November 23

Births

1939: Betty Everett (R&B Singer)

1954: Bruce Hornsby (Pianist & Singer / Songwriter)

1987: Snooki (Nicole Polizzi)

1992: Miley Ray Cyrus (Singer)

Events

1899: The Palais Royal Hotel in San Francisco installs the first coin-operated machine destined to be known as a "jukebox," in this case a crude slot-machine apparatus connected to an actual Edison phonograph. At a nickel a song, it took in one thousand dollars in six months' time.

1950: Hank Williams writes "Cold, Cold Heart".

1956: A sheet metal worker in Toledo, OH is arrested for punching Elvis Presley in a bar after the man discovers Elvis' picture in his wife's wallet. He was fined $19.60 but ended up being jailed because he was unable to pay the fine.

1960: Elvis' fifth film, G.I. Blues, is released in US theaters, just six years to the day before his 22nd, Spinout!

1964: The Rolling Stones are banned from the BBC for, of all things, unprofessionalism, the band having arrived late twice to perform on the radio shows Saturday Club and Top Gear.

1968: Led Zeppelin signs to the Atlantic label after being guided there by Dusty Springfield.

1972: Bob Dylan goes to Durango, CO, to begin work on his role in Sam Peckinpah's next movie, Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid.

1974: UK pop-rock band Spooky Tooth call it quits. Though only a cult hit in the US (and virtually unknown at home), their members will all go on to fame: Gary Wright with "Dream Weaver," Mick Jones as the guitarist for Foreigner, Henry McCullough as one of the guitarists for Wings (he does the solo on "My Love"), and Chris Stainton as an Eric Clapton sideman.

1976: Jerry Lee Lewis visits Elvis Presley's Memphis home, Graceland, very early in the morning and is told that Elvis is asleep. He drives off in a huff but returns after sunrise, invited there by The King himself. Unfortunately, one of Elvis' security guards hasn't been told, and when Jerry Lee is refused permission to enter, he allegedly brandishes a gun and claims he's come to kill Presley. Lewis, who later claimed he was making a sarcastic joke, is promptly arrested.

1985: American blues artist Big Joe Turner died of a heart attack aged 75. Wrote 'Shake Rattle and Roll', (a hit for Bill Haley and His Comets) and 'Sweet Sixteen.'

1987: Sly Stone was charged with possession of cocaine in Santa Monica.

1994: Michael Jackson is cleared in a paternity suit after DNA results proved he was NOT the father.

1995: American soul singer and saxophonist Junior Walker died of cancer aged 64.

1996: Trace Adkins makes his debut on the Grand Ole Opry. After singing "Every Light In The House," he drops to one knee, calls out girlfriend Rhonda Forlaw and asks her to marry him. She says yes.

1998: The world's first portable mp3 player goes on sale, despite strenuous objections from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). The Diamond Rio PMP300, which cost $200, could play about a dozen songs.

2000: Faith Hill stars in her first TV special, "Faith!," on Thanksgiving on CBS.

2002: Otis Redding's widow and former manager sue Scott Freeman, author of a 2001 biography of the late soul singer that mentioned rumors to the effect that Redding's then-manager caused his plane to crash in 1967, with a little help from the mob, in order to collect on his life insurance.

2005: Dan McTeague a Toronto MP tried to have 50 Cent barred from entering Canada to perform a series of concerts later this year. McTeague had sent a letter to Immigration Minister Joe Volpe claiming that the controversial rapper shouldn't be permitted to cross the border because he promotes gun violence. 

November 22

Births

1946: Aston "Family Man" Barrett (Bass for Bob Marley and the Wailers)

1947: Rod Price (Guitar for Foghat)

1950: "Miami" Steve "Little Steven" Van Zandt (Guitar for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band)

1950: Tina Weymouth (Bass for The Talking Heads & The Tom Tom Club)

1978: Karen O (Singer for The Yeah Yeah Yeahs)

Events

1946: Gene Autry rides in the Santa Claus Lane parade in Hollywood, as do Roy Rogers, Jack Benny and Red Skelton. When Autry hears children shouting, "Here comes Santa Claus," he's inspired to write "Here Comes Santa Claus (Down Santa Claus Lane)".

1957: Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel make their first appearance on ABC-TV's dance show American Bandstand -- in their earlier incarnation as Tom and Jerry, playing their minor hit "Hey Little Schoolgirl."

1965: Bob Dylan marries his first wife, Sara Lowndes, in Nassau County, NY; as she is already pregnant with his first child, the marriage is kept a secret for the next two months. The couple would divorce in 1977.

