05/29/2026
ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY: 5.29
1964 - The Rolling Stones (England's Newest Hit Makers), their U.S. debut is released. Critic Greil Marcus: "Made up mostly of covers of blues and rhythm and blues songs; it demonstrates the profound influence of such music on the Rolling Stones and, by implication, the pop music of the 1960s as such. In such clumsy prototypes as “Tell Me” and “Walking the Dog,” one can discern the seeds of such later classics as “Out of Time” or, indeed, all of Exile on Main St."
1969 - Their debut, Crosby, Stills & Nash, was released. The Crosby, Stills & Nash triumvirate shot to immediate superstardom with the release of its self-titled debut LP, a sparkling set immortalizing the group's amazingly close, high harmonies. They remain timeless.
Some of the highlights:
“Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”
Stephen Stills: “It was the beginnings of three different songs that suddenly fell together as one. Actually on the demo the middle part is not exactly how they would play. Half of it is it just falls off in its own — but we actually split it in half, and they got started singing and boom, there it went.
Graham Nash: “Probably one of my favorite Crosby, Stills & Nash songs. It’s very easy for me to play ’cause I don’t. Stephen’s the only one that plays on the ‘Suite.’ ”
“Long Time Gone”
David Crosby: “I wrote that right after they assassinated Bobby Kennedy. It was a result of losing him, of losing John Kennedy and Martin Luther King. I started to feel overwhelmed. It seemed as if it was ballot by bullet. It seemed as if it didn’t matter how good a person we could find to put up as an inspiration and a leader for the good, that somehow the other side would triumph by simply gunning them down.”
“Marrakesh Express”
Nash: “In 1966 I was visiting Morocco on vacation to Marrakesh and getting on a train and having a first-class ticket and then realizing that the first-class compartment was completely fu***ng boring, you know, ladies with blue hair in there — it wasn’t my scene at all. So I decide I’m going to go and see what the rest of the train is like. And the rest of the train was fascinating. Just like the song says, there were ducks and pigs and chickens all over the place and people lighting fires. It’s literally the song as it is — what happened to me.”
“Guinnevere”
David Crosby: “That is a very unusual song, it’s in a very strange tuning with strange time signatures. It’s about three women that I loved. One of whom was Christine Hinton, the girl who got killed who was my girlfriend, and one of whom was Joni Mitchell and the other one is somebody that I can’t tell. It might be my best song.”
(Photo credit should read RICK NEDERSTIGT/AFP via Getty Images)
1977 - Elvis walked off stage in the middle of a show in Baltimore. It was the first time in his 23-year career that he had done so except when legitimately ill. Elvis said he had left because of “a twisted ankle and nature calls and you don´t fool around with nature.” Later he said “there´s nothing wrong with my health.” The end was near.
1984 - Tina Turner released Private Dancer, her big comeback album. The late '70s were not kind to Turner, releasing three middling solo albums that had the R&B icon trying country, rock, and disco. None of them found an audience. In the early '80s, she set up camp in New York City and garnered enough attention to get a record deal with Capitol, who gave her two weeks to record the album, her first since 1979.
To be sure, this pop/rock/R&B pearl is decidedly slicker than such raw, earthy, hard-edged Ike & Tina classics as "Proud Mary," "Sexy Ida," and "I Wanna Take You Higher." But she still has a tough, throaty, passionate delivery that serves her beautifully on everything from the melancholy, reggae-influenced "What's Love Got to Do With It" to the gutsy "Better Be Good to Me" to heartfelt remakes of the Beatles' "Help," Al Green's "Let's Stay Together," and David Bowie's "1984." A reflection on the emptiness of a stripper's life, the dusky title song is as poignant as it is depressing. Interesting fact: Written by Mark Knopfler around the time of Love over Gold. However, Knopfler decided at the last minute that he didn't feel comfortable singing a song from a female perspective -- much less in the character of a pr******te -- and bequeathed the song to Tina. Ironically, although the rest of Dire Straits is the backing band on this track, Knopfler doesn't appear at all; that's Jeff Beck performing the solo.
The album was Turner's finest hour as a solo artist.
