This Date In Music History-November 20

Birthdays:

Norman Greenbaum (1970 hit "Spirit in the Sky") - (1942)

Mike Vernon - leading producer of the British blues boom in the late '60s (Vernon produced discs by John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack, Duster Bennett, Savoy Brown, and Ten Years After) (1944)

Roy Stiles - Mud (1946)

George Grantham - Poco (1947)

Joe Walsh - James Gang and the Eagles (1947)

Gary Green - Gentle Giant (1950)

Robert Poss - Band of Susans (1956)

Jim Brown - UB40 (1957)

Gail Ann Dorsey - bass guitarist and vocalist. Worked with David Bowie from 1993-96, recorded and toured with Tears for Fears and has also worked with Bryan Ferry, Boy George, Gwen Stefani and Seal (1962)

Todd Nance - Widespread Panic (1962)

Mike D (real name Michael Diamond) Beastie Boy - (1965)

Sen Dog - Cypress Hill (1965)

Rapper Q- Tip (1970)

David Marchand (Davey Havok) - AFI (1975)

Jared Followill - Kings Of Leon (1986)


They Are Missed:

Born today in 1946, Duane Allman, guitar, Allman Brothers Band. Killed in a motorcycle accident on 29th October 1971.



Allan Sherman, the great comedian/songwriter whose album "My Son, the Folksinger," sold well over a million copies in the early sixties, died of respiratory ailments in 1973. He was 48.

Born on this day in 1966, Kevin Gilbert, multi instrumentalist, songwriter, Member of Giraffe, worked with Sheryl Crow, co- wrote "All I Want To Do." (died on May 17, 1996)


History:

In 1954, the bartenders' union in Hammond, IN, asked a local radio station, WJOB-AM, to stop playing the song "The Drunken Driver" by Ferlin Husky — about a drunken driver who kills two children — because it was hurting business. Amazing.....

The song that changed popular music history 'Rock Around The Clock' by Bill Haley & His Comets went to #1 on the UK singles chart in 1955. The song was used under the opening credits of the film Blackboard Jungle. The song entered the charts a further six times until 1974.

Also in 1955, Bo Diddley appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show television show. The show had requested that he sing his version of "Sixteen Tons," but, when he appeared on stage, he sang his own song "Bo Diddley," resulting in him being banned from further appearances on the show.

Alan Freed, refusing to say he never accepted payola, was fired from WABC television in New York in 1959.

In 1961, Billboard reported on the global Twist Craze: WOR-TV, New York, has shot a series of one and five minute "Twist Lessons" with Chubby Checker to be shown hourly every day. Checker has also been inked for a British-American film production; Joey Dee & the Starlighters, whose album, "Doin' the Twist at the Peppermint Lounge" was released this week, have signed for the Paramount film, "Hey, Let's Twist"; Dion has signed to star in Columbia's "Twist Around the Clock"; and in France there are 45 different "Twist" records on the the market. Let's all twist!

Bob Dylan began recording his self-titled debut album in 1961.

The Four Seasons' "Big Girls Don't Cry" was released on Vee Jay Records in 1962. It goes up to #1, as does their first hit, "Sherry." Both songs feature lead singer Frankie Valli's falsetto.

Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" was released in 1965.



In 1967, the Beach Boys "Smiley Smile" album featuring the song "Vegetables," produced by Paul McCartney and the Beach Boys, was released in the UK on Capitol Records and in the US on the band's own Brothers label. Unfortunately, the album doesn't make it to the top 40 in either country and the single would not chart at all, demonstrating the Beach Boys dwindling popularity and sending leader Brian Wilson further into reclusiveness.

Also in 1967, Time Magazine, reviewing the Doors second album, "Strange Days," reported that the group's music "takes its listeners not only past such familiar landmarks of the youth odyssey as alienation and sex but, into symbolic realms of the unconscious — eerie night worlds filled with throbbing rhythms, shivery metallic tones, unsettling images." Umm, OK, smoke some more of whatever you are smoking.....The album will soon hit #3 on the national chart.

