Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Music History Today: August 26, 2021

August 26, 1967: Jimi Hendrix releases "Purple Haze." Exactly two years later, on August 26, 1970, he made his last live appearance in the UK at the Isle of Wight festival. On September 18th he would die from an overdose of sleeping pills.

Jimi Hendrix
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August 26, 1957: The theme from the movie Tammy and the Bachelor, called simply "Tammy," by Debbie Reynolds sat at the top of both the Billboard record chart and Cashbox Magazine's best sellers list.

Tammy and the Bachelor movie poster

Tammy and the Bachelor is a 1957 romantic comedy film and is the first of the four Tammy films. It stars Debbie Reynolds as Tambrey "Tammy" Tyree, Walter Brennan as Grandpa Dinwitty and Leslie Nielsen as Peter Brent. It was adapted from the book Tammy Out of Time by Cid Ricketts Sumner. 
Read more: Universal Studios Fandom

 

August 26, 1968: Mary Hopkin releases "Those Were The Days" in the US.

Who could possibly predict that a five-minute recording of a Russian romance song composed in the early 1900s with English lyrics written in the early ’60s, recorded in July 1968 by a green 17-year-old Welsh folk artist, produced by a Beatle, and arranged by a jazz nerd with unlikely instrumentation would result in a Number 2 on the Billboard charts?
Mary Hopkin
Mary Hopkin

 Engineer Geoff Emerick says “Those Were the Days,” produced by Paul McCartney and sung by artist Mary Hopkin, appealed to the public because of those unique qualities. 
Read more: Mix Online

 

August 26, 1972: "Hold Your Head Up" by Argent peaked at Number 5 on the US single's chart.

Rod Argent, a founding member of The Zombies, penned the hits “She’s Not There” and “Tell Her No,” as well as “Time of the Season.” After The Zombies broke up, the keyboard player launched his eponymous band Argent.

Argent
Argent

Their first record, 1970’s Argent, didn’t produce any hits for the group, although the Ballard-penned track “Liar,” was covered by Three Dog Night and became a Top 10 hit for that band. Three Dog Night also recorded “Chained,” another Ballard composition, from Argent’s second album, 1971’s Ring of Hands. The third time around proved to be the charm for Argent, when “Hold Your Head Up,” featured on the band’s 1972 LP, All Together Now, became a worldwide hit. 

Read more: Culture Sonar

 

August 26, 1978: Walter Egan makes it to Number 8 with "Magnet and Steel."

Two things you may not know about Walter Egan's 1978 hit, "Magnet and Steel." Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks sing background vocals on the song and were co-producers.

Walter Egan
Walter Egan

Also, the song's kind of about Nicks. As Egan recalled to Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International, he had just finished singing in the studio with Nicks and found himself "smitten." On the drive home, a license plate caught his eye, and the rest is rock history. 
Read more: Tennessean

 

Purple Haze
Jimi Hendrix

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