See also: 1972 in music, other events of 1973, 1974 in music, 1970s in music and the list of 'years in music'

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
• 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
• 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

Musical films

• Godspell
• Jesus Christ Superstar
• Robin Hood animated feature released November 8
• Tom Sawyer

Births

• January 10 - Aerle Taree , Arrested Development
• March 17 - Caroline Corr, drummer
• April 4 - Kelly Price
• April 29 - Mike Hogan, The Cranberries
• May 14 - Natalie Appleton,singer
• June 9 - Wes Scantlin, Puddle Of Mudd
• June 10 - Faith Evans
• July 5 - Bengt Lagerberg , The Cardigans
• July 25 - Ladybug , Digable Planets
• July 29 - Wanya Morris , Boyz II Men

Deaths

• January 23 - Kid Ory
• March 5 - Michael Jeffrey, Jimi Hendrix's personal manager
• March 8 - Ron Pigpen McKernan, Grateful Dead, stomach hemorrhage
• April 18 - Willie 'The Lion' Smith , US jazz pianist
• May 21 - Vaughn Monroe, US singer and bandleader
• July 3 - Betty Grable, US actress and singer
• July 6 - Otto Klemperer, conductor
• July 14 - Clarence White, guitarist The Byrds
• August 17 - Jean Barraqué, French classical composer
• September 17 - Hugo Winterhalter, US conductor and arranger
• September 19 - Gram Parsons, guitarist/vocalist
• September 20 - Jim Croce, singer
• October 16 - Gene Krupa, drummer
• October 22 - Pablo Casals, cellist
• November 11 - David "Stringbean" Akeman, US country musician
• November 27 - Frank Christian
• December 20 - Bobby Darin, singer
• December 31 - Emile Christian

Awards

Grammy Awards

• Grammy Awards of 1973

Country Music Association Awards

Eurovision Song Contest

• Eurovision Song Contest 1973