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1974 in music
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List of notable events in music that took place in the year 1974.
Specific locations
Specific genres
Events
January–April
- January 1 – English jazz musician John Dankworth is named CBE in the United Kingdom's New Year's Honours List.[1]
- January 3 – Bob Dylan and The Band begin their 40-date concert tour at Chicago Stadium. It is Dylan's first tour since 1966.
- January 17
- Joni Mitchell releases her album Court and Spark, supported by the single "Help Me".
- Dino Martin, singer and son of Dean Martin, is arrested on suspicion of possession and sale of two machine guns.
- February 12 – New York's rock club The Bottom Line opens in Greenwich Village. The first headlining act is Dr. John.
- February 14 – The Captain & Tennille are married in Virginia City, Nevada.
- February 16 – Two years of litigation between Grand Funk and former manager Terry Knight are finally resolved. The band gets the rights to its name but Knight wins a cash settlement.
- February 18
- Yes sells out the first of two nights at Madison Square Garden, without any advertising for the show.
- Kiss release their self-titled debut album.
- February 19 – The first American Music Awards are broadcast on ABC, two weeks before the Grammys. Helen Reddy and Jim Croce are among the winners.
- February 20 – Cher files for divorce from her husband of 10 years, Sonny Bono.
- February 22 – The English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Raymond Leppard performs the world premiere of Three Regions from Terrain by Douglas Young.[2]
- February 27 – The Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, conducted by Jörg Faerber, makes its English debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.[3]
- March 1 – Rush release their self-titled debut album.
- March 2 – The 16th Annual Grammy Awards are presented in Los Angeles, hosted by Andy Williams. Stevie Wonder's Innervisions wins Album of the Year, while Roberta Flack's version of "Killing Me Softly With His Song" wins both Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Bette Midler wins Best New Artist.
- March 3
- Elvis Presley played two shows at the Houston Astrodome, breaking attendance records with 44,000 at the evening show.
- March 4
- Ivan Stepanov and His Balalaikas make their London debut at the Wigmore Hall.[4]
- Baritone Hermann Prey cuts short a vocal recital in the Royal Festival Hall, London, due to vocal fatigue.[5]
- March 10 – Hans Vonk makes his London debut in the Royal Festival Hall, conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme of Berlioz and Schubert, as well as the Violin Concerto by Roberto Gerhard, with Erich Gruenberg as soloist.[6]
- March 12 – John Lennon is involved in an altercation with a photographer outside The Troubadour in Los Angeles. Lennon and friend Harry Nilsson have been heckling comedian Tommy Smothers and are forced to leave the club.
- March 16 – Country music's Grand Ole Opry moves to a new location at the Opryland USA theme park in Nashville, Tennessee
- March 30 – The Ramones play their first concert at the Performance Studio in New York.
- March 31 – Record producer Phil Spector is badly injured in a car accident in Hollywood, details of which are largely suppressed at the time.
- April 5 – Van Halen play their first show on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood at Gazzarri's.
- April 6
- 200,000 music fans attend The California Jam rock festival. Artists performing at the event include Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Black Oak Arkansas and the Eagles.
- Swedish group ABBA wins the 19th Eurovision Song Contest in The Dome, Brighton, England, with the song "Waterloo", kickstarting their international career. The 1967 Eurovision winner, Sandie Shaw, attends.
- April 14 – Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones, a concert film made during the Rolling Stones' 1972 North American Tour, premieres at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York.
- April 16 – Queen play their first North American concert, opening for Mott the Hoople in Denver, Colorado.
- April 24–25 – Music aired on the radio in Portugal acts as a secret signal to trigger the Carnation Revolution there: at 10:55 p.m. on April 24, Paulo de Carvalho's "E Depois do Adeus" (Portugal's entry in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest) on Emissores Associados de Lisboa alerts rebel captains and soldiers that the coup is beginning; at 12:20 a.m. on April 25, Rádio Renascença broadcasts "Grândola, Vila Morena", a song by José Afonso, an influential political folk singer-songwriter, signalling the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) to begin the takeover of strategic points of power in the country from 3.00 a.m.
- April 25
- Sotheby's Galleries in London sell a violin made in 1733 by Cremonese master Giuseppe Guarneri, formerly belonging to violinist Elaine Weldon, for the equivalent of $140,000, the second-highest price ever paid for a violin.[7]
- Pam Morrison, Jim Morrison's widow, is found dead in her Hollywood apartment from an apparent heroin overdose.
May–December
- May 7 – Led Zeppelin announces their new record label, Swan Song Records, with a lavish party at The Four Seasons Hotel in New York.
- May 11 – The New York Police bagpipe band performs shortly after midnight at the Portsmouth, RI Ramada Inn, in connection with a National Police Week event, prompting a drunken spree lasting until dawn by at least a dozen off-duty members of the Boston Police Department. The officers ran naked through the motel, "smashing chairs and tables, soiling rugs, discharging fire extinguishers, exploding firecrackers, setting off a burglar alarm, disconnecting a security camera, slashing automobile tires and throwing pictures into the motel courtyard",[8] causing an estimated $1027.75 in damage, including liquor stolen from a locked cabinet and unpaid breakfast bills.[9]
- May 25 – Twenty years after it was recorded, "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets returns to the Billboard top 40, after it gains renewed popularity from its use in the film American Graffiti and the TV series Happy Days.
