1974 in music



List of notable events in music that took place in the year 1974.

January–April

 * January 1 – John Dankworth is named CBE in the New Year's Honours List.
 * January 3 – Bob Dylan and The Band kick off their 40-date concert tour at Chicago Stadium. It is Dylan's first time on the road since 1966.
 * January 17
 * Joni Mitchell releases her monumental album Court and Spark, supported by the single "Help Me" reaching the highest moment of commercial success.
 * Dino Martin, singer and son of Dean Martin, is arrested on suspicion of possession and sale of two machine guns.
 * February 10 – record producer Phil Spector is badly injured in a car accident. Details of the accident are kept secret.
 * 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 a bit of advertising for the show.
 * Kiss releases their self-titled debut album.
 * February 19 – The first American Music Awards are broadcast on ABC, two weeks before the Grammys.
 * 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.
 * February 27 – The Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, conducted by Jörg Faerber, makes its English debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.
 * March 1 – Rush release their self titled debut album.
 * March 4
 * Ivan Stepanov and His Balalaikas make their London debut at the Wigmore Hall.
 * Baritone Hermann Prey cuts short a vocal recital in the Royal Festival Hall, London, due to vocal fatigue.
 * 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.
 * March 12 – John Lennon is involved in an altercation with a photographer outside The Troubadour in Los Angeles, California. 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.
 * April 5 – Van Halen play their first gig 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 stellar international career.
 * April 14 – Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones, a concert movie filmed during the band's 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 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.
 * 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, who 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", causing an estimated $1027.75 in damage, including liquor stolen from a locked cabinet and unpaid breakfast bills.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * June 17 – U.S. President Richard Nixon is welcomed in Amman, Jordan, by King Hussein and a ceremonial band playing John Philip Sousa's Washington Post March, composed in 1889 to honor the newspaper whose reporters broke open the Watergate scandal in 1973.
 * 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".
 * 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.
 * Peter Wolf, lead singer of The J. Geils Band, marries actress Faye Dunaway.
 * August 16 – Ramones´ first appearance on NYC´s venue CBGB. 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.
 * October 5
 * AC/DC performs its first official show with Bon Scott as its new lead singer.
 * The North Coast Band Invitational competition, sponsored by St. Ann's CYO Band of Neponset, is held for the first time, at Nickerson Field on the Boston University campus.
 * 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.
 * November 2 – George Harrison launches his "George Harrison & Friends North American Tour" in Vancouver. It is his first tour since the Beatles North American Tour of 1966.
 * 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 17 - 12-year-old Minnie Baker briefly joined Calculation for the cameo solo appearance in the song "Blow It All Apart" written by Element Ethan and Calculator with music written by Minnie Baker (credited as Angelica Baker), Calculator, and Element Ethan.
 * 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 analog delay effects units introduced.

Bands formed

 * See Category:Musical groups established in 1974

Bands disbanded

 * The Moody Blues (reformed in 1977)
 * The Stooges (reformed in 2003)
 * King Crimson (reformed in 1981)

Albums released

 * 1) Red King Crimson

Biggest hit singles
The following songs achieved the highest chart positions in the charts of 1974.

Singles released

 * 1) Time/Us and Them Pink Floyd
 * 2) Rebel Rebel Bowie
 * 3) Rock 'n' Roll Suicide Bowie
 * 4) September Gurls Big Star
 * 5) This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us Sparks
 * 6) The Payback James Brown
 * 7) Band on the Run Paul McCartney and Wings
 * 8) The Bottle Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson
 * 9) Be Thankful for What You Got William DeVaughn
 * 10) Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City Bobby Bland
 * 11) Porque te vas Jeanette
 * 12) Amateur Hour Sparks
 * 13) I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight Richard & Linda Thompson
 * 14) Hey Joe/Piss Factory Patti Smith
 * 15) Killer Queen Queen
 * 16) The Thrill of It All Roxy Music
 * 17) Mike Oldfield's Single (Theme From Tubular Bells) Mike Oldfield
 * 18) Number 9 Dream John Lennon
 * 19) Burn Deep Purple
 * 20) Rikki Don't Lose That Number Steely Dan
 * 21) Samba Pa Ti Santana
 * 22) The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway Genesis
 * 23) Caroline Says (Parts 1 & 2) Lou Reed
 * 24) Walk On Neil Young
 * 25) Jet Paul McCartney and Wings
 * 26) Can't Get It Out of My Head Electric Light Orchestra
 * 27) For the Love of Money The O'Jays
 * 28) Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing Stevie Wonder
 * 29) Career of Evil Blue Öyster Cult
 * 30) Baby I Love You So Jacob Miller
 * 31) She's Gone Hall & Oates
 * 32) Help Me Joni Mitchell
 * 33) La Grange ZZ Top
 * 34) When Will I See You Again The Three Degrees
 * 35) Standing on the Verge of Getting It On Funkadelic

