Music History

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.

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 the Marquee Club in London.

Cliff Richard became one of the first Western artists to perform behind the Iron Curtain when he gave a concert in Leningrad, USSR.

Yes performed at the Mecca Arena in Milwaukee.

Cliff Richard became one of the first Western artists to perform behind the Iron Curtain when he gave a concert in Leningrad in what was then the Soviet Union.

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.

Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and co-founder of indie rock group Arcade Fire Régine Alexandra Chassagne was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

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 the Marquee Club in London.

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.

AC/DC performed at the Marquee Club in London.

Marvin Gaye faced two consecutive five-day jail sentences in the Los Angeles County Jail for contempt of court over unpaid alimony and child-support payments.

Steven Tyler of Aerosmith appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The photograph was taken by Annie Leibovitz, who found him tired and exhausted after only two hours of sleep. She arrived at his hotel at six in the morning to take the photograph.

Aerosmith performed at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, near San Francisco.

Elvis Presley performed at the Convention Center Arena in San Antonio, Texas, at the start of his sixth tour. Approximately 11,000 people attended the concert, and the program included “See See Rider”, “Love Me”, “All Shook Up”, “Teddy Bear/Don't Be Cruel”, “Fever”, “America”, “Polk Salad Annie”, “Hurt” and “Burning Love”, among others.

Peter Frampton spent his third week at No. 1 on the US chart with the album “Frampton Comes Alive!”. The album was later briefly replaced at the top by Fleetwood Mac’s album “Fleetwood Mac” before returning to No. 1 on September 11. The live version of “Baby, I Love Your Way” from the album reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2017, Frampton told US lawmakers that 55 million streams of the song had earned him only $1,700.

Elvis Presley performed at the Municipal Auditorium in Mobile, Alabama, before an audience of 10,720. He gave an afternoon concert at 2:30 p.m. as well as an evening performance at 8:30 p.m. During the afternoon concert, he wore a blue Bicentennial costume and performed, among others, "America", "Johnny B. Goode", "Hurt", "Mystery Train/Tiger Man", and "Can't Help Falling in Love". A recording of the concert exists under the title "Stuck In Mobile". For the evening performance, he wore a white Bicentennial costume.

The British music magazine Sounds published letters from readers reacting to Eric Clapton's racist statement during his concert in Birmingham earlier that month. One of the letters criticized Clapton for drawing much of his music from Black music and called him the biggest colonizer of rock music. The letter also called for support of the Rock Against Racism movement, which subsequently became a major movement and organized concerts and festivals in support of tolerance.