Music History

Peter “Puddy” Watts, road manager for Pink Floyd, died of a heroin overdose. His manic laughter was used on the album The Dark Side of the Moon.

Elvis Presley performed a three-night concert run at the Cumberland County Memorial Auditorium in Fayetteville, North Carolina, from August 3 to August 5, 1976.

Grateful Dead performed at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, New Jersey.

NBC aired the special “The Beach Boys: It's O.K.” to mark the group's 15th anniversary. The program featured interviews, comedy sketches and concert footage, with appearances by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.

During a performance in Birmingham, England, Eric Clapton publicly expressed support for the right-wing National Front and made racist remarks.

Robin Trower performed at Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee.

Earth, Wind & Fire byli se skladbou „Getaway“ na prvním místě R&B žebříčku.

Elton John byl hlavní hvězdou každoročního festivalu Summerfest na Rich Stadium v Buffalu v New Yorku. Jako předskokani vystoupili John Miles a Boz Scaggs.

Elton John a Kiki Dee se skladbou „Don't Go Breaking My Heart“ dosáhli prvního místa amerického singlového žebříčku, kde zůstali čtyři týdny. Pro Eltona Johna šlo o jeho šestý americký hit číslo jedna. Skladba se dostala na první místo v celkem devíti zemích včetně Velké Británie, Austrálie a Kanady. Autory byli Elton John a Bernie Taupin, kteří skladbu vydali pod pseudonymy Ann Orson a Carte Blanche.

The Sex Pistols se poprvé objevili na titulní straně britského hudebního týdeníku Melody Maker.

American singer and actor Drew Lachey was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He became known as a member of the pop and R&B group 98 Degrees.

Singer, songwriter and producer Joshua Scott “JC” Chasez, known as JC Chasez, was born in the United States. He became famous as a member of the boy band NSYNC.

ABBA released the single “Fernando.”

Aerosmith performed at the Springfield Civic Center in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Linda Ronstadt released her cover version of Buddy Holly’s “That'll Be The Day”.

Elton John played the first of a series of sold-out concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The concert series grossed $1.25 million and surpassed The Rolling Stones’ 1975 record. Elton John was promoting his current single with Kiki Dee, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” and the live album “Here and There.”

Eric Clapton performed at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland.

Neil Diamond performed at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland.

American singer, songwriter and guitarist Ben Gibbard, frontman of indie-rock group Death Cab for Cutie, was born. The group had the US No. 1 album Narrow Stairs in 2008. The band's name comes from the song “Death Cab for Cutie” by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

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

Neil Young recorded an entire album in a single evening at Indigo Ranch Recording Studio in Malibu. The recording included “Pocahontas” and “Powderfinger,” among others, but executives shelved it until September 8, 2017, when it was released as Hitchhiker.

Yes performed at Louisville Gardens in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Clash played a private concert for journalists at the Chalk Farm rehearsal studios in London.

“Devil Woman” entered the Billboard Top 40 and later reached number 6.

His first solo single “So It Goes” was released and became the first record issued by Stiff Records. The recording was financed with a £400 loan, Lowe played all the instruments, and production of the single cost £45. It was a seven-inch single and the first release from the influential British independent label Stiff Records.

Their cover of Chuck Berry's “Rock And Roll Music” reached number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became their first Top Ten hit since “Good Vibrations” in 1966.

ABBA released the single "Dancing Queen" in Sweden on August 16, 1976. The song later became their only US number-one hit and topped the charts in more than a dozen countries.

AC/DC performed at London's Marquee Club during their Lock Up Your Daughters Tour. The set included “Live Wire”, “Jailbreak”, “High Voltage” and “It's a Long Way to the Top”.

Cliff Richard began his historic tour of the Soviet Union with a concert in Leningrad. During the tour, he performed a total of 20 concerts, including 12 in Leningrad and 8 in Moscow. He became the first Western rock artist to tour the Soviet Union.

Yes performed at the Mecca Arena in Milwaukee.

The British punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue was published for the first time. The first issues had a circulation of approximately 50 copies, which later grew to 15,000. Publisher Mark Perry ended the magazine in September 1977 out of concern that it would be absorbed by the mainstream music press.

Yes performed a three-concert series at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan, beginning on August 17, 1976.

Variety reported that Marvin Gaye faced two consecutive five-day jail sentences in Los Angeles County for contempt of court over failure to pay child and spousal support.

Yes performed at the Sports Arena in Toledo, Ohio.

Donna Summer performed her erotic disco song “Love To Love You Baby” on American Bandstand. Although the song reached No. 2 in the US, Donna later admitted that she was not entirely sure about some of the lyrics and improvised parts of the song during the recording.

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.

Lynyrd Skynyrd, Todd Rundgren, 10cc and The Rolling Stones performed at the Knebworth Festival in England.

The Rolling Stones, 10cc, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Todd Rundgren's Utopia and Hot Tuna performed at the Knebworth Festival in Hertfordshire, England, before approximately 200,000 fans. Tickets cost £4.50. The concert was falsely promoted as “the last Stones concert ever to take place in Britain” in order to boost ticket sales. RCA also announced that sales of Elvis Presley's recordings had exceeded 400 million units; later estimates by Graceland and Sony put his worldwide sales at more than one billion recordings.

Yes performed at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The Beach Boys became the first rock group to appear on the cover of People magazine. The photograph showed the five original members with beards and was accompanied by the headline “Still Riding The Crest, 15 Hairy Years Later.” Solo artists had appeared on the magazine's cover before.

AC/DC performed at London's Marquee Club during their Lock Up Your Daughters Tour. The set included “School Day”, “Problem Child”, “The Jack”, “Rocker” and “High Voltage”.

The Australian band Little River Band released the song „It's a Long Way There“.

British composer, singer, organist and pianist Michael Head died at the age of 76.

Boston released their self-titled debut album on Epic Records. Much of the album was recorded in Tom Scholz's basement studio, and it became the fastest-selling debut album in history and one of the best-selling debut albums of all time. It included the singles “More Than a Feeling” (#5 USA, #22 UK), “Foreplay / Long Time” (#22 USA) and “Peace of Mind” (#38 USA), and has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.

Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello premiered their four-week summer variety series “Easy Does It” on CBS. The programme drew on nostalgia for their iconic Beach Party film era of the 1960s and featured notable guests each week, including Andy Griffith, Liz Torres, Phyllis Diller and Anson Williams from Happy Days.