April 21 in Music History: The Cure releases Wish, Prince passes away

1967 – The Beatles complete the sessions for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at Abbey Road studios in London. The final recordings are of gibberish and noise which would follow “A Day in the Life” in the run-out groove. They record assorted noises and voices, which engineer Geoff Emerick then cuts up and randomly reassembles and edits backwards. At John Lennon’s suggestion, they also add a high-pitch whistle audible only by dogs. These are omitted from the American version of the album.

1969 – Janis Joplin makes her London stage debut when she and her Kozmic Blues Band perform a legendary concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Yes open the show.

1969 – Mick Jagger sends a letter to Andy Warhol, who has agreed to design the artwork for the Rolling Stones album Sticky Fingers. Jagger writes: “In my short sweet experience, the more complicated the format of the album … the more f–ked up the reproduction and agonising delays.” Warhol eventually delivers a design with a working zipper, which becomes one of the most memorable album covers ever made, but is very difficult to mass produce.

1970 – Elton John makes his solo concert debut when he opens for T. Rex at the Roundhouse in London.

1978 – UK folk singer Sandy Denny dies at age 31. She had been injured by falling down a staircase while vacationing with her parents in Cornwall, England. Her death is ruled as the result of a traumatic mid-brain hemorrhage after four days in a coma. She was a member of Fairport Convention & a solo artist, and sang on the Led Zeppelin track “Battle Of Evermore.”

1980 – Pete Townshend releases his first solo album of original material, Empty Glass.

1982 – Clash frontman Joe Strummer disappears for three weeks, which results in the band cancelling a tour. The singer is later found living rough in Paris, France.

1992 – The Beastie Boys release Check Your Head, the Cure releases Wish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa2nLEhUcZ0

2016 – Prince is found dead inside an elevator at his Paisley Park estate in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the age of 57.

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