February 21st: On This Day in Music

1961: Three gigs – One day. That was The Beatles m.o. on Feb. 21, 1961. The first show was a lunchtime exhibition at The Cavern Club, then at night they appeared at the Cassanova Club in Liverpool and then at Litherland Town Hall, also in Liverpool.

1964: At the time an unknown piano player, Billy Joel is recruited to join The Echoes, a band from New York.

1967: Pink Floyd starts their first sessions at the EMI Studios in London on their debut album.

1968: Otis Redding enters the UK singles chart for the first time with ‘(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay’. It goes on to be a No. 3 hit and the song became the first posthumous single to top the charts in the US.

1970: Simon and Garfunkel rockets to No. 1 on the UK chart with ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’.

1972: Led Zeppelin releases ‘Rock And Roll / Four Sticks’ as a 7 inch single in the US, peaking at No. 47 on the chart.

1986: Metallica releases their third and highly influential album, Master of Puppets. This was the last Metallica album with bassist Cliff Burton who was killed when the group’s tour bus overturned while touring to promote the album.

2004: Mud singer Les Gray dies of a heart attack while fighting throat cancer at the age of 57.

2008: A computer expert is jailed for two years for stalking Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington electronically. Devon Townsend worked at a US national security laboratory in New Mexico, where she allegedly used a computer to track Bennington. She admitted to obtaining family photos, accessing e-mail and voicemail, and threatening his wife.

2014: A statue of a weeping Kurt Cobain (of Nirvana fame) is unveiled in his hometown of Aberdeen, Washington.