On this day in guitar history
Guitar and bass history, one calendar date at a time. String launches, gear releases, milestone shows, and the artists who made them happen, sourced and dated.
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1941 · 85 yrs ago
85 Years Ago Today: Lonnie Mack Is Born, the Guitarist Who Started Modern Rock Soloing
Lonnie Mack was born in West Harrison, Indiana, on July 18, 1941. Two 1963 instrumentals cut on a borrowed twenty minutes of studio time made him, by most historians' account, rock's first guitar hero.
1966 · 60 yrs ago
60 Years Ago Today: The Byrds Release Fifth Dimension, Roger McGuinn's Raga Rock Turn
Columbia released the Byrds' third album, Fifth Dimension, on July 18, 1966, made without founding songwriter Gene Clark. Roger McGuinn's twelve-string guitar work carried it into psychedelic rock's first wave.
1968 · 58 yrs ago
58 Years Ago Today: The Beatles Finish Cry Baby Cry and Begin Helter Skelter
Two sessions at Abbey Road on July 18, 1968, finished Cry Baby Cry and opened the White Album's loudest chapter. One Helter Skelter take that night ran 27 minutes and 11 seconds, still the longest recording the Beatles ever made.
1975 · 51 yrs ago
51 Years Ago Today: Daron Malakian of System of a Down Is Born
Daron Malakian was born in Hollywood on July 18, 1975. He picked up guitar at 11 because his parents wouldn't buy him drums, and built System of a Down's riffs out of thrash metal, the Beatles, and the Armenian and Arabic music he grew up on.
1978 · 48 yrs ago
48 Years Ago Today: Def Leppard Plays Its First Ever Show for Five Pounds
Def Leppard's first-ever public show, a school dance in Sheffield on July 18, 1978, nearly stalled before it started when guitarist Steve Clark's Marshall amp was left on standby. A teacher paid the band five pounds out of his own pocket.
1947 · 79 yrs ago
79 Years Ago Today: Sweet's Mick Tucker Is Born
Mick Tucker's double bass drums and theatrical solos powered Sweet through its glam-rock run. He was born July 17, 1947, in Kingsbury, North West London.
1948 · 78 yrs ago
78 Years Ago Today: The Stooges' Guitarist Ron Asheton Is Born
Nobody bought The Stooges' records at the time. Three decades later, half of alternative rock had learned to play like Ron Asheton without even knowing it.
1949 · 77 yrs ago
77 Years Ago Today: Black Sabbath's Geezer Butler Is Born in Birmingham
Terence Butler played his first-ever bass, a three-string loaner, at Black Sabbath's first gig, only because Tony Iommi didn't want a second guitarist in the band. Today Jason Newsted calls him metal bass's Godfather.
1957 · 69 yrs ago
69 Years Ago Today: Molly Hatchet's Bruce Crump Is Born
Bruce Crump's drumming drove Molly Hatchet's triple-guitar Southern rock attack through its platinum run. He was born July 17, 1957, in Memphis, Tennessee.
1972 · 54 yrs ago
54 Years Ago Today: A Bomb Rips Through the Rolling Stones' Gear Before Their Montreal Show
Someone planted dynamite under the Rolling Stones' equipment trucks in Montreal. The bomber blew up the wrong truck, the show went on anyway, and 3,000 forged tickets turned the night into a riot besides.
1975 · 51 yrs ago
51 Years Ago Today: Bob Marley and the Wailers Record Live! at London's Lyceum
Island Records rolled tape at London's Lyceum Theatre on July 17, 1975, and caught Bob Marley and the Wailers at their tightest. Aston 'Family Man' Barrett's bassline is why the live 'No Woman, No Cry' cut that night is still the version everyone knows.
1992 · 34 yrs ago
34 Years Ago Today: Guns N' Roses and Metallica Launch Their Ill-Fated Stadium Tour
Two of the biggest rock bands on Earth shared a stage for the first time on July 17, 1992. Kurt Cobain, offered the opening slot, said no. He knew something.
1996 · 30 yrs ago
30 Years Ago Today: Chas Chandler, the Man Who Discovered Jimi Hendrix, Dies at 57
Chas Chandler quit The Animals over money, became a talent scout instead, and found an unknown guitarist playing under a stage name in a Greenwich Village club. Then he built the Jimi Hendrix Experience around him.
