June 20

Births

1924: Chet Atkins (Country Singer & Guitarist)

1942: Brian Wilson (Singer in The Beach Boys)

1945: Anne Murray (Pop Singer)

1949: Lionel Richie (R&B Singer)

1954: Michael Anthony (Bass for Van Halen)

1960: John Taylor (Bass for Duran Duran)

1966: Stone Gossard (Lead Guitar for Pearl Jam)

1967: Murphy Karges (Bass for Sugar Ray)

1967: Jerome Fontamillas (Guitar & Keyboards for Switchfoot)

1967: Dan Tyminski (Bluegrass Singer / Songwriter in Alison Krauss & Union Station and Soggy Bottom Boys)

1971: Twiggy Ramirez (Jeordie Osborne White) (Bass for Marilyn Manson)

1973: Chino Moreno (Vocals for The Deftones)

1979: Chuck Wicks (Country Singer / Songwriter)

1983: Grace Potter (Singer for Grace Potter & The Nocturnals)

Events

1948: CBS-TV debuts its new variety show, entitled Toast Of The Town, featuring performances by Martin & Lewis and Rodgers & Hammerstein, and hosted by a New York Daily News entertainment columnist and critic named Ed Sullivan. It would go on to become The Ed Sullivan Show and become the longest-running variety show in US history at 23 years.

1959: In Paris, The management of the Lido Club calls Elvis Presley's hotel and demands that his entire female chorus line be returned in time for tonight's show.

1965: Ira Louvin (Singer & Mandolin Player in The Louvin Brothers) was hit and killed by a drunk driver at 41 years old.

1966: Capitol executives, reeling from the Beatles' latest scandal, replace the original "Butcher Cover" of the US album Yesterday and Today -- which featured the band posing with decapitated dolls and raw meat, to the horror of fans and record retailers -- with a more sedate, traditional band pose. The label decides to glue the new cover over the old one, resulting in one of the band's most prized collectibles. An unpeeled original "Butcher" fetches about $800.

1969: Northridge, CA hosts the Newport Rock festival, featuring Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Rascals, Ike and Tina Turner, Steppenwolf, Joe Cocker, Jethro Tull, and Jimi Hendrix, whose $125,000 fee is the highest ever paid to a rock act for one show.  A three day ticket cost $15.

1972: The Tallahatchie bridge in Sidon, MS, made famous by Bobbie Gentry's hit "Ode To Billie Joe," collapses. Today motorists use the newer bridge on County Road 512 to cross the river.

1973: American Bandstand airs its 20th anniversary special on ABC-TV, featuring Little Richard, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Three Dog Night, Johnny Mathis, Annette Funicello, and Cheech and Chong. It also features the first appearance of his many huge "all-star" rock jams.

1980: "It's Still Rock & Roll To Me" became Billy Joel's first #1 hit.

1981: A disco medley of oldies hits called "Stars On 45" hits #1 in the US, becoming a national phenomenon. The medley, which originated in Dutch dance clubs, begins with re-creations of Shocking Blue's "Venus" and The Archies' "Sugar Sugar" before segueing into an expert mimic of early Beatles hits.

1983: Twang king and guitar god Duane Eddy performs his first concert in fifteen years with a show in San Francisco.

1985: Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr married Angela Brown in San Francisco, California.

1987: Teddy Pendergrass marries his first and only wife, Karen Still.

1995: A Los Angeles judge rules that the Kingsmen and not their label, Scepter, are owners of the 1963 smash "Louie, Louie" and are entitled to back royalties.

1996: Westinghouse Electric becomes the first entity to cash in on the new 1996 Telecommunications Act by purchasing Infinity Broadcasting for 3.9 billion dollars. The act relaxed restrictions on how many radio and TV stations one company could own in a single market.

1997: Lawrence Payton of The Four Tops died from liver cancer aged 59.

2000: The Ronettes were awarded $2.6 million in “back earnings” from Phil Spector. New York judge Paula Omansky ruled that the legendary producer had cheated them out of royalties.

2004: Organisers at a Paul McCartney gig hired three jets to spray dry ice into the clouds so it wouldn’t rain during the concert. The gig in Petersburg, Russia, was McCartney’s 3,000 concert appearance. He had performed 2,535 gigs with the Quarrymen and the Beatles, 140 gigs with Wings and 325 solo shows.

2006: The BBC cancels its landmark weekly pop music show Top Of The Pops after a record 42 years on the air.

2008: Surrey University in England awarded Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page an honorary Doctorate in Music.

2008: American singer songwriter Jimmy Buffett announced that his Margaritaville Holdings has partnered with New York gambling company Coastal Marina to buy the Trump Marina Hotel Casino for $316 million. His vast business empire also included tequila, beer, frozen food, footwear, restaurants, a resort, a record label and a recording studio. In 2006, Rolling Stone magazine estimated Buffett's earnings at $44 million.