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Today In Music History

May 23 in Music History: Happy Birthday, Steve Lacy

Steve Lacy performs onstage during the 65th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 05, 2023 in Los Angeles.
Steve Lacy performs onstage during the 65th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 05, 2023 in Los Angeles.Kevin Winter/Getty Images

May 23, 2023

History highlight:

Steve Lacy was born in Compton, California in 1998. The multi-genre musician and playful producer started his career with alternative R&B collective, The Internet. At 19, he released his debut solo EP, Steve Lacy's Demo, featuring the hit "Dark Red." Lacy's latest release, Gemini Rights, earned a Grammy for Best Progressive R&B Album, and the single "Bad Habit" rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, in part due to it soundtracking 400,000+ Tik Tok videos. Lacy has also co-written songs for Solange, Chloe x Halle, and Kendrick Lamar. 

Also, today in:

1964 - "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys was released. Thanks to the flip side, "Don't Worry, Baby," it went on to be their first No. 1 record.

1964 - Ella Fitzgerald became the first artist to have a hit with a Beatles cover when "Can't Buy Me Love" entered the UK chart.

1966 - A great Beatles single came out: "Paperback Writer," with "Rain" on the B-side. The latter was an early psychedelic effort, primarily the work of Lennon, featuring the band's first experiments with backwards tracking. There are different accounts of who first stumbled upon this effect (John Lennon or producer George Martin), but the most entertaining account comes from Lennon, claiming he accidentally loaded the tape backwards while "stoned out of [his] mind." A total of three promotional clips were filmed for "Rain," featuring collage-like cutting of the footage in a way that would become commonplace for countless music videos by the mid-1980s; looking back, George Harrison remarked, "So I suppose we invented MTV" (with the clips).

1969 - The Who released their fourth album Tommy, which was the first album to be billed as a rock opera. The album went on to reach No. 4 on the album chart and sell 2 million copies in the U.S.

1970 - The Grateful Dead performed their first concert outside of North America, appearing at the U.K.'s Hollywood Rock Music Festival. Their set went on for four hours. A DVD and CD set of footage from the event was issued in 2010, featuring archive material from the Grateful Dead's set, and one number each from Free, Family, Screaming Lord Sutch, and Radha Krishna Temple along with a biographical booklet of the event.

1974 - George Harrison announced the formation of his record label Dark Horse Records. The label's first signing was Ravi Shankar.

1979 - The Who's film biography "The Kids Are Alright" premiered in New York City. This film contained footage of the last concert they performed with Keith Moon.

1987 - The Doobie Brothers reunited for a Vietnam veterans benefit concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

2000 - During an interview on KROQ in Los Angeles, Billy Corgan revealed that the Smashing Pumpkins would be calling it quits following the fulfillment of prior contractual agreements.

2000 - Noel Gallagher walked out on his band Oasis during a European tour.

2006 - The king of Sweden presented the surviving members of Led Zeppelin with the Polar Music Prize in Stockholm, recognizing them as "great pioneers" of rock music.

Birthdays:

Rosemary Clooney was born today in 1928. 

Robert Moog, inventor of the synthesizer, was born today in 1934. 

Tiki Fulwood, drummer for Parliament and Funkadelic, was born today in 1944. 

Danny Klein, bassist for the J. Geils Band, is 77. 

Singer-songwriter Jewel Kilcher (Jewel) is 49. 

Radiohead drummer Philip Selway is 56. 

Matt Flynn, Maroon 5 drummer, is 53. 

Steve Lacy is 25.  

Maxwell is 50. 

Highlights for Today in Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts and Wikipedia.