March 15 in Music History: Mick Jagger makes his live solo debut, Talking Heads release Naked

1945 – Billboard magazine begins listing a top albums chart. The first #1 was The Nat King Cole Trio.

1955 – Ray Charles peaks at #2 on the US R&B charts with the Atlantic single “I Got A Woman,” widely considered the first song to be labelled “soul” – a blending of R&B and gospel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81cyUwnM71U

1956 – Colonel Tom Parker officially becomes Elvis Presley’s manager.

1958 – Elvis Presley performs his last concert before leaving for the Army, a show at Memphis’ Russwood Park. Aside from two benefit shows in 1961, he does not perform again until 1969.

1967 – George Harrison begins recording his new song “Within You Without You” at Abbey Road studios in London. Harrison is the only Beatle to perform on this song. He plays the swordmandel and tamboura, Natver Soni played tabla, Amrat Gajjar played dilruba, PD Joshi played swordmandel, and an undocumented musician played a droning tamboura.

1968 – The Rolling Stones start daily sessions at Olympic Studios in London to record their next album, Beggars Banquet.

1969 – T-Rex singer Marc Bolan’s first book of poetry, The Warlock Of Love, is published.

1974 – The Emerson, Lake and Palmer movie Pictures at an Exhibition premieres in Los Angeles, CA.

1978 – The Alan Freed biopic American Hot Wax premieres in New York City, featuring appearances and performances by Chuck Berry and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.

1987 – Mick Jagger makes his first solo appearance on stage at Osakajo Castle Hall, Osaka, Japan. The show is mostly made up of Rolling Stones songs, including songs not performed for a long time, including “Gimme Shelter,” “Ruby Tuesday,” and “Sympathy For The Devil,” as well as the Jimi Hendrix song “Foxy Lady.”

1988 – Talking Heads release their final album, Naked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3t5nmgRVMs

1999 – Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Curtis Mayfield, Del Shannon, Dusty Springfield, The Staple Singers, and Billy Joel are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Springsteen reunites with the E Street Band to perform at the ceremony.

2004 – George Harrison, Prince, Bob Seger, The Dells, Traffic, and ZZ Top are all inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

2008 – The musical I Am Who I Am, based on the life of singer Teddy Pendergrass, opens in Chicago.

2010 – ABBA, Jimmy Cliff, Genesis, The Hollies, and The Stooges – are inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the 25th annual ceremony.

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