Historic events this week from Fleetwood Mac, Janis Joplin, INXS, Tom Petty and Jimi Hendrix
OCTOBER 12, 1968: CHEAP THRILLS IS #1
Big Brother and the Holding Company’s second album was #1 for 5 straight weeks.
Cheap Thrills was the group’s final album with Janis Joplin on lead vocals, and featured “Piece of My Heart” and the Gershwin classic, “Summertime.”
After Jimi’s Electric Ladyland unseated the album for 2 weeks, Cheap Thrills climbed its way back to #1 for an additional 3 weeks.
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OCTOBER 12, 1979: TUSK
Fleetwood Mac followed up Rumours with the experimental double-album, Tusk.
Tusk was initially scheduled to be released on 10/15/79. However, the release date was moved up when radio stations began playing the album in full, and encouraging listeners to tape it.
Despite its experimental nature, Tusk would go on to sell over 2 million copies, and the singles “Sara” & “Tusk” would go top 10 in the US.
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OCTOBER 12, 1987: KICK
Working again with producer Chris Thomas, who helmed the 2x Platinum Listen Like Thieves, INXS delivered their biggest album.
Kick featured four US top 10 singles: Need You Tonight (#1), Devil Inside (#2), New Sensation (#3) and Never Tear Us Apart (#5)
The album has sold over 20 million copies worldwide.
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OCTOBER 16, 1968: ELECTRIC LADYLAND
The third and final album released in his lifetime, the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Electric Ladyland arrived when he was only 25 years old.
Spending two weeks at #1 in the US, Electric Ladyland features “Crosstown Traffic”, “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” and the incendiary cover of Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”.
In Rolling Stone’s 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Electric Ladyland was #53.
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OCTOBER 16, 2020: THE MASSIVE WILDFLOWERS REISSUE
The long-rumored reissue of Tom Petty’s Wildflowers arrived 26 years after the album’s initial release.
A couple tracks were used for the She’s the One soundtrack in 1996, and the previously unreleased “There Goes Angela” and “Leave Virginia Alone” were issued ahead Wildflowers being reissued.
The massive Wildflowers & All the Rest is available in 2CD, 4CD, 5CD, 3LP and a staggering 9LP Ultra Deluxe Limited Edition.