Published popular music

 * "Annie's Song" – w.m. John Denver
 * "Happy Days" – w.m. Pratt & McClain from the ABC-TV Series Happy Days
 * "Hasta Mañana" – w.m. Benny Andersson, Stig Anderson & Björn Ulvaeus
 * "I Honestly Love You" – w.m. Peter Allen & Jeff Barry
 * "I Won't Send Roses" – w.m. Jerry Herman from the musical Mack & Mabel
 * "I've Got the Music in Me" – w.m. Bias Boshell
 * "Midnight at the Oasis" – w.m. David Nichtern
 * "Murder on the Orient Express" – m. Richard Rodney Bennett from the film Murder on the Orient Express
 * "Freebird" – Lynyrd Skynyrd
 * "No Goodbyes" – w.m. Richard M. Sherman & Robert B. Sherman from the musical Over Here!
 * "Pencil Thin Mustache" – w.m. Jimmy Buffett
 * "Ring Ring" – w.m. Benny Andersson, Stig Anderson, Björn Ulvaeus, Neil Sedaka & Phil Cody
 * "She" – w. Herbert Kretzmer m. Charles Aznavour
 * "Southern Nights" – w.m. Allen Toussaint
 * "Sundown" – w.m. Gordon Lightfoot
 * "Sunshine on My Shoulders" – w.m. John Denver, Richard Kniss & Michael Taylor
 * "Tap Your Troubles Away" – w.m. Jerry Herman from the musical Mack & Mabel
 * "Waterloo" – w.m. Benny Andersson, Stig Anderson & Björn Ulvaeus
 * "We May Never Love Like This Again" – w.m. Al Kasha & Joel Hirschorn. From the film The Towering Inferno
 * "Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott" – w.m. Don Reid
 * "(You're) Having My Baby" – w.m. Paul Anka
 * "Gigi L'Amoroso" – Dalida
 * "Anima Mia" – Dalida
 * "Ta Femme" – Dalida

Births

 * January 10 – Jemaine Clement bassist, guitarist, pianist, singer (Flight of the Conchords)
 * January 11 – Giuseppe Filianoti, Italian opera singer (tenor)
 * January 12 – Melanie Chisholm, British singer (Spice Girls)
 * February 11 – D'Angelo, singer, producer
 * February 13 – Robbie Williams, singer
 * February 17
 * Bernt Moen, Norwegian pianist
 * Bryan White, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * April 14 – Da Brat, rapper
 * April 17
 * Victoria Beckham, British singer (Spice Girls)
 * Mikael Åkerfeldt, Swedish musician (Opeth)
 * April 18 – Millie Corretjer, singer and actress
 * April 20 – Tina Cousins, singer
 * May 10 – Quentin Elias, French-Algerian singer and actor (Alliage) (d. 2014)
 * May 16 – Laura Pausini, Italian singer
 * May 17 – Andrea Corr, Irish singer (The Corrs)
 * May 18 – Chantal Kreviazuk, Canadian singer-songwriter
 * May 20 – Mikael Stanne, Swedish musician (Dark Tranquillity)
 * May 21 - Adriano Cintra (Cansei de Ser Sexy)
 * May 23 – Jewel, American singer
 * May 30
 * CeeLo Green, singer
 * Big L, Freestyle rapper
 * June 1 – Alanis Morissette, Canadian singer-songwriter
 * June 7 – Cassius Khan, Canadian singer and tabla player
 * June 24 – Vinnie Fiorello, American drummer and songwriter (Less Than Jake)
 * July 2 – Rocky Gray, American drummer, guitarist, and songwriter (Evanescence, We Are the Fallen, Living Sacrifice and Soul Embraced)
 * July 7 - E.D.I. Mean, American rapper and producer (Outlawz)
 * July 9 – Nikola Sarcevic, Swedish singer and bassist (Millencolin)
 * July 11 – Lil' Kim, American rapper
 * July 12 – Sharon den Adel, Dutch singer
 * July 13 – Deborah Cox, Canadian R&B singer
 * July 16 – Jeremy Enigk, singer/songwriter (Sunny Day Real Estate, The Fire Theft)
 * July 21 – Terry Coldwell, singer (East 17)
 * July 22 – Rell, soul singer
 * August 8
 * Preta Gil, Brazilian singer
 * Brian Harvey, British singer (East 17)
 * August 13 – Niklas Sundin, Swedish guitarist (Dark Tranquillity)
 * August 14 – Ana Matronic, Scissor Sisters
 * August 17 – Salem Abraha, singer-songwriter
 * August 30 – Aaron Barrett, Reel Big Fish
 * September 19 – Jimmy Fallon, American comedian & musician
 * October 1 – Keith Duffy, Irish singer and actor
 * October 4 – Ramazan Kubat, folk singer and composer
 * October 5 – Heather Headley, soul singer
 * October 18 - Peter Svensson, Swedish guitarist (The Cardigans)
 * November 2 – Nelly, rapper
 * November 4 – Louise Nurding, singer and former member of Eternal
 * December 7 – Nicole Appleton, British singer (All Saints)
 * December 10 – Meg White (The White Stripes)
 * December 24 – Julian Rachlin, Lithuanian-Austrian violinist

