On this day in 1964, The Beatles played the first of two shows in Auckland, New Zealand

After arriving in Wellington on the 21st, the band played four concerts across two days before heading for Auckland for the next four. The band played two shows a night, one at 6:30pm and one at 8:30pm.

The band was welcomed officially by the mayor, but the Auckland police were much less impressed. In 1981, a tour manager recalled the inspector in charge having the opening remark of “We didn’t want ‘em here and I don’t know why you brought ‘em.” This attitude caused a plethora of security issues throughout the tour. In Auckland, only three officers were assigned to protect the hotel entrance from a mob of several thousand fans. The Beatles were trampled underfoot as they tried to enter the hotel. 

John Lennon was so outraged by the lack of security that he reportedly considered cancelling the shows. A tour manager claimed it was the one time he saw Lennon lose his temper, and that Ringo Starr was equally unimpressed. Both members were slightly injured and Lennon lost a clump of hair after being trampled by the crowds.

Despite these issues, the concerts went ahead as planned and were hugely successful, drawing a huge crowd of adoring fans. However more trouble arose as the band attempted to leave Auckland as a threat of a ‘germ bomb’ on the plane meant that police quarantined all stage equipment overnight and everyones suitcase was checked, delaying the flight by half an hour. Despite the turbulent issues that plagued the tour, the concerts are recalled fondly by the band and by New Zealanders. 

On this day in 1980, Led Zeppelin embarked on what would end up being their final tour

The “Tour Over Europe” would be the bands first series of shows since performing at Knebworth, England almost a year earlier. Singer Robert Plant was reluctant to perform another US tour and the band aimed to avoid some of the negative press attention that had troubled them in the UK, so manager Peter Grant compromised by organising a short European tour.

Throughout the tour, the band played at small venues with modest sound systems and lighting effects, giving it a more low key feel than the bands other recent tours. There were still issues on stage, including a show in Vienna where Jimmy Page was struck in the face with a firecracker and a show in Nuremberg where John Bonham collapsed on stage and was rushed to hospital. Speculation arose that the collapse was due to overindulgence with alcohol and drugs, but the band stated he had simply overeaten.

The tour ended with a show in Berlin on 7th July, which would be the last show performed by the band until 2007. John Paul Jones recalled of the tour “Morale was very high. We were in really good spirits… By the time John [Bonham] died, we had sorted it out and were ready to go again. He died in rehearsals for an American tour.”

All shows from this tour were recorded and later released by the bootleg label Tarantura on a 26 disk box set and has been released unofficially many times since. 

On this day in 1966, Janis Joplin debuted with the band that would launch her career to stardom

Joplin’s career really began in 1964 when she recorded a number of blues standards with future Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. Her vocal style attracted the attention of San Francisco psychedelic outfit Big Brother and the Holding Company and their manager and promoter, Chet Helms was quick to recruit Joplin to the group, with her officially joining on June 4, 1966.

The following week, Joplin and the band appeared for their debut at San Francisco’s Avalon Ballroom. The line-up at the time consisted of guitarists James Gurley and Sam Andrew, bassist Peter Albin and drummer Dave Getz alongside Joplin. Albin later said that the meeting wasn’t the Hollywood moment many imagined and that it took Joplin around a year to really learn how to perform with an electric band.

Within a few months, the group entered the studio to record their debut, self-titled album which would be released the following year. They soon attracted a bigger deal after Columbia Records head Clive Davis heard them play at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. The band then released a second album, Cheap Thrills, before Joplin left the band in 1968 to pursue her tragically short lived solo career before her accidental death in 1970.

On this day in 1967, Aretha Franklin scored her first solo number one song with her cover of “Respect”

Originally recorded by Otis Redding in 1965, Franklin recorded the song during a New York session with Jerry Wexler, though she had already been playing the song live for several years.

Franklin’s version of the song flips the lyrics to be from a female perspective and introduces ideas like the spelling out of respect and the “sock it to me” refrain, which became a household expression. These changes allowed “Respect” to be viewed more as a song about civil and womens rights. The altered lyrics represent Franklin as a strong woman demanding respect from her partner and from others in the world. She said of the song that “I don’t think it’s bold at all. I think it’s quite natural that we all want respect – and should get it.”

