On This Day in Guitar History: August 24
Edited by Cadence · Reviewed
August 24 carries two of classic rock's biggest landmarks. Queen began recording 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in 1975, and the Rolling Stones released 'Tattoo You,' led by 'Start Me Up,' in 1981. Fingerstyle guitarist Kaki King was born in 1979, and John Mellencamp released 'The Lonesome Jubilee' in 1987. The date is also a somber one for drummers: Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts died in 2021, session legend Larrie Londin died in 1992, and Wings drummer Steve Holley was born in 1953.
On August 24 in guitar history
1953 · Born
Wings drummer Steve Holley is born in London
Holley, the son of a swing-band leader, spent the 1970s as a working session drummer before a chance pub meeting with Denny Laine landed him a spot in Paul McCartney's Wings in 1978, in time to play on the band's final album, Back to the Egg.
Source: Steve Holley
1975 · Milestone
Queen begins recording Bohemian Rhapsody at Rockfield Studios
After weeks of rehearsal at Ridge Farm Studio and Penrhos Court, Queen started taping the six-minute rock opera in three separate sections at a converted farmhouse studio in Monmouth, Wales. Freddie Mercury, Brian May, and Roger Taylor layered somewhere between 160 and 180 vocal overdubs to build the operatic middle section.
Source: 'Bohemian Rhapsody': The Story Behind Queen's Rule-Breaking Classic Song · 2025-10-31
1979 · Born
Fingerstyle guitarist Kaki King is born in Atlanta
King, born Katherine Elizabeth King, developed a percussive two-handed tapping technique she calls fanning, turning a single acoustic guitar into something closer to a full band. Rolling Stone named her the sole woman on its 2006 New Guitar Gods list, and Dave Grohl later brought her in to play on a Foo Fighters record.
Source: Five Reasons Kaki King Is a Guitar Legend · 2023-03-24
1981 · Release
The Rolling Stones release Tattoo You, led by Start Me Up
Built almost entirely from decade-old outtakes because touring left no time to write a new record, Tattoo You became the Stones' eighth straight US number-one album. Its opening track, Start Me Up, began as a reggae jam Keith Richards once ordered erased, before Richards and Ronnie Wood rebuilt it around a twin-guitar riff in 1981.
Source: Tattoo You
1987 · Release
John Mellencamp releases The Lonesome Jubilee
A year after testifying to Congress for family farmers alongside Willie Nelson, Mellencamp released a triple-platinum album built on fiddle, mandolin, banjo, Dobro, and hammer dulcimer instead of the era's default synthesizers. Guitarists Larry Crane and Mike Wanchic doubled across nearly a dozen instruments between them, and the record produced two Top 10 hits.
Source: The Lonesome Jubilee
1992 · Passed
Session drummer Larrie Londin, called 'the greatest in the world,' dies at 48
Londin, a self-taught drummer discovered as a teenage nightclub fill-in, died in Nashville four months after a heart attack sidelined him at a drum clinic. He had played on records for Elvis Presley, B.B. King, and Journey, and Chet Atkins introduced him in 1991 as the greatest drummer in the world.
Source: Larrie Londin
2021 · Passed
Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts dies at 80
Watts, the jazz-trained drummer who anchored the Rolling Stones from January 1963 until his death, died in a London hospital surrounded by family, weeks after withdrawing from the band's No Filter tour for an unspecified medical procedure. Rolling Stone ranked him 12th on its list of the 100 greatest drummers of all time.
Source: Charlie Watts, Rolling Stones Drummer and Band's Irreplaceable Heartbeat, Dead at 80 · 2021-08-24
Why we track this
August 24 is one of the heaviest single dates on the guitar-history calendar, from Queen's operatic ambition to the Rolling Stones' last American chart-topper to a fingerstyle guitarist who reinvented what one acoustic guitar could sound like. Brian May called the start of the Bohemian Rhapsody sessions "just the biggest thrill." Six years later to the day, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood rode a nearly-erased reggae riff to the top of the charts with Tattoo You. The date carries real weight for drummers too: Charlie Watts and Larrie Londin, two very different careers behind the kit, both died on this date, 29 years apart.
Start your own August 24
Whichever era of this page pulls you in, from Freddie Mercury's overdubbed choir to Kaki King's percussive fingerstyle to a Rolling Stones riff Keith Richards once tried to throw away, the through-line is still six strings under someone's hands. If yours need a change, the set below is the one we point most beginners to first.
Regular Slinky
Why this one: A widely played, balanced electric set and a safe starting point no matter which era of guitar history brought you here today.
More guitar history
This page is part of an evergreen series, one per calendar day, filled in as we verify more events. Browse our artist profiles for deeper dives on the players named above, or head to the full history index to see which dates are live so far.