1938 · 88 yrs ago
88 Years Ago Today: The Searchers' Tony Jackson, Who Built His Own Bass, Is Born
Tony Jackson sang lead for the Searchers before he ever played bass, then learned the instrument on a guitar he customized and built himself. He was born July 16, 1938, in Liverpool.
1949 · 77 yrs ago
77 Years Ago Today: Montrose Bassist Turned Night Ranger Keyboardist Alan Fitzgerald Is Born
Alan Fitzgerald played bass for Montrose, then switched instruments entirely, becoming Night Ranger's keyboardist on and off for over two decades.
1952 · 74 yrs ago
74 Years Ago Today: The Police's Stewart Copeland Is Born
Stewart Copeland turned reggae-inflected rock into some of the most studied drumming of his era. He was born July 16, 1952, in Alexandria, Virginia.
1955 · 71 yrs ago
71 Years Ago Today: Divinyls Guitarist Mark McEntee, Who Co-Wrote I Touch Myself, Is Born
Before he co-wrote one of the biggest Australian rock songs of all time, Mark McEntee was a Perth kid who fell into the original lineup of Air Supply. He was born July 16, 1955, and went on to found Divinyls with Chrissy Amphlett.
1969 · 57 yrs ago
57 Years Ago Today: The Beatles Push Here Comes the Sun and Something Toward the Finish Line
Two George Harrison songs, one long day at Abbey Road. On July 16, 1969, The Beatles overdubbed harmonium onto Here Comes the Sun and re-recorded Harrison's lead vocal for Something, pushing both toward the versions the world already knows.
1971 · 55 yrs ago
55 Years Ago Today: Live Frontman Ed Kowalczyk, Who Wrote Lightning Crashes, Is Born
Four high school friends from York, Pennsylvania became one of the 1990s' biggest-selling alternative rock bands. Frontman Ed Kowalczyk, born July 16, 1971, wrote the words to Lightning Crashes and I Alone, then spent a decade fighting his own bandmates over the name.
1996 · 30 yrs ago
30 Years Ago Today: Styx Drummer John Panozzo Dies at 47
John Panozzo co-founded Styx with his fraternal twin brother as Chicago teenagers and drummed on every album through the band's arena-rock peak. He died July 16, 1996, at 47.
2012 · 14 yrs ago
14 Years Ago Today: Motown's Funk Brothers Bassist Bob Babbitt Dies at 74
Bob Babbitt spent six years trading Motown bass sessions with James Jamerson, then kept working session dates for another four decades. He died July 16, 2012, in Nashville, at 74.
2012 · 14 yrs ago
14 Years Ago Today: Deep Purple's Jon Lord, Whose Organ Dueled Ritchie Blackmore's Guitar, Dies at 71
Jon Lord never played guitar, but Deep Purple's sound is unthinkable without him. He drove a Hammond organ through Marshall amps to go toe-to-toe with Ritchie Blackmore, and that rivalry is baked into Smoke on the Water. Lord died July 16, 2012, at 71.
2020 · 6 yrs ago
6 Years Ago Today: Eric Clapton's Drummer Jamie Oldaker Dies at 68
Jamie Oldaker was the young Tulsa drummer Eric Clapton's band recruited almost sight unseen, then kept on 11 albums. He died July 16, 2020, at 68.
1945 · 81 yrs ago
81 Years Ago Today: Peter Lewis, the Hollywood Kid Who Became Moby Grape's Rhythm Guitarist, Was Born
Peter Lewis grew up the son of a Hollywood movie star, flew planes for Shell Oil, then saw the Byrds play live and rebuilt his life around a rhythm guitar. He co-founded Moby Grape, one of the most guitar-dense bands to come out of the 1967 San Francisco scene.
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July 1 · 5 events
On This Day in Guitar History: July 1
July 1 spans a century of guitar history. Blues songwriter and bassist Willie Dixon was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1915. The Band released their landmark debut Music from Big Pink in 1968. Bon Jovi signed their first record deal in 1983. Whitesnake and Trapeze guitarist Mel Galley died in 2008. In 2013, Boston's Tom Scholz lost a defamation suit tied to his bandmate's death.
