April 1976

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  1
Paul McCartney and Wings' "Silly Love Songs" is released from the Wings at the Speed of Sound album. Coming out just prior to the band's first U.S. tour, the single is as welcomed by the record-buying public as it is reviled by critics.

High-tech entrepeneurs Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak, envisioning a substantial personal computer market, establish Apple Inc. in a Silicon Valley garage. Their goal is to produce no more than 100 units for $50 each.
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Jimmy Carter's campaign stumbles when asked about government subsidies for segregated housing, he states that there is "nothing wrong with ethnic purity being maintained." Two days later, Henry Jackson will carry the New York Democratic primary, and on Apr. 8 Carter will apologize for his comments.
 5
Billionaire recluse Howard Hughes dies.
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Thirty-five- year-old Phil Ochs hangs himself at his sister's home in the New York borough of Queens. The Texas-born folk singer, who had stuck to protest music in the mid-Sixties while Bob Dylan turned toward rock & roll, reportedly had been despondent for some time; recent attempts to regain the edge of his early music had failed. His last appearance with the old coterie of folk stars was at the October 1975 birthday celebration for Mike Porco, owner of the Greenwich Village club Folk City. Among Ochs' best known songs are "I Ain't Marchin'," "Draft Dodger Rag," "There but for Fortune," Outside of a Small Circle of Friends" and "The Party." Among the last songs he released was entitled "Here's to the State of Richard Nixon."
 10
Top of the charts: Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady" (pop single); Peter Frampton's Frampton Comes Alive! (pop album).
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Motown Records and Stevie Wonder hold a joint press conference to announce that he has signed a "$13 million-plus" contract with the label, which many of its acts have abandoned in recent years. This is the first time that Wonder, still mixing his Songs in the Key of Life LP, has confirmed having put his name on the agreement, which Motown had first announced the previous August.

Bay City Rollers singer Eric Faulkner almost dies after swallowing Seconal and Valium tablets at manager Tom Paton's house in Edinburgh, Scotland. The twenty-one- year-old Roller, after recovering, admitted to being very tired from the group's grueling schedule.
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Boz Scaggs is cold-cocked by two bouncers outside the Austin, Texas, blues club Antone's, after attempting to go backstage to see headliner Bobby "Blue" Bland. The altercation began when Scaggs was refused admittance to the dressing room, despite claiming an invitation from a member of Bland's retinue.
 17
Veteran jazz guitarist George Benson's album Breezin' enters the album chart. it will go on to become one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, thanks largely to its million-selling title track, which will reach #63 on the pop chart later this year. The album will go gold on June 4 and platinum on August 10.

Jailbreak, Irish rockers Thin Lizzy's most successful American release, enters the chart. It will later peak at #18 on the strength of their #12 gold single "The Boys Are Back in Town."
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The Rolling Stones' Black and Blue album is released and, despite lukewarm critical reaction and feminist protest of an ad campaign that featured a photograph of a bound and bruised model, reaches Number One and goes platinum within two months.
 21
Ex-Raspberries lead singer Eric Carmen enters the pop chart with what will become his first and biggest solo hit, "All by Myself" (from his self titled 1976 solo debut), which will peak at #2. Over the next two years, Carmen will have three more Top Thirty singles: "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again," later this year; "She Did It," in 1977; and "Change of Heart," in 1978.
 22
Bob Dylan and his Rolling Thunder Revue tape a show at the Belleview Biltmore Hotel in Clearwater, Florida, to be shown on television in the fall. The program, directed by Midnight Special producer Stan Harris, was auctioned off to NBC after being offered to all three networks, but Dylan then scrapped the footage anyway in favor of a latter show, taped in Fort Collins, Colorado, and titled Hard Rain.

Soul singer Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady" becomes the first single ever to be certified platinum, signifying sales of over two million copies. Taylor is known for another risque hit, 1968's "Who's Makin' Love."

Falling victim to speed limits and standard a/c, convertibles go the way of rumble seats, as Detroit delivers its last assembly-line produced drop-top, a white Cadillac Eldorado.
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Jimmy Carter wins the Pennsylvania primary. The next day, Jerry Brown arrives in Maryland to step up his campaign; Henry Jackson will throw in the towel on May 1.
 28
The Rolling Stones begin a two-month European tour at the Festhalle in Frankfurt, Germany. The concert marks their first appearance on the Continent in three years.
 29
After playing in Memphis during a Southern tour, Bruce Springsteen jumps the fence at Graceland in an attempt to see his idol Elvis Presley. Rebuffed by security guards, the Boss vainly tries to gain entrance by mentioning his simultaneous appearances on the covers of both Time and Newsweek. They are not impressed; Springsteen is escorted off the grounds.
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