This Day in Rock History: January 26
Jan. 26 has seen plenty of important rock-related events throughout the past decades. It’s when Buddy Holly made his recording debut, Pink Floyd played their first gig without their creative…
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Jan. 26 has seen plenty of important rock-related events throughout the past decades. It's when Buddy Holly made his recording debut, Pink Floyd played their first gig without their creative leader, and it's also Eddie Van Halen's birthday. You can read about all of these, and other major events that happened on this day in rock history.
Breakthrough Hits and Milestones
Some of the top breakthrough moments and milestones of the day include:
- 1956: Buddy Holly had his first official recording session at the Bradley Film and Recording Studios in Nashville. Some of the songs he recorded that day are "Blue Days, Black Nights" and an early version of "That'll Be the Day."
- 1974: Ringo Starr's cover of "You're Sixteen" by the Sherman Brothers reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, where it spent a single week. Fellow ex-Beatle Paul McCartney contributed to the instrumental part.
- 1980: Prince made his first major US television appearance on the show American Bandstand. He performed "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and was also interviewed by host Dick Clark.
Cultural Milestones
Two of the day's most noteworthy culture-related events are:
- 1955: Eddie Van Halen was born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He formed the band Mammoth in 1972 alongside his brother Alex, which eventually turned into Van Halen, revolutionizing electric guitar playing and selling over 80 million albums worldwide.
- 2000: Rage Against the Machine filmed their "Sleep Now in the Fire" video near the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), with Michael Moore directing. Although they had a permit for filming on the institution's steps, their loud playing attracted a crowd, and everything devolved into chaos, leading to arrests.
Notable Recordings and Performances
Some memorable releases and concerts we remember today include:
- 1968: Pink Floyd played their first show without founder and main songwriter Syd Barrett, at Southampton University in the UK. His behavior had gotten increasingly erratic to the point where they needed to bring David Gilmour into the band to cover on guitar, and on this particular day, they simply decided not to pick Syd up on their way to the gig.
- 1970: Simon & Garfunkel released their fifth and final studio album, Bridge over Troubled Water, via Columbia Records. Despite initially getting mixed reviews, it turned out to be a huge success, selling over 25 million copies worldwide and topping the album charts in multiple countries, including the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, and Japan.
From Buddy Holly to Rage Against the Machine, many of rock's biggest names had important career moments on Jan. 26. Visit this page again tomorrow to discover what happened on that day in rock history.
Dan TeodorescuWriter
