This Day in Music
On this day in music, January 2, 1969, The Beatles convened in the studio to record their 12th and final album, Let It Be. While the sessions – documented for a film of the same name (with the footage later used for the 2021 docuseries, The Beatles: Get Back) – were marred by tensions in the group, they resulted in such classic tracks as “Get Back,” “Across the Universe,” and “Let It Be.” The album, meanwhile, topped charts around the globe, including in the UK, the US, Canada, and Australia.
In 2016, Adele began the year atop the Billboard 200 with her third studio album, 25. Two weeks earlier, the LP debuted at No.1 in more than 25 countries and broke first-week sales records in the US, the UK, and beyond.
In 1969, a shipment of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s album, Two Virgins, was seized by authorities in New Jersey due to the full-frontal nude photograph of the couple on the cover.
In 1979, Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious went on trial in New York, where he was accused of killing his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, in one of the most sensational moments of the original punk era. Vicious, who was released on bail, died exactly one month later from a drug-related overdose.
In 1971, George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass started a seven-week run at No.1 on the Billboard 200, making Harrison the first former Beatle to score a chart-topping solo album in America. The classic title featured the hits “My Sweet Lord” and “What Is Life.”
BORN ON JANUARY 2
1936: Roger Miller
1942: Chick Churchill (Ten Years After)
1954: Glenn Goins (Parliament-Funkadelic)
1957: Ricky Van Shelton
1993: Bryson Tiller
