This Day in Music History: Eric Clapton records “Wonderful Tonight,” Nirvana begins work on Nevermind

1960 – Ben E. King leaves the Drifters and signs a deal with ATCO Records.

1969 – The Beatles record 36 takes of a re-make of the new George Harrison song “Something” at Abbey Road Studios in London.

1972 – Bruce Springsteen auditions for Columbia Records’ A&R monster John Hammond. The planned 15-minute session runs 2 hours. Bruce records a 14 song demo the next day and signs with the label five weeks later.

1977 – Eric Clapton records “Wonderful Tonight.”

1979 – The Who perform their first concert with drummer Kenney Jones (formerly of Faces) after the death of Keith Moon.

1980 – Joy Division play what would be their last gig with singer Ian Curtis when they appear at Birmingham University in England. (Curtis commits suicide two weeks later.)

1982 – Adam and the Ants disband.

1991 – Nirvana book into Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, for 16 days. They begin recording Nevermind on a $65,000 budget with Butch Vig producing the album.

2009 – Bob Dylan mingles unnoticed with other Beatles tourists during a minibus tour to John Lennon’s childhood home. He is one of 14 fans to examine photos and documents in the National Trust-owned home where Lennon grew up with his aunt Mimi and uncle George. Dylan, who was on a day off on a European tou,r paid £16 for the public trip to the 1940s house in Woolton, Liverpool.

Birthdays

1929 : Link Wray

1933 : Bunk Gardner (Mothers of Invention)

1944 : Bob Henrit (The Kinks, Argent)

1945 : Goldy McJohn (Steppenwolf)

1946 : Lesley Gore

1950 : Lou Gramm (Foreigner)

1951 : John Glascock (Jethro Tull)

1954 : Prescott Niles (The Knack)

1955 : Jo Callis (The Human League)

1985 : Lily Allen

Information for this post was gathered from This Day in Music, The Music History Calendar, On This Day, and Wikipedia.