels born.
1952 America singer, guitarist and songwriter Dewey Bunnell is born in Yorkshire, UK.

1967 The Beatles start recording A Day in the Life.

1976 Beatles members ignore an offer of $30 million for a reunion concert.

1977 Charlie Daniels Band and Marshall Tucker band play Jimmy Carter's Inauguration.

1978 Sex Pistols oust Johnny Rotten.

1988 Bon Jovi and Motley Crue manager Doc McGhee pleads guilty to importing more than 40,000lbs of marijuana to the US.

1988 Metallica starts recording And Justice For All.

1991 Sting played on Saturday Night Live.

1993 Fleetwood Mac plays inauguration concert for Bill Clinton.

1993 Supreme Court upholds $2.5 million paid by Frito Lay to Tom Waits after the company hired a sound-alike for a commercial.

1998 Rock pioneer Carl Perkins dies of throat cancer at 65.

1998 Joey Ramone hospitalized for a blood irregularity.

2006 Wilson Pickett dies of a heart attack at 64.

2010 Steven Tyler shows up at Karaoke night at Palm Desert, CA bar.

2011 Steven Tyler makes his American Idol judging debut on TV talent search show.

2018 Medical Examiner attributes Tom Petty's death to an accidental overdose of mostly pain medications...

One of the most monumental albums in Rock history began to take it's final form on this day in 1973 when Pink Floyd members entered the studio to begin the final work on Dark Side of the Moon.  The group had done some preliminary work in 1972 and had already played early versions of some of the songs live, but the Abbey Road sessions that began on January 18 with engineer Alan Parsons brought out a good deal of the sounds that would lead to the release becoming one of the top albums in recording history.  All told, the album spent more than 900 weeks on the Billboard Album chart and has sold approximately 50 million copies.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 18 include...

1965 The Rolling Stones record The Last Time and Play With Fire.

1973 Rolling Stones do benefit concert for Nicaragua earthquake relief in LA. The concert raises $200,000. Mick Jagger adds $150,000 of his own to the total.

1974 Bad Company forms.

1978 Sex Pistols end US tour, break-up the following day.

1978 Warren Zevon releases Excitable Boy.

1980 Capricorn Records announces bankruptcy.

1983 Bryan Adams releases Cuts Like A Knife.

1984 Van Halen opens its 1984 North American tour in Jacksonville, Florida.

1985 Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia busted in Golden Gate Park. Band gives him an ultimatum about getting his act together.

1989 Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Dion and the Temptations inducted into Rock Hall Of Fame.

1991 3 killed in rush for general admission AC/DC concert at Salt Palace in Salt Lake City.

1995 Jerry Garcia wrecks his BMW in Mill Valley, CA crash.

1997 Queen reunites for AIDS benefit with Elton John in Paris.

1998 Jimi Hendrix Guitar Festival finals in Seattle judged by Kim Thayil of Soundgarden and Jerry Cantrell form Alice in Chains.

2006 Martin Guitars releases custom Tom Johnston Doobie Brothers model.

2009 Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp perform at a pre-inaugural concert for Barack Obama in front of the Lincoln memorial in Washington, DC.

2011 Gregg Allman releases Low Country Blues.

2011 Pearl Jam releases Live on Ten Legs.

2016 Glenn Frey of the Eagles dies of pneumonia and complications from other ailments.

2016 Don McLean is arrested on domestic violence charge in Maine…  

Recording for the first live Doors album was done at concerts over a span of several months, but the concert that took place at the Felt Forum, the 5,000 seat theater under Madison Square Garden, on this night in 1970 yielded more songs than any other. The group's live performances were so uneven that most of the songs on it include snippets of music from different concerts cobbled together to get the best version possible by producer Paul Rothchild, who estimated he did close to 2,000 edits in the process.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 17 include...

1948 Rolling Stones Mick Taylor is born.

1955 Steve Earle is born.

1965 Rolling Stones record The Last Time and Play With Fire.

1974 Bob Dylan releases Planet Waves.     
1981 Motley Crue forms.

1981 Charlie Daniels' Volunteer Jam VII in Nashville features his band, Molly Hatchet, Ted Nugent, Jimmy Hall and others.

