09/26/2025
ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY: 9.26
1969 - The Beatles released their 11th studio album, Abbey Road.
In many ways, Abbey Road stands apart from the rest of the Beatles' catalog, an album that gains considerable strength from its lush, enveloping production -- a recording so luxuriant, it glosses over aesthetic differences between the group's main three songwriters and ties together a series of disconnected unfinished songs into a complete suite. Where Sgt. Pepper pioneered such mind-bending aural techniques, Abbey Road truly seized the possibilities of the studio and, in doing so, pointed the way forward to the album rock era of the 1970s. Many of the studio tricks arrive during that brilliant suite of songs, a sequence that lasts nearly a full side of an album. Here, McCartney's playful eccentricity juts against John Lennon's curdled cynicism, while the band thrills in sudden changes of mood and plays plenty of guitar, culminating in McCartney, Lennon, and George Harrison trading solos on "The End."
The subdued boogie of Lennon's "Come Together" contains a sensuality previously unheard in the Beatles -- it's matched by "Because," which may be the best showcase for the group's harmonies -- Harrison's "Something" is a love ballad of unusual sensitivity, and his "Here Comes the Sun" is incandescent, perhaps his purest expression of joy. As good as these individual moments are, what makes Abbey Road transcendent is how the album is so much greater than the sum of its parts. While a single song or segment can be dazzling, having a succession of marvelous, occasionally intertwined moments is not only a marvel but indeed a summation of everything that made the Beatles great.
In their interviews for The Beatles Anthology, the surviving band members stated that, although none of them ever made the distinction of calling it the "last album", they all felt at the time this would very likely be the final Beatles product and therefore agreed to set aside their differences and "go out on a high note". (Photo by Krafft Angerer/Getty Images)
1975 - The Rocky Horror Picture Show had its U.S. premiere in Westwood, California.
Featuring a young Meat Loaf along with Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon, the movie tanked but later became a cult classic, with audience members shouting back at the screen and bringing toast, toilet paper, and other assorted items to enhance the viewing experience.
A little bit of Frankenstein and a whole lot of s*x and rock 'n roll. Curry is Frank-N-Furter, a "sweet transvestite from Transs*xual, Transylvania" who also happens to be a mad scientist who creates a muscle-bound monster in his basement. Frank is hosting the Annual Transylvanian Convention at his castle when stranded newlyweds Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) accidentally crash the party – and the fun begins. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for TCM)
1979 - U2 made their recorded debut with Three, a three-song EP featuring the songs “Out of Control,” “Stories for Boys,” and “Boy/Girl.” Upon its release, all 1,000 copies of the 12-inch vinyl sold out instantly, making the EP the fastest-selling 12-inch record ever in Ireland.
1984 - Prince releases Purple Rain. After Prince released his 1999 album in 1982, he toured in many of the same cities Bob Seger did. He was amazed at how crowds connected with Seger's songs like "Night Moves" and "Mainstreet" - slow songs that told stories people could relate to. Prince decided to write a song in that style, and "Purple Rain" was the result.
The song was written for the Purple Rain film, but it served Prince very well in concert, where it was often his showstopper. He retained many of the visual elements from the movie performance in his shows, which isn't much of a stretch - the concert scenes were filmed at the First Avenue nightclub in Minneapolis, where Prince often performed.
Prince admitted the success of the film and its music was overwhelming. "In some ways Purple Rain scared me," he noted in The Observer. "It's my albatross and it'll be hanging around my neck as long as I'm making music."
Stevie Nicks told Mojo magazine in December 2013 that she was asked by Prince to help work on this song. However, she suspects that the Purple maestro wanted more than just her voice. "I've still got it [the demo cassette] - with the whole instrumental track and a little bit of Prince singing, 'Can't get over that feeling,' or something," the Fleetwood Mac singer recalled. "I told him, 'Prince, I've listened to this a hundred times but I wouldn't know where to start. It's a movie, it's epic."
She added: "The olive branch of him giving me that cassette was huge, but I think he would have liked a romance with me, too."
1995 - Emmylou Harris Wrecking Ball. It's a leftfield masterpiece, the most wide-ranging, innovative, and daring record in a career built on such notions. Rich in atmosphere and haunting in its dark complexity, much of the due credit belongs to producer Daniel Lanois; best known for his work with pop superstars like U2 and Peter Gabriel, on Wrecking Ball Lanois taps into the very essence of what makes Harris tick -- the gossamer vocals, the flawless phrasing -- while also opening up innumerable new avenues for her talents to explore. The songs shimmer and swirl, given life through Lanois' trademark ringing guitar textures and the almost primal drumming of U2's Larry Mullen, Jr. The fixed point remains Harris' voice, which leaps into each and every one of these diverse compositions -- culled from the pens of Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Earle, and others -- with utter fearlessness
2003 - A report published on requests by artists to venues of their backstage requirements revealed; Limp Bizkit insisted that all the lamps in their rooms be dimmable while Mariah Carey would only have 'bendy' straws as she will not use straight ones. Van Halen insisted that back-stage celery is trimmed and not peeled...that thing about removing the brown M&Ms was put in their rider just to see if the promoters were really reading it. The Red Hot Chili Peppers asked for a meditation room and a selection of aromatherapy candles. Barry Manilow requested that the air temperature in the auditorium be kept at a regular 65 degrees.
