October 8 Rock And Roll History

Curious about what happened today in rock and roll history? Wonder no more, we've got the facts right here!

On this day in 1969, David Bowie played the first night of ten for his performance as a supporting act for Humble Pie in Coventry, England. Humble Pie was fronted by former Small Faces singer Steve Marriott and featured Bowie's friend from school, Peter Frampton. Frampton’s father, Owen, was an art teacher at Beckenham Technical School, where Bowie was a student. Another of Frampton's pupils was George Underwood, who became a painter and designed three album covers for Bowie: Space Oddity, Hunky Dory, and Ziggy Stardust.

In 1971, Led Zeppelin II was entering its 100th week on the U.K. album charts. It spent seven weeks at #1 and was the band's first album to reach this spot in the U.S. It knocked down Abbey Road twice from this spot. When it was first released, the album had advance orders of 400,000 copies in the USA.

In 1977, Billy Joel's breakthrough album, "The Stranger," made it onto Top 10 on the Billboard album chart. Four of the singles made it to the US Top 30: "Just The Way You Are," "Movin' Out," "Only The Good Die Young," and "She's Always A Woman." "The Stranger" was Joel's first album to make it to the U.K. chart.

In 1979 on this day, Warner Brothers Records rushed to release Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" way ahead of schedule when tracks began mysteriously getting play on radio stations in America. 

In 1987, the members of ZZ Top booked seats in advance for the first passenger flight to the moon. They're still waiting for flight confirmation.

In 1988, U2's 12th single, 'Desire,' went to #1 in the U.K. and #3 in the U.S. The song is off of the album 'Rattle And Hum.’

Also in 1988, Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of The Moon" slipped off the Billboard's Hot 200 album chart after spending an astounding 741 weeks there.

And in 1989, Rolling Stone guitarist Ron Wood made a statement that The Who were only staging a 25th anniversary tour for the money. Pete Townshend responded to this with: "Mick needs a lot more than I do. His last album was a flop."