Music History

After five years of marriage, Elvis and Priscilla Presley filed for divorce. They agreed to joint custody of their daughter Lisa Marie. Priscilla received $725,000 in cash, alimony, 5% of Elvis's new publishing companies and half the proceeds from the sale of their Beverly Hills home.

The mayor of San Antonio, Texas, proclaimed August 11 “Cheech and Chong Day” in honor of the popular comedy duo, even though neither member was born near the city.

Baltimore, Maryland proclaimed this day “Cass Elliot Day” in honor of the singer of The Mamas & The Papas, who was from the city.

Butch Trucks, drummer of The Allman Brothers Band, was involved in a car accident near Macon, Georgia, and broke his leg. The accident occurred near the site where Duane Allman had died in an accident two years earlier.

Patrick Moraz replaced Rick Wakeman in Yes.

John Lennon claimed that he saw a UFO from the balcony of his New York apartment, which he shared with May Pang. He described it as a typical flying saucer surrounded by lights, with a red light on top. He later recorded the date and time of the alleged sighting, August 23, 1974 at 9 p.m., in the notes to the album “Walls and Bridges”.

Keith Moon of The Who trashed a hotel room at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami and subsequently ended up in hospital.

RCA Victor announced that sales of Elvis Presley's recordings had exceeded 400 million units. This milestone was a significant moment in the final year of Elvis's life and confirmed his position at the time as the most commercially successful artist in the history of the recording industry. In later years, Graceland and RCA parent company Sony Music estimated that Elvis had sold more than one billion recordings worldwide.

During the carnival in the London district of Notting Hill, clashes broke out between Black youths and the police. Members of The Clash were present, and the event inspired them to write “White Riot” as a call for white people to protest with the same intensity.

Florists Transworld Delivery announced that the number of flower orders delivered to Graceland in a single day had surpassed all previous records associated with any event in the company's history. Florists in the Memphis area ran out of supplies, and additional flowers had to be flown in from other cities.

The Voyager 2 probe was launched into space carrying the “Golden Record”, a recording of sounds and images representing Earth.

Alice Hovartar and Juanita Johnson, both 19 years old, died after a car crashed into a crowd of mourners outside Graceland following Elvis Presley's death. Their funerals were held on this day.

During an Aerosmith concert in Philadelphia, an object was thrown onto the stage, injuring Joe Perry and Steven Tyler. The band performed behind a security barrier for the rest of the tour.

The New York Post reported that Anita Pallenberg, Keith Richards' partner, was linked to an alleged group of witches in South Salem, New York, where Richards owned a house. The police officer investigating the case said he was attacked by a group of people in black cloaks who tried to lure him into taking part in a ritual and sexual orgies. Local residents also claimed that ritual objects and small animals believed to have been sacrificed during ceremonies had been found near the house.

Rod Stewart and his first wife Alana Hamilton welcomed their daughter Kimberly Stewart, who later became an actress and model.

A statue of Elvis Presley was unveiled at Elvis Presley Plaza in Memphis. It was later moved inside the Memphis Welcome Centre.

A statue of Buddy Holly was unveiled in his hometown of Lubbock, Texas.

Members of First Assembly Church of God in Ankeny, Iowa, burned various books and music albums they considered satanic and works promoting premarital sex, homosexuality, and immorality. Among the recordings burned were the soundtrack to the film Woodstock and albums by Peter Frampton and The Beatles.

Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant met in an electronics shop in London and began talking about synthesizers. They formed the Pet Shop Boys and five years later had their first hit, “West End Girls”.

Donna Summer and her husband Bruce Sudano became parents to their first daughter, Amanda Grace Sudano.

The city of Liverpool named four streets after members of The Beatles: John Lennon Drive, Paul McCartney Way, George Harrison Close and Ringo Starr Drive.

The word “jobsworth” first appeared in the London Times. The expression was popularized, or according to the source possibly coined, by singer-songwriter Jeremy Taylor.

Pirate radio station Radio Caroline, which had broadcast only sporadically since its original closure in 1968, returned to the air from the ship Ross Revenge in international waters in the North Sea. Exactly six years later, it was shut down again.

The Beatles fans paid $271,180 for memorabilia at an auction in London, England.

Simon Le Bon's boat capsized during a race off the English coast. The Royal Navy rescued him after he spent 40 minutes trapped in an underwater air pocket.

Serial killer Richard Ramirez was captured in Los Angeles and later convicted of 13 murders. At one crime scene, he left behind an AC/DC cap. The media nicknamed him the "Night Stalker" and speculated that AC/DC's song "Night Prowler" had inspired him to kill. This claim was never confirmed and unfairly linked the band to the killer, which terrified the group.

