{} The Best Music You've Never Heard {}
Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon album breaks the record for most weeks on the Billboard albums chart when it eclipses Johnny’s Greatest Hits by Johnny Mathis with 491 weeks. Dark Side remains on the chart until 1988, when it drops off with 724 weeks. Thanks to reissues and promotions, it returns from time to time, notching over 880 weeks on the chart in total.
Rick Nelson (formerly Ricky) plays the “Rock & Roll Spectacular” concert at Madison Square Garden. When he plays some newer songs, the hit-hungry audience boos. Nelson writes the song “Garden Party” about the experience, and it becomes a hit, reviving his career.
Eddie Vedder flies from his home in San Diego to Seattle, where he meets his Pearl Jam bandmates for the first time and starts a week of recording that becomes the bulk of their debut album, Ten. Vedder was chosen based on vocals he added to a three-song instrumental demo the band made.
The first single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” has been out for two weeks and is performing better than expected, so insiders think the album could catch on and maybe sell 500,000 copies or so – enough to earn a Gold record.
It hits that milestone on October 12, and keeps selling. On January 11, 1992, Nevermind supplants Dangerous at the #1 spot, knocking the King Of Pop off his throne. The album eventually sells over 10 million copies in the US while earning rave reviews on it’s way to becoming a rock touchstone. The band seems flummoxed by the sudden success – after all, they’re just a little grunge band from Washington State.
Pink Floyd’s seminal double album The Wall makes it to the big screen as a feature-length musical. Few expected the sprawling concept album to be turned into a feature film, but the band’s celluloid collaboration with director Alan Parker and animator Gerald Scarfe becomes a surprise box office hit and a cult classic.