1964: The Beatles performed two shows at the Civic Center in Baltimore during their only visit to the city. Two teens attempted to have themselves delivered to the band in a cardboard box with a label that claimed it contained fan mail, but guards foiled the plot.

1965: After its UK release in early August, “Yesterday” by the Beatles was released as a single in the US, backed with their cover of Buck Owens’ “Act Naturally.” Paul McCartney’s vocals and acoustic guitar, together with a string quartet, essentially made “Yesterday” the first solo performance of the band. With more than 2,200 cover versions, it is one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded music.

1965: Manfred Mann’s third American LP, My Little Red Book Of Winners!, was released.

1965: At the 7th annual Grammy Awards, the Beatles won for Best New Artist and for Best Pop Vocal Performance for “A Hard Day’s Night.”

1969: Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, Alice Cooper, Gene Vincent, and the Doors appeared at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival Festival, held at the University of Toronto’s Varsity Stadium, before an audience of over 20,000. There, they met one of their biggest fans, John Lennon. Lennon, along with Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman, and Andy White, performed together for the first time as the Plastic Ono Band. It was Lennon’s first live concert without the Beatles, whom he’d decided to leave the day before, and most of the set was released at the end of the year as the Live Peace in Toronto 1969 album.

1969: The self-titled debut album by Santana entered the Billboard pop chart. By the middle of November, it reached #4.

1970: Freda Payne topped the UK chart for the first of six weeks with her first hit single, “Band of Gold,” which had reached #3 on the US Billboard chart earlier in July.

1972: Yes released Close to the Edge, their fifth studio album and last to feature drummer Bill Bruford before he left to join King Crimson.

1974: Jackson Browne released his third studio album, Late for the Sky.

1974: Labelle released their fourth album, Nightbirds. It features the group’s biggest hit, “Marmalade,” and became their most successful album, reaching #7 on the Billboard pop chart and #4 on the R&B chart.

1974: Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood released his first solo album, I’ve Got My Own Album to Do. Recorded at his home in London, the LP features contributions from Keith Richards, George Harrison, Mick Taylor, Ian McLagan, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, and Rod Stewart.

1974: Fleetwood Mac released their ninth studio album, Heroes Are Hard to Find. It was the band’s last album with Bob Welch, who was replaced by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

1975: Bruce Springsteen’s third album, Born to Run, entered the Billboard pop chart. The album later proved to be a breakout success, reaching #3, and was the first of eight consecutive top 5 albums.

1976: Bob Dylan released Hard Rain, a live album comprising recordings from two shows in Texas and Colorado during the second leg of Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour in May. Additional musicians who joined Dylan on the tour included Joan Baez, T-Bone Burnett, and Mick Ronson. The album’s release also coincided with the NBC broadcast of a one-hour television special of footage from the tour’s penultimate show at Hughes Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado. Despite a poor reception to both the album and the TV special, the album reached #17 in the US and #3 in the UK.

1980: Jackson Browne achieved his only #1 on the Billboard pop chart with his sixth studio LP, Hold Out.

1981: The J. Geils Band released “Centerfold” from their tenth studio album, Freeze Frame. It became the band’s only single to reach #1 on the US charts.

1982: Kate Bush released her fourth studio album, The Dreaming. Produced entirely by Bush, the album is considered one her most experimental.

1982: Simple Minds released their fifth studio album, New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84).

1985: Stevie Wonder released his twelfth studio album, In Square Circle.

1986: Berlin scored their first and only #1 single on the US pop charts with “Take My Breath Away,” a song written by Giogio Moroder and Tom Whitlock for the film Top Gun. At the 1987 Academy Awards, the composition won for Best Original Song.

1988: British singer-songwriter Tanita Tikaram released her debut studio album, Ancient Heart.

1988: The Jeff Healey Band released their debut album, See the Light.

1989: Tina Turner released her seventh studio album, Foreign Affair.

1994: Blues Traveler released their fourth studio album, Four. It was the group’s breakthrough LP, reaching #8 on the Billboard pop chart.