The former studio of the television program American Bandstand in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was added to the US National Register of Historic Places.

Rolling Stone magazine named The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band the best album made during the previous 20 years. The next places went to Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, Exile on Main St., The Beatles (The White Album) and Blood on the Tracks.

Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil injured his hand before a concert in Rochester, New York, after angrily smashing a glass of Gulden's mustard because he wanted Frenchie's. The concert was cancelled and Neil was flown to Baltimore, where surgeons repaired damaged nerves and tendons in his hand.

ZZ Top members Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard reserved seats in advance through Pan American World Airways for the supposedly first commercial flight to the Moon. It was a publicity stunt promoting their space-themed album Afterburner. The flight never took place, and Pan Am went bankrupt in 1991.

To mark the 100th anniversary of the jukebox, the Amusement and Music Operators Association announced that Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” and Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” had been named the most-played songs on jukeboxes during their first 100 years of existence. The jukebox had been in operation since 1906, while its earliest predecessors appeared as early as 1889.

The cookbook “Rock N' Roll Cuisine” was published and contained 95 recipes from various musicians, including “Dream Soup” by Yoko Ono, “Boyfriend Approved Macaroni Salad” by Cher, Mick Jagger's shrimp curry and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich by “Weird Al” Yankovic.

Eagles drummer Don Henley expressed his dissatisfaction with Joe Walsh playing the song “Life in the Fast Lane” during his tour with Ringo Starr. Henley stated that Walsh had written only a short guitar riff at the beginning of the song.

Michael Jackson attended the opening ceremony for an auditorium named after him at his former school, Gardner Street Elementary School, in Hollywood, California. In November 2003, school officials covered his name with plywood after parents protested following his arrest on suspicion of child sexual abuse. After Jackson's death in 2009, fans launched a petition campaign, and the school district eventually uncovered his name again.

A public memorial service for Stevie Ray Vaughan was held at Laurel Land Memorial Park in Dallas, Texas, four days after he was killed in a helicopter crash in Wisconsin at the age of 35. Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Wonder led a communal singing of "Amazing Grace" at the end of the memorial.

Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and Hole's Courtney Love became parents to a daughter, Frances Bean Cobain.

The handwritten lyrics to The Beatles' song “A Day in the Life” from the album “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band”, written by John Lennon, were sold at auction at Sotheby's in London for $100,000. The double-sided manuscript contained spelling mistakes and crossed-out words. It was offered at auction again in 2006, and in 2010 an anonymous American buyer acquired it for $1.2 million.

Gloria Estefan and her husband Emilio organized a Miami project to help victims of Hurricane Andrew.

A revived production of the musical “Oba Oba '93” was staged.

The British duo The KLF burned one million pounds on the Scottish island of Jura for no apparent reason.

Jimmy Buffett crashed his Grumman G-44 Widgeon seaplane while taking off from Madaket Harbor on Nantucket, Massachusetts. The aircraft struck a large ocean wave, overturned and sank. Buffett escaped from the wreck and two local fishermen pulled him from the water and took him to hospital. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Scottish singer and songwriter Frankie Miller suffered a massive brain hemorrhage in New York while working on material for a new group he had formed with Joe Walsh of the Eagles. He spent five months in a coma and subsequently underwent rehabilitation, during which he relearned how to walk and talk.

The Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center opened in California at California State University, Long Beach.

During the filming of the video for Meat Loaf’s song “I'd Lie for You”, a pilot and cameraman were killed in a helicopter crash in Sequoia National Forest approximately 150 miles north of Los Angeles, California.

Delegates at the Democratic National Convention took a break to dance to “Macarena”, including First Lady Hillary Clinton, who imitated the dance moves from the crowd.

A pair of Elvis Presley's black underwear was stolen from the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in Los Angeles. The thief reportedly reached the exhibit through the plexiglass barrier or with the aid of a tool during opening hours.

The Rolling Stones made a spectacular announcement of their forthcoming Bridges to Babylon tour. The band arrived at the Brooklyn Bridge in New York in a 1955 red Cadillac driven by Mick Jagger, with Keith Richards beside him and Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood in the back.

Twelve-year-old Georgia Lee Moses was found dead in South Petaluma, California. Tom Waits learned of her story and was inspired by it to write the song “Georgia Lee”, the thirteenth track on the album “Mule Variations”.

A man who escaped from a psychiatric facility near Helsinki, Finland, was arrested after planning to set fire to the stage where Michael Jackson was due to perform. He had already placed petrol on the stage but was arrested before he could ignite it.