Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today August 3
1963
The Beatles bid farewell to the Cavern, the cellar where it all began
On August 3, 1963, the Beatles played the Cavern Club in Liverpool for the last time — the damp basement where they had performed nearly 300 times and where Brian Epstein discovered them. Weeks before Beatlemania's definitive explosion, they closed the door on the club that formed them. The venue had grown too small for them; the entire world was about to feel the same.
The Beatles
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1963
James Hetfield is born, the fastest right hand in metal
On August 3, 1963, James Hetfield was born in Los Angeles — Metallica's voice and rhythm guitar. His right hand, precise as a threshing machine, set the standard for the thrash riff, and his lyrics turned rage and trauma into stadium catharsis. Curiously, he was born the very day the Beatles said goodbye to the Cavern: one era closed, another was being sown.
James Hetfield
Metallica
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1973
'Innervisions': Stevie Wonder records the album of his life almost alone
On August 3, 1973, Motown released 'Innervisions', the album on which Stevie Wonder played nearly every instrument and used the synthesizer to portray the ghetto, drugs and Nixon's politics. 'Living for the City' and 'Higher Ground' turned soul into urban reportage, and the record won the Grammy for Album of the Year. Three days after release a log came through his car windshield and left him in a coma for ten days: he signed his masterpiece just before nearly losing everything.
Stevie Wonder
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1985
'Into the Groove' gives Madonna her first UK number one
On August 3, 1985, 'Into the Groove' reached number one in the UK and stayed four weeks. It was the song from 'Desperately Seeking Susan', and the week before it had entered straight in at number four — the highest chart debut by a woman up to that point. It remains her best-selling single there, at 1.4 million copies. Madonna stopped being a dancefloor prospect and became an industry.
Madonna
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1987
'Hysteria' arrives: three years of ordeal turned into 25 million records
On August 3, 1987, Def Leppard released 'Hysteria', an album that took over three years to complete and was marked by tragedy: drummer Rick Allen lost an arm in an accident and relearned to play on an electronic kit designed for him. The wait was worth every day: 'Pour Some Sugar on Me', 'Animal' and 'Love Bites' turned it into a hit machine. It sold over 25 million copies and reached number one on the Billboard 200. It was the peak of eighties polished hard rock.
Def Leppard
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1968
Newport Pop Festival: the first concert with over 100,000 paid tickets
On August 3, 1968, the Newport Pop Festival kicked off in Costa Mesa, California, the first concert in history to surpass 100,000 paid attendees. Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, The Doors and Steppenwolf crossed the Orange County fairgrounds stage while helicopters dropped flowers over the crowd. Advance ticket sales tripled expectations and overwhelmed every calculation the organizers had made. A year before Woodstock, that weekend proved rock was already a mass phenomenon.
Jefferson Airplane
Grateful Dead
The Doors
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1971
McCartney announces his new band: life after the Beatles has wings
On August 3, 1971, Paul McCartney announced in London the formation of his new group, with his wife Linda on keyboards, ex-Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine and drummer Denny Seiwell. The name, Wings, would only be revealed in October, but the message was clear: after the bitter dissolution of the Beatles, Paul wanted to be part of a band again, not just a legend. The family-driven, collaborative project would dominate the seventies with massive tours and hits like 'Band on the Run'. It was his second musical life, announced without a name and with every intention.
Paul McCartney
Wings
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1996
'Macarena' begins fourteen weeks at number one in the United States
On August 3, 1996, the Bayside Boys remix of 'Macarena' hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed fourteen weeks, into November. Antonio Romero and Rafael Ruiz — Los del Río, a Sevillian duo with over thirty years behind them — had written it in 1992 after watching a flamenco dancer at a private party in Venezuela. It sold more than fourteen million copies and was the longest-running Spanish-language number one until 'Despacito'.
Los del Río
2006
Arthur Lee dies: the leader of Love who refused to tour
On August 3, 2006, Arthur Lee died in Memphis aged 61 from acute myeloid leukaemia. He had founded Love in Los Angeles in 1965 and made 'Forever Changes', a record that barely reached number 154 in 1967 and today sits among the greatest ever made. Lee refused to tour, and that stubbornness cost him the fame his scene neighbours got. Rarely has the verdict of time differed so sharply from the verdict of the box office.
Arthur Lee
Love
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2019
Henri Belolo dies: the Frenchman who invented the Village People
On August 3, 2019, Henri Belolo died in Paris aged 82. Born in Casablanca, he created The Ritchie Family and, above all, the Village People alongside composer Jacques Morali. The cop, the cowboy and the chief weren't a joke: they were a catalogue of gay fantasy turned into planet-wide family entertainment, something nobody thought possible in 1978. In 2015 a court stripped him of songwriting credit on thirteen songs.
Henri Belolo
Village People
Jacques Morali
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