This Day in Music History: Smile changes their name to Queen, Black Flag play their final show

1885 – Chichester Bell and Charles Tainter apply for a patent on their invention, the gramophone.

1960 – Connie Francis becomes the first solo female act with a Hot 100 #1 hit when “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” tops the chart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW-gGcgjyoU

1968 – Working at Abbey Road studios in London, The Beatles record seven takes of “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey” for their forthcoming White Album.

1970 – The group Smile changes their name to Queen and performs for the first time under that moniker at Truro City Hall in Cornwall, England. The newly formed band features Freddie Mercury (possibly still known as Freddie Bulsara), Brian May, Roger Taylor, and Mike Grose; original material at this time includes an early version of “Stone Cold Crazy.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Rfb1Jtmic

1971 – New York’s Fillmore East concert hall closes.

1986 – Black Flag play their final ever gig in Detroit, Michigan. The band confirms their split two months later in August.

1988 – MCA Records purchases Motown Records for $61 million.

1989 – The Who perform the rock opera Tommy in its entirety for the first time in 17 years at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.

1993 – Lyle Lovett and actress Julia Roberts are married. They divorce in 1995.

1994 – Aerosmith becomes the first major band to let fans download a full new track free from the internet.

1998 – After 30 weeks on the UK album chart, The Corrs finally go to #1 with Talk On Corners. It becomes the country’s best selling album of 1998, spending 142 weeks on the chart in total.

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