- May 28 – Experimental orchestra, the Portsmouth Sinfonia, plays a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, with its regular conductor John Farley. The performers included Michael Nyman and Brian Eno.[10]
- June 1 – Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Brian Eno, Nico and other musicians perform at the Rainbow Theatre in London. The performances are later released as June 1, 1974.
- June 5
- Sly Stone married model-actress Kathy Silva on June 5, 1974, during a sold-out performance at Madison Square Garden.
- Patti Smith records "Hey Joe", her debut single, which arguably becomes the first punk rock single when released in August.
- June 14 – David Bowie launches his Diamond Dogs tour at the Montreal Forum. One year previously he had announced that he was retiring from touring as Ziggy Stardust.
- July 4 – Barry White marries Love Unlimited lead singer Glodean James.
- July 19–21 – Ozark Music Festival is held in Sedalia, Missouri, with a crowd estimated between 100,000 and 350,000 people.
- July 20 – The first Knebworth Concert is held in England, headlined by The Allman Brothers Band.
- July 29
- Having performed at two sold-out concerts at the London Palladium, "Mama" Cass Elliot dies in her sleep after suffering a heart attack in a Mayfair flat in London, aged 32.
- Neil Peart officially joins Rush.
- August 6 – Hugh MacCallum, of Stirling, wins the silver chanter for the third time, playing "Mrs MacLeod of Callisker's Salute" at the invitational bagpipe competition held at Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye. Second place was given to the previous year's winner, Donald Morrison from South Uist, who performed "Rory MacLeod's Lament".[11]
- August 7
- During a performance of Carmina Burana, conducted by André Previn, at The Proms, soloist Thomas Allen collapses because of the heat and eventually has to be carried out by members of the orchestra. Prommer Patrick McCarthy, just embarking on his professional singing career, offers his services as a replacement and completes the performance.[12]
- Peter Wolf, lead singer of The J. Geils Band, marries actress Faye Dunaway.
- August 16 – Ramones' first appearance on NYC's venue CBGB.[13] The venue would help establish their place at the forefront of punk rock.
- September 15 – Gary Thain of Uriah Heep is shocked on stage at the Moody Coliseum in Dallas, Texas, and is seriously injured.
- October 3 – Idi Amin, the President of Uganda, instructs his country's acting high commissioner in London to recruit two six-foot-tall Scots bagpipers with military backgrounds to serve as his bodyguards.[14]
- October 5
- October 18 – Al Green is attacked while bathing by a girlfriend of several weeks, Mrs. Mary Woodson, a 29-year-old mother of three. She scalds his body with a pan of boiling grits and commits suicide a few moments later, reportedly because he rejected her marriage proposal.[16]
- November 2 – George Harrison launches his "George Harrison & Friends North American Tour" in Vancouver. It is the first North American tour by a former Beatle since the band's August 1966 tour.
- November 21 – Wilson Pickett is arrested in Andes, New York, after allegedly firing a bullet through the door of a hotel room where he was staying while on a hunting trip with The Isley Brothers.
- November 28 – John Lennon joins Elton John on stage at Madison Square Garden for three songs.
- December 12 – Mick Taylor leaves The Rolling Stones after six years.
- December 31
- Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks join Fleetwood Mac.
- The third annual New Year's Rockin' Eve, moving this year from NBC to ABC, is aired with performances by Herbie Hancock, The Beach Boys, Chicago, Olivia Newton-John and The Doobie Brothers.
unknown date
- Lord Shorty's Endless Vibrations is the first soca LP and the first major soca hit worldwide.
- Eric Bogle's "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" comes to prominence when he enters it in a National Folk Festival songwriting competition in Brisbane, Australia.
- Rover Thomas claims to have been visited in a dream by a deceased friend near Warmun, Australia, and receives the Krill Krill song cycle.
- The original Alice Cooper group breaks up. The band's leader, Vincent Furnier, changes his name to Alice Cooper and goes on to a solo career.
- Journey signs to Columbia Records.
- Roland RE-201 and 101 Space Echo tape-based audio delay effects units introduced.
Bands formed
Bands disbanded
- The Moody Blues (reformed in 1977)
- The Stooges (reformed in 2003)
- King Crimson (reformed in 1981)
Albums released
January
| Day | Album | Artist | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Elvis: A Legendary Performer Volume 1 | Elvis Presley | Compilation |
| Wild Tales | Graham Nash | - | |
| 3 | The Phosphorescent Rat | Hot Tuna | - |
| 4 | Manhole | Grace Slick | - |
| 6 | Energized | Foghat | - |
| 10 | Coast to Coast: Overture and Beginners | Rod Stewart / Faces | Live |
| 11 | Hotcakes | Carly Simon | - |
| Lookin' for a Love Again | Bobby Womack | - | |
| 17 | Planet Waves | Bob Dylan | - |
| Court and Spark | Joni Mitchell | - | |
| 30 | The Way We Were | Barbra Streisand | - |
| - | Blue Magic | Blue Magic | - |
| Different Drum | Linda Ronstadt | Compilation | |
| Grievous Angel | Gram Parsons | - | |
| Musik von Harmonia | Harmonia | - | |
| Rhapsody in White | The Love Unlimited Orchestra | - | |
| Sundown | Gordon Lightfoot | - |