1994: Eric Clapton released his twelfth studio album, From the Cradle. The follow-up to his successful 1992 live album, Unplugged, the album of blues covers became went to #1 in the US and is Clapton’s only #1 on the UK chart.

1997: Elton John released “Candle in the Wind 1997,” a re-written and re-recorded version of his 1973 song “Candle in the Wind,” as a tribute to the recently deceased Diana, Princess of Wales. Written by songwriting partner Bernie Taupin and produced by Sir George Martin, global proceeds from the song going towards Diana’s charities. In many countries, the single was pressed as a double A-side with “Something About the Way You Look Tonight” and has since become the second best selling physical single in history.

2005: Tracy Chapman released her seventh studio album, Where You Live.

2005: Bonnie Raitt released her fifteenth album, Souls Alike.

2010: Phil Collins released Going Back, his eighth solo studio album and first in eight years, featuring covers of 1960s Motown and soul standards. The album was issued in the US two weeks later.

2011: Nick Lowe released the album This Old Magic.

2013: Elton John released his twenty-ninth studio album, The Diving Board. It became his highest-charting solo album in the US since “Blue Moves” in 1976, peaking at #4 on the Billboard pop chart.

Birthdays Today

Bill Monroe, mandolinist, singer, and songwriter known as the “Father of Bluegrass,” was born in Rosine, KY in 1911.

Charles Brown, blues singer and pianist, member of Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers, and key figure in the development of rock and roll, was born Tony Russell Brown in Texas City, TX in 1922.

Mel Tormé, jazz singer, arranger, composer, drummer, and actor, was born in Chicago, IL in 1925.

Lewie Steinberg, original bass player for Booker T. & the M.G.’s, was born in Memphis, TN in 1933.

Bruce Lundvall, record company executive best known as President and CEO of the Blue Note Label Group who signed a wide array of artists, including Willie Nelson, Herbie Hancock, Woody Shaw, James Taylor, Wynton Marsalis, and Norah Jones, was born in Englewood, NJ in 1935.

Dave Quincy, saxophonist, composer, co-founder of jazz-rock bands If and Zzebra, and contributor to albums by Manfred Mann Chapter Three, was born David Quickendon in Battle, East Sussex, England in 1939.

Gene Page, prolific conductor, composer, arranger and record producer who worked with Jefferson Starship, The Supremes, the Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, the Jackson 5, Elton John, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, and many others, was born in Los Angeles, CA in 1939.

David Clayton-Thomas, singer and songwriter, lead vocalist for Blood, Sweat & Tears, and a solo artist, was born David Henry Thomsett—Kingston upon Thams, Surrey, England in 1941.

Jerry Carrigan, drummer, record producer, original member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, and Nashville session musician who recorded with artists such as Arthur Alexander, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Kenny Rogers, and George Jones, was born in Florence, AL in 1943.

Peter Cetera, singer, songwriter, original bassist and vocalist for Chicago, and a solo artist, was born in Chicago, IL in 1944.

Leslie Harvey, guitarist for several bands, most notably Stone the Crows, and brother of Alex Harvey, was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1944.

Craig Macgregor, bassist for Foghat, was born in Sioux City, IA in 1949.

Don Was, multi-instrumentalist, singer, co-founder of Was (Not Was) and producer who’s worked with the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Ringo Starr, Willie Nelson, David Crosby, and Bonnie Raitt among others, was born Don Fagenson in Detroit, MI in 1952.

Steve Kilbey, singer-songwriter, producer, and bass guitarist for The Church, was born in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England in 1954.

Zak Starkey, son of Ringo Starr, drummer for The Who starting in 1996, and player in his father’s All Starr Band who’s also worked with Oasis, Johnny Marr, John Entwhistle, the Waterboys, and others, was born Zak Richard Starkey in Hammersmith, London, England in 1965.

Fiona Apple, singer-songwriter and pianist, was born Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart in Manhattan, New York City in 1977.