This day in history: On this day in 1956, "Elvis Presley made chart history by having ten simultaneous singles on Billboard’s Hot 100 (then called the 'Top 100') – an astonishing feat then and now. At the end of the year, Billboard reported that the rock‘n’roll star had placed more songs in the US Top 100 than any other artist since records were first charted. Among them were the No.1 hits 'Heartbreak Hotel,' 'Hound Dog,' 'Don’t Be Cruel,' and 'Love Me Tender.'" Source
The Beatles would eventually overtake this, and also manage a whopping 20 number one hits.
This day in history: "Hey Jude" was released for sale in the United States on this day in 1968. "Hey Jude" was the best-selling single ever recorded by The Beatles (as well as the most popular single of 1968 in the U.S. and the UK, and half a century later, still the 10th best-seller worldwide of all recorded songs), and it was the first Beatles release for their new company, Apple Records.
The best-selling song of all time is Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" and the best-selling rock song is "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets.
This day in history: English occultist and ceremonial magician Aleister Crowley was born on this day in 1875. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century. Aspects of Thelema and Crowley's thought in general inspired the development of Wicca and, to a certain degree, the rise of Modern Paganism as a whole, as well as chaos magick and some variations of Satanism. Some scholars also believe Thelema to have been an influence on the development of Scientology. The main teaching of Thelema was a similar principle to the one that Crowley had lived by his whole life: “Do what thou wilt.” He would have sex with anyone and would indulge in drugs and all manner of licentiousness. The John Bull periodical labelled him "the wickedest man in the world" and "a man we'd like to hang" especially as he sided with the Germans against his home country of England in World War I.
Crowley was such a depraved individual that even the Fascist government of Italy kicked him out of their country in 1923, especially after the death of a follower due to drinking the poisoned blood of a sacrificed cat. He was also fascinated with Nazism and Communism as these ideologies were the most destructive to Christianity and society as a whole.
Despite all this, Crowley has remained an influential figure, both amongst occultists and in popular culture, particularly that of Britain, but also of other parts of the world. In 2002, a BBC poll placed Crowley seventy-third in a list of the 100 Greatest Britons. He was included as one of the figures on the cover art of The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and his motto of "Do What Thou Wilt" was inscribed on the vinyl of Led Zeppelin's album Led Zeppelin III. Led Zeppelin co-founder Jimmy Page bought Boleskine (Crowley's house) in 1971, and part of the band's film The Song Remains the Same was filmed on the grounds. He sold it in 1992. Though David Bowie makes but a fleeting reference to Crowley in the lyrics of his song "Quicksand", it has been suggested that the lyrics of Bowie's No. 1 hit single "Let's Dance" (1983) may substantially paraphrase Crowley's 1923 poem "Lyric of Love to Leah". Ozzy Osbourne and his lyricist Bob Daisley wrote a song titled "Mr. Crowley" (1980).
This day in history: Abbey Road, the last recorded album by The Beatles, was released on this day in 1969. There are many mysteries surrounding the album cover. Paul is barefooted, and although he is left-handed, he is holding a cigarette in his right hand. There were a lot of "Paul is dead" conspiracies at the time so this only enhanced that narrative. On the back cover, we see the band’s name written in tiles on a wall and there’s a crack running through it, symbolizing the band's break-up.
Also: "For the only time in their career, The Beatles presented the world with an album cover that didn’t feature their name, or the title of the LP at all. Designer John Kosh claimed that EMI bosses were furious, but argued: 'The biggest band in the world, you don’t have to say who they are - everyone knows who they are.'" Source
Although the album was an immediate commercial success, it received mixed reviews. Some critics found its music inauthentic and criticized the production's artificial effects. By contrast, critics today view the album as one of the Beatles' best and rank it as one of the greatest albums of all time. George Harrison's two songs on the album, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun", have been regarded as some of the best he wrote for the group.
Since its release on September 26, 1969, the Album has sold nearly 27.5 million copies worldwide.
The Beatles still sell a ton of albums. "The Liverpudlian rockers were the sixth-bestselling album artist of the past decade, selling 10.3 million “pure” albums (not including album-equivalent units derived from streaming or individual song downloads). They were also the 10th-bestselling artist of 2019 in terms of total consumption, moving 2.26 million album-equivalent units, including over 2.6 billion on-demand audio streams." Forbes
This day in history: Sir Richard Starkey, better known as Ringo Starr, was born on this day in 1940. Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. He occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, usually for one song on each album, including "Yellow Submarine" and "With a Little Help from My Friends". He also wrote and sang the Beatles songs "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden", and is credited as a co-writer of others.
