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Today In Music History

July 5 in Music History: Bjork released her debut album

Bjork
BjorkAlbum Cover Art

July 05, 2024

History Highlight:

Today in 1993, Bjork released her first post-Sugarcubes solo album, titled Debut.  Björk experimented with unconventional recording techniques for the album, such as recording vocals in various locations, including inside a bathroom in a London club for the track "There's More to Life Than This." Also featuring the tracks "Human Behaviour" and "Big Time Sensuality," Debut set the stage for her rise as a solo star. 

Also, Today In: 

1954 - Working together for the first time in a recording studio with Scotty Moore and Bill Black, Elvis Presley fooled around during a break with an up-tempo version of 'That's All Right.' Producer Sam Phillips had them repeat the jam and recorded it. It became Presley's first release on Sun Records. 

1966 - Chas Chandler of The Animals saw Jimi Hendrix perform at the Cafe Wha? in New York. Chandler went on to become Jimi's manager and took him to London, where The Jimi Hendrix Experience formed. 

1969 - The Rolling Stones gave a free concert in London's Hyde Park for an audience of 250,000, as a tribute to Brian Jones who had died two days earlier. Mick Jagger read an extract from Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Adonais" and released 3,500 butterflies. 

1974 - Linda Ronstadt records her breakthrough hit "You're No Good" at the Sound Factory in Hollywood with producer Peter Asher. 

1981 - At the "Rock Werchter" festival in Belgium, The Cure play a 9-minute version of "A Forest" when they are told to hurry off stage so Robert Palmer can begin his set. 

1983 - Suicidal Tendencies released their self-titled debut album. The album spawned Suicidal Tendencies' biggest hit to date, "Institutionalized." 

1984 - The Everly Brothers launched their first tour together in 11 years in Cincinnati. 

1986 - Janet Jackson started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Control

1993 - Weezer sign with DGC Records.  

1994 - Hootie & the Blowfish released Cracked Rear View. It's their debut album, and it took off at the beginning of 1995, becoming the best-selling album in the history of Atlantic Records. 

1995 - More than 100 Grateful Dead fans were hurt when a wooden deck collapsed at a campground lodge in Wentzville, Missouri. Hundreds of people were on or under the deck sheltering from heavy rain. More than 4,000 Deadheads were staying at the campground while attending Grateful Dead concerts in the St. Louis suburb. 

1996 - Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, was born. She was named after Dolly Parton as the scientist thought the country star was the person most synonymous with mammary glands. 

1997 - Organized by Sarah McLachlan, the all-female Lilith Fair tour kicked off with a show in The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington State. The lineup included Jewel, Suzanne Vega and Paula Cole, with Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow and Fiona Apple joining on subsequent stops. The tour took place during the summers of 1997 to 1999, and was revived in the summer of 2010. In its initial three years, Lilith Fair raised over $10 million for charity. 

1999 - The Eurythmics announced their first world tour for more than 10 years and that all profits would be given to charity. The duo made the announcement from the Greenpeace boat "Rainbow Warrior" on the River Thames in London. 

1999 - Macy Gray released her debut studio album, On How Life Is. It features “I Try.”

2000 - Cub Koda (Michael "Cub" Koda), founder member of Brownsville Station died of complications from kidney failure. 

2001 - R&B singer Ernie K-Doe dies of kidney and liver failure at age 65 due to years of alcohol abuse. 

2003 - Johnny Cash made his last ever live performance when he appeared at the Carter Ranch. Before singing "Ring of Fire," Cash read a statement about his late wife that he had written shortly before taking the stage: "The spirit of June Carter overshadows me tonight with the love she had for me and the love I have for her. We connect somewhere between here and heaven. She came down for a short visit, I guess, from heaven to visit with me tonight to give me courage and inspiration like she always has." 

2008 - Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" hit No. 1 in the U.S., where it stayed for seven weeks. Perry's first chart-topper, it's a startling turnabout from just seven years earlier, when she was a gospel singer recording under her real name: Katy Hudson. 

2014 - The four surviving members of The Grateful Dead gave what they said would be their final performance, playing to over 70,000 fans at Chicago's Soldier Field. The shows came 20 years after the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia, who played his last show in the nation's third-largest city in 1995. 

Birthdays: 

Smiley Lewis (“I Hear You Knocking”) was born today in 1913.

Robbie Robertson of The Band was born today in 1943.

Michael Monarch of Steppenwolf is 74. 

Huey Lewis is 74. 

Jimmy Crespo, guitarist for Aerosmith, is 70. 

Marc Cohn is 65. 

Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, better known as RZA (Wu-Tang Clan) is 55.

Mac Dre was born today in 1970. 

Róisín Murphy is 51. 

Bengt Lagerberg (drummer for The Cardigans) is 51.

Bizarre, rapper from D12, is 48. 

Jason Wade of Lifehouse is 44. 

Dave Haywood from Lady A is 42. 

Nick O'Malley of Arctic Monkeys is 39. 

Adam Young of Owl City is 38. 

Highlights for Today in Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts and Wikipedia.