The Current

Great Music Lives Here ®
Listener-Supported Music
Donate Now

Today in Music History: Pink Floyd began their 'Piper At The Gates of Dawn' tour

Pink Floyd released their debut album, Today in Music History.
Pink Floyd released their debut album, Today in Music History.Album art

October 01, 2020

History Highlight:

Today in 1967, Pink Floyd arrived in New York to begin their initial tour of the U.S. in support of their first album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. It had to be cancelled midway through the tour due to co-founder Syd Barrett's increasingly bizarre behavior.

Also, Today In:

1956 - After test audiences gave a negative reaction to Elvis Presley dying at the end of the film Love Me Tender, Presley was called back to re-shoot the scene. (Spoiler alert: In the new ending, the hero lives.)

1965 - Bob Dylan appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York City. He introduced his new touring band on this tour, made up of guitarist Robbie Robertson, organist Garth Hudson, bassist Rick Danko, pianist Richard Manual and drummer Levon Helm. They would become known simply as The Band.

1970 - Curtis Mayfield left the Impressions to go solo.

1970 - Jimi Hendrix was buried at The Greenwood Cemetery at the Dunlop Baptist Church in Seattle. Among the mourners were Miles Davis, Eric Burdon, Johnny Winter, and members of Derek and the Dominoes.

1977 - Meco started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with a disco version of the Star Wars Theme.

1980 - The Paul Simon film, One Trick Pony, premiered. It was a semi-autobiographical picture, written by and starring Simon and featuring guest appearances by Lou Reed, The B-52's and Sam & Dave.

1982 - John Cougar went to No. 1 on both the U.S. album and singles charts with American Fool and "Jack And Diane," respectively.

1982 - Sony launched its first compact-disc player, the CDP-101, for $730. That's the equivalent of about $1,630 today.

1990 - Forbes magazine listed New Kids On The Block as the fifth richest entertainers in the U.S., with an income of $78 million.

2004 - John So, then the mayor of Melbourne, Australia, officially opened "AC/DC Lane," a street named after the veteran rockers. The mayor erected the sign to cheers and to bagpipes playing the AC/DC song, "Long Way To The Top." The City of Melbourne had extra copies of the sign made in anticipation of fans stealing them.

2007 - Radiohead's official website crashed after the band announced that their new album In Rainbows would only be available to order via www.radiohead.com. In Rainbows was one of the first major albums to be released via the "let the listener pay whatever they choose" model. Fans could also choose to pay a fixed price of £40 (more than $80 at the time) for a "discbox" that included two CDs, two records, plus artwork and booklets.

2015 - An original tape of The Beatles performing at The Cavern Club in Liverpool in 1962 was found after 50 years languishing in a desk drawer. It featured the Fab Four playing 'Some Other Guy' in September 1962, four weeks before their debut single came out.

2018 - French singer, actor, public activist and diplomat Charles Aznavour died at 94. He was famous for his 1974 U.K. No. 1 single "She" and was one of France's most popular and enduring singers (dubbed France's Frank Sinatra). He sold more than 180 million records, recorded more than 1,200 songs (interpreted in nine languages) and he wrote or co-wrote more than 1,000 songs for himself and others.

2019 - American blues guitarist Beverly Watkins died at age 80. She worked with artists like James Brown, B.B. King, and Ray Charles.

Birthdays:

Richard Harris was born today in 1930. He had a hit with the song, "MacArthur Park," ("… someone left the cake out in the rain …"), although most people nowadays know him best as "the first Dumbledore" from the Harry Potter films.

Julie Andrews, known for her roles in such musical films as Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, is 85.

Jerry Martini, saxophonist for Sly and the Family Stone, is 77.

Donny Hathaway was born today in 1945.

Martin Cooper of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark is 62.

Senegalese singer Youssou N'dour is 61.

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