Homes Where Music History was Made
The following assemblage of homes includes places where famous bands were formed, beloved songs or entire albums were written, the sites where musicians died and where one massive hit-maker of the 1950s and '60s was incorrectly thought to have met his end.
These storied abodes range in value from around $270,000 to $19 million. Some of them have owners who don't own them because of fandom, but a few were bought or saved by very dedicated fans.
From London to Los Angeles, from rock to pop to R&B to jazz, and from the 1960s to 2011, here are nine homes where music history was made.
By Colleen Kane
Posted 11 Oct. 2012
Pink Floyd
Location: London
Price: approx. $1.922 million
Bedrooms: N/A
Bathrooms: N/A
Square Footage: N/A
On Sept. 20, the three-story North London home where Roger Waters, Syd Barrett and Nick Mason formed Pink Floyd went up on the auction block. The lads rented from their college tutor Mike Leonard, a technician who helped create the band's light show.
After Leonard's death this year, the home became available for the first time since the band lived there as students in the 1960s.
The building was a fixer-upper but still pulled in nearly $2 million, as did the adjacent lot that was sold at auction. The remaining evidence of Leonard and the Floyd legacy were Leonard's workshop featured in a 1968 BBC broadcast — a xylophone (thought to belong to Leonard, not the band), a speaker built into the roof eaves, and according to an interview with Mason, "The hood of my Aston Martin International might still be buried in the garden."
Spice Girls
Location: Los Angeles
Price: $18.9 million
Bedrooms: 6
Bathrooms: 7
Square Footage: 7,903
This 1928 Spanish hacienda in Bel Air was the home of a onetime power couple, EMI's former president Ken Berry and wife Nancy Berry, who worked on advertising and promotional campaigns for acts he signed.
The house is a relic of bygone days of record label excess. According to a Wall Street Journal article (republished on The Independent website), this home often served as a "late-night crash pad for itinerant rock stars and music producers," but the only group identified in that article as using the house was the Spice Girls.
The patio shown here is where Scary, Sporty, Baby, Posh, and Ginger set their boom box in 1997 and choreographed their way into pop history, creating their act and landing a contract with EMI. Spice Girls superfans who can't afford the $19 million should take heart: The house is also for rent at $40,000 month.
Allman Brothers
Location: Macon, Ga.
Price: approx. $271,000 (Zillow.com estimate)
Bedrooms: 5
Bathrooms: 3 full 1 half
Square Footage: 4,442
The three-story grand Tudor home known as the Big House was the home of original members of the Allman Brothers Band and their old ladies, kids, and roadies from 1970 to 1973.
Along with the gardens, fountains and fish pond, the circa-1900 house had stained glass windows and a ballroom on the third floor. The sunroom became the music room. The rent for the estate at the time was just $225 a month.
Sadly, it was the last place Duane Allman was seen by loved ones at a birthday party just before he died in a motorcycle accident. A year later, band member Berry Oakley also died nearby in a motorcycle accident. The publicity surrounding the deaths led to the eviction of the remaining residents from the Big House.
The home is now the Allman Brothers Band Museum and is available for rental for events and parties. In 1994, the house also provided the initial rehearsal space and launch point for Allmans offshoot band Gov't Mule.
Bruce Springsteen
Location: Long Branch, N.J.
Price: $280,000
Bedrooms: N/A
Bathrooms: N/A
Square Footage: 828
A 25-year-old Bruce Springsteen lived in this modest Jersey Shore cottage in 1974 and '75, and he accomplished a few important things in his time there. By the time Springsteen moved out, he had written "Born to Run," "Thunder Road," and "Backstreets."
In 2009, it went on sale for $299,000 and was bought for $280,000 by fans who wanted to prevent the home from getting razed.
The buyers were New Jersey residents Ryan DeCarolis of Lincroft, along with Kim McDermott and her older brother, Gerald Ferrara. De Carolis, who was then 28, said he would live there and was looking forward to showing the home to other fans.