1990 The Who and the Kinks get inducted into Rock Hall Of  Fame.

1995 Gilby Clark quits Guns N Roses.

1996 Rock Hall Of Fame inducts Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Jefferson Airplane.

2001 Jason Newsted announces he is leaving Metallica.

2009 Doors movie When You’re Strange premiers at Sundance Film Festival. 
2016 Mott the Hoople's Dale Griffin dies

Today has been an historically unlucky day for Paul McCartney. On This day in 1980, he was arrested at the Tokyo airport and jailed for 9 days after customs inspectors found 8oz of marijuana. Four years later on 1/16, Paul and wife Linda were both placed under arrest in Barbados on drug charges.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 16 include...

1957 Cavern Club opens in Liverpool.

1970 Exhibit of John Lennon lithographs gets shut down based on claims of graphic obscenity.

1978 Sex pistol's Sid Vicious falls through a plate glass door in San Francisco and gets hospitalized.

1979 Gregg Allman & Cher divorce becomes official.

1980 Paul McCartney busted when ½ lb. of marijuana turns up in his luggage in Tokyo.  Tour canceled.

1984 Paul & Linda McCartney arrested on drug charges in Barbados.

1990 Ike Turner draws a four year prison sentence on cocaine charges.

1992 Eric Clapton's Unplugged session is recorded.

1996 Jamaican police fire on Jimmy Buffett’s plane after JB and Bono take-off from Montego Bay. Police had mistakenly identified the seaplane as a drug runner's aircraft.

1998 Rolling Stones play Madison Square garden for the first time in 20 years.

2010 Bruce Springsteen joins Joe Gruschecky & The Houserockers for a live set at Parkinsons benefit at Paramount theatre in Asbury Park, NJ.

2018 Slash and Johnny Depp make unannounced appearances with Joe Perry's solo band during a pre-release club concert for his Sweetzerland album...

Ronald Wayne Van Zant was born on this day in Jacksonville, Florida in 1948. He and other classmates formed the band that would become Lynyrd Skynyrd when Ronnie was 16. Van Zant and other long-term members Gary Rossington and Allen Collins eventually chose to name the group after a gym teacher who ragged on students with long hair named Leonard Skinner.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 15 include...

1941 Captain Beefheart (Don Vliet) is born.

1951 Motels Martha Davis is born.

1952 Marillion's  Pete Trewaves is born.
1965 The Who release I Can't Explain, the group's first single.

1967 Rolling Stones appear on Ed Sullivan Show and had to change the lyrics of Let's Spend the Night Together to "Let's Spend Some Time Together", which Jagger does, but rolls his eyes in obvious disgust as he sings it.
1969 George Harrison lays out his conditions for remaining in the Beatles during a long session with his band mates.

1979 Scorpions release Love Drive.

1982 The Police open the US leg of the Ghost in the Machine tour in Boston.

1982 Kinks release Give The People What They Want.
1992 Elton John Band bassist and Spencer Davis group veteran Dee Murray dies at 45 after suffering a stroke.

1992 Jimi Hendrix, and the Yardbirds inducted into Rock Hall Of Fame.

1994 Harry Nilsson dies of a heart failure.

1998 Blues legend Junior Wells who worked on projects with the Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Carlos Santana and Bonnie Raitt dies at 63.

2001 Sting is given human rights award in Chile. It gets stolen from his dressing room in Buenos Aires the next night.

2007 Hand written lyrics to George Harrison’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps sell for $300,000 in Scottsdale, AZ auction.

2008 Ronnie Wood undergoes hernia surgery to repair an injury sustained during the Rolling Stones Bigger Bang tour.

2010 Charlie Daniels suffers minor stroke while snowmobiling in Colorado. 
2015 Rich Robinson announces the break-up of the Black Crowes....

Rush opened the 80's on this date with the release of the Canadian trio's 7th studio album, Permanent Waves, which featured Spirit of Radio, Freewill, Jacob's Ladder, Entre Nous, Different Strings and the 9+ minute, three part Natural Science.  Just off an eight month Hemispheres tour of North America and Europe in mid June of 1979, group members decided to take a six week break before convening on a farm to begin work on this album before shifting to a Toronto studio to do preliminary album sessions and then moving on to a Quebec studio in the fall of '79 to do the actual album sessions.  The strategy produced some of the band's most loved songs.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 14 include...

1947 T-Bone Burnett is born.

1959 Queensryche’s Geoff Tate is born.

1963 Charlie Watts drums for the first time live with the Rolling Stones.

1965 Bob Dylan does his first session for what would be his Bringin' It All Back Home album.

1967 Counting Crows Steve Bowman is born.

1967 Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Big Brother and the Holding Company play at the first Be-In, San Francisco.