Jane's Addiction, asked for a room with an "earthy, velvet/velour-type atmosphere."
They also asked for washing machines and a room to jam in for two hours before going on stage - which had to have a "contemporary black leather atmosphere with potted indoor plants." Madonna once demanded - and got - her hotel room painted in a different color, Moby is particularly keen on fresh underwear being available for the end of his sets while Korn ask that a "rock-friendly" lawyer, doctor and dentist be present at all times.
Birthdays:
Composer and pianist George Gershwin, who wrote numerous jazz standards including “I Got Rhythm” and “Rhapsody in Blue,” was born today in 1898.
Bryan Ferry, singer for Roxy Music, is 80. As both the frontman for Roxy Music and as a solo artist, Bryan Ferry offers a glamorous blueprint for art rock, brilliantly updating the parameters of the pop songbook. Although Ferry's solo career has included several excellent self-penned tracks, most notably the synthy, romantic ballad "Slave to Love" off 1985's Boys and Girls, he's equally well-known for his adventurous interpretations of songs from the rock and pop canon. Combining a studied, wry, lounge-singer persona with a genuine passion for everything from Motown and Bob Dylan to the Great American Songbook of the 1920s and '30s, Ferry's albums, beginning with 1973's These Foolish Things, find him adding a post-modern gloss to pop standards.
Cesar Rosas, frontman for Los Lobos, is 71. One of America's most venerated bands since they gained a national audience in the mid-'80s, Los Lobos were seasoned musical veterans with nearly 15 years of experience under their belts when they scored their first hit in 1987 with a cover of Richie Valens' "La Bamba." Though their time as pop stars was short, the group -- who enjoy calling themselves "just another band from East L.A." -- won over critics and a legion of loyal fans with their bracing mixture of rock, blues, Tex-Mex, country, R&B, and folk influences.
Carlene Carter is 70. Carlene Carter has always straddled the line between country and rock and followed her own path. Beginning her career as a rock singer in the mid-'70s, she became immersed in the new wave in the late '70s before emerging as a new country singer in the late '80s. Throughout it all, her music has always infused roots music -- whether country or rock & roll -- with a nervy, edgy energy.
Her album Musical Shapes is a good entry point, with Rockpile as her backing band. Also produced by Nick Lowe, who she was once married to.
R.I.P.:
1937 - Blues singer Bessie Smith died aged 43 after being involved in a car accident while traveling along Route 61 outside Memphis, Tennessee.
The first major blues and jazz singer on record and one of the most powerful of all time, Bessie Smith rightly earned the title of "The Empress of the Blues." Even on her first records in 1923, her passionate voice overcame the primitive recording quality of the day and still communicates easily to today's listeners (which is not true of any other singer from that early period). At a time when the blues were in and most vocalists (particularly vaudevillians) were being dubbed "blues singers," Bessie Smith simply had no competition.
2003 - Singer Robert Palmer ("Addicted To Love") died of a heart attack in a Paris hotel room. He was 54.
One of the great underappreciated singers of the rock era, Robert Palmer sang with such ease that it disguised both his vocal skill and his adventurous tastes. Deeply rooted in soul, he pivoted to a variety of sounds throughout his career, often operating at the vanguard of fashion or perhaps right on the edge of the mainstream. The latter designation suited the albums he made in the mid-'70s, when he played New Orleans funk with the assistance of the Meters, then dabbled with reggae. Palmer's career started to come into focus with the breezy island sounds of "Every Kinda People" gave him his first American hit, while the pounding arena rock of "Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)" gave him his second. After a sojourn into new wave on Clues, Palmer joined John Taylor and Andy Taylor in their Duran Duran offshoot the Power Station, an allegiance that brought him back to the Top Ten and opened the door for his 1986 blockbuster Riptide and its accompanying smash single, "Addicted to Love." (Photo by Giuseppe Cacace/Getty Images)
On This Day In Music History was sourced, curated, copied, pasted, edited, and occasionally woven together with my own crude prose, from This Day in Music, BBC News, Song Facts, Music This Day, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.
