This Day in Music
On November 26, 1976, the Sex Pistols released their debut single, “Anarchy in the UK.” The foundational punk song, which later appeared on the band’s album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, became an anthem for disenfranchised youth around the world. Marking the group’s only release under EMI Records (they were dropped two months later after a profanity-laced appearance on live TV), the influential track peaked in the UK Top 40 and would later be covered by the likes of Megadeth and Mötley Crüe. In more recent decades, it has ranked on both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list, as well as on Rolling Stones’ 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
In 1958, Johnny Cash scored a Top 20 hit on the Billboard Country chart with his debut single, “Cry! Cry! Cry!” Originally released in 1955, the song was included on his 1957 debut LP, Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar! His following seven singles would all land in the chart’s Top Ten.
In 2000, The Beatles’ 1, a collection of the group’s No.1 hits, fittingly topped the Billboard 200. The album followed suit in the UK, South Korea, Australia, and across Europe, and eventually was declared the world’s best-selling album of the decade.
In 1968, Cream played their final concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The trio’s performance, also known as the “Farewell Concert,” was broadcast by the BBC a year later.
In 1973, the New York Dolls played their first UK show at Biba’s Rainbow Room in London.
In 1967, more than a decade before the launch of MTV, a promotional video of The Beatles’ “Hello Goodbye” aired on the Ed Sullivan Show. The visual, which featured the band performing the song in their Sgt. Pepper outfits, was not shown in the UK, due to musician’s union rules.
BORN ON NOVEMBER 26
1939: Tina Turner
1944: Jean Terrell (The Supremes)
1945: John McVie (Fleetwood Mac)
1964: Adam Gaynor (Matchbox Twenty)
1967: John Stirratt (Wilco)
1970: Ron Jones (The Flaming Lips)
1981: Natasha Bedingfield
1990: Rita Ora