1967 Zakk Wylde is born.

1968 Nirvana & Foo Fighters Dave Grohl is born.

1973 Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh gets arrested on drug charges.

1977 David Bowie releases Low.

1978 John Lennon's Bag One art display opens in London.

1985 John Fogerty releases Centerfield.

1999 Metallica sues Victoria's Secret over lip-liner pencils being marketed as Metalica.

2005 Statue of Johnny Ramone gets unveiled at the Forever Cemetery in Hollywood.

2009 Jeff Beck, Metallica, Bobby Womack inducted into Rock Hall Of Fame.

2010 Jimmy Page is awarded UN's Pathways to Peace award.

2011 John Mellencamp files for divorce from wife Elaine, ending 20 year marriage.

2012 Roger Waters marries for the 4th time, exchanging vows with Laurie Durning, fiancé of 7 years, during a small ceremony on Long Island.

2014 Bruce Springsteen releases High Hopes.

2014 Jimmy Fallon & Bruce Springsteen perform a version of Born To Run reworked as a parody of Jersey Governor Chris Christie's bridge lane closure scandal.

2020 Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa attend son Sam's swearing-in ceremony as a Jersey City firefighter.

2022 Elvis Costello releases The Boy Named If...

Eric Clapton did his first concerts after getting out of rehab on this night in 1973.  Organized by Pete Townshend after the Who guitarist talked EC into doing it, the two concerts at the Rainbow Theatre in London ended a two year stretch during which Clapton's only live appearance was at George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh.  In addition to Townshend, the lineup of musicians accompanying Eric included Ronnie Wood, Steve Winwood,  Jim Capaldi and Ric Grech. Highlights from the Rainbow concert were released on a double live album the following September.  A 1995 expanded and remastered edition of the album added more than a dozen additional songs from the sets recorded that night.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 13 include...

1952 Doobie Brothers Cornelius Bumper is born.

1954 Trevor Rabin of Yes is born.

1956 Malcolm Foster of the Pretenders is born.

1965 Bob Dylan records Subterranean Homesick Blues and It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. 

1970 Bruce Springsteen's early band Steel Mill headlines a club concert at the Matrix, Marty Balin's club after Boz Scaggs cancels.

1973 Deep Purple releases Who Do You Think We Are.

1978 Bob Weir releases Heaven Help The Fool.

1978 The Police start recording their debut album.

1980 Grateful Dead, Jefferson Starship & Beach Boys play benefit for Kampuchea at Oakland Stadium.

1995 R.E.M. opens Monster tour in Perth, Australia.

1995 Bruce Springsteen records Murder Incorporated.

2009 Derek Trucks Band releases Already Free

2010 E Street Band’s Clarence Clemons undergoes back surgery.

2021 Vanilla Fudge and Beck, Bogert & Appice's Tim Bogert dies of cancer.

Led Zeppelin's debut album got its release on this day in 1969, leading to January 13 of that year being a very big day for the sale of replacement speaker systems. The album was recorded the previous fall in just a few sessions at Olympic Studios in London in a combined total of under 40 hours at a total cost of just a few thousand dollars. Jimmy Page served as producer with Glyn Johns handling the engineering.

Johns had already engineered eight Rolling Stones albums and worked in the studio with Procol Harum, the Easybeats, Small Faces, the Steve Miller Band, Spooky Tooth, The Move and Traffic. He would go on to become one of the most prolific engineers and producers in history, compiling credits for his work with the Beatles, Joe Cocker, Humble Pie, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Delane & Bonnie & Friends, Leon Russsell, The Band, Bob Dylan, Boz Scaggs, the Who, the Eagles, Neil Young, Paul McCartney and Wings, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, The Clash, Joe Satriani, Stephen Stills and dozens more. He was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame in 2012.

This day was also a date for a number of other RHOF inductions.

Those and other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 12 include...

