Historic events this week from Queen, Elton John, Nazareth, Bob Dylan and The Beatles
NOVEMBER 6, 1995: QUEEN RELEASE MADE IN HEAVEN
Queen’s 15th & final studio album arrived 4 years after Freddie Mercury’s death.
Through his illness, Mercury laid down as many vocal tracks as possible, in hopes Queen would one day finish the songs.
Queen returned to the recordings in ’93 and completed the album in February ’95.
Brian May called Made In Heaven “possibly the best Queen album we ever made.” (MOJO, December 2013)
• • •
NOVEMBER 8, 1975: ELTON’S THIRD #1 ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Rock of the Westies was Elton John’s second album of the year, and third #1 album of 1975.
Elton John’s Greatest Hits spent 10 consecutive weeks at #1, which included the first 5 weeks of 1975.
Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, released in May, would spend a total of 7 weeks at the top spot.
A month after its release, Rock of the Westies, featuring the #1 single “Island Girl”, would climb to #1 where it would remain for 3 weeks.
• • •
NOVEMBER 8, 2022: DAN MCCARFFERTY OF NAZARETH DIES
Dan McCafferty, legendary former lead singer of Nazareth, has died. No cause of death has yet been revealed.
McCafferty’s known for his vocals on Nazareth’s “Hair of the Dog (Son of a Bitch)” and their hit cover of The Everly Brothers’ “Love Hurts”.
He was 76.
• • •
NOVEMBER 11, 1970: TARANTULA: DYLAN’S FIRST BOOK
Depending on whom you ask, Dylan’s Tarantula is either a nonsensical novel, or a collection of experimental prose.
In 2003, SPIN magazine did a list of Top Five Unintelligible Sentences from Books Written by Rock Stars. Dylan topped the list with Tarantula’s line…
“Now’s not the time to get silly, so wear your big boots and jump on the garbage clowns.”
• • •
NOVEMBER 12, 1976: ALL THIS AND WORLD WAR II SOUNDTRACK
The “musical documentary” featured footage of World War II, with Beatles covers as a soundtrack.
The resulting soundtrack album, later re-released as The Songs Of John Lennon & Paul McCartney Performed By The World’s Greatest Rock Artists, featured Beatles covers from Elton John, The Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Jeff Lynne, Peter Gabriel, Tina Turner, Bryan Ferry, and many more.