In 1973 and 1974, after the Beatles break-up, Starr had two number one hits in the US: "Photograph", a UK number eight hit co-written with Harrison, and "You're Sixteen", written by the Sherman Brothers. Starr's third million-selling single in the US, "You're Sixteen" was released in the UK in February 1974 where it peaked at number four. Both tracks appeared on Starr's debut rock album, Ringo, produced by Richard Perry and featuring further contributions from Harrison as well as a song each from Lennon and McCartney. A commercial and critical success, the LP also included "Oh My My", a US number five. The album reached number seven in the UK and number two in the US.
Goodnight Vienna followed in 1974 and was also successful, reaching number eight in the US and number 30 in the UK. Featuring contributions from Lennon, Elton John and Harry Nilsson, the album included a cover of the Platters' "Only You (And You Alone)", which peaked at number six in the US and number 28 in the UK, and Hoyt Axton's "No No Song", which was a US number three and Starr's seventh consecutive top-ten hit.
Starr's net worth is between 290 million dollars to 350 million dollars. His monthly income, according to Forbes is 3 million dollars. Ringo Starr is the wealthiest drummer in the world.
This day in history: John Lennon made headlines on this day in 1974 after an incident at the Troubadour Club, LA. Lennon was turned out for being unruly.
Lennon may have been talented and the public face for worldwide peace and love, but he had a dark side as well. "...the man behind warmhearted classics like 'Imagine' was an entirely different person behind the scenes. John Lennon's dark side often took the form of adultery, drugs, and even spousal aggression. The man who is thought of as an icon for the positive energy of the 1960s was reportedly cruel and callous to those he loved the most." Read more here.
According to Patton Oswalt, Lennon was: "A self-obssessed, calculating, anorexic family-abandoner who slagged his friends, chased whatever the current zeitgeist was, and reportedly made everyone around him miserable. But, like Lucifer, he managed to pull off one of the greatest tricks in the history of rock 'n' roll -- convincing everyone that Paul McCartney was the a**hole, and that he was just a humble, peace-loving, fame-and-money-shunning second-coming of Christ that the world just didn't understand."
Today in History: LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide) was first synthesized by Albert Hofmann from ergotamine at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel on this day in 1938. "Hofmann was experimenting with different compounds in search of a cure for migraines. While LSD didn’t provide it, it did capture his attention when some spilled on his hand. Within the hour, he felt dreamy and dizzy. A deliberate experiment with the drug a few days later had him giggling uncontrollably. He needed an assistant to escort him home—a path, he later said, that made him feel as though he were inside a Salvador Dali painting." Mental Floss
LSD does not appear to be addictive, and death as a result of LSD overdose is virtually unknown; on extremely rare occasions, however, death can be the result of accidents or reckless behavior.
As of 2017, about 10 percent of people in the United States have used LSD at some point in their lives, while 0.7 percent have used it in the last year. It was most popular in the 1960s to 1980s. The use of LSD among US adults increased 56.4% from 2015 to 2018. LSD is typically either swallowed or held under the tongue. It is most often sold on blotter paper and less commonly as tablets or in gelatin squares.
LSD can catalyze intense spiritual experiences and is thus considered an entheogen. Some users have reported out of body experiences. In 1966, Timothy Leary established the League for Spiritual Discovery with LSD as its sacrament. Stanislav Grof has written that religious and mystical experiences observed during LSD sessions appear to be phenomenologically indistinguishable from similar descriptions in the sacred scriptures of the great religions of the world and the texts of ancient civilizations.
In the 1950s, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) believed that the drug might be useful for mind control, so they tested it on people, some without their knowledge, in a program called MKUltra. LSD was sold as a medication for research purposes under the trade-name Delysid in the 1950s and 1960s. It was listed as a schedule 1 controlled substance by the United Nations in 1971. It currently has no approved medical use. In 2020, it would be decriminalized in the U.S. state of Oregon.
The Beatles have denied that their song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is a reference to LSD. However, the songs "She Said She Said" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" from the Beatles' Revolver album explicitly reference LSD trips, and many lines of "Tomorrow Never Knows" were borrowed from Timothy Leary's book The Psychedelic Experience. Around the same time, bands such as Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, and The Grateful Dead helped give birth to a genre known as "psychedelic rock" or acid rock. In 1965, The Pretty Things released an album called Get the Picture? which included a track titled "L.S.D."
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs said, "Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life" and Kary Mullis credited LSD with helping him develop DNA amplification technology, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993.