1941 Long John Baldry is born.

1951 Larry Hoppen of Orleans is born.

1960 Inxs front man Michael Hutchence is born.

1965 Rob Zombie is born.

1965 Hullabaloo debuts on NBC.

1968 The Bealtes film division becomes Apple.

1968 Kinks release Live At Kelvin Hall.

1977 Keith Richards fined $1,275 on cocaine possession charge.

1977 The Police rehearse together for the first time.

1984 Motley Crue opens its first US tour in New York City.

1990 Bob Dylan does a tour warm-up concert set at New Haven, CT club Toad's Place.

1992 Doors, Cream, Van Morrison, Sly & The Family Stone gain entry to Rock Hall Of Fame.

1993 Cream reunites for Rock Hall Of Fame induction ceremony in LA. Van Morrison becomes the first living inductee to refuse to appear at the ceremony. Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Doors, Sly and the Family Stone are also inducted.

1995 Rock Hall Of Fame inducts Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Allman Brothers Band, Janis Joplin, Frank Zappa.

1996 AC/DC opens Ballbreaker tour in Greensboro, North Carolina.

1996 Sammy Hagar jams with 999 guitarists at opening of Hard Rock Café in Hollywood.

1998 Tommy Lee of Motley Crue given 2 years probation and ordered to have anger management sessions after pleading no contest to charge of assaulting a photographer.

1998 Rock Hall Of Fame inducts Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, Santana, Mamas and the Papas.

1999 Elton John sues his former accountants over allegations of financial mismanagement.

2017 Bruce Springsteen performs surprise free set for out going White House staff and First Family on the week Obama leaves office.
2023 Bachman Turner Overdrive drummer Randy Bachman dies at 69 of undisclosed cause...

Clarence Clemons, The Big Man of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, was born on this day in 1942 in what is now Chesapeake, Maryland. Were it not for being in a car accident the day before a scheduled tryout, Clemons might have ended up a lineman in the NFL. 
In September, 1971 legend has it, Clemons, was playing sax in a band named the Joyful Noyze at the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park. During a between sets break, Clarence walked to a nearby club where Bruce Springsteen was booked, introduced himself and proposed doing a song with Bruce and his band. They started with an early version of Spirit In The Night on stage at The Student Prince. By the time the song was done, each of them was convinced Clemons belonged in Bruce's band.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 11 include...

1940 Phil Walden, Capricorn Records founder, born.

1946 Tony Kaye of Yes born.

1963 Whiskey-Au-Go-Go opens in LA.

1967 Jimi Hendrix Experience records Purple Haze.

1971 Janis Joplin's second and last solo album, Pearl, gets released three months after her death.

1982 Dark Side Of The Moon eclipses week 400 on Billboard album chart.

1985 The first Rock In Rio concert is staged, with AC/DC, Queen, Rod Stewart, Yes, George Benson and James Taylor  headlining nights.

1990 Paul McCartney opens an eleven concert run at Wembley Arena.

1993 Ted Nugent arrested after shooting flaming arrow during Cincinnati concert.

1998 Rolling Stones cancel Montreal concert after ice storm tears roof of Olympic Stadium.

2003 T. Rex drummer Mickey Finn dies of Liver disease at 55.

2004 Ted Nugent hacks himself with a chain saw. 40 stitches required to trat the gash.

2005 Jefferson Airplane and New Riders of the Purple Sage drummer Spencer Dryden dies of Colon cancer at 66.

Pat Benatar was born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski on this day in 1953 in Greenpoint, New York.  The daughter of a beautician and a sheet metal worker, she developed an early interest in theater and began taking singing lessons when she was just eight.  She was involved in a number of school musical productions and had her sights set on attending Julliard but ended up attending New York State University at Stony Brook before marrying her high school sweetheart, Dennis Benatar.  Inspired by attending a Liza Minnelli concert, she began performing at a Richmond, Virginia nightclub.  The couple relocated to New York in 1975, where Pat became a regular at the showcase club known as Catch a Rising Star.  That brought her to the attention of a number of record label people.  Chrysalis signed her to a contract and her debut album, In The Heat of the Night, with her cover of John Mellencamp's I Need a Lover, earned her a foothold as one of the premiere lead vocalists of the 80's.

1935 Ronnie Hawkins is born.

1943 Jim Croce is born.

1945 Rod Stewart is born.

1946 Aynsley Dunbar (Journey, Whitesnake) born.

1948 Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen born.
1949 The first vinyl records are announced by RCA and Columbia Records.

1964 Rolling Stones record Not Fade Away.

1964 Introducing The Beatles released in the US.

1964 The Rolling Stones record Not Fade Away.

1969 George Harrison announces he is leaving the Beatles. Changes his mind soon after.

1976 Howlin’ Wolf (Little Red Rooster, Spoonful, Smokestack Lightning) dies of cancer.
1978 The suit between the Beatles, Apple, former manager Allen Klein and ABKCO Records is settled.
1981 Linda Ronstadt debuts in The Pirates of Penzance on Broadway.

