Historic events this week from Huey Lewis and the News, Queen, The Rolling Stones and The Clash
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SEPTEMBER 15, 1983: HUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS’ SPORTS
Approaching 10 million records sold, Sports remains Huey Lewis and the News’ biggest album.
Sports, the band’s third album, was their first of two #1 albums, and contained the hits “Heart and Soul”, “I Want a New Drug”, “The Heart of Rock & Roll”, “If This Is It” and “Walking on a Thin Line”
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SEPTEMBER 17, 1978: QUEEN’S “BICYCLE RACE” VIDEO SHOOT
The final video for Queen’s “Bicycle Race” was banned in some countries, and heavily edited in others.
Queen hired 65 nude, professional models to ride bicycles around the race track at Wimbledon Stadium.
The video shoot also provided the images for promotional posters and the cover of the Bicycle Race / Fat Bottomed Girls single.
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SEPTEMBER 17, 1967: JIM MORRISON ANGERS ED SULLIVAN
Before singing “Light My Fire” on The Ed Sullivan Show, Morrison agrees to change the words “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher” to “Girl, we couldn’t get much better.”
He sings the offending line anyway, resulting in a lifetime ban from the show.
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SEPTEMBER 19, 1970: AFTER THE GOLD RUSH
Neil Young’s third solo album was inspired by a film script written by actor Dean Stockwell.
Having been suffering writer’s block, Young became inspired and envisioned his new songs fitting in well with the movie.
The film was never made, but it resulted in After the Gold Rush. Neil Young’s first masterpiece.
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SEPTEMBER 19, 1981: THE ROLLING STONES’ TATTOO YOU IS #1
Tattoo You was the Rolling Stones’ 9th straight US #1 album.
The album sold over 4 million copies thanks to the massive single, “Start Me Up”.
Their final album to go #1 in the US, Tattoo You would remain at the top for 9 straight weeks
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SEPTEMBER 20, 1973: GRAM PARSONS’ BODY STOLEN & BURNED
At a friend’s funeral, the former Byrd/Flying Burrito Brother told his road manager that he one day wanted his ashes scattered in The Joshua Tree desert.
Upon Parsons’ death, Phil Kaufman impersonated an undertaker, hijacked his friend’s remains, and burned the body in Joshua Tree.
Gram Parsons died of an overdose at age 26. Two months shy of the dreaded 27 Club.
A loose account of the body-theft was made into the movie, Grand Theft Parsons, starring Johnny Knoxville as Phil Kaufman.
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SEPTEMBER 20, 2022: PATIENT NUMBER 9 IS OZZY’S HIGHEST CHARTING ALBUM IN UK
With the release of his 13th solo album, Patient Number 9, Ozzy has scored his first ever #1 album in the US.
The album currently sits atop Billboard’s Top Albums Sales Chart
Before Patient Number 9, his highest charting albums in the US were Black Rain (2007) and Ordinary Man (2020), which both peaked at #3.
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SEPTEMBER 20, 1979: LONDON CALLING COVER PHOTO
Clash bassist, Paul Simonon grew angry at NYC’s Palladium upon realizing bouncers weren’t allowing the audience to stand up during their performance.
Photographer Pennie Smith captured the moment he smashed his bass guitar out of frustration.
The shot would end up becoming an iconic image, gracing the cover of The Clash’s classic London Calling album.
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SEPTEMBER 21, 2011: R.E.M. BREAKS UP
6½ months after releasing their final album, R.E.M. amicably called it quits.
Among many awards won in their 31 years, they won three Grammy awards for their 7th album, Out of Time.
Out of Time began a streak of R.E.M. albums to go 4x Platinum. The others were Automatic for the People (1992) and Monster (1994).
