We’re traveling way, way back to 1976 on today’s Throwback Thursday! Get ready, it’s going to be quite a ride!
February 24th – Having been released one week before, The Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) compilation becomes the first album in history to be certified platinum by the RIAA. The new platinum certification represents sales of at least 1 million copies for albums and 2 million copies for singles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCrSoM5o-fg&feature=share&list=PL56C9E8D303C1B6B2
March 6th – EMI Records reissues all 22 previously released British Beatles singles, plus a new single of the classic Yesterday. All 23 singles hit the UK charts at the same time.
April 24th – Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels makes a semi-serious on-air offer to pay the Beatles $3000 to reunite live on the show. In a 1980 interview, John Lennon stated that he and Paul McCartney happened to be watching the show together at Lennon’s apartment in New York and considered walking down to the SNL studio “for a gag” but were “too tired”. On May 22, Michaels raises his offer from $3000 to $3,200.
April 29th – When his tour stops in Memphis, Tennessee, Bruce Springsteen jumps the wall at Elvis Presley’s mansion, “Graceland”, in an attempt to see his idol. Security guards stop Springsteen and escort him off the grounds.
http://youtu.be/EXZrWMBBUng
June 18th – ABBA perform Dancing Queen for the first time on Swedish television in Stockholm on the eve of the wedding of King Carl XVI Gustaf to Silvia Sommerlath.
http://youtu.be/BzP-DW3HwEs
July 7th – 50,000 fans brave the rain in New York to attend a free Jefferson Starship concert in Central Park.
http://youtu.be/Q-NmDWiUz58
September 25th – Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr form a band called Feedback in Dublin. The band would later be renamed U2.
November 26th – The Sex Pistols‘ debut single Anarchy in the U.K. is released by EMI.
http://youtu.be/pOe9PJrbo0s
December 3 – A Pink Floyd album cover shoot in South London goes awry when a large inflatable pig balloon being used for the shoot breaks free of its moorings and drifts out of sight.
December 8th – The Eagles release Hotel California.
http://youtu.be/mnkJcjBCG88