1984 Ted Nugent guests on Miami Vice.

2000 David Crosby revealed to be the father of Melissa Etheridge and Julie Cypher's child.

2003 Stolen master tapes of Beatles 1970's sessions recovered.

2006 Eric Burdon releases Soul Of A Man.

2014 Large group of musicians honor Gregg Allman in Atlanta tribute concert at Fox Theater.

2016 David Bowie dies of cancer.

2023 Jeff Beck dies of bacterial meningitis at 78.

James Patrick Page was born on this day in 1944 in west London. The future Led Zeppelin guitarist was inspired by recordings he heard out of Memphis,Chicago and other US cities steeped in R&B and Blues. Even before joining the Yardbirds, Page had become a man in demand for session work in London.  He went on to earn acclaim as one of the greatest lead guitarists in Rock as the lead guitarist in Led Zeppelin and credit for having Midas touch for his remastering of the group's catalog.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 9 include... 

1919 Guitar legend Les Paul born.

1941 Joan Baez is born.

1950 David Johansen is born.

1954 Lance Hoppen of Orleans is born.

1963 The Rolling Stones welcome Charlie Watts as their drummer

1967 Dave Matthews born.

1973 Rolling Stones denied Far East tour visas because of 1969 Mick Jagger drug bust.

1975 London court disbands the relationship of the Beatles.

1984 Van Halen releases 1984.

1989 Rush releases A Show Of Hands.

1992 Sting guests on The Simpsons.

1997 Lou Reed and Foo Fighters play at David Bowie birthday on the night after it at a concert in Madison Square Garden.

2014 Rolling Stone magazine's Readers Poll procalims the White Album by the Beatles the best double album ever made.

2016 Lemmy Kilmisteris  laid to rest at Forest Lawn Cemetery with parting words from Slash, Lar Ulrich and Robert Trujillo of Metallica, Foo Fighters Dave Grohl and Rob Halford of Judas Priest.

David Robert Jones was born on this day in 1947 in South London. Attending a broadly based technical school where he was able to study art, design and music, the future David Bowie was a student of Owen Frampton, an instructor whose son Peter also attended Bromley Technical High School. With Owen's encouragement, the two focused increasingly on music.

David formed his first band at 15. The short-lived Konrads got wedding and youth social gigs that required limiting their set list to familiar pop material David had little interest in. Brief stints in groups billed as the King Bees, the Mannish Boys and the Buzz followed, with none attaining much success.

Meanwhile, The Monkees had become enough of a sensation that Jones knew continuing his career under his own name would cause confusion with Davy Jones of that group. A knife designed for an American pioneering legend named Jim Bowie was also in vogue at the time, so David Jones opted to adopt Bowie as his last name.

He became involved in avant garde theater and dance pieces and developed a strong sense of the importance imagination and image could have in his development as a musical performer. Some of his songs were used in productions, but none translated into successful releases.

That all changed when he wrote, recorded and released the Song Space Oddity just days before the launch of Apollo 11, the space mission that landed Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong on the moon. The single rocketed to the top 5 on British singles chart and David Bowie was on his way.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 8 include...

1931 Concert promoter Bill Graham is born.

1935 Elvis Presley is born.

1946 Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger is born.

1947 Terry Sylvester of the Hollies is born.

1974 KISS sign recording contract with Casablanca Records..

1975 60,000 Led Zeppelin tickets to 4 Madison Square Garden concerts sell in 4 hours.

1979 Rush named Ambassadors of Music by Canada.

1991 Def Leppard guitarist Steve Clark dies at 30 from alcohol and pain killer combo in London.

1994 Nirvana does last US concert, Center Arena, Seattle.

1995 Pearl Jam hosts Self Pollution Radio broadcast.
2002 Chris Robinson and Steve Groman quit the Black Crowes.

2004 Police arrest a woman convinced that Axl Rose was communicating with her telepathically for stalking the Guns N' Roses singer.

2016 David Bowie releases Black Star, his 25^th album, two days before his death.
2022 Woodstock festival co-organizer Michael Lang dies of non-Hodgkins lymphoma at 77.

