Machine Head was released

Continuing to progress the musical direction of the previous two albums, Machine Head was released in late March 1972 and became one of the band’s most famous releases. It was the band’s second No. 1 album in the UK while re-establishing them in North America, hitting No. 7 in the US and No. 1 in Canada. It included tracks that became live classics, such as “Highway Star”, ” Space Truckin’ “, ” Lazy ” and “Smoke on the Water”, the last of which remains Deep Purple’s most famous song. They continued to tour and record at a rate that would be rare thirty years on; when Machine Head was recorded, the group had only been together three-and-a-half years, yet it was their sixth studio album and seventh album overall.