August 4th, 1984, Prince hits number one on the album charts with “Purple Rain.” It’s also the soundtrack to his movie of the same name. He stays at number one on the charts for 22 weeks. That’s absolutely amazing. Now a lot of people really didn’t consider Prince to be rock’n’roll at this time, but where a lot of minds definitely started to change is when Prince was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions performing with Tom Petty and Jeff Lynn. and he took an amazing, amazing guitar solo on George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Check out the video below, you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about.
Today in 1975, Robert Plant of Zeppelin vacationing with his family on the Greek island of Rhodes gets involved in a really bad car accident. They have to postpone a US tour and they actually tell Robert that he’ll never walk again, but he’s fully recovered, obviously.
On this date in 1970, Jim Morrison arrested in LA for public drunkenness after being found passed out on somebody’s doorstep.
Today in 1968, the Newport Pop Festival draws more than 100,000 people to check it out. Some of the performers, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, and the Animals.
