1973 in music

1 Events
2 Albums released
3 Top hits on record
4 Published popular music
5 Classical music
6 Opera
7 Musical theater
8 Musical films
9 Births
10 Deaths
11 Awards

Events

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

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

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.

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.
The Open Mind disbands

Albums released

Ring Ring – ABBA
Band on the Run – Paul McCartney & Wings
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
Muscle of Love – Alice Cooper
Sings In Italian For You – Dalida
Julien – Dalida
Made in Japan – Deep Purple
Who Do We Think We Are – Deep Purple
Cosmic Wheels – Donovan
Live in Japan: Spring Tour 1973 – Donovan
Essence to Essence – Donovan
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
(pronounced leh-nerd skin-nerd) – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Smokes – Lynyrd Skynyrd
African Herbsman – Bob Marley and the Wailers
Burnin' – Bob Marley and the Wailers
Red Rose Speedway – Paul McCartney & Wings
Birds of Fire – Mahavishnu Orchestra
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
Long Hard Climb – Helen Reddy
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
Dueling Banjos – Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel
Quadrophenia – The Who
Innervisions – Stevie Wonder
Tales From Topographic Oceans – Yes
The Six Wives of Henry VIII – Rick Wakeman

Top hits on record

"Ring Ring" – ABBA
"Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough)" – ABBA
"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
"Paroles... Paroles..." – Dalida & Alain Delon
"Pour ne pas vivre seul" – Dalida
"Vado Via" – Dalida
"Je suis malade" – Dalida
"Il venait d'avoir 18 ans" – Dalida
"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

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

Classical music

William Alwyn – Fantasy Sonata for flute and harp
Gloria Coates – Music on Open Strings (Symphony no. 1)
Lou Harrison – Organ Concerto with Percussion
Anthony Iannaccone – Rituals
Frank Martin – Requiem
Luigi Nono – Canto per il Vietnam
Carl Orff – De Temporum Fine Comoedia

Opera

de la Figo – Bronski eu Lot

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