The rock world was stunned with the news that Rush drummer Neil Peart had died of brain cancer on this day in 2020. Peart had kept his illness under wraps since being diagnosed as having it in 2017.  Peart became a member of Rush just a couple of weeks before the group opened its first US tour in 1974.  In addition to becoming one of the best and most admired drummers in rock history,  Peart was a prolific lyricist. He wrote or co-wrote all but about 15 Rush songs.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 7 include... 

1937 Paul Revere of Paul Revere and the Raiders born.

1941 Paul Butterfield Blues Band's Robert "Rod Hicks born. 
1945 Strawbs lead singer David Cousins is born.

1946 Rolling Stone magazine publisher Jann Wenner born.

1948 Kenny Loggins is born.

1949 Marshall Chapman born.

1970 Led Zeppelin opens UK tour at the Birmingham Town Hall.

1970 Farmers near the Woodstock festival site sue Max Yasgur Farm owner for $35,000 in damage to their properties.

1974 Aerosmith opens Get Your Wings tour in Detroit's Michigan Theater.

1981 The Police open the Zenyatta Mondatta world tour at the University of Montreal.

1987 Eric Clapton opens first series of annual Royal Albert Hall concerts.

1993 REM does Greenpeace benefit concert at an Athens, Georgia club.

2004 Ozzy Osbourne pulls the plug on a UK tour due to injuries sustained in an ATV crash.

2006 Fillmore West in San Francisco hosts Bill Graham tribute concert featuring Jackson Browne and Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.

2010 UK Postal Service issues stamps featuring cover art from Led Zeppelin, Stones, Clash, David Bowie and Pink Floyd albums.

Peter Frampton's decision to leave Humble Pie surprised a lot of fans and was second guessed by many after his solo career got off to a sluggish start. All that changed with the release of this album on this day in 1976. It was slow out of the gate, too, managing to squeak into Billboard's top 200 album chart at #191. By late March, sales had exploded, propelling the double live release to #1, where it remained for more than two months on its way to becoming the top selling album of the year and one of the biggest live albums in history. It would end up spending a combined 97 weeks on the albums chart and was still in the top 15 at the end of 1977.

Most of the tracks were recorded at concerts at Bill Graham's Winterland in San Francisco and the Long Island Arena in Commack, New York during the summer of '75. Baby, I Love Your Way was recorded at a concert the State University of New York campus in Plattsburgh on November 22, that cost $2 for students and $4 for the public to attend.

Through it all, Peter has remained one of the nicest guys in Rock, and one with great respect for fans and fellow musicians.

Malcolm Mitchell Young, the driving rhythm guitarist of AC/DC was born on this day in 1953 in Glasgow, Scotland to a family of multiple musicians that would include his younger brother, Angus, born two years later.  The family migrated to Australia when the boys were 10 and 12. Malcom, Angus and their brother George Young formed a quartet named the Marcus Hook Roll Band in 1972. The group released an album in '73 but broke-up the following year. After a brief stint in a Down Under group dubbed the Velvet Underground (unrelated to the US band), Malcolm and Angus launched AC/DC with drummer Colin Burgess, bass player Larry Van Kriedt and lead singer Dave Evans.  With the exception of a brief absence in the late 1980's Malcolm was the driving force and defacto leader of the group from its formation until 2014 when the onset of dementia rendered him unable to continue. The disease took him from us in November, 2017.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 6 include...

1946 Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett born.

1951 Fabulous Thunderbird’s Kim Wilson born.

1958 Gibson patents Flying V guitar.

1964 Rolling Stones open first UK headlining tour in Harrow, England.

1970 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young make UK debut at Royal Albert Hall.

1975 Fans waiting to buy tickets for a Led Zeppelin Boston show riot. Concert gets canceled.

1975 Pink Floyd enters the studio to begin work on Wish You Were Here.

1976 Peter Frampton releases Frampton Comes Alive!

1977 EMI voids the Sex Pistols record contract, settling with the band with a buyout of around 70k.

1987 Eric Clapton begins a run of 6 nights at Royal Albert Hall, a residency that he repeated yearly for a  long run.

1993 Bill Wyman confirms he is leaving the Rolling Stones.

1997 George Harrison's Henley home's grounds invaded by thieves that stole a pair of bronze figures of monks from his garden.

2001 The rights to the url davidgilmour.com get awarded to the Pink Floyd guitarist after he sues a man who registered it and used the site to sell band merch.

2004 Sirius makes a deal with E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt to bring his Underground Garage to satellite radio.

