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Today in rock history: on this date in 1971, soul music legend Marvin Gaye released his most relevant and career-defining album, What’s Going On. Gaye’s 11th record was a socially conscious, topical album that addressed issues like racism, violence and the environment long before those topics were regularly incorporated into pop-music lyrics. This brilliant album, which is often referred to as one of the greatest records of all time, is made up of a continuous suite of nine superb songs that flow into one another, which makes the experience of listening to this masterwork truly unique. The album was an instant success; it was Marvin’s first album to reach the top ten on Billboard’s pop albums chart, where it peaked at No. 6 and became another No. 1 album on the R&B albums chart for Gaye. Several singles were released from this fine album including “Save the Children,” “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler),” “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology),” and, of course, the magnificent title track, which all performed well and helped keep the album on sales charts for over a solid year.
TODAY IN ROCK HISTORY
Today in rock history; John Lennon killed, Marvin Gaye is Trouble Man, Jim Morrison born and more
Today in rock history: on this date in 1963, the debut single by young phenom Little Stevie Wonder was released. “Fingertips,” a seven-minute live concert recording, was captured at a performance in Chicago, Illinois in June of 1962. The song would be divided into two parts and titled “Fingertips-Part 1” and “Fingertips-Part 2” in order to make it more prone to receive radio airplay. The second part of the song began with Wonder, who was 12 years old at the time, calling out "Everybody say yeah!," and would go on to become a massive hit single, peaking at No. 1 on Billboard’s pop charts for three weeks and topping the R&B charts for a solid six weeks. The song would become the very first live concert recording to ever top singles charts and served as the very first of many hits Wonder would notch during his impressive, still ongoing career. Wonder handled the vocals on the tune as well as playing harmonica and bongos on it. On drums was an up-and-coming musician who’d soon begin his own solo career and would become one of the most important artists of all time: Marvin Gaye.
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Today in rock history: on this date in 1970, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young recorded their pivotal protest song, “Ohio.” Canadian group member Neil Young wrote the song in response to the horrific events that took place in early May 1970 at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, when a student protest on the college campus against the U.S. bombing of Cambodia led to the Ohio National Guard members being called. Gunfire led to the deaths of four students with nine others being critically injured. Young wrote the lyrics to the song after seeing the photos and the accompanying story which appeared in news publication Life magazine and brought it to the group to record. Although the song appeared on the band’s live album, Four Way Street, the studio version recorded for single release charted well; it peaked at No. 14 on Billboard’s pop singles charts and became an important and relevant song released in direct reaction to this unfortunate, headline-making event.
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Today in rock history: on this date in 1955, rock and roll architect Chuck Berry recorded the song that would become his debut single, the upbeat rocker, “Maybellene.” Considered to be one of the earliest examples of the genre that would become known as rock and roll, the release of this single was significant since Berry would go on to become an integral, highly relevant figure in the rise of rock and roll music on the way to also influencing countless other bands and artists that would follow in his footsteps. “Maybellene” topped Billboard’s R&B singles chart and made it to No. 5 on the pop charts. The single would mark the beginning of a long and illustrious career for one of the most important artists in the history of rock and roll, and it instantly established Berry as one of the finest rock vocalists and one of the most skilled electric guitarists of the time.
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This article appears in May 17-24, 2018.