Today in Music History
May 3 Events
May 3, 1968,
The
Jimi Hendrix Experience records
Voodoo Chile (Slight Return). The last track on the group’s third and final album,
Electric Ladyland, “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” became one of Hendrix’s signature songs and was released as a single shortly after his untimely death in 1970. It became Hendrix’s sole #1 single (in the UK only) and Electric Ladyland was his only #1 album (US only).
May 3, 1986:
Robert Palmer’s
Addicted to Love topped the US singles chart. It was one of the last 45 RPM singles to receive a million-selling Gold certification and became Palmer’s signature hit. Palmer originally recorded the song as a duet with Chaka Khan, but due to contractual problems, her voice was removed (Khan is still credited for the vocal arrangements in the album liner notes). The music video, directed by English photographer Terence Donovan, was one of the most noted of the era. The video was extremely popular on MTV and featured Palmer performing the song with an abstract "band", a group of female models whose pale skin, heavy makeup, dark hair, and seductive, rather mannequin-like expression follow the style of women in Patrick Nagel paintings.
It doesn’t happen very often these days, but there was a time when an artist could become a chart sensation for the first time when they were well past the age of the typical pop star. The British singer Robert Palmer proved this theory in a major way with his 1986 U.S. chart-topper “Addicted to...
americansongwriter.com
May 3, 1903:
Bing Crosby was born in Tacoma, Washington. The singer/actor recorded an estimated 2,600 songs in his lifetime including
White Christmas, one of his 317 charted hits in the US. He also became the first performer to pre-record his radio shows and master his commercial recordings onto magnetic tape.
May 3, 1919:
Pete Seeger is born in the Chelsea neighborhood on the west side of Manhattan. He had a string of hit records during the early fifties as a member of the Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead Belly's
Goodnight, Irene, which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. Members of the Weavers were blacklisted during the red scare of J Edgar Hoover and the McCarthy Era. In the 1960s Seeger re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, counterculture and environmental causes.
May 3, 1933:
James Brown is born in South Carolina. The R&B, gospel, soul and funk singer-songwriter known as
The Godfather of Soul peaked in the 1960s with the live album
Live at the Apollo (ranked #24 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time) and hit singles such as "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "It's a Man's Man's Man's World". The high energy performer (and sex deviant) demanded extreme discipline from his musicians and dancers, and had the practice of assessing fines on members of his band who broke his rules, such as wearing un-shined shoes, dancing out of sync or showing up late on stage.
May 3, 1938:
Singer, songwriter, and record producer Jerrold Samuels is born in New York City. Under the pseudonym Napoleon XIV, he achieved one-hit wonder status with the 1966 #3 hit novelty song
They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!
May 3, 1944:
Pete Staples is born in Andover, Hampshire, England. He was the bass player, background vocalist and founding member of the
Troggs. Most well known for 1965's
Wild Thing, they also had the hits "With a Girl Like You" and "Love Is All Around", all of which sold over one million copies and were awarded gold discs.
May 3, 1945:
**** Allix is born in Gravesend, England. Allix was the drummer for
Vanity Fare, a pop/rock group who released songs such as "I Live for the Sun", "Early in the Morning", and "Hitchin' a Ride". He left the band in 1970 and spent the rest of his life as an executive in the professional darts circuit.
Video: Hitchin' A Ride - Vanity Fair
May 3, 1950:
Mary Hopkin is born in Wales. In 1968 she had the hit
Those Were The Days, released on The Beatles' Apple label and produced by Paul McCartney. The model Twiggy saw her winning the British tv talent show Opportunity Knocks, and recommended her to McCartney.
May 3, 1952:
Kitty Wells recorded
It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels. Wells was disenchanted with her career prospects and was considering retirement, but agreed to the session at Owen Bradley’s studio because of the $125 union scale recording payment. 'It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels' was an answer song to Hank Thompson's 'The Wild Side of Life', and its lyrical treatment of seductive, wayward women. It became the first #1 Billboard country hit for a solo female artist.
May 3, 1959:
David Ball is born in Chester, Cheshire, England. The producer and electronic musician is best known as one half of the synth-pop duo
Soft Cell, who had the 1981#1 single
Tainted Love, a cover of an obscure 1965 soul track originally released by Gloria Jones, the girlfriend of T-Rex guitarist Marc Bolan.
May 3, 1960:
The musical
The Fantasticks by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones opens in Greenwich Village, NYC; it becomes “the longest-running musical in the universe”.
May 3, 1965:
The Beatles spent the day filming for their forthcoming film
Help!, on Salisbury Plain, England, with the British Army's Third Tank Division.
May 3, 1967:
Pink Floyd appeared at The Moulin Rouge, Ainsdale, Southport, England. The promotion flyers for the club said: 'The Moulin Rouge night club. Wine, Dine, Dance! And have a gay time'.
