20 NOVEMBER
In Music History
2000 Aretha Franklin, Snoop Dogg, and Brian McKnight are among the performers who take part in the third annual "Soul Train" Christmas Starfest at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The show features top R&B artists performing holiday favorites.
1999 Patty Loveless kicks off the holiday season by traveling aboard a CSX Transportation train bearing gifts to families along a route from Pikeville, Kentucky - Loveless' hometown - to Kingsport, Tennessee. The transportation system has distributed 15 tons of gifts annually to people living in Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Tennessee and Western Virginia.
1998 Saxophonist Roland Alphonso (of The Skatalites, known for 1967's "Guns of Navarone") dies at age 67 after being in a coma for four days due to burst blood vessels in his neck and head.
1998 Alanis Morissette does an in-store performance for the opening of a Tower records store in Buenos Aires. Proceeds from the sale of her album for the day are donated to a local children's hospital.
1998 A three-day World Conference on Music and Censorship begins in Copenhagen with aims to establish a support organization for musicians, similar to writers' free speech body PEN.
1997 Music journalist Robert Palmer (not to be confused with the singer of the same name) dies of liver disease in Valhalla, New York, at age 52. Palmer wrote for The New York Times and Rolling Stone and penned the book Deep Blues.
1997 Paul McCartney tapes an interview and live performance of "Flaming Pie" and "Young Boy" for the syndicated Oprah Winfrey Show.
1994 Former Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young member David Crosby receives a liver transplant.
1993 Part of Ninth Street in Augusta, Georgia, is renamed James Brown Boulevard in honor of their famous resident.
1993 With their debut album Core climbing the charts, Stone Temple Pilots are musical guests on Saturday Night Live.
1992 L7 lead singer Donita Sparks takes off her knickers during the band's live performance of "Pretend We're Dead" on the British TV show The Word.More
1991 Randy Jackson of The Jacksons is sentenced to a month in a Los Angeles jail for violating his probation for spousal abuse.
1986 Bring Me the Horizon lead singer Oli Sykes is born in Ashford, Kent, England.
1984 Michael Jackson is awarded a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame directly in front of Mann's famous Chinese Theatre, creating the largest-ever crowd for such an unveiling.
1983 Future is born Nayvadius Wilburn in Atlanta, Georgia. Rapping with distinctive Auto-Tuned vocals over trap beats, he comes onto the scene in 2011 with his feature on YC's "Racks," and by 2015 he's a star, earning his first #1 album with DS2.
Fan Takes Over When Keith Moon Passes Out
1973After Keith Moon passes out at his drum kit, The Who pull a fan from the audience to take over.
Read more20 NOVEMBER
Featured Events
2013 "Livin' On A Prayer" by Bon Jovi returns to the Hot 100 at #25 thanks to a viral video of a Boston Celtics fan dancing to the song. Billboard tweaked their methodology earlier in the year so streaming views of songs were factored into the chart tally.More
2012 Fiona Apple cancels the remaining dates on her Idler Wheel tour to care for her dying dog.More
2007 The debut album from Amy Winehouse, Frank, is finally released in the US eight months after her second album, and three years after its British release. Although critically acclaimed and massively influential in her native UK, it fails to set the American charts on fire, reaching its peak of #33 only after the singer's untimely death in 2011.
2003 After returning to his Neverland home following a raid on it a few days before, and in response to an arrest warrant, Michael Jackson is charged with child molestation in Santa Barbara, California. The singer is immediately released after posting three million dollars' bail.
2003 The first ever Vibe Awards takes place in Santa Monica, California, with 50 Cent winning for Artist of the Year, Dopest Album (Get Rich or Die Tryin') and Hottest Hook ("In Da Club").
1976 George Harrison and Paul Simon share the stage on Saturday Night Live to perform "Homeward Bound" and "Here Comes The Sun." Earlier in the year, the show's producer Lorne Michaels offered The Beatles $3000 to reunite. In the opening sketch, he is seen arguing with Harrison over how much of that money he should get.
1976 Paul Simon opens Saturday Night Live dressed as a turkey (in honor of Thanksgiving).More
1969 James Brown drags his road-weary band into King Studios in Cincinnati, where Clyde Stubblefield starts banging out a drum pattern. Brown makes it the basis of a song, which he calls "Funky Drummer." It's just a minor hit, but becomes one of the most sampled songs in hip-hop.
1955 In the music equivalent to the Babe Ruth trade, Sun Records owner Sam Phillips sells Elvis Presley's contract to RCA for $35,000. It wasn't all bad for Phillips: Presley had just one year left on his contract, and Phillips invested the money in a local hotel chain called the Holiday Inn, which made him a bigger fortune than anything he did in music.
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