(Photo by BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images)
1987 - John Hiatt releases Bring the Family. By 1987, John Hiatt had been on the verge of Next Big Thingdom for over a decade, with seven commercially disappointing albums and a pair of ex-labels to show for it. Without a U.S. deal and on the verge of walking away from the record business, Hiatt took a small advance from his UK label, holed up in the studio for four days and emerged with the album that saved his career: Bring the Family. Recorded with a crack band that included Jim Keltner on drums, Nick Lowe on bass, and Ry Cooder on guitar, Family is a 10-song suite of songs borne of disappointment, loss, and a nagging, persistent belief in a better tomorrow. For anyone who’s ever closed a dark chapter in their past, taken a deep breath and tried to start again, Bring the Family bears the sting of familiar, hard-fought truth. (Photo by Kristian Dowling/Getty Images)
1997 - Singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley disappeared during a spontaneous evening swim in the Mississippi River outside Memphis. Fully clothed and wearing boots, he waded into the water while singing the chorus of Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love', but was pulled underwater by the wake of a passing boat. Keith Foti, a roadie in Buckley's band, remained on shore and looked up to see Buckley had vanished; the wake of the tugboat had swept him away from shore and underwater. A rescue effort that night and the next morning by scuba teams and police was unsuccessful. His body was found on June 4, 1997, after being spotted by a passenger on a tourist riverboat. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990s by playing cover songs at venues in Manhattan's East Village, gradually focusing more on his own material. Eventually Buckley signed with Columbia Records, recruited a band, and recorded what would be his only studio album, Grace, in 1994. Buckley's chart success came posthumously, particularly his cover — often considered the definitive version — of Leonard Cohen's song "Hallelujah".
2024 - A guitar used by John Lennon became the most expensive Beatles instrument ever sold at auction. The Framus 12-string Hootenanny acoustic guitar was found in an attic after being presumed lost for more than 50 years. It sold for $2.9m (£2.3m) via a telephone bid at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York. Lennon played the song 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away' on the guitar in the 1965 film Help! and it was also used on recordings on the album of the same name.
Birthdays:
Sylvia “Mother of Hip Hop” Robinson — half of Mickey & Sylvia and producer of “Rapper’s Delight” and “The Message” — was born today in 1935. Sylvia Robinson had two chart toppers: as half of Mickey & Sylvia with "Love Is Strange" and her own solo gold single, the sensuous "Pillow Talk."
During the '80s, the couple helped launch rap through their Sugarhill Records including Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and the seminal "Rappers Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang. The grungy sound quality of All Platinum's releases was a sonic alternative to the more polished sounds of the '70s and a precursor to the grainier hip-hop sound of the '80s and 90s.
Gary Brooker, founder and lead singer of Procol Harum, was born today in 1945. Procol Harum began life as a psychedelic band and evolved into one of the leading acts in art rock and prog rock, all without changing much about their essential approach. Lead singer and pianist Gary Brooker gave the group their trademark sound with his downbeat vocals and lush melodies, while primary lyricist Keith Reid added words that often pondered the unpredictability of fate in songs like "A Whiter Shade of Pale," "A Salty Dog," and "Conquistador."
Melissa Etheridge is 65. An unrepentant believer in the power of classic rock and R&B, Melissa Etheridge has managed to keep her traditionalism vital decades after the release of her eponymous debut in 1988. With a raspy delivery that recalled prime Rod Stewart and faith in the restorative power of rock learned from Bruce Springsteen, Etheridge distinguishes her lean, straight-ahead heartland rock with emotionally direct songwriting.
She was also the first artist to perform in KBCO Studio C. She initially came by for an interview. But it was a warm day in 1988 and she didn't want to leave her guitar in the car fearing it might warp. "Hey Melissa, wanna play"? KBCO Studio C was born.
Noel Gallagher is 59. As the lead guitarist, main songwriter, conceptualist, and occasional vocalist for Oasis, Noel Gallagher has played a tremendous role in shaping British rock music since the 1990s. He was the brains behind the group's biggest hits, which drew equally from the riff-heavy guitar heroics of the Who and the smart, melodic pop hooks of the Beatles. Although Oasis maintained a near-permanent place in the tabloids -- thanks in large part to Noel's public battles with his younger brother, Liam, as well as the wild lifestyles that both siblings led -- Noel's songwriting helped maintain the band's position in the charts, too, with more than 20 songs reaching the Top Ten in England.
R.I.P.:
2022 - Rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins died at the age of 87. Ronnie Hawkins had one of the longest and most influential careers of the artists from the original rockabilly uprising that came from the American South in the 1950s. The twist in his tale was that Hawkins became a living legend outside the United States. Though born in Arkansas, he found his greatest, most enduring popularity in Canada, where he barnstormed clubs for years, cut a handful of hit singles, and led a group that became a rock & roll boot camp for many noted musicians, particularly the five men who would find fame as the Band.
OTD in Music History was sourced, curated, copied, pasted, edited, and occasionally woven together with my own crude prose, from This Day in Music, Baltimore or Less, Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, Song Facts, Music This Day, and Wikipedia.
