January 6th
1976 Show me the way. Peter Frampton releases “Frampton Comes Alive!”
The double live album goes on to sell over 11 million copies in the U.S.
1997 Smashing Pumpkins’ “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” lands on the pop chart.
The band’s first Top 40 song (#22) also peaks at #2 on Billboard‘s Modern Rock Tracks chart and goes on to win the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance.
2019 Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” is named the Best Motion Picture at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (in in Beverly Hills) also presents the Best Actor honor to Rami Malek for his portrayal of Queen singer Freddie Mercury. Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor are in attendance.
MORE TODAY IN ROCK…
1946 Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett is born. He is immortalized in the song “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.” That says it all.
1951 A native of Detroit, singer Kim Wilson (Fabulous Thunderbirds), is born.
1953 Malcolm Young (AC/DC) enters the world. The guitarist is born in Glasgow, Scotland.
1957 Instead of “The Ed Sullivan Show” they should have called it “Ed Presents Elvis Presley.” Elvis gets 20 minutes on the nationally televised one-hour program and sings no less than seven songs. It is a tribute to Presley’s popularity. Elvis even gets an endorsement from the host who had once said he would never have Presley on his show. Sullivan calls Elvis a “real decent, fine boy.”
1958 “He could play the guitar just like a-ring in a bell.” Chuck Berry records the incredible “Johnny B. Goode” at Chess Studios in Chicago.
1968 Roll up… “Magical Mystery Tour” goes to #1 on the Billboard 200. The album includes the title track, “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “I Am The Walrus.”
1969 During the filming of The Beatles final film, “Let It Be,” Paul McCartney criticizes George Harrison’s guitar playing on “Two Of Us.” “I’ll play whatever you want me to play, or I won’t play at all if you don’t want to me to play,” replies Harrison. “Whatever it is that will please you, I’ll do it.” Days later, Harrison announces he’s leaving the group but he subsequently returns.
1970 Neighbors sue Max Yasgur for damages resulting from the Woodstock Festival the previous year. Yasgur owns the farm where the festival was held.
1975 Rock N’ Destruction. Fans waiting to purchase tickets for an upcoming Led Zeppelin show at Boston Gardens throw beer bottles against the building causing extensive damage. The mayor immediately cancels the concert.
1977 EMI Records drop the Sex Pistols after only three months. The band’s “aggressive behavior” is cited as one of the reasons.
1986 Alex Turner, vocalist/guitarist for Arctic Monkeys, celebrates his birthday.
1990 Rush has the #1 song on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart with “Show Don’t Tell.”
1996 Six years later, Seven Mary Three’s “Cumbersome” topped the Rock Airplay chart.
2004 George Harrison’s estate sues cancer specialist Dr. Gilbert Lederman claiming he coerced the ailing ex-Beatle into signing a guitar. Lederman was treating Harrison, who died in November ’01, about two weeks after the signing.
2005 Let ’em in. Paul McCartney promises that when he performs during the half-time show at the upcoming Super Bowl that “we will not be having a wardrobe malfunction.” Of course, Janet Jackson’s “malfunction” the previous year was a huge scandal.
2006 Audioslave’s Chris Cornell submits a petition requesting that his ex-wife, Susan Silver, return all earnings she received while managing his former band, Soundgarden. The singer alleges in documents filed with California’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement that Silver was not licensed for the management job. Silver calls the suit “baseless and absurd.”
2009 Ron Asheton, guitarist for The Stooges, is found dead in his Ann Arbor residence. Officials say Asheton apparently had been deceased for several days and that no foul play was suspected. Asheton (along with Iggy Pop) founded The Stooges in ’67. He was 60.
2016 The Offspring sells the rights to most of their music to Round Hill, a music rights company for approximately $35 million. “We felt that having the right caretaker for our catalog, both the masters and the publishing, is incredibly important to the future of our career,” says The Offspring’s Dexter Holland.
2018 Dave Matthews, Trey Anastasio Band, and Aaron Neville perform in New York City (Radio City Music Hall) at “A Concert for Island Relief” benefiting hurricane relief efforts in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
2023 All That Remains file a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut against Elizabeth Herbert, the widow of the band’s late guitarist Oliver “Oli” Herbert, claiming that she is holding up royalty payments to the group’s surviving members and making overly broad ownership claims of select songs. Of course, she denies the allegations and makes a few of her own.
2024 Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan earns his black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
2025 KISS bassist Gene Simmons and guitarist Paul Stanley settle the wrongful termination lawsuit brought by the band’s longtime hairstylist David Mathews who alleged he was the victim of a retaliatory termination linked to his ’21 complaints about allegedly “unsafe” COVID protocols while on tour.