Grateful Dead House
Location: San Francisco
Price: see below
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 2
Square Footage: 2,680
The 1890 Queen Anne Victorian at 710 Ashbury St. in the Haight is sometimes known as Cranston-Keenan building but more popularly called by its address or "the Grateful Dead house." It's the one seen in early photos of the band when they're on the front porch personifying Haight-Ashbury around the Summer of Love in 1967.
That year, all members of the band were busted for marijuana at 710 Ashbury, forever cementing the address and its occupants in history.
Forty-two years later, drummer Mickey Hart recalled the bust in Spin magazine.
"We were kids doing what kids do. … Not that there wasn't a lot of dope in the house, but the inspector actually planted the stuff that they arrested us for," he said. "They could have gone into our cabinet and found a whole bunch of it. We were set up, but it made us famous. Getting busted was the best thing that ever happened to us. We made headlines. It certainly didn't stop our way of life — in a way, it validated it. We thought that these people really violated our sanctity. We didn't take it sitting down. So I look back on it and go, 'Wow, that was really fun.'
According to Trulia, which doesn't have an estimated value for 710 Ashbury, the average price for similar homes is $1.57 million.
Fats Domino
Location: New Orleans
Price: N/A
Bedrooms: N/A
Bathrooms: N/A
Square Footage: N/A
Legendary R&B pianist and singer Fats Domino is a lifelong resident of the Lower Ninth Ward, and when Hurricane Katrina devastated the neighborhood, he occupied a compound of several neighboring houses there.
His large home is seen in the inset at left, and his much more ornamented office next door is pictured in the main photo, bedecked in Fats' name, initials, stars and the New Orleans Saints' colors black and gold.
In the confusion in the days that followed the flood, Fats was missing for a few days. Someone spray painted "RIP FATS You will be missed" on his house, and the photos of the graffiti was seen worldwide.
Fortunately, rumors of Domino's death were greatly exaggerated. He and his family were rescued by boat, then taken in by LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell. Domino lost many possessions in the flood, including two pianos, a photo of him with Elvis, and some of his gold records, but he did recover other gold records.
Amy Winehouse
Location: London
Price: approx. $4.33 million
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 2 full, 2 half
Square Footage: 2,500
Amy Winehouse was a larger-than-life performer haunted by equally large demons that led to her early death. In 2011, she died of alcohol poisoning at age 27 in her flat in Camden Square in London. Swarms of fans immediately set up a shrine outside.
Her father wanted to keep the four-story home where she lived her final year as the headquarters of the Amy Winehouse Foundation, but citing upkeep costs he put it on the market earlier this year. Amy paid about $2.88 million for the apartment in 2010.
The listing has since been removed and there is no record of the home selling.
John Coltrane
Location: Huntington, N.Y.
Price: $975,000 in 2006
Bedrooms: N/A
Bathrooms: N/A
Square Footage: N/A
This 1952 brick rambler on a quiet Long Island street is where John Coltrane lived with his wife, Alice, from 1964 until his death in 1967. It's also the home of Coltrane Studios, where he composed his most famous work, "A Love Supreme," and all of his acclaimed final pieces.
The Coltrane Home has been in danger of demolition and has been saved due to grass roots efforts led by Dix Hills historian and jazz fan Steve Fulgoni. In 2006, the Town of Huntington purchased the home. It is now a protected historic landmark but still in need of funds to complete restoration before it can eventually open to the public.
The Beatles
Location: Los Angeles
Price: $4.199 million
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 3
Square Footage: 4,116
Late one right in 1967, George Harrison was staying in this house on Blue Jay Way, waiting for a publicist and Harry Nilsson, when he wrote the song "Blue Jay Way." The house was loaned to him during his stay in Los Angeles by Peggy Lee's manager, Ludwig Gerber.
One line in the song goes, "There's a fog upon L.A., and my friends have lost their way." Harrison explained the song's origin in the Beatles Bible (link via Zillow).
"I waited and waited. I felt really knackered with the flight, but I didn't want to go to sleep until he came. There was a fog and it got later and later. To keep myself awake, just as a joke to pass the time while I waited, I wrote a song about waiting for him in Blue Jay Way. There was a little Hammond organ in the corner of this house which I hadn't noticed until then … so I messed around on it and the song came."