1968: In Ireland, singer Marianne Faithfull, heavily addicted to cocaine, miscarries what was to be her second child, fathered by boyfriend Mick Jagger.

1976: Jerry Lee Lewis is arrested for drunk driving in Memphis after driving his Rolls Royce into a ditch.

1981: During Muddy Waters' gig at the Checkerboard Lounge in Chicago, the legendary bluesman is joined onstage by the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ron Wood, currently touring through the Midwest.

1987: Jesus and Mary Chain singer Jim Reid was arrested in Canada after being accused of assaulting members of the audience with his microphone stand, he was released on $2,000 bail.

1990: The Rolling Stones' Bill Wyman announces the dissolution of his year-and-a-half-long marriage to model Mandy Smith. It was the third marriage for Wyman and the first for Smith, who was 34 years his junior. (The duo had begun dating when she was 13!) In an even more stunning development, Wyman's 30-year-old son soon married Mandy's mother, who was 16 years older than him, which, if Bill had remained married, would have made him his own grandfather.

1991: Alice Cooper came to the rescue of two fans; Patrick and Dee Ann Kelly, whose California home was about to be re-possessed. Patrick had painted Coopers face on the house to help sell the property. Mr Cooper signed autographs to help raise money for the couple.

1997: INXS singer Michael Hutchence was found dead in his hotel suite in Sydney. He was 37. Hutchence body was found at 11.50am naked behind the door to his room. He had apparently hanged himself with his own belt and the buckle broke away and his body was found kneeling on the floor and facing the door. It had been suggested that his death resulted from an act of auto eroticism, no forensic or other evidence to substantiate that suggestion was found.

2002: Ex-Doors members Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger announce they will reform the band for the first time in 27 years, replacing original drummer John Densmore (suffering from hearing loss) with the Police's Stuart Copeland and replacing original frontman Jim Morrison with soundalike Ian Astbury of the Cult.

2003: Wynonna Judd is married for the second time, to her long-time bodyguard, D.R. Roach, in Leiper's Fork, Tennessee, with Naomi and Ashley Judd attending.

2004: Ozzy Osbourne struggled with a burglar who escaped with jewelry worth about $4M from his Buckinghamshire mansion. Osbourne told reporters that he had the masked raider in a headlock as he tried to stop him. The burglar broke free and jumped 30 ft from a first floor window.

2005: Sixteen pages of poetry written by University of Minnesota student Robert Zimmerman -- using his new name, Bob Dylan, for the first time -- are auctioned off for $78,000 in New York.

2006: After decades of living in California, Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood is finally naturalized as a citizen of the United States.

2005: A gig by former Stone Roses singer Ian Brown was abandoned after 20 minutes because the floor at the venue began to sag. 2,000 people were told to leave Newcastle's Carling Academy, which had only been open for a month. Organizers said it was simply a safety precaution after joists under the main dance floor came out of their springs.

November 21

Births

1904: Coleman Hawkins (Jazz Sax Player)

1940: Dr. John (Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr.) (Singer / Songwriter)

1965: Bjork Gudmundsdottir (Singer for The Sugarcubes and Solo)

1968: Alex James (Bass for Blur)

Events

1877: Thomas A. Edison unveils his new "talking machine," later dubbed the phonograph, to a gathering of friends and colleagues.

1960: Ray Charles has four singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart today: "Georgia on My Mind" at #5, "Ruby" at #51, "Hard Hearted Hannah" at #66, and "Come Rain Or Come Shine" at #95.

1962: Elvis Presley's 11th film, Girls! Girls! Girls!, opens in US theaters.

1968: With girlfriend Yoko Ono about to miscarry their first son, John Ono Lennon II, John Lennon asks for a tape recorder to be brought to the hospital so that he can record the baby's dying heartbeat. Later that day, Yoko miscarries; the baby is buried in a secret location and the recording appears on the duo's album Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With The Lions as a track called "Baby's Heartbeat," followed by "Two Minutes Silence" for his death.

1970: The Partridge Family started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'I Think I Love You'. The song was featured in the first episode of the Partridge Family TV series, made by the same company that made The Monkees.

1974: Wilson Pickett is arrested in New York for illegal possession of a firearm after pulling a gun on someone during an argument.

1974: After years of estrangement, Marty Balin is convinced to reunite with the Jefferson Airplane -- now named Jefferson Starship -- onstage at the Winterland ballroom in San Francisco, paving the way for his official reinvolvement with the band on Red Octopus.

