September 21 Rock And Roll History
Here's your daily dose of rock and roll history!
On this day in 1961, the Beatles played a show at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. That night, they also made an appearance at Litherland Town Hall with Gerry & the Pacemakers and Rory Storm & the Hurricanes. Tickets cost only 3 shillings (15 pence).
In 1968, Jimi Hendrix had the only Top 40 single of his career with the song "All Along the Watchtower." The song reached #20 on the charts.
In 1971, two of Paul McCartney's records, "Another Day" and "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey," went Gold.
On this day in that same year, Pink Floyd's album Meddle was given a quadraphonic mix at Command Studios in London. Quadrophonic sound is transmitted through four channels, and is also commonly referred to as 4.0 surround sound. The band's renowned album Dark Side of the Moon was recorded in the same way.
Also in 1971, the first episode of the BBC music show 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' was aired. This first show included footage of Jimi Hendrix playing 'Wild Thing' at the Monterey Festival and Bob Dylan playing 'Maggie's Farm.' The TV program ran from 1971 to 1987. The name of this program came from the Tin Pan Alley phrase "old greys," which referred to men who wore grey suits. If these men heard a new song and were able to remember the tune and whistle it, the song had passed the old grey "whistle test."
On this day in 1979, Bruce Springsteen his song "The River" for the first time at Madison Square Garden in New York City. He was performing as part of Musicians United For Safe Energy, which had organized the show as a protest against the use of nuclear power. Before he went on, every artist that performed had to listen to fans shouting Springsteen's name, but to them it sounded like the crowd was booing them off the stage.