Music History Today: July 7, 2020

July 7, 1977: Styx tied in with the date (7-7-77) by releasing their 7th album, The Grand Illusion.

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For Styx, seven was the magic number. The Chicago AOR band’s seventh album, The Grand Illusion, became the first of four consecutive triple- platinum albums that established Styx as one of America’s biggest rock acts. As guitarist James ‘JY’ Young says: “Seven is seen as a lucky number in America, and it sure proved lucky for us.” 

Read more: Louder Sound

July 7, 1968: The Yardbirds disband immediately after their final gig in Luton, England. Jimmy Page began forming what would become Led Zeppelin.

In addition to their six Top 40 songs, the Yardbirds will be remembered as having produced the top three English blues-based guitarists of the '60s: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.

Yardbirds
June 21, 1966

On July 7, 1968, the group played its final show at the Luton College of Technology in Bedfordshire, England. After that, the Yardbirds disbanded. Relf and McCarty formed a folk duo called Together, which was followed by Renaissance and, later, Armageddon. Page formed the New Yardbirds; that group eventually mutated into Led Zeppelin. 

Read more: Rhino

July 7, 1980: On the twelfth anniversary of the break-up of The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin played their final live concert in West Berlin. They finished the show with "Whole Lotta Love."

Jimmy Page clearly had a ton of material to choose from when he sat down to curate the previously unreleased material included in the upcoming Led Zeppelin reissues. During a recent interview with Guitar World, he opened up about the selection process behind one of the tracks: an early take of 'Whole Lotta Love' from 1969's 'Led Zeppelin II.'  

Read more:  Ultimate Classic Rock

July 7, 1973:  With the disaster movie The Poseidon Adventure playing in theaters, Maureen McGovern's version of the theme song, "The Morning After," moved up the charts from 86 to 42 on this day.

The Poseidon Adventure was part of a wave of ’70s disaster movies. Much-loved actors — in this case, an impressive list of names that included Gene Hackman and Ernest Borgnine — would sleepwalk their way through hackneyed, formulaic movies about everyday people trapped in extremely dangerous situations. 

Movie poster

The Poseidon Adventure came two years after Airport and two years before The Towering Inferno. The movies got bad reviews but did good business, and if you watch them today, it’s hard to even stay awake until shit starts going bad because of the drippy, hackneyed melodrama of the early scenes. “The Morning After” comes from one of those early scenes.  

Read more:  Stereogum

July 7, 1984: "Relax" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood becomes the biggest-selling single of all time in Great Britain.

Although fairly inauspicious upon initial release, "Relax" finally reached number one on the UK singles chart on 24 January 1984, ultimately becoming one of the most controversial and most commercially successful records of the entire decade. The single eventually sold a reported 2 million copies in the UK alone.  

Read more:  Fandom

July 7,1984: Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA" went to Number 1 on the Billboard album chart for the first of a four-week stay. 

“I’m Goin’ Down”, which features a prominent drum performance and possesses an energetic feel, deals with the frustration of diminishing sexual activity in romantic relationships. 

Bruce Springsteen

As a single, it reached No. 9 in the United States and the top 40 in Sweden, Canada, and Italy.

Read more: Rock & Roll Garage

Fooling Yourself 
(The Angry Young Man)
Styx