This Day in Music History: The Band releases Music From Big Pink, Bon Jovi signs with Mercury Records

1956 – Elvis Presley performs “Hound Dog” on NBC- TV’s The Steve Allen Show to an actual live hound dog because the producers didn’t want him shaking his pelvis on their program. US TV critic John Crosby pans Elvis’ performance anyway, calling him an “unspeakable, untalented and vulgar young entertainer.”

1963 – The Beatles record their next single “She Loves You” / “I’ll Get You” at EMI Studios in London, completing the two songs in less than four hours. When it is released in August later this year, “She Loves You” becomes the band’s first million-selling single.

1968 – The Band releases their debut album, Music From Big Pink. It follows the group’s backing of Bob Dylan on his 1966 tour as The Hawks.

1976 – Paul McCartney purchases Buddy Holly’s entire publishing catalog from Norman Petty.

1983 – A New Jersey-based quintet calling themselves Bon Jovi (but debating the name Johnny Electric) sign to Phonogram’s Mercury records. The group have since sold over 130 million records worldwide and performed more than 2,600 concerts in over 50 countries for more than 34 million fans.

2009 – The week after Michael Jackson’s death, The King Of Pop dominates the Top Ten of Billboard’s album chart. Leading the pack is Number Ones, followed by The Essential Michael Jackson at #2, Thriller at #3 and Off The Wall at #4. The Jackson 5’s Ultimate Collection holds the 35 spot, Bad is #6, Dangerous #7, Greatest Hits – HIStory – Vol. 1 sits at #8 and Michael’s Ultimate Collection occupies the #9 position. Collectively, Jackson’s solo albums sell 415,000 copies for the week, 58% of which are digital downloads. Compare this to the week before his death when his titles sold a combined 10,000 units.

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