Today in rock history: On this date in 1994, Grace, the one and only complete studio album the late, great Jeff Buckley would put out during his short life, hit record store shelves. The son of famed singer/songwriter Tim Buckley, Jeff started his career playing small venues as a soloist around New York City’s Greenwich Village where he built a following. After getting signed to a major record label, Buckley assembled a band and recorded this amazing album that has gone on to be hailed as a modern day classic. Mixing heartfelt emotion with his angelic vocal style, the record quickly gained attention from rock critics and fans who were in the know but the album, sadly, performed poorly on sales charts. Despite several singles being released from it, Grace made little impact in terms of sales but has since gone on to become a million-selling album here in America as well as being hailed in several countries around the world. Highlights from this fine album include the title track, “Last Goodbye,” “So Real” and a gorgeous cover of Leonard Cohen’s brilliant composition, “Hallelujah.” Sadly, Jeff Buckley would pass away at the age of 30, less than three years from the date of this release, making this the only studio album he’d release during his lifetime.
TODAY IN ROCK HISTORY
Happy birthday to the one and only Jeff Buckley
Today in rock history: On this date in 1967, the debut, self-titled album from Big Brother & the Holding Company was released. Recorded in only three days in 1966, the album was released and then was re-released on the heels of the band’s triumphant performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in San Francisco where the band’s lead singer, the electric Janis Joplin, made quite an impact. When released to capitalize on Janis’s success, the record featured her name emblazoned on its cover (which the original pressing did not feature) and included a couple of extra tracks, including “Down on Me,” which would become widely recognized as one of Joplin’s strongest vocal performances and a Top 40 radio hit. The following year, the band would release its sophomore album, Cheap Thrills which was an enormous success and climbed all the way to No. 1 on Billboard’s pop albums chart. It would also be the last Big Brother album on which Janis would appear as her popularity had soared immensely and prompted her to embark on a solo career.
Today in rock history: On this date in 1980, what was billed as the “Punk Woodstock” or the “New Wave Woodstock,” depending on which description was more marketable, took place just outside of Toronto in a town called Bowmanville in Canada’s province of Ontario. The Heatwave Festival featured quite the impressive lineup with some of the day’s most talked about and highly regarded acts appearing on the bill. Tickets for the one day festival were priced at $20 each, but festival promoters reportedly lost more than one million dollars after all was said and done (despite there being reportedly more than 85,000 fans at Mosport Park). Some of the bands appearing on the bill included The Pretenders, The B-52s, Talking Heads and Elvis Costello and the Attractions which turned in a scintillating, 23-song set. The Clash were supposedly scheduled to appear as well but were not able to due to visa issues that prevented the band from entering Canada. This would prove to be the one and only occurrence of the festival as the enormous loss in revenue caused promoters to not schedule another festival of this kind.
Today in rock history: On this date in 1983, the self-titled, seven-song EP by up and coming Los Angeles hard rock band, Ratt, was released. Distributed independently and pressed on a small label by the name of Time Coast, the project’s funding was made possible by the band’s then manager, Marshall Berle who was also the nephew of famous comedian, Milton Berle. The record caught fire on the west coast where the band already had a following and drew plenty of major label attention. Featured on the record were an earlier version of "Back For More” (which would be re-recorded and would appear on the band’s major label debut album, 1984’s Out of the Cellar) and a cover of the Rufus Thomas R&B classic, “Walkin' The Dog.” Ratt would be signed to Atlantic Records soon after this release and score big with “Round and Round,” the catchy, pop-metal hit from its first album for the label. The Ratt EP would later be re-released by Atlantic Records to capitalize on the band’s unprecedented success following the splash “Out of the Cellar” would make. The legs pictured on the cover were those of model and actress Tawny Kitaen who was dating Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby at the time. She’d later become famous for appearing in the music videos of hard rock band Whitesnake a few years after appearing on Ratt’s album covers.
This article appears in Aug 23-30, 2018.