2007 Pedal Steel player 'Sneaky' Pete Kleinow of the Flying Burrito Brothers dies of Alzheimer's at 72.

2009 Iggy & the Stooges Ron Ashton dies of a heart attack at 60.

2019 Bon Jovi plays a San Francisco 49ers private concert in San Jose the night before the NCAA National Championship football game...
 

The first albums from a pair of artists that would go on to to become two of Columbia Record's most successful acts ever dropped on this day in 1973. The catalog of releases from each has surpassed 75 million copies in the US alone and more than double that total in worldwide sales. The albums; Aerosmith's self-titled debut and Bruce Springsteen's Greetings from Asbury Park N.J.

Columbia signed Aerosmith in 1972 after Clive Davis saw their showcase performance at Max's Kansas City in New York that was arranged for Columbia and Atlantic Records.  An edit of Dream On that was a full minute shorter than the abum version was released as a single to modest success in 1973.  When the full length song got reissued as a single in 1975, it launched the band toward a national level of success it already established and enjoyed in Boston and adjacent New England states.

The label wanted Springsteen's debut on Columbia to be a solo album, but Bruce had already set his mind on recording with his band.  The evening of the day Greetings From Asbury Park hit the streets, Bruce was the opening act for a Boston based duo named Travis & Shook that was playing a club near Philadelphia.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 5 include...

1923 Sun Records founder Sam Phillips is born.
1948 Nazz drummer Thom Mooney is born.

1950 Blondie guitarist Chris Stein is born.

1954 REO Speedwagon drummer Bryan Hitt born.

1963 Bob Dylan writes Girl From the North Country and Boots of Spanish Leather.
1967 Paul McCartney records his vocal track for Penny Lane.

1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival releases Bayou Country, the first of three albums it would put out that year.

1976 Bob Dylan releases Desire.

1978 The Sex Pistols make US live debut in Atlanta.

1979 Elvis Costello releases Armed Forces.

1979 Joe Jackson releases Look Sharp.
1979 Prince makes live debut at The Capri Club in Minneapolis...  

1980 David Bowie performs on Saturday Night Live.

1984 The Police announce a Farewell concert on March 2 in Australia.

1987 Elton John cancels tour after undergoing throat surgery.

2005 Former Doors and Iggy Pop manager Danny Sugarman dies of Lung Cancer at 50.
 

The groundbreaking debut album from the Doors dropped on this day in 1967. The album became an instant sensation, almost  immediately established the group as one of preeminent bands in America. Reviewing it for Crawdaddy, Paul Williams called the debut 'an album of "magnitude" and wrote, "The birth of the group is in this album, and it's as good as anything in rock."

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 4 include...

1936 Billboard publishes its first music chart.

1950 RCA Records announces it will begin production of vinyl albums.

1960 R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe born.

1968 University of California introduces a course on the Rolling Stones.

1970 Keith Moon of the Who runs over a chauffer while fleeing a gang of skinheads in Hatfield, England. 
1970 Let It Be is recorded during the final Beatles recording session.
1971 Performance, a movie featuring Mick Jagger, premieres in London.

1971 Pink Floyd starts recording the Meddle album.

1973 The Allman Brothers Band announces Lamar Williams will take the place of the late Berry Oakley.

1976 Former Beatles roadie Mal Evans is killed by LA police after pointing a rifle at them.

1986 Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott dies of pneumonia and liver failure at 36.

2004 Ray Davies of the Kinks shot and wounded while running down thief that snatched his date’s purse in New Orleans.

2011 Stealers Wheel's Gerry Rafferty dies of liver failure at 63.

2018 Jim Morrison and John Densmore reunited in signage as Hollywood unveils new street signs at the intersection of Morrison Street and Densmore Avenue on the anniversary of the release of the Doors first album in 1967.

2018 Ray Thomas of the Moody Blues dies after three year battle with prostate cancer.

Buffalo Springfield, Manassas, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young member Stephen Stills was born on his day in 1945 in Dallas, Texas.  Like many children in military families, he moved a number of times during his childhood, logging time in Tampa, Gainesville and St. Petersburg, Florida as well as Covington, Lousiana, Panama, Costa Rica and El Salvador.  He attended Lousiana State University and was in a band with future Eagles member Don Felder before dropping out.  Although he became one of the best under-rated guitarists in Rock, it was his vocal prowess that initially got the attention of people that could advance his career.  He became a member of the Cafe au Go Go house group of singers that also included future Buffalo Springfield band mate Richie Furay.  During a Canadian tour with some fellow members of that vocal group, Still would meet Neil Young.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 3 include...

