Today in rock history: on this date in 1967, The Monkees released their fourth studio album, the absolute pop masterpiece, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.. After fighting for creative control over their music and the right to play on their own records, the accomplished musicians who’d become successful as a manufactured made-for-TV band created the best and most consistent album of their career with this release. Mixing their own compositions with carefully selected songs by songwriters ranging from Harry Nilsson, Boyce and Hart, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, the album was a commercial success. The record shot straight to the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s pop albums chart and produced the hit single “Pleasant Valley Sunday.” On the same date, and only a year later, after the band’s television show was cancelled and their young fan base had moved on, The Monkees' feature-length film, Head premiered. While skeptics assumed the feature length film would be nothing more than an extended version of one of their typical madcap television episodes, the movie was instead a surreal, stream of consciousness experimental venture that included political commentary and disjointed vignettes that many found as hard to follow as the as cameos by people like Jack Nicholson, Frank Zappa and boxer Sonny Liston. A commercial box office bomb, the film has over the years garnered a fanatical cult following thanks to the bold statement the band made with the project as well as for the superb soundtrack album they recorded to accompany the film.

Today in rock history: on this date in 1975, The Sex Pistols made their very first live appearance. The band was billed as the opening act for 1950’ revivalist act Bazooka Joe (which featured Stuart Goddard on bass, who’d soon reinvent himself as Adam Ant) at the St. Martin’s School of Art in London. The 15-minute set was made up mostly of covers including Monkees hit “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” and The Who’s “Substitute.” The show was performed in front of an audience that reportedly consisted of no more than 20 people but history was indeed made that night. According to accounts from the show, Pistols lead singer Johnny Rotten caused a ruckus complaining about the sound of the borrowed PA belonging to the show’s headliners. Within a year, The Sex Pistols would become the most notorious and scandalous rock and roll band in British history and would become a constant subject of music publication and tabloid fodder.

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Today is rock history; happy birthday to Sex Pistols' Sid Vicious

Today in rock history: on this date in 1971, one of the greatest and most impressive debut albums by an R&B group was released. The self-titled album by legendary Philadelphia rhythm and blues group The Stylistics featured a glimpse at the incredible high tenor and falsetto vocal stylings of lead singer Russell Thompkins Jr. which undoubtedly influenced artists like Michael Jackson and Prince. Produced by Thom Bell, one of the architects and creators of the legendary Philly Soul sound, the album played a key role in shedding light on the incredible soul music coming out of the city of brotherly love at the time. The album reached No. 23 on Billboard’s pop charts and No. 3 on the publication’s R&B chart. More notably, all five of the singles released from the album all reached the top 10 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart, starting a continuous streak of 12 hit singles the group would score. Soul classics "Betcha by Golly, Wow," "You Are Everything," "People Make the World Go Round," "Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)" and "You're a Big Girl Now" all hail from this amazing album which still sounds timeless and fresh today.

Today in rock history: on this date in 1987, the soundtrack for the film Less Than Zero was released. Loosely based on the popular Bret Easton Ellis novel, the film was met with mixed reviews but performed decently at the box office. The soundtrack album was a strong performer however thanks to the variety of genres and artists it featured. Two major hit singles derived from this soundtrack album: The Bangles’ version of the Simon and Garfunkel track “Hazy Shade of Winter” as well as LL Cool J’s “Going Back To Cali” both performed well on singles charts and helped catapult this album to gold sales status. The soundtrack also featured Poison’s version of the Kiss classic “Rock and Roll All Nite” as well as contributions from Aerosmith, Slayer and Public Enemy.