March 29, 2024

This Day in History: 2024-07-27

JULY 27th

Stevie Nicks releases “Bella Donna.” The platinum album features “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” (with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers), “Edge Of Seventeen” and Leather And Lace” (with The Eagles’ Don Henley). 1981

“Highway To Hell” is unleashed.  1979

The album peaks at #12 on the U.S. Album Chart becoming AC/DC’s first major U.S. success.

It’s also their last effort with vocalist Bon Scott who dies two months later.

“Ride The Lightning,” Metallica’s second studio album, drops. It takes three years for the effort go gold (500,000 units moved) but it eventually sells over six-million copies. 1984

Smashing Pumpkins “Siamese Dream,” with the classic “Disarm,” rolls out. 1993

MORE TODAY IN ROCK…

One of Soul Asylum’s founding members, bassist Karl Mueller, is born in Minneapolis. 1963

Pantera bassist Rex Brown is born.  1964

The Who release “Magic Bus.” Though the song fails to make the U.S. Top 20 it becomes one of the band’s most popular songs and a concert staple. 1968

The self-titled debut by the New York Dolls is released and serves as an influential precursor of Punk Rock.  1973

Taking Back Sunday guitarist Fred Mascherino has a birthday. 1974

John Lennon wins the right to stay in the U.S. Following three years of legal wrangling, Judge Ira Fieldsteel grants Lennon a Green Card. 1976

Bruce Springsteen sues his manager Mike Appel for fraud and breach of contract. Of course, Appel counter-sues. End result: Springsteen wins his freedom but has to sit out a year while the legal maneuvers take their course. 1976

Tina Turner finally files for divorce from abusive husband Ike. 1976

Bryan Adams begins a string of ballads that go to #1 with “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You.” The others are “All For Love” (with Rod Stewart and Sting) and “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?” 1991

An animated Green Day appears in “The Simpsons Movie.”  Green Day dies (drown like ‘American Idiots’ in a polluted Lake Springfield) though their funeral gets the plot rolling. Prior to their demise, they perform a killer version of “The Simpsons Theme” but the film’s breakout song is “Spider Pig.” D’Oh! 2007

Bruce Springsteen may be The Boss but Jon Bon Jovi is The Champ. The Philadelphia Soul, an Arena Football team co-owned by Jon Bon Jovi, wins the Arena Bowl XXII championship in New Orleans. They beat the San Jose SaberCats 59-56.  2008

Smashing Pumpkins perform at a sold-out benefit show in Chicago that raises $80,000 to help alleviate Madina Lake musician Matthew Leone’s medical bills. Leone suffered brain trauma when he was assaulted after helping a beating victim on the street. To kick start the fund-raising effort, Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan auctions off his guitar for $10,000. 2010

Paul McCartney and Arctic Monkeys (doing a rendition of The Beatles “Come Together”) are among the acts performing at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in London.  2012

Guitarist DJ Ashba announces his departure from Guns N’ Roses after six years. Ashba states he plans to focus on Sixx: AM (led by Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx). 2015

Between The Buried And Me drummer Blake Richardson walks off the stage during the band’s set in Salt Lake City. “I’ve been battling with a nerve issue in my left leg this entire tour,” states Richardson who later apologizes for his actions. “The pain in my leg, coupled with a night full of technical difficulties, caused me to lash out in frustration.” 2015

Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil pleads not guilty in a Las Vegas courtroom after being charged for assaulting a female autograph seeker four months earlier. 2016

Slayer’s Kerry King says Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is “the biggest liar I’ve ever seen in politics.”  2016

Godsmack’s “Under Your Scars” tops Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart. Bad Wolves’ former #1, “Remember When,” drops to #3 with Volbeat’s “Last Day Under The Sun” jumping into the #2 slot.  2019

Mammoth WVH, the solo project of Wolfgang Van Halen, plays its first-ever concert at Bottleneck in Lawrence, KS. The show is a warm-up for their supporting trek with Guns N’ Roses. 2021

Stabbing Westward vocalist Christopher Hall reveals that he’s been diagnosed with throat cancer which has forced the band to cancel its previously announced shows while he undergoes treatment. “(The) prognosis is really good but it’s going to involve a couple of surgeries and 6-8 weeks of chemo and radiation,” says Hall. 2022

Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and his partner Chloe Mendel lead the “Together And Together Again” benefit which raises $250,000 for the Highland Park Community Foundation’s July 4 Fund which supports victims (seven deaths and numerous injuries) of the July 4th parade shooting in Highland Park weeks earlier.  2022