3 NOVEMBER
Featured Events
2001 Mary J. Blige's "Family Affair" hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first of six weeks. It's the singer's first single to top the chart.
1998 In one of the last years for major album sales, several highly anticipated releases are issued, including Alanis Morissette's Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (the followup to Jagged Little Pill), Beck's Mutations, Celine Dion's These Are Special Times, U2's Greatest Hits set, and John Lennon's boxed set.
1998 Britney Spears, 16, releases her first single, "...Baby One More Time." Three months later, it goes to #1 in America.
1995 Hootie & the Blowfish settle out of court with Bob Dylan, who sees their lifting of lyrics from "Tangled Up In Blue" on their hit "Only Want To Be With You" as more plagiarism than tribute.
1990 After being featured prominently in the smash hit film Ghost, The Righteous Brothers' version of "Unchained Melody" returns to the top of the UK charts after 25 years.
1990 "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice hits #1 in the US, marking the first time a rapper has topped the chart.More
1973 Daryl Hall and John Oates release Abandoned Luncheonette, their first album under their own names (a previous album was released as "Whole Oates"). The tracks "Laughing Boy," "She's Gone" and "Las Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song)" become concert favorites for the duo.
1972 Carly Simon and James Taylor get married, forming a musical power couple not seen until Jay-Z and Beyoncé tie the knot. The marriage lasts 11 years.
3 NOVEMBER
In Music History
2024 Quincy Jones dies at 91. A musical visionary, his accomplishments include producing Michael Jackson's albums Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad; launching Vibe magazine; and scoring the movie The Color Purple.
2023 Sixty-five years after it was first released, Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" gets an official music video, with Trisha Yearwood, Tanya Tucker and Santa Claus all joining Lee. The video helps send the song to #1 a few weeks later.
2018 In San Diego, Deftones host their inaugural Dia de Los Deftones, an annual all-ages festival built around the Mexican heritage of lead singer Chino Moreno. It combines music with Day of the Dead celebrations, encouraging participants to dress as skeletons in honor of the holiday.
2015 Months after 1000 singers and musicians in Cesena, Italy perform "Learn to Fly" in an effort to entice Foo Fighters to play there, the group complies, performing a concert in the city.
2010 UB40 performs a gig at the Rainbow pub in Digbeth, Birmingham, helping the club raise money to soundproof their roof after a series of noise complaints. Five hundred fans are given a rare chance to see the band play up close and personal in this intimate setting.
2009 Country singer Carrie Underwood releases her third studio album, Play On, featuring the crossover hit "Cowboy Casanova."
2006 Lyricist Betty Comden dies in New York City aged 89.
2006 French orchestra leader Paul Mauriat, known for a hit 1968 cover of Andre Popp's "Love Is Blue," dies at age 81.
2005 Alicia Keys hosts and performs at a fundraiser for the AIDS charity Keep a Child Alive at New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center. She is joined by fellow music heavyweights Usher, Paul Simon, John Mayer and Common, as well as African acts Angelique Kidjo, Baaba Maal, Femi Kuti and the Agape Children's Choir from Durban, South Africa.
2005 Colombian vocalist Juanes adds more statues to his mantel with three wins during the Latin Grammy Awards ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Juanes, who is the all-time leader with nine wins going into the event, takes home awards for best rock solo vocal album for Mi Sangre, best rock song for "Nada Valgo Sin Tu Amor" and best music video for "Volverte a Ver."
2004 Eric Clapton is made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace.
2003 Coldplay Live 2003, a forthcoming DVD release from Coldplay, receives big screen premieres across the US.
2002 '60s British singer Lonnie Donegan, known as The King of Skiffle, dies of a heart attack at age 71.
2001 Phil Vassar is named songwriter-artist of the year at the 39th annual ASCAP Country Music Awards at Nashville's Opryland Hotel.
1997 In Santa Monica, California, Billy Preston is sentenced to three years in prison for cocaine possession and violating parole.
Rage Against The Machine Release Incendiary Debut Album
1992Rage Against The Machine release their self-titled debut album. It's filled with incendiary protest songs that take on topics like media manipulation ("Bullet In The Head"), oppression of indigenous people ("Freedom") and government warmongering ("Know Your Enemy").
The album lives up to the promise of the band name, which lead singer Zack de la Rocha describes like this: "I look at the system that we're living under right now as a machine. I view it as a system which will do anything to to keep itself afloat. It fronts as a democracy, it fronts as a system that claims to represent people and represent freedom. I see this machine as like an engine that has been fueled and run off the blood of oppressed people all over the world, so it's a name that I use to describe my frustrations and my anger being Chicano, having indigenous blood and being part of a of a culture which has been completely colonized." The band formed in Los Angeles in 1991 when de la Rocha, a Chicano poet raised on punk and hip-hop, got together with guitarist Tom Morello, a Harvard-educated revolutionary. Adding bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk, they started writing and recording right away, and by the end of the year they had a 12-song cassette they sold at shows for $5 and used as a demo. Courted by record labels, they chose Epic, which agreed to give them creative control. Seven songs from the cassette, including "Bombtrack" and "Take The Power Back," made their debut album. They knew from live shows that "Killing In The Name" connected with crowds, so that was issued as the first single and went on to become their most popular song. The songs get little airplay but in 1993 as Rage tour with House Of Pain and play festivals like Lollapalooza, word gets out. In 1994 it crosses the million mark in US sales and also goes Platinum in countries around the world. This despite a very disturbing cover showing Malcolm Browne's Pulitzer-winning photo of Thich Quang Duc, a Vietnamese monk who set himself on fire in 1963 to protest religious persecution. This image, paired with Epic's mandatory Parental Advisory sticker, create stark irony: a band decrying censorship branded for explicit content. By the time the band gets around to releasing their next album, Evil Empire in 1996, they have a huge fan base eager to hear what else they have to say. Commendably, they hold true to their beliefs with more songs decrying corruption and injustice, starting with the single "Bulls On Parade." While the band rages against the machine, they also seethe at each other. After releasing their The Battle of Los Angeles album in 1999 they tour in 2000 and break up when Zack de la Rocha quits the band. The other three members form Audioslave with Chris Cornell. They cut back on politics but at Tom Morello's suggestion, they name their first single "Cochise" in honor of an Apache Indian chief from the 1800s who fought the incursion into their lands (the song has nothing to do with him). When Audioslave split in 2007, Rage re-form. Their reunion lasts until 2011 but doesn't result in any new music. They reunite again for a tour in 2022, but when they make the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2023, only Morello attends, signaling the end of the band.
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