Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today July 24
1967
The Beatles sign the Times ad calling for marijuana law reform
On July 24, 1967, The Times of London ran a full-page advertisement declaring the marijuana law unjust and unworkable, signed by all four Beatles, Brian Epstein and dozens of public figures. That the most famous band in the world put its name there, at the height of the Summer of Love, marked a turning point in the public debate on drugs.
The Beatles
1921
Billy Taylor is born, and writes an anthem for the civil rights movement
On July 24, 1921, Billy Taylor was born in North Carolina — a jazz pianist who earned a doctorate in music education and spent half his life explaining the genre to general audiences on radio and television. In 1954 he wrote "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free", which Nina Simone turned a decade later into one of the anthems of the civil rights movement. He was the first Black musical director of an American late-night show.
Billy Taylor
Nina Simone
1964
The night Blackpool banned the Stones for 44 years
On July 24, 1964, a Rolling Stones concert at Blackpool's Empress Ballroom ended in one of British rock's most famous riots. After spitting from part of the crowd and a Keith Richards kick at a provocateur, the hall erupted: seats smashed, a piano hurled to the floor and dozens injured. The town council responded by banning the band from playing in the city, a veto only lifted in 2008. The episode cemented the Stones' reputation as the dangerous face of the British Invasion.
The Rolling Stones
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1990
"Cowboys from Hell": Pantera erase their glam past and refound metal
On July 24, 1990, "Cowboys from Hell" was released, the album with which Pantera buried the four glam metal records they had put out before and which the band now prefers not to mention. Dimebag Darrell's guitar dropped decorative soloing for a dry, sharpened attack, and that combination of precision and violence defined the groove metal of the following decade. Nothing that came after this band sounds the same without this record.
Pantera
Dimebag Darrell
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1976
'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' gives Elton John his first British number one
On July 24, 1976, the duet 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' with Kiki Dee reached number one in the UK: incredibly, it was Elton John's first in his own country, despite years of worldwide dominance. The playful homage to Motown duets reigned for six weeks and confirmed that perfect pop does not need to take itself seriously to make history.
Elton John
Kiki Dee
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1976
Lou Rawls hits number one at forty-two, after being written off
On July 24, 1976, "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" topped the soul chart. Lou Rawls had been recording for fifteen years, through gospel, blues and jazz, and his career had stalled when Gamble and Huff signed him to their Philadelphia label. The result was the biggest hit of his life. With that baritone he later built an annual telethon that raised more than two hundred million dollars for historically Black colleges.
Lou Rawls
Gamble & Huff
1987
"La Bamba" reaches cinemas and returns Ritchie Valens to the charts thirty years on
On July 24, 1987, "La Bamba" premiered, the film about Ritchie Valens, the Mexican-American teenager who sang rock and roll in Spanish and died at seventeen in the 1959 plane crash. Los Lobos recorded the soundtrack, and the title song went to number one in the United States — something Valens's original version had never achieved.
Ritchie Valens
Los Lobos
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1803
Adolphe Adam is born: composer of the most sung Christmas song in the world
On July 24, 1803, Adolphe Adam was born in Paris, author of the ballet "Giselle" and of dozens of comic operas nobody revives today. His most durable work came from what looked like a minor commission: in 1847 he set a Christmas poem to music and out came "Cantique de Noël", known in English as "O Holy Night". French church authorities went so far as to discourage it as insufficiently devout. It is still sung every December across half the planet.
Adolphe Adam
1921
Giuseppe Di Stefano is born: the tenor who burned his voice out too fast
On July 24, 1921, Giuseppe Di Stefano was born in Sicily, owner of one of the century's most beautiful voices and of a notoriously short career. With Maria Callas he recorded the albums that defined how Italian opera should sound in the fifties, then wore himself out taking roles too heavy for his range. In 2004 he was attacked at his home in Kenya and left in a coma; he died in 2008, never fully recovered.
Giuseppe Di Stefano
Maria Callas
1982
'Eye of the Tiger' climbs into the ring and stays for six weeks
On July 24, 1982, Survivor's 'Eye of the Tiger' hit number one on the Hot 100, where it would stay for six straight weeks. The song had been commissioned directly by Sylvester Stallone, who wanted an anthem for 'Rocky III' after failing to secure the rights to 'Another One Bites the Dust'. Its staccato guitar riff, modeled on the rhythm of a boxer's punches, became a universal synonym for overcoming the odds. Four decades later it still plays in every gym on the planet.
Survivor
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1999
Woodstock '99 breaks apart: the day 'Break Stuff' was taken literally
On July 24, 1999, Limp Bizkit's set at Woodstock '99 unleashed a wave of violence that marked the festival's breaking point. During 'Break Stuff', part of the crowd tore plywood panels off the towers and the day degenerated into destruction and assaults, a prelude to the fires that would close the event the next day. The chaos became a symbol of the failure of that attempt to revive the spirit of 1969 amid price gouging and extreme heat. Woodstock '99 remains a warning about everything a festival should not be.
Limp Bizkit
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2011
Dan Peek dies, having left a hit band to sing to God
On July 24, 2011, Dan Peek died in his sleep — one of the three founders of America, the trio of American servicemen's sons who met at a base in England and recorded "A Horse with No Name" and "Ventura Highway". In 1977, at the group's commercial peak, Peek walked away after a religious conversion and moved into Christian music, where he never again sold a fraction as much.
Dan Peek
America
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