Music History for
January 26




1911 - The Richard Strauss opera "Der Rosenkavalier" premiered in Dresden, Germany.

1966 - Eric Burdon (The Animals) sang lead vocals for Manfred Mann at a London concert.

1970 - Australia's first rock festival, the Ourimbah Rock Festival was attended by 11,000 people over the weekend.

1970 - John Lennon wrote and recorded "Instant Karma."

1974 - The Doobie Brothers opened their first European tour in London.

1975 - The BBC showed a documentary on David Bowie called "Cracked Actor."

1977 - Patti Smith fell off the stage and was rushed to the hospital for 22 stitches to her head. She temporarily retired from stage performing.

1977 - Peter Green, Fleetwood Mac's first lead guitar player, was committed to a mental hospital in England. He had fired a pistol in the general direction of a delivery boy. Green left the band in May of 1970.

1979 - The 'Gizmo' guitar synthesizer was first demonstrated.

1988 - The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Phantom of the Opera" opened at Broadway's Majestic Theater.

1995 - Joni Mitchell made a rare concert appearance at the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum theater in Los Angeles. She was promoting material from "Turbulent Indigo," her newest album.

1997 - ZZ Top, James Brown and the Blues Brothers performed at the Super Bowl XXXI halftime show.

1999 - The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that John Denver died in a 1997 airplane crash because he took off with too little fuel in one tank, had trouble switching to his backup tank and inadvertently put his plane into a roll while his attention was diverted.

2003 - Billy Joel was hospitalized for several hours after crashing his car into a tree in Sag Harbor, NY. He was released early the next morning.