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Classic Rock: A Journey Through Timeless Music
The Savoy Hotel in London played host to the 1970 Melody Maker Poll Awards, where Led Zeppelin displaced the Beatles in the most popular group category. (The first time the Beatles had not been ranked #1 in eight years). Robert Plant was also voted best male vocalist. John Bonham and Robert Plant make a rare appearance on TV, interviewed for BBC's Nationwide. Melody Maker stopped publication in December, 2000 after seventy-three years.
The Ford Motor Company becomes the first auto maker to offer an 8-track tape player as an option in their Mustang, Thunderbird and Lincoln models. Tapes were initially only available at auto parts stores, as home 8-track equipment was still a year away. The format's popularity declined in the 1980s, although Cheap Trick's "The Latest" was issued on 8-track in 2009, as was Dolly Parton's "A Holly Dolly Christmas" in 2020.
Big Brother And The Holding Company's LP, "Cheap Thrills" enters the Billboard 200, where it will stay for twenty-nine weeks, including eight at #1. The album would later be inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame and was ranked at #372 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time in 2020
Pink Floyd issue their ninth studio album, "Wish You Were Here". Most of the LP is taken up by "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", a nine-part tribute to founding member Syd Barrett, who left the band seven years earlier due to mental health issues. With advance sales of 250,000 in Great Britain and 900,000 in America, it would top the charts in both countries, becoming Pink Floyd's fastest-selling album ever.
Peter Frampton's fourth solo album, "Frampton", goes Gold. It's his commercial breakthrough LP containing the hits "Show Me the Way" and "Baby I Love Your Way".
Police are called to break up a crowd of rowdy teenagers following the showing of the film Rock Around The Clock at the Trocadero Cinema in London, England. The following day, The Times prints a reader's letter that says in part: "The hypnotic rhythm and the wild gestures have a maddening effect on a rhythm loving age group, and the result of its impact is the relaxing of all self control." The film is quickly banned in several English cities.
Guns N' Roses enjoyed a number one single with "Sweet Child O' Mine", written for Axl Rose's then girlfriend, Erin Everly, the daughter of The Everly Brothers' eldest sibling, Don Everly.
An episode of the American TV show Judge Judy airs in which Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten (nee Lydon) appears as the defendant in a case involving drummer Robbie Williams, who sues Rotten for wrongful termination from a recent tour. Williams had claimed that the Sex Pistols owed him $7,000. Rotten said Williams quit and was owed nothing. Judge Judy apparently found Rotten was most credible and ruled in his favor.
The Allman Brothers started a five week run at the top of the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart with "Brothers And Sisters", the group's only US #1 LP. Led by the single, "Ramblin' Man", the album sold 760,000 copies in its first three weeks.
The Guess Who play their final concert at a show in Montreal. Core members Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman would return for another tour in 1987. As time went on, a deep rift would develop between Cummings and drummer Garry Peterson, who continued to use the band's name with new players. In 2023, Cummings and Bachman would file a lawsuit to keep Peterson from using their images in ads and posters.
Jimi Hendrix makes his last major concert appearance at the Love and Peace Festival in Puttgarden, Germany. He would pass away under somewhat mysterious circumstances on September 18th, 1970
The Rolling Stones fly to Los Angeles to record "Get Off My Cloud". In a later interview, Keith Richards would say "I never dug it as a record. The chorus was a nice idea, but we rushed it as the follow-up" (to "Satisfaction").
John Lennon and Yoko Ono appear on Jerry Lewis' Muscular Dystrophy Telethon. Lewis introduced the pair by saying, "... two of the most unusual people in all the world, and I don't mean just in the world of entertainment. They fit no patterns, meet no standards except the standard of excellence. Ladies and gentlemen, John Lennon and Yoko." From the Hotel Americana in New York City, John and the Elephant's Memory band performed "Imagine", followed by Yoko singing her new song "Now or Never". The ensemble wrapped things up with a Reggae version of "Give Peace a Chance", on which Jerry Lewis joined in on trumpet.