1926 Beatles producer George Martin born. 

1946 Led Zeppelin and Them Crooked Vultures bassist John Paul Jones is born.

1963 The Beatles open their first headline tour in Elgin,  Scotland.

1965 CBS buys Fender Guitars for $13 million.

1970 Syd Barrett releases The Madcap laughs.

1970 Beatles record I Me Mine, final song together.

1972 Pink Floyd begins preliminary studio work on Dark Side of the Moon.
1974 Bob Dylan opens his first concert tour in seven years.

1981 David Bowie does his closing performance in The Elephant Man on Broadway

1982 Bruce Springsteen records Nebraska on 4 track in Rumson NJ bedroom.

1987 Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock Hall Of Fame.

2014 Phil Everly dies of lung disease at 74.

2015 Barack Obama & daughters visit Eddie Vedder before President leaves Hawaii vacation.

2022 David Bowie's estate sells his entire songwriting catalog to Warner Music for more than $250 million...

Work began on the what was originally planned to be a television special documenting the recording of the Beatles 12th studio album on this day in 1969.  When the broadcast got nixed, the group shifted gears, electing to make it a film instead. Lacking narration and other embellishments, much of the raw footage in the Let It Be film captures the working dynamic of the band at a time when tensions were rising between members but includes only a couple of scenes in which they're at odds. The closing segment of the movie features footage filmed on Januay 30th when the group and Billy Preston performed their impromptu concert on the roof of the studio, doing five songs before police intercede due to complaints that the crowd gatherd on the streets below was disrupting the lunch break business of restaurants and shops in the neighborhood.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 2 include...

1926 First issue of Melody Maker magazine goes on sale.

1946 Ten Years Afters keyboard player Chick Churchill born.

1968 New Jersey authorities seize shipment of John Lennon, Yoko Ono Two Virgins albums over naked cover photo. Albums are repackaged in brown paper wrap.

1968 Led Zeppelin opens a four night run at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go in Hollywood with Alice Cooper opening.

1975 Allman Brothers Band gets "Outstanding Community Organization" award from Georgia.

1975 Judge orders Immigration Department to let John Lennon and his lawyers review files kept on him.

1976 Dennis Wilson  of the Beach Boys arrested with unlicensed 38 handgun.

1979 Sex Pistol Sid Vicious murder trial opens - he dies before verdict.

1985 Ronnie Wood marries Jo Woodin. Keith Richards, Bill Wyman,Charlie Watts, Jeff Beck, Ringo Starr and Rod Stewart attend the ceremony.

1997 Spirit's Randy California drowns saving son in surf off Hawaii.

2012 Iron Butterfly's Larry Reinhardt dies at 63 of liver disease.

Journey's rise to mass popularity was still a  couple of years off, but the album the Bay Area band formed by Santana's former manager built around Santana's other guitarist, Neal Schon and keyboard player Gregg Rolie opened 1976 with an album that gave a better indication of what lay ahead for the group than the previous year's self titled debut.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on January 1 include...

1942 "Country" Joe McDonald of Country Joe and the Fish born.

1950 Mott The Hoople key board player Morgan Fisher born.

1962 Beatles audition for Decca Records and are rejected. Sign with EMI in June.

1968 Blue Velvets change name to Creedence Clearwater Revival.

1970 Jimi Hendrix debuts Band Of Gypsys and records live album at Fillmore East.

1976 Jimmy Buffett releases Havana Daydreamin'.

1980 Late era Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner born. Replaces KK Dowling in 2010.

1984 Alexis Korner dies of lung cancer.

1985 VH1 debuts.

1986 John Fogerty releases Eye of The Zombie.

1995 Crowd estimated at 2-3 million turns out for Rod Stewart beach front Concert in Rio.

1997 Townes van Zandt dies.

2002 Eric Clapton stages surprise wedding to Melia McEnery during the baptism of couple’s daughter.

2010 James Taylor sings national anthem before Flyers-Bruins NHL game at Fenway Park.

2011 Chuck Berry collapses on stage during a concert in Chicago, returns a short while later and has to leave the stage again.

2018 Ace Frehley performs New York Groove before NHL Winter Classic (Sabres-Rangers) at Citi Field in Queens...