1975: Elton John is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in conjunction with an "Elton John Week" being declared in Los Angeles.

1980: The Eagles' Don Henley is arrested in Los Angeles and charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor when paramedics are called to his home to save a sixteen-year-old girl overdosing on cocaine and Quaaludes. He is fined $2,000 and given two years' probation.

1982: Joni Mitchell marries her bass player, Larry Klein, at manager Elliot Roberts' home in Malibu, CA.

1990: After a decade-long relationship, Mick Jagger marries model/actress Jerry Hall in a six-hour ceremony on the island of Bali. Eight years later, almost to the day, their marriage would be annulled after a judge rules the couple were never registered with authorities (and after Hall learns that Jagger is the father of someone else's child).

1991: Aerosmith guest stars on tonight's "Flaming Moe" episode of Fox-TV's The Simpsons.

1995: Matthew Ashman, former Adam And The Ants and Bow Wow Wow guitarist died aged 35 from complications caused by diabetes.

1995: 2pac Shakur and Tha Dogg Pound gave out 2,000 turkeys in Los Angeles, CA.

1995: Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong was arrested and fined $141 for dropping his pants at a concert in Milwaukee, WI.

1997: Coolio and seven members of his band 40 Thevz were arrested and charged with theft and assault in a boutique in the town of Boblingen, Germany. The eight were charged with assaulting a female clerk in a clothing store and stealing clothing worth $2,000.

2003: The acoustic guitar on which George Harrison learned how to play is sold at a London auction for $500,000. The original price of the guitar: $7.00.

2003: In Santa Barbara, CA, Michael Jackson was booked on suspicion of child molestation. Jackson immediately posted the $3 million bail and then flew back to Las Vegas where he had been filming a video. He was given an arraignment date of January 9, 2004.

2003: The Los Angeles Times reports that Phil Spector's chauffeur heard him say, "I think I killed somebody," after the shooting death of b-movie actress Lana Clarkson in his Alhambra, CA home.

2007, The Red Hot Chili Peppers were suing The Showtime network over the name of its TV show ‘Californication’ saying the title was "immediately associated in the mind of the consumer" with its 1999 album and single release. 

November 18

Births

1949: Herman Rarebell (Drummer for The Scorpions)

1950: Rudy Sarzo (Bass for Quiet Riot, Ozzy, Whitesnake, Dio & Blue Oyster Cult)

1954: John Parr (Singer / Songwriter)

1960: Kim Wilde (Singer)

1961: Janice Lynn Kuehnemund (Guitar for Vixen)

1962: Kirk Hammett (Lead Guitar for Metallica)

1977: Fabolous (John David Jackson) (Rapper)

Events

1952: Four days after he divorces his first wife, Bill Haley marries his pregnant girlfriend.

1954: ABC Radio stations ban Rosemary Clooney's "Mambo Italiano" due to what it considers "offensive lyrics," more than likely the exaggerated Italian patois and words "goombah" and "gidrool."

1956: Fats Domino sings his hit "Blueberry Hill" on CBS-TV's Ed Sullivan Show.

1958: Johnny Cash suffers an attack of acute appendicitis while preparing for a show in Ottumwa, IA, and is hospitalized.

1963: Beatles manager Brian Epstein asks the group's fans to please refrain from pelting the group with "jellybabies" (jellybeans) at their concerts. (The Beatles had made the mistake of remarking how much they liked them.) On the same day, the newspapers reveal that the head of the Church of England has requested that the group write a Christmas song.

1968: The Bee Gees cancel a concert in Germany after Barry and Robin contract tonsillitis.

1968: Randy Meisner, Jim Messina, Richie Furay, George Grantham, and Rusty Young, folk-rock vets of the Los Angeles scene, debut at the Troubadour under the name Pogo, in honor of Walt Kelly's famous comic strip character. When Kelly files suit later, however, the group is forced to change to the similar-sounding Poco. The members would later go on to even greater success as members of The Eagles, Loggins and Messina, and the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band.

1970: Jerry Lee Lewis divorces his wife (and cousin) Myra Brown in Memphis after 14 years of marriage.

1972: Bill Withers sings his recent hits "Lean On Me" and "Use Me" on the syndicated dance show Soul Train.

1972: Danny Whitten died of a drug overdose aged 29. Member of Neil Young's Crazy Horse and writer of 'I Don't Wanna Talk About It', covered by Rod Stewart, Rita Coolidge and Everything But The Girl.