Donovan enjoyed his only US number one hit, "Sunshine Superman", which featured then Yardbird and future Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. The single wouldn't be released in the UK for another five months, but when it was, it rose to number 3
The Beatles release "Yesterday", on which only Paul is actually playing. Although it was nominated for Song of the Year at the 1966 Grammy Awards, it lost out to Tony Bennett's "The Shadow of Your Smile". More than 2,500 cover versions of "Yesterday" exist, making it one of the most recorded songs in history. In 2012, the BBC reported that it was the fourth-most-successful song of all time in terms of royalties paid, having earned a total of £19.5 million in payments.
The Rock group Blondie, featuring former Playboy Bunny Debra Harry, sign their first major record company contract with Chrysalis Records.
The Rolling Stones release the LP "Goats Head Soup" on their own Rolling Stones label. The album, which climbed to the peak of the charts in both America and England, features the single, "Angie" which topped the Billboard Hot 100 and went to #5 on the UK's Official Chart
The three-day Texas International Pop Festival opens at the Dallas International Motor Speedway. Performers included Chicago Transit Authority, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin and Santana.
Monument Records releases Rob Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman". It will hit Billboard's number one spot just four weeks later and reach the Top Ten in fifteen other countries. The RIAA would later award songwriters Roy Orbison and Bill Dees a Gold Record for selling one million copies in the United States.
The Beatles smoke marijuana for the first time, supplied by Bob Dylan, who joins the band after one of their concerts in New York state. Dylan was surprised the boys hadn't tried it before, as he thought they sang "I get high" in their song "I Want To Hold Your Hand," when the real lyrics were actually "I can't hide."
The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein was found dead of an apparent drug overdose at his home in Belgravia, London, just a few weeks shy of his 33rd birthday. The Fab Four were in Bangor, North Wales at the time, attending a conference by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The death is ruled accidental and the Maharishi tells the Beatles that Epstein's death, being in the realm of the physical world, is "not important." The group would later renounce their association with the Maharishi and Epstein is remembered as being the man who took The Beatles from being a rough looking club act to the most successful band in the world. John Lennon would later recall that when he heard the news about Brian, "I thought, we've fuckin' had it."
A crowd of 80,000 people attended the first Canada Jam Festival held at Mosport Park, just north of Bowmanville, Ontario. The show featured sets by The Doobie Brothers, Dave Mason, The Commodores, Kansas and The Atlanta Rhythm Section.
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Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Robert Plant reunited at LWT studios in London to tape a set for MTV's Unplugged series, set to air on October 12th. Bassist John Paul Jones was not included.
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While celebrating his 21st Birthday, The Who's drummer, Keith Moon drives a Lincoln Continental into the pool of a Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan. The band would later get a $50,000 bill for the damage they caused and were subsequently banned from every Holiday Inn for life. It was also rumored that Decca Records had to purchase the ruined car from its rightful owner.
The Beach Boys become the first Rock band ever to appear on the cover of *People* magazine. The caption that accompanied a picture of the five original members, all sporting beards, read: "Still Riding The Crest, 15 Hairy Years Later.
Columbia Records releases Santana's self-titled, debut album. It will rise to #4 on the Billboard 200 chart and #34 in the UK, and featured the single "Evil Ways". That song would peak at #9 in America and feature keyboard player Gregg Rolie on lead vocals.
The Ramones' lead guitarist Johnny Ramone, (real name: John Cummings) undergoes emergency surgery to remove blood clots from his brain following a fight with Seth Micklaw of the Punk band Sub Zero Construction. Ramone picked a fight after seeing his girlfriend, Cynthia Whitney with Micklaw. The brief scrap ended with Ramone receiving kicks to the head with steel capped boots.
The Rolling Stones release "Angie", which will top the Billboard chart and reach #5 in the UK. At the time, the Mick Jagger/Keith Richards composition was rumored to have been written about David Bowie's first wife Angela, the actress Angie Dickinson, Keith Richards' newborn daughter Dandelion Angela, and Marianne Faithfull. However, in his 2010 memoir Life, Richards said that he had chosen the name at random when writing the song, before he knew that his baby would be named Angela or even knew that his baby would be a girl.
Jefferson Airplane, Joni Mitchell, David Crosby and Stephen Stills all appeared on The Dick Cavett Show. The episode is now often referred to as "The Woodstock Show", as many of the performers, and Cavett's audience, came directly from the concert.
The City of Liverpool named four streets after The Beatles, John Lennon Drive, Paul McCartney Way, George Harrison Close and Ringo Starr Drive.