13 SEPTEMBER
In Music History
1960 A movement to ban Ray Peterson's new single "Tell Laura I Love Her" begins in the UK when it is feared that the song's powerful story of a stock-car driver who dies young while racing for his girl's love will inspire a "death cult" amongst teens.
1960 The FCC bans "payola," the controversial practice of paying DJs for playing songs, as a result of the scandal involving, among others, Dick Clark and Alan Freed.
1959 Elvis Presley meets his future wife Priscilla Beaulieu at a party at his house in Germany, where he is serving in the US Army. They hit it off that night, with Elvis playing her some songs on guitar.
1958 Cliff Richard makes his TV debut, performing "Move It" on the UK show Oh Boy!
1957 R&B singer Joni Sledge (of Sister Sledge) is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1954 Doo-wop singer Den Hegarty (of Darts) is born in Dublin, Ireland.
1952 Rocker Don Was is born Donald Fagenson in Detroit, Michigan.
1952 Jo Stafford's "You Belong To Me" hits #1.
1944 Peter Cetera (bassist/vocalist for Chicago) is born in Chicago, Illinois.
1943 Ray Elliot (keyboardist/saxophonist/flautist for Them) is born in Belfast, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland.
1941 David Clayton-Thomas is born in England. He would grow up in Canada and become the lead singer in Blood, Sweat, Tears, bringing with him their biggest hit, "Spinning Wheel."
1939 Saxophonist/composer Dave Quincy (of Manfred Mann) is born in the UK.
1925 Jazz singer Mel Tormé, aka The Velvet Fog, is born in Chicago, Illinois. He would begin his professonal music career at age 4, singing "You're Driving Me Crazy" with the Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra.
1922 Blues singer Charles Brown is born Tony Russell Brown in Texas City, Texas.
1922 Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac is born Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo in Callao, Peru.
Taylor Swift Wins MTV Video Music Award, Kanye West Loses It
2009When Taylor Swift wins for Best Female Video at the MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West comes on stage and commandeers the microphone, explaining that Beyoncé deserved the award for her "Single Ladies" video. When Beyoncé does win for Video of the Year later that night, she brings Taylor on stage to finish her speech.
Read more13 SEPTEMBER
Featured Events
2011 The B-52s play their first ever show in Idaho, finally performing their song "Private Idaho" in the state that inspired it.
2000 Almost Famous is released in theaters across the US. The film is a semi-autobiographical account of writer and director Cameron Crowe's time spent interviewing rock bands for Rolling Stone in the '70s, when he was just a teenager. The film centers around a fictional band called Stillwater, and rather than being based on one band in particular, Stillwater feels like every '70s arena band rolled into one.More
1997 Elton John's rewritten version of "Candle In The Wind" that he played at Princess Diana's funeral a week earlier is released as a single. It sells a record 600,000 copies the first day in Britain alone, where it becomes the best selling single of all time. Worldwide, it sells over 30 million copies, second only to "White Christmas."More
1996 Tupac Shakur, age 25, dies six days after being shot while riding in a car driven by his label boss, Suge Knight. No arrests are made in the case.
1982 After co-producing her previous release, Never For Ever, British singer-songwriter Kate Bush returns as sole producer with The Dreaming.More
1969 At the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival, host Kim Fowley starts a rock tradition when he asks the crowd to hold up lighters for Eric Clapton and John Lennon.More
©2026 Songfacts®, LLC