The song was immediately popular, reaching number one on the Billboard charts where it remained for two weeks. It is now considered a classic song, being inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that shaped Rock and Roll list, as well as number 5 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”

On this day in 1970 The Beatles released their “Let It Be” film in the UK

Following the stressful sessions for The Beatles, also known as the White Album, Paul McCartney determined that the group needed to return to their roots for their next material. He came up with a plan to give a live performance of new songs to be broadcast as a television special and recorded to be released as an album. The other members approved of the idea and filming began. Head of Apple’s film division Denis O’Dell came up with the idea of recording the rehearsal sessions for use as a seperate TV documentary and eventually the projects merged to become Let It Be.

The film follows the band as they first rehearse at a sound stage at Twickenham Film Studios, before showing the recording and production new songs and finally ending with their famous performance on the Apple studios roof. The film included a tense conversation between McCartney and George Harrison and though it is not included in the film the disagreement caused Harrison to temporarily leave the band.

Many critics were initially unsatisfied with the film, but due to the bands recent breakup, the film was commonly examined as evidence of the fracturing relationships within the group. Lennon later commented on the film claiming, “the camera work was set up to show Paul and not to show anybody else” and said that it had alienated him and the other members.” Regardless, Let It Be performed well with the public and is now remembered as a significant moment in Beatles history. The film has been unavailable on home video since the 1980’s, though bootlegs circulate online, and now a plan to remaster and rerelease the film next year is in the works. 

On this day in 1966, The Rolling Stones released “Paint It Black” in the UK

Written during a tour of Australia, the song was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards during a period where they began to establish themselves as primary songwriters for the Rolling Stones material. This left Brian Jones with plenty of time to experiment and as a result he began practicing the sitar with Harihar Rao, a student of Ravi Shankar, who he had studied with as early as 1961. Harihar Rao was responsible for introducing the sitar to the mix for “Paint It Black”.

The lyrics of “Paint It Black” feature themes of grief, despair and loss. Many assume the song was written as a response to the Vietnam War raging at the time, with some believing it to be about post-war PTSD and depression. This association became stronger when the song started to be used in Hollywood films and TV shows, famously being used as the credits song for Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket as well as the the theme song for CBS-TV show Tour of Duty.

“Paint It Black” quickly went to the number one spot in both the UK and the US and the song went platinum in the UK after just seven days. It became the first song to feature a sitar to make the number one spot in the US. Some critics at the time panned the record, claiming the addition of the sitar was an attempt to copy The Beatles. Others however praised the song highly, and it has remained a highly regarded classic to this day, with it making number 176 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

On this day in 1965, Keith Richards dreamt of the riff to “Satisfaction”

Keith Richards awoke with a melody in his head and quickly used his tape recorder and an acoustic guitar to record the idea. It was first reported this took place in a Florida hotel but it has also been reported as being at a house Chelsea, the London Hilton and Richards own flat in Carlton Hill. He awoke the next day and found that he’d recorded the melody for “Satisfaction”. 

Richards showed the other members of the Rolling Stones and they quickly added to it. The group went into the studio just days later on May 10 and recorded the first version. This version had Brian Jones on harmonica and would be performed by the band when they debuted the song on American television program Shindig. They re-recorded the song days later and this version would be the final release. Richards originally planned another version where the fuzz tone of the guitar would be replaced with horns but was outvoted by the other members. 

“Satisfaction” soared through the charts and held the number one Billboard spot for four weeks. Weeks later the record went gold, the first of many for the band. It also came in at number 2 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, as well as placing on numerous other publications lists. Mick Jagger later commented on the song, claiming “It was the song that really made the Rolling Stones, changed us from just another band into a huge, monster band … It has a very catchy title. It has a very catchy guitar riff. It has a great guitar sound, which was original at that time. And it captures a spirit of the times, which is very important in those kinds of songs … Which was alienation.”