1975: Bruce Springsteen performs his first UK concert, at London's Hammersmith Odeon. Unfortunately, it was a subpar show, due to his disgust at the hype surrounding his new celebrity: upon seeing official show posters in the lobby declaring "Finally the world is ready for Bruce Springsteen," he rips them down.

1976: Richard Hell and the Voidoids made their debut at CBGB's New York.

1979: Chuck Berry is released from California's Lompoc Prison farm after serving a four-month sentence for tax evasion.

1983: R.E.M. made their first appearance outside the US when they appeared on Channel 4 UK TV show 'The Tube'. The following night they made their live UK debut when the played at Dingwalls, London.

1987: U2 opened for itself by pretending to be a country-rock group called The Dalton Brothers during a concert in Los Angeles.

1990: Paul McCartney's birth certificate is auctioned off for $18,000.

1992: Black Sabbath were honoured with a star at the Rock Walk in Hollywood.

1993: Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder was arrested in New Orleans for disturbing the peace after a fight broke out in a bar.

1994: The Rolling Stones become the first rock act to stream a live concert on the Internet, broadcasting twenty minutes of a show from Dallas, TX.

1997: In Bristol, England, Gary Glitter is detained and questioned by police after a computer store repairing the glam star's computer found it loaded with child pornography.

1998: Mick Jagger and model/actress Jerry Hall separate eight years to the day after their marriage in Bali when Brazilian model Luciana Morad names Jagger as the father of her unborn child.

2002: Bill Wyman, former Rolling Stones bassist, sends a cease and desist letter to a writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution bearing the same name, which the writer was born under in 1961, on grounds that it violated the copyright of the bassist Wyman, who legally took the name at age 28 in 1964. Needless to say, no lawsuit is ever filed.

2003: The original handwritten John Lennon lyrics to the Beatles' "Nowhere Man" are auctioned at Christie's of New York for $300,000.

2003: More than five hundred Britney Spears fans camped overnight outside the Virgin Records Megastore in New York's Times Square waiting to get the star to sign copies of her new album 'In The Zone.'

2003: Acting on the sexual abuse allegations of a 12-year-old boy who had visited the home, approximately 70 members of California's Santa Barbara County sheriff's and district attorney's offices raid Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch. The singer is in Vegas filming a video at the time.

November 17

Births

1938: Gordon Lightfoot (Singer / Songwriter)

1942: Bob Gaudio (Keyboards for The Four Seasons)

1944: Gene Clark (Guitar & Vocals for The Byrds)

1946: Martin Barre (Guitar for Jethro Tull)

1957: Jim Babjak (Guitar for The Smithereens)

1960: RuPaul (Singer)

1966: Jeff Buckley (Singer / Songwriter)

1967: Ronald Devoe (Singer in New Edition & Bell-Biv-DeVoe)

Events

1963: Headmaster John Weightman of Surrey Grammar School in Guildford, England, bans the popular Beatle "moptop" haircuts, explaining that "this ridiculous style brings out the worst in boys physically. It makes them look like morons."

1963: Singer Tommy Sands joins his wife, Nancy Sinatra, to perform "Old Straw Hat" and "Hey Good Lookin'" on CBS-TV's Ed Sullivan Show.

1963: Backstage at the British ITV music program Thank Your Lucky Stars, the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger and Keith Richards present Gene Pitney with one of their first songs, "My Only Girl." Retitled "That Girl Belongs To Yesterday," it would be a hit for Pitney on both sides of the ocean, the first Jagger/Richards composition to make the US charts, and the first UK hit for the pair. Later, the Stones themselves record the song, but their version is never released.

1967: Davy Jones of the Monkees opens a boutique called Zilch I, named after a Monkees song, in New York's Greenwich Village.

1974: ABBA play their first gig outside Sweden, opening at the Kalkonerteater in Copenhagen on their first European tour.

1976: Olivia-Newton John's first TV special, A Very Special Olivia Newton-John, is broadcast on ABC.

1978: During Bob Dylan's show at the San Diego Sports Arena, an audience member throws a silver Christian cross onstage, which the singer picks up and pockets. Perhaps coincidentally, Dylan enters his "Christian period" the next year.

1979: The Guinness Book of World Records verifies ABBA as the biggest-selling recording group in history.

1979: Jethro Tull bass player John Glascock died at the age of 28, as a result of a congenital heart defect.

1980: The annual "Royal Command Performance" in London features Aretha Franklin and Sammy Davis Jr. singing for England's Queen Elizabeth II.