July 3 · 3 events
On This Day in Guitar History: July 3
July 3 carries two major rock deaths and one guitarist's birth. Rolling Stones founder and guitarist Brian Jones drowned in 1969, just weeks after leaving the band he started. The Doors' Jim Morrison died in Paris in 1971. And in 1930, session guitarist Tommy Tedesco was born, the Wrecking Crew player behind thousands of Los Angeles recordings and TV themes most guitarists have heard without knowing his name.
July 4 · 3 events
On This Day in Guitar History: July 4
July 4 is a birthday for two blues-rooted guitarists a generation apart. Fleetwood Mac founding slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer was born in 1948, and Canned Heat co-founder and guitarist Alan 'Blind Owl' Wilson was born in 1943. In 2009, Drake Levin, guitarist for 1960s hitmakers Paul Revere & the Raiders, died at 62.
July 5 · 3 events
On This Day in Guitar History: July 5
July 5 is arguably the single most important date in rock guitar history. At Sun Studio in Memphis in 1954, Elvis Presley, guitarist Scotty Moore, and bassist Bill Black recorded 'That's All Right,' the session widely credited as the birth of rock and roll, with Moore playing his gold-finish Gibson ES-295. Steppenwolf's original lead guitarist, Michael Monarch, was born in 1950, and singer-songwriter Marc Cohn was born in 1959.
July 7 · 4 events
On This Day in Guitar History: July 7
July 7 centers on rock's most bittersweet night: Led Zeppelin's final concert, played in West Berlin in 1980, twelve years after the Yardbirds split and sent guitarist Jimmy Page toward his next band. Drummer John Bonham died two months later. Elsewhere on the date, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. hit number one in 1984, Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Synyster Gates was born in 1981, and John Lennon's first solo single reached American radio in 1969.
July 8 · 9 events
On This Day in Guitar History: July 8
July 8 holds Jerry Garcia's second-to-last Grateful Dead show in 1995, five weeks before his death, and the first radio play of Elvis Presley's That's All Right in 1954, three days after its Sun Studio session. Jimi Hendrix opened his ill-fated Monkees tour in 1967, Quiet Riot's Carlos Cavazo and country star Toby Keith were born, and Louis Jordan, whom the Rock Hall calls the Grandfather of Rock and Roll, arrived in 1908.
July 15 · 13 events
On This Day in Guitar History: July 15
July 15 is a loaded date for guitar history. Instrumental-rock guitarist Joe Satriani was born in 1956, punk pioneer Johnny Thunders and .38 Special's Jeff Carlisi in 1952, and Yes's founding guitarist Peter Banks in 1947. The Rolling Stones' Some Girls hit number one in 1978, the same day Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton shared a bill at Blackbushe Aerodrome, and in 2018, Guns N' Roses' November Rain became the first music video from the 1990s to reach 1 billion YouTube views.
July 16 · 14 events
On This Day in Guitar History: July 16
On July 16, guitar history spans a Utah-born Fender Stratocaster pioneer, a genre-defining supergroup, a blues guitar legend's death, and rock's shortest recorded concert. Buddy Merrill, an early Stratocaster face on The Lawrence Welk Show, was born in 1936. Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker are widely dated to have formed Cream on this day in 1966. Blues guitarist Johnny Winter died in 2014. The White Stripes played a one-note show in 2007.
July 17 · 8 events
On This Day in Guitar History: July 17
On July 17, guitar, bass, and drum history includes Ron Asheton's 1948 birth, Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler's 1949 birth, and the births of drummers Bruce Crump (Molly Hatchet, 1957) and Mick Tucker (Sweet, 1947); Bob Marley and the Wailers recording their Live! album at London's Lyceum in 1975; a 1972 dynamite blast that destroyed the Rolling Stones' touring gear before their Montreal show; Guns N' Roses and Metallica launching their infamous joint stadium tour in 1992; and the 1996 death of Chas Chandler, the talent scout who discovered Jimi Hendrix in a New York club in 1966.
July 18 · 5 events
On This Day in Guitar History: July 18
July 18 spans four decades of guitar history. Blues-rock pioneer Lonnie Mack was born in 1941. The Byrds released Fifth Dimension, built on Roger McGuinn's twelve-string, in 1966. The Beatles cut the first, wildest takes of Helter Skelter, including the longest recording of their career, in 1968. System of a Down's Daron Malakian was born in 1975. Def Leppard played their first-ever show, for five pounds, in 1978.