Sept 12 in Music History: The Monkees TV show debuts, The Smiths disband

1943 – Frank Sinatra starts his film career when he signs a 7-year contract with RKO Pictures.

1966 – The Monkees TV show makes its debut, with four actors chosen to portray a pop band based on The Beatles. The fictional band becomes very real and they eventually play on their own recordings instead of studio musicians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWea5rB7XlY

1970 – The Woody Guthrie tribute concert takes place at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Performers include Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Richie Havens, and Joan Baez.

1975 – Pink Floyd releases Wish You Were Here.

1980 – David Bowie releases Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps).

1984 – Talking Heads release the soundtrack to Stop Making Sense.

1987 – Morrissey leaves The Smiths (disbanding them) for a solo career.

1990 – Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie announce they will be leaving Fleetwood Mac at the end of their current tour. Fans believe their departures had been hastened by bad blood in the wake of Mick Fleetwood’s memoir, Fleetwood: My Life and Adventures in Fleetwood Mac, which contains some “sordid revelations” about life within the band.

2003 – Johnny Cash dies of complications from diabetes in Nashville, Tennessee, at age 71.

2005 – David Gray releases Life in Slow Motion.

2007 – The surviving members of Led Zeppelin announce they will reform for a star-studded tribute concert to remember the late Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. Jason Bonham will play drums for his father, who died in 1980. The one-off performance, the trio’s first in 19 years, takes place at the O2 arena in London on November 26th.

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