1990: While speeding without a helmet, David Crosby crashes his Harley-Davidson motorcycle in Los Angeles, breaking his shoulder, left leg, and ankle.

1992: Former members of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers Jimmy Merchant and Herman Santiago, are awarded four million dollars in back royalties from a music publisher for their 1956 hit "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?"

1999: Mariah Carey was forced to abandon a performance on Rome's historic Spanish Steps after crowds of tourists swamped her. She took shelter in a local shop before being given a police escort to safety.

2000: Cher makes her first appearance on NBC-TV's sitcom Will and Grace, in the episode "Gypsies, Tramps and Weed."

2000: ABC-TV airs the documentary The Beatles: Revolution.

2003: After collapsing on stage during a concert in London, Meat Loaf is rushed to a nearby hospital with what a publicist terms "exhaustion due to a prolonged viral infection" but what is actually an irregular heartbeat requiring emergency surgery.

2003: 21 year-old Britney Spears became the youngest singer to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The only other performer to get a Hollywood star at her age was Little House on the Prairie actress Melissa Gilbert.

November 16

Births

1938: Troy Seals (Singer for Seals & Croft)

1958: Harry Rushakoff (Drummer for Concrete Blonde)

1962: Gary 'Mani' Mounfield (Bass for The Stone Roses)

1964: Diana Krall (Singer / Songwriter & Pianist)

1966: David Kushner (Rhythm Guitar for Velvet Revolver)

1969: Bryan Abrams (Singer in Color Me Badd)

Events

1955 : Johnny Cash made his 1st chart appearance with "Cry, Cry, Cry".

1965: CBS-TV airs the Frank Sinatra documentary Sinatra: An American Original, hosted by Walter Cronkite.

1965: George Martin puts together the final running order of the songs on the Beatles' Rubber Soul album.

1968: Led Zeppelin played their first ever show in the north of England when they appeared at Manchester College of Science & Technology.

1974: John Lennon was at No.1 in the US singles chart with 'Whatever Gets You Through The Night.' Elton John played on the session and made a deal with Lennon that if the song reached No.1, Lennon would have to appear on stage live with Elton. Lennon kept his side of the deal and appeared live with Elton. They played three songs together: ‘I Saw Her Standing There,’ ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’ and ‘Whatever Gets You Through the Night.’ Backstage after the concert, Lennon got back with Yoko Ono after a temporary split.

1976: Resident genius of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, comes out of an eight-year seclusion to give an interview to BBC 2's music show Old Grey Whistle Test.

1978: A musical tribute to the songs of the Beatles starring the Bee Gees, Peter Frampton and dozens of others, the infamous fantasy film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band opens in Us theaters. A notorious flop that was widely panned by critics, the musical does quite a bit of damage to the careers of all who appear in it, including co-stars Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, and Stargard. Comedian Steve Martin, George Burns, and Earth Wind and Fire, however, emerge from the disaster relatively unscathed.

1978: Replicating their infamous promo stunt for the single, Queen are joined onstage at Madison Square Garden by several dozen nude, semi-overweight women during their performance of "Bicycle Race." (Overweight because the single mentions "fat bottomed girls," the title of the other half of the A-side.)

1985: U2 launched their own record label 'Mother Records.'

1987: Former Clash drummer Topper Headon was jailed for 15 months at Maidstone Crown Court, England for supplying heroin to a man who later died.

1987: Actress Lisa Bonet marries singer Lenny Kravitz.  They separated in 1990 and divorced in 1993.

1988: Stan Love, brother and manager of Beach Boy Mike Love, is sentenced to five years' suspended sentence after being found guilty of embezzling over $300,000 from the group.

1996: The Beatles become the first artists to score three Number One albums in the same year when their Anthology 3 hits the top of the American charts.

1998: Having suffered a seizure while performing in Hollywood a few weeks earlier, Roland Alphonso of the Skatalites slips into a coma.

2000: American rapper Joseph (Joe C.) Calleja died of chronic intestinal disorder. Calleja had celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that can cause stunted growth, as a result, he reached a maximum height of 3 feet, 9 inches (114 centimeters) by adulthood. He was a member of Kid Rock's band.

2001: The city of Palm Springs, CA unveils a statue in its downtown area honoring the late Sonny Bono, half of Sonny and Cher and mayor of the city for a time in the Eighties.

2006: Queen's Greatest Hits is declared the most popular album of all time in Britain, with more than five-and-a-half million units sold. At Number Two: the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper.

2006: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sends 417 more letters to sixteen college administrators threatening mass lawsuits if file-sharing is found happening on university servers.