August 1974

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  1
Pete Townshend and Keith Moon join Eric Clapton at Atlanta's Omni, Townshend jamming on "Layla" and Moon singing along on "Little Queenie." Townshend later performs a modified Who finish by smashing a plastic ukelele over Clapton's head.
 2
Dozens of celebrities turn out for funeral services for Cass Elliot. Among those in attendance at the Hollywood Memorial Cemetery are John and Michelle Phillips, Sonny Bono, Lou Adler and Peter Lawford. Elliot's body is cremated, and her ashes buried at Hebrew Cemetery in Woodlawn, Maryland.
 3
Drummer Jim Hodder and guitarist Jeff Baxter leave Steely Dan. Baxter will go on to relative fame as lead player for the Doobie Brothers and as a producer, Hodder's defection leaves the band with one drummer, Jeff Porcaro, later of Toto.
4
 5
Tickets go on sale in Los Angeles for three Elton John concerts two months away, and sell out so fast that a fourth show is added. Persons who stood in line for two days and nights say even they couldn't score good tickets.

The White House releases tapes of a June 1972 conversation (six days after the Watergate break-in) that clearly reveals President Nixon's knowledge of the incident and his desire to stop the FBI investigation. Congressional opposition to impeachment all but disappears.
 6
Gene "Jug" Ammons, one of contemporary jazz's greatest saxophonists, dies in Chicago at age forty-nine. After fading from public view in the Sixties, Ammons seemed to be making a comeback. He is probably best known for his work with the Billy Eckstine orchestra and Woody Herman, as well as his own solo groups. Several of his records were substantial hits in the soul-jazz market; one, "Canadian Sunset," was awarded a gold record.
 7
Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band and actress Faye Dunaway are married in a Beverly Hills courtroom; they'll divorce in 1976.
 8
Eric Clapton receives a gold record for 461 Ocean Boulevard, his comeback LP. the album contains Clapton's sole Number One song, his version of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff." Clapton assembles a band for the LP and subsequent tour including George Terry, Yvonne Elliman, Carl Radle, Jamie Oldaker and Dick Simms. 461 reaches Number One, another first for Clapton.

President Nixon announces that, effective the next day, he will resign the presidency, the first time a U.S. president has ever done so. He successor, Vice President Ford, assures the country that there will be no change in foreign policy, and that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger will remain in office.
 9
Trumpeter Bill Chase and three members of his group (Walter Clark, John Emma and Wallace Yohn) are killed in an airplane crash in Jackson, Minnesota. Also killed is the plane's pilot. Chase, 39, was a veteran of Woody Herman's band, and formed Chase in 1971. The group had been touring behind its third album, Pure Music, at the time of the crash.

President Nixon resigns and Gerald Ford is sworn in as the 38th president of the United States of America. Five days later, private citizen Nixon is served papers to appear at John Erlichman's Watergate trial.
 10
After recording two albums for Elektra/Asylum Records (Planet Waves and Before the Flood), Bob Dylan returns to his longtime label, Columbia.
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Paul Anka's "(You're) Having My Baby" turns gold, despite the fact that the song is denounced by feminists. The basic objection to the song is its use of the word my-my baby, not our baby. But in the summer of 1974, it reaches Number One.
 15
 16
The Ramones play their first show at CBGB, New York City's punk mecca on the Bowery.
 17
Patrick Moraz replaces Rick Wakeman in Yes, who are already finishing work on an album called Relayer. Moraz had once been understudy to Keith Emerson in the Nice, and later joined the group's Lee Jackson and Brian Davidson in a prog-rock band called Refugee.
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 20
President Ford nominates former New York governor Nelson Rockefeller for vice president, shortly after requesting $850,000 from Congress for "administration transition expenses" and to help former President Nixon through the next fiscal year. Ford had also announced that the White House would retain control of all of Nixon's Watergate-related documents and tapes until their legal ownership is determined.
 21
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 23
The thirteenth annual Philadelphia Folk Festival gets underway in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania. The three-day festival features David Bromberg, John Prine, Steve Goodman, Arlo Guthrie and Bruce Cockburn, and includes both performances and workshops.
 24
Paul Anka's "(You're) Having My Baby" tops the pop singles chart despite denunciations from feminists (who object to the term "my" baby instead of "our") and government officials (who claim the lyrics are unclear as to the parents' marital status).
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 31
In Federal Court, John Lennon testifies that the Nixon administration tried to have him deported because of his involvement with antiwar domonstrations at the 1972 Republican Convention in Miami.


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