MAR 24-30: Historic events this week from Deep Purple, Bob Seger, Bob Dylan, Soundgarden, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.

MARCH 25, 1972: DEEP PURPLE’S MACHINE HEAD
Deep Purple’s sixth album, Machine Head, remains their biggest selling album with over 2 million sold.

Their highest charting album in the US (#7) contains “Space Truckin'”, “Highway Star” and the classic rock radio staple “Smoke on the Water.”

• • •
MARCH 25, 1977: BOB SEGER’S NIGHT MOVES GOES PLATINUM
Bob Seger’s 9th LP was his first studio album to be credited to Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band.

Night Moves was propelled to Platinum status thanks to classic Seger standards such as “Rock & Roll Never Forgets”, “The Fire Down Below”, “Mainstreet” and the album’s title track.

• • •
MARCH 25, 2001: BOB DYLAN WINS AN OSCAR

Two months after winning his first Best Original Song Golden Globe for “Things Have Changed” from Wonder Boys starring Michael Douglas, Dylan became an Academy Award winner in the same category.

He accepted the award in Sydney via satellite.

“I want to thank the members of the Academy who were bold enough to give me this award for this song, which obviously is a song that doesn’t pussyfoot around nor turn a blind eye to human nature”

• • •
MARCH 26, 1994: SOUNDGARDEN’S SUPERUNKNOWN IS #1
Soundgarden’s fourth album, Superunknown, debuted at #1 ahead of Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral.

The band finally became Grammy winners when the album won two Grammys:

Best Metal Performance (“Spoonman”) and Best Hard Rock Performance (“Black Hole Sun”).

• • •
MARCH 28, 1994: PINK FLOYD RELEASES THE DIVISION BELL

Pink Floyd’s 14th studio album, The Division Bell, was their second without founding member Roger Waters.

The album has sold over 7 million worldwide, with over 3,330,000 sold in the US alone.

The Division Bell’s third single, “Keep Talking” featured Stephen Hawking and went to #1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock charts.

• • •
MARCH 29, 1975: 6 ALBUMS ON BILLBOARD CHARTS AT ONE TIME
Led Zeppelin became the first band in history to have six albums at once on the Billboard Albums chart.

The albums and their chart position were:

124: Led Zeppelin III
116: Led Zeppelin
104: Led Zeppelin II
92: Houses of the Holy
83: “Led Zeppelin IV”
1: Physical Graffiti