1973 in music

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Events

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January-February

January 9 - Mick Jagger's request for a Japanese visa is rejected on account of a 1969 drug bust, putting an abrupt end to The Rolling Stones' plans to tour the Orient.
January 14 - Elvis Presley's Aloha From Hawaii television special is seen around the world by more than 1 billion viewers
January 14 - Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh is arrested for drug possession in California.
January 18 - The Rolling Stones benefit concert for Nicaraguan earthquake victims raises over $350,000. (Mick Jagger adds $150,000 of his own money to the total in May). On December 22, 1972, an earthquake destroyed Managua, the capital of Nicaragua.
January 30 - KISS performs their first concert, at the Coventary Club in Queens.
February 14 - David Bowie collapses from exhaustion after a performance at New York's Madison Square Garden

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March-April

March 1 - The New York Joffrey Ballet's Deuce Coupe Ballet opens. The ballet is set entirely around music by The Beach Boys.
March 5 - Jimi Hendrix's personal manager, Michael Jeffrey, is killed in a plane crash. Jeffrey was travelling from Majorca to England. All passengers on board the plane were killed.
March 6 - The New York Office of the US Immigration Department cancels John Lennon's visa extension, after it having been granted five days earlier.
March 7 - The director of talent acquisition at Columbia Records, John Hammond suffers a non-fatal heart attack following a performance by one of his most recent finds, Bruce Springsteen.
March 8 - Paul McCartney is fined $240 after pleading guilty to charges of growing marijuana outside his Scottish farm.
March 24 - Lou Reed is bitten by a fan during a concert in Buffalo, New York.
April 3 - Capitol Records releases two greatest hits collections, The Beatles /1962-1966 and The Beatles 1967-1970, commonly referred to as the Red and Blue albums.
April 16 - Paul McCartney's first television special, James Paul McCartney airs. The special includes performances by McCartney and Wings.
Opening of CBGB's

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May-July

May 9 - Mick Jagger adds $150,000 of his own money to the $350,000 raised by the Rolling Stones' January 18th benefit concert for the victims of the Nicaraguan earthquake.
May 25 - Mike Oldfield releases Tubular Bells, the first release on Richard Branson's newly launched Virgin label.
film The Sting revives interest in the ragtime music of Scott Joplin
July 28 - Watkins Glen, New York concert attended by 600,000 to see The Band, The Allman Brothers Band, and The Grateful Dead.

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unknown dates

Television forms
Journey forms
KISS forms
AC/DC forms
U.F.O. signs a contract with Chrysalis Records
The Ronettes break up, and Ronnie Bennett begins a solo career
The London Symphony Orchestra becomes the first British Orchestra to be invited to take part in the Salzburg Festival.

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Albums released

Brothers and Sisters - The Allman Brothers Band
Life in a Tin Can - The Bee Gees
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - Black Sabbath
Aladdin Sane - David Bowie
Pin Ups - David Bowie
Never Turn Your Back on a Friend - Budgie
Paris 1919 - John Cale
Now and Then - Carpenters
Billion Dollar Babies - Alice Cooper
Made in Japan - Deep Purple
Who Do We Think We Are - Deep Purple
Desperado - The Eagles
Brain Salad Surgery - Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Killing Me Softly - Roberta Flack
Angel Clare - Art Garfunkel
Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye
Selling England by the Pound - Genesis
Flying Teapot - Gong
Call Me - Al Green
A Passion Play - Jethro Tull
Piano Man - Billy Joel
Don't Shoot I'm Only the Piano Player - Elton John
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John
Raw Power - Iggy & the Stooges
Larks Tongues in Aspic - King Crimson
Houses of the Holy - Led Zeppelin
African Herbsman - Bob Marley and the Wailers
Burnin' - Bob Marley and the Wailers
Red Rose Speedway - Paul McCartney & Wings
Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield
The Harder They Come - Original Soundtrack
Aloha from Hawaii Via Satellite - Elvis Presley
New York Dolls - New York Dolls
Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield
GP and Grievous Angel - Gram Parsons
The Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
Queen - Queen (debut)
Ragas - Ravi Shankar
Berlin - Lou Reed
For Your Pleasure - Roxy Music
There Goes Rhymin' Simon - Paul Simon
Goats Head Soup - Rolling Stones
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. - Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band (debut)
The Wild, the Innocent & the E-Street Shuffle - Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band
Countdown to Ecstasy - Steely Dan
Fresh - Sly & the Family Stone
Raw Power - The Stooges
Closing Time - Tom Waits
Quadrophenia - The Who
Innervisions - Stevie Wonder
Tales From Topographic Oceans - Yes