Strawberry Alarm Clock were at #1 on the US singles chart in 1967 with "Incense And Peppermints." What's he smoking?



The Monkees film 'Head' opened in six US cities in 1968. Reviews were harsh and the picture was a box office disaster.

For the second time in 1970, Kinks singer Ray Davies flew to London to re-record one word in a new Kinks' single. Back in June it was to change "Coca-Cola" to "Cherry Cola" in the song "Lola." This time, Ray has to change a line from "Apeman," "The air pollution is a-foggin' up" which sounds too much like "a-fuckin."

In 1971, "Inner City Blues" became the third R&B #1 single from Marvin Gaye's, "What's Goin' On" album. The others are the title track and "Mercy, Mercy Me." The LP represents the first time a major Motown artist has taken a public stand on controversial social issues.

"Theme from Shaft" by Isaac Hayes became his only U.S. chart-topping single in 1971

Also in 1971: Led Zeppelin played the first of two "Electric Magic" shows at London's Wembley Empire Pool. The shows incorporated trapeze artists, performing pigs, and vaudeville performers with Bronco, Stone the Crows, and the headliners. Tickets for the shows sold out in four minutes. Why not? It's a circus!

In 1975, drummer Keith Moon collapsed twice during the first date of the Who's US tour, in San Francisco. First, he falls over his set during "Won't Get Fooled Again." Then after being tended to backstage, Moon plays for another ten minutes before he's carried off again, allegedly due to 'jet lag.' So, Pete Townsend asks for a volunteer from the crowd to replace him. The volunteer is Scot Halpin, then 19, who takes a shot of brandy and sits down at his idol Moon's drum kit. Halpin lasts for 3 songs, "Smokestack Lightning," "Naked Eye" and the anthem "My Generation."

George Harrison performed on Saturday Night Live (hosted by Paul Simon) in 1976. During the show, producer Lorne Michaels makes an appeal for the Beatles to re-form, saying he will pay them the union minimum to play on his show. Paul McCartney is currently staying with John Lennon at the Dakota and both see Michaels' plea, but they don't take him up on the jesting offer.

Manfred Mann's Earth Band's "Blinded by the Light" was released in 1976.

Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer were at #1 on the US singles chart in 1979 with "No More Tears, Enough Is Enough."

Prince's third movie, "Sign 'O' The Times" opened in 1987.

The Rolling Stones signed a $45 million deal with Virgin Records in 1991, making them rock's highest paid group thus far.

A new Beatles recording, "Free As a Bird," began airing on radio stations in 1995. The song had debuted on ABC-TV the night before.



In 1998 - Alanis Morissette did an in store performance for the opening of a Tower records store in Buenos Aires. The proceeds from the sale of her album for the day were donated to a local children's hospital.

The Kiss Deluxe Edition 5 disc box set was released in 2001. The set included 92 tracks.

Madonna's childhood home in Oakland County Michigan, sold at an auction in 2001, in just 12 minutes. The house, along with a few items of Rock memorabilia was purchased for $331,000.

In 2005, Robbie Williams smashed a Guinness World Record by selling more than 1.6 million tickets for his 2006 World Tour in one day.

U2 were profiled on CBS' 60 Minutes in 2005.

Also in 2005, the Foo Fighters released a six-track EP that's only available at Best Buy retailers. There's a live rendition of "Best of You," a demo version of "D.O.A." and a cover of Cream's "I Feel Free."

In 2007, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke admitted he was among the thousands of people who paid nothing to download the band's latest album In Rainbows. Speaking to BBC 6 Music's Steve Lamacq, Yorke said: "There wasn't any point. I just move some money from one pocket to the other." According to one survey, three in five people paid nothing at all for it. Yorke added that no one was allowed to have copies of the master recording in case it was leaked beforehand.