Located in the Ainsdale district of Southport, Merseyside. The Plaza Cinema was opened on 27th January 1928 by the Southport Cinema Company Ltd. ...
cinematreasures.org
May 3, 1968:
The
Beach Boys began a US tour with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in support of their Friends album. The Maharishi’s involvement included lectures about “spiritual regeneration” before he withdrew from the tour to fulfill film contracts. Due to negative audience reactions and Maharishi’s withdrawal, 24 tour dates were canceled.
May 3, 1970:
World premiere of
The Beatles'
Let it Be documentary film directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, in New York City
May 3, 1976:
Paul McCartney performed in the US for the first time in nearly ten years, as
Wings kicked off the North American leg of the
Wings Over the World tour. Prior to this Wings had released the studio albums
Venus and Mars on May 27, 1975 and
Wings at the Speed of Sound on March 26, 1976. The 31-date concert run was later captured on the band’s triple live album,
Wings Over America. McCartney had last appeared in the US with the Beatles during their 1966 tour.
May 3, 1981:
The Broadway revival of
Can-Can after only five performances at the Minskoff Theatre, the third largest theatre on Broadway. The production was widely critically panned, with Frank Rich of The New York Times calling it "mediocre material".
May 3, 1986:
The Art Of Excellence by
Tony Bennett became the
first album in the US to be initially released on CD instead of the traditional vinyl format. I would have expected that feat to have been accomplished by some performer much younger than the then 60-year old crooner.
May 3, 1993:
Musical
Kiss of the Spider Woman opens at Broadhurst in NYC. It runs for 906 performances, and won the 1993 Tony for Best Musical.
May 3, 1997:
The
Notorious B.I.G. began a three-week run at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with
Hypnotize. The song, which featured vocals from Pamela Long, became the fifth posthumous single by a credited artist to hit No.1 on the US chart, following John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1980 track, “(Just Like) Starting Over.”
May 3, 2005:
Fall Out Boy's breakthrough album
From Under the Cork Tree is released through Island Records
May 3, 2008:
36-year old rap star Sean 'Diddy' Combs was honored with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. The now-convicted sex felon dedicated the star to his father, who was shot dead in 1972.
May 3, 2009:
Bob Dylan went to #1 on the album chart with
Together Through Life, his seventh #1 album. It was the singer, songwriter’s 33rd studio album; the last time he topped the charts was with New Morning in 1970. Dylan now held the record, (previously held by Tom Jones) for the longest gap between solo #1 albums.
May 3, 2012:
Paul McCartney and his wife Nancy Shavell narrowly avoided a potential deadly helicopter crash when their pilot became disoriented during a flight in bad weather and missed some trees by just two feet. Flying home to their estate in East Sussex, England after a day in London, the McCartney's were not aware of how close they came to crashing at the time.
May 3, 2013:
The Palmetto Playground in Brooklyn is renamed after
Beastie Boys' rapper Adam Yauch
May 3, 2014:
Musician Bobby Gregg died at age 78. Gregg is best is known for his work as a drummer on several seminal 1960s songs, including Bob Dylan's
Like a Rolling Stone and Simon And Garfunkel's
The Sound of Silence.
May 3, 2017:
Drummer
Casey Jones died at the age of 77. In the early 1960s he recorded with many musicians, including Muddy Waters. As a session drummer, he worked with artists such as Lou Rawls, Otis Rush and Johnny Winter. For six years he was a member of Albert Collins's band as his drummer.
May 3, 2017:
The
Eagles were sued a hotel in Mexico that calls itself the Hotel California, after the band's hit song and album. The band claimed the 11-room hotel, in Todos Santos, "actively encourages" guests to believe it is associated with them in order to sell merchandise. They claim the hotel plays Eagles songs in the lobby and sells t-shirts describing the venue as "legendary".
May 3, 2019:
Detroit's Wayne State University awarded
Jack White with an honorary doctor of humane letters degree "for his dedication to Detroit and significant contributions to the arts as one of the most prolific and renowned artists of the past two decades", including philanthropy like saving the Masonic Temple. White had attended classes at Wayne State in the mid-1990s before focusing on his music career.
May 3, 2020:
The
Stranglers’ keyboard player Dave Greenfield died at the age of 71 after testing positive for coronavirus. Greenfield contracted COVID-19 following a prolonged stay in hospital for heart problems. He is best known as a long-standing member of the rock band and penning the music for their biggest hit
Golden Brown.
May 3, 2025:
Lady Gaga's free "Mayhem on the Beach" concert at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, draws a crowd estimated at 2.5 million attendees, the largest concert in history for a female artist; police later reveal they thwarted a bombing attempt.
