This Day in Music History: Bruce Springsteen releases Darkness on the Edge of Town, Thin Lizzy releases Live and Dangerous

1953 – Elvis Presley leaves IC Humes High School in Memphis, TN.

1958 – Barry Sadler joins the U.S. Air Force (he’s later a Green Beret in the U.S. Army).

1962 – Owen Gray’s “Twist Baby” becomes the first single released on UK-based Island Records. The label is eventually home to Free, Traffic, Jethro Tull, Bob Marley, and U2.

1964 – The Rolling Stones play their first U.S. concert at the Manning Bowl, a high school in Lynn, Massachusetts. They also make their American TV debut on the Les Crane Show on WABC-TV in New York City.

1964 – Production begins on the movie Ferry Cross The Mersey, starring Gerry & the Pacemakers and Cilla Black.

1973 – Electric Light Orchestra begin their first US tour.

1978 – Thin Lizzy release their live double album Live And Dangerous. It was recorded in Philadelphia, London, and Toronto during the tours accompanying the albums Johnny The Fox and Bad Reputation throughout the previous year.

1978 – Bruce Springsteen releases Darkness On The Edge of Town.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3vUKBOJ5sU

1981 – Prince plays his first U.K. concert at The Lyceum Ballroom in London (he will not play Britain again for five years).

2005 – Franz Ferdinand’s frontman, Alex Kapranos, is detained by Russian police because they believe he is a spy. Kapranos was attempting to board a plane in Moscow under his legal surname, Huntley, when the altercation took place. It was unlucky for Alex that the surname Huntley was also used by actual former MI6 agent Richard Tomlinson, who really did steal secrets in the early 90s. The singer was freed after he pointed out that the Huntley they were so concerned about was 42, someone 13 years older than him.

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