Deaths

 * January 2 – Tex Ritter, country music singer, 68
 * January 30 – Olav Roots, Estonian pianist and composer, 63
 * February 2 – Jean Absil, organist and composer, 80
 * February 15 – Kurt Atterberg, composer, 86
 * February 28 – Bobby Bloom, singer-songwriter, 28
 * March 7 – Alberto Rabagliati, Italian singer and actor, 67
 * March 28
 * Dorothy Fields, lyricist, 68
 * Dino Ciani, pianist, 32 (road accident)
 * Arthur Crudup, singer, 68
 * April 5 - Jennifer Vyvyan, operatic soprano, 49 (bronchial condition)
 * April 7 – Pete Wendling, pianist and composer, 85
 * April 15 – Giovanni D'Anzi, Italian songwriter, 68
 * April 17 – Blossom Seeley, US singer and vaudeville entertainer, 87
 * April 25 – Pamela Courson, Jim Morrison's widow, 27 (heroin overdose)
 * May 8 – Graham Bond, R&B musician, 36 (hit by train)
 * May 15 – Paul Gonsalves, jazz saxophonist, 53
 * May 24 – Duke Ellington, jazz musician, and composer, 75
 * June 8 – Rodolfo Lipizer, violinist and conductor, 79
 * June 22 – Darius Milhaud, composer, 81
 * June 27 - Cliff Friend, US composer
 * July 18 - Gabrielle Ritter-Ciampi, operatic soprano, 77
 * July 27 – Lightnin' Slim, blues musician, 61
 * July 29 – "Mama" Cass Elliott, singer (The Mamas & the Papas), 32 (heart attack)
 * August 6 – Gene Ammons, tenor saxophonist, 49 (cancer)
 * August 9 – Bill Chase, jazz rock trumpeter, 39
 * August 11 – Maria Maksakova, Sr., opera singer, 72
 * September 3 – Harry Partch, composer, 73
 * September 22 - Marta Fuchs, operatic soprano, 76
 * September 23 – Robbie McIntosh, drummer (Average White Band), 24
 * October 5 - Ebe Stignani, operatic soprano, about 70
 * October 13 - Josef Krips, vioinist, 72
 * October 24 – David Oistrakh, violinist, 66
 * November 5 - Marguerite Namara, operatic soprano, 85
 * November 8 – Ivory Joe Hunter, R&B singer, songwriter and pianist
 * November 9 – Egon Wellesz, Austrian composer, musicologist and teacher (emigrated to England), 89
 * November 11 – Alfonso Leng, composer, 80
 * November 19 – George Brunies, jazz musician, 72
 * November 21 – Frank Martin, composer, 84
 * November 25 – Nick Drake, singer/songwriter, 26 (overdose)

Grammy Awards

 * Grammy Awards of 1974

Eurovision Song Contest

 * Eurovision Song Contest 1974