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Top hits on record

"Loves Me Like a Rock" - Paul Simon (with The Dixie Hummingbirds)
"Kodachrome" - Paul Simon
"Take Me to the Mardi Gras" - Paul Simon
"Crocodile Rock" - Elton John
"Playground in My Mine" - Clint Holmes
"Superstition" - Stevie Wonder
"Do It Again" - Steely Dan
"Me and Mrs. Jones" - Billy Paul
"Will It Go Around in Circles" - Billy Preston
"Photograph" - Ringo Starr
"Bad Bad Leroy Brown" - Jim Croce
"Saturday Night's All Right for Fighting" - Elton John
"Crocodile Rock" - Elton John
"Live and Let Die" - Paul McCartney and Wings
"Touch Me in the Morning" - Diana Ross
"Midnight Train to Georgia" - Gladys Knight
"Ramblin' Man" - Allman Brothers Band
"Smoke on the Water" - Deep Purple
"Radar Love" - Golden Earring
"Keep On Truckin' " - Eddie Kendricks
"Delta Dawn" - Helen Reddy
"Killing Me Softly with His Song" - Roberta Flack
"Higher Ground" - Stevie Wonder
"You're So Vain" - Carly Simon
"My Love" - Paul McCartney & Wings
"Why Me" - Kris Kristofferson
"Let's Get It On" - Marvin Gaye
"Tie a Yellow Ribbon around the Old Oak Tree" - Tony Orlando & Dawn
"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" - Elton John
"The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin
"Over the Hills and Far Away" - Led Zeppelin
"D'yer Mak'er" - Led Zeppelin
"Top of the World" - Carpenters

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Published popular music

"And I Love You So" w.m. Don McLean
"I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song" w.m. Jim Croce
"I've Got To Use My Imagination" w.m. Gerry Goffin & Barry Goldberg
"Liaisons" w.m. Stephen Sondheim from the musical A Little Night Music
"Midnight Train To Georgia" w.m. Jim Weatherly
"(Say Has Anybody Seen) My Sweet Gypsy Rose" w.m. Irwin Levine & L. Russell Brown
"Piano Man" w.m. Billy Joel
"Send In The Clowns" w.m. Stephen Sondheim from the musical A Little Night Music
"Stuck In The Middle With You" w.m. Joe Egan & Gerry Rafferty
"There Used To Be A Ballpark" w.m. Joe Raposo
"The Way We Were" w. Alan Bergman & Marilyn Bergman m. Marvin Hamlisch from the film The Way We Were

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Classical music

Lou Harrison - Organ Concerto with Percussion
Luigi Nono - Canto per il Vietnam
Carl Orff - De Temporum Fine Comoedia

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Opera

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Musical theater

Gigi (Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe - Broadway production
Grease London production
Gypsy (Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim) - London production
Hard to be a Jew Broadway production
Irene Broadway revival
Here Comes the Groom Broadway production
The King and I (Rodgers & Hammerstein) - London revival
A Little Night Music (Stephen Sondheim) - Broadway production
No, No, Nanette (Irving Caesar, Otto Harbach, Vincent Youmans - London revival
The Pajama Game (Richard Adler and Jerry Ross) - Broadway revival
Pinocchio Broadway production
Pippin London production
Raisin Broadway production
The Rocky Horror Show (Richard O'Brien) - London production
Seesaw Broadway production opened at the Uris Theatre on March 18 and ran for 296 performances
Two Gentlemen from Verona London production