June 20

Births

1920: Danny Cedrone (Guitarist for Bill Haley and His Comets)

1924: Chet Atkins (Country Singer & Guitarist)

1936: Billy Guy (Vocals in The Coasters)

1937: Jerry Keller (Pop Singer)

1942: Brian Wilson (Singer in The Beach Boys)

1945: Anne Murray (Pop Singer)

1949: Lionel Richie (R&B Singer)

1953: Alan Longmuir (Bass for The Bay City Rollers)

1959: Michael Anthony (Bass for Van Halen)

1960: John Taylor (Bass for Duran Duran)

1966: Stone Gossard (Guitar for Pearl Jam)

1968: Jeordie Osborne White (Twiggy Ramirez) (Bass for Marilyn Manson)

1972: Chino Moreno (Vocals for The Deftones)

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" 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.

1989: The "Batman: Motion Picture Soundtrack" was released by Prince.

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.

June 19

Births

1902: Guy Lombardo (Band Leader)

1936: Tommy DeVito (Lead Guitar & Vocals for The Four Seasons)

1939: Al Wilson (R&B Singer)

1942: Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane (Spanky and Our Gang)

1948: Nick Drake (Singer)

1950: Ann Wilson (Singer in Heart)

1953: Larry Dunn (Keyboards for Earth, Wind and Fire)

1963: Paula Abdul (Singer)

1963: Simon Wright (Drummer for AC/DC)

1970: Brian “Head” Welch (Guitar for Korn)

Events

1958: Buddy Holly records his first solo songs, "Early In The Morning" and "Now We're One," at Decca's Pythian Temple Studios in New York.

1960: At the height of the folk-music boom, The Kingston Trio premier their own self-titled weekday show on CBS radio.

1963: For the first time, Ringo Starr uses his new Ludwig drum kit, complete with the famous "Beatles" logo, onstage as the group performs at London's Playhouse Theatre.

1965: The Four Tops went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'I Can't Help Myself'. Lead singer Levi Stubbs had not been satisfied with the recording session and was promised that he could do it again the following day, but no other session ever took place. The track that became a hit was just the second take of the song.

1967: Answering questions about a controversial interview he'd recently given to the Daily Mirror, Paul McCartney shocks the British public by admitting on BBC television that he's taken LSD four times.

1973: A strange musical ode to sci-fi and other Fifties kitsch starring Tim Curry, The Rocky Horror Show, opens as a stage show at the Royal Court's Theatre Upstairs in London.

1973: Roberta Flack's first (and last) television special, Roberta Flack... The First Time Ever, also starring The Blossoms and Seals & Crofts, airs on ABC.

1976: "Rollermania" hits the US as the Bay City Rollers begin their first-ever American tour with a concert in Atlantic City.

1977: Six men wielding knives and iron bars outside Shepherd's Bush underground station beat up Paul Cook from The Sex Pistols. Cook required 15 stitches to a head wound.

1980: David Geffen's new self-titled record label makes its first signing... disco diva Donna Summer.

1997: Country singer Bobby Helms died from emphysema and asthma at the age of 63 .

2000: At Bob Dylan's concert in Portland, OR, British sign-language expert Professor Patrick Ladd "signs" the folk-rocker's famous lyrics for the hearing-impaired.

June 18

Births

1897: Kay Kyser (Bandleader)

1903: Jeanette MacDonald (Singer)

1913: Sammy Cahn (Songwriter)

1933: Tommy Hunt (Singer for The Flamingos)

1942: Paul McCartney (Singer & Bass for The Beatles & Wings)

1942: Carl Radle (Bass for Derek and the Dominoes)

1947: Sandy Posey (Pop Singer)

1952: Ricky Gazda (Trumpet for Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes)

1953: Jerome Smith (Guitar for KC and the Sunshine Band)

1957: Tom Bailey (Vocals & Keyboards for The Thompson Twins)

1961: Alison Moyet (Singer for Yaz and Solo)

1963: Dizzy Reed (Keyboards for Guns N' Roses)

1969: Simon Rowbottom (Guitarist for The Boo Radleys)

1971: Nathan Morris (Boyz II Men)

1976: Blake Shelton (Country Singer)

Events

1915: A.P. Carter marries Sara Dougherty in Maces Spring, VA, forming two-thirds of what would eventually, with the addition of Sara's sister, Maybelle, become country music's legendary Carter Family.

1948: The Columbia label becomes the first to mass-manufacture the new "long-playing" or "LP" record format, to be played at 33 1/3 rpm rather than the standard 78. Unlike 78 rpm discs, which only held three minutes of music, the LP could hold a full 23 minutes per side.

1967: The Beatles Apple record label is formed.

1967: After wresting the coveted closing spot from the Who, Jimi Hendrix goes to wow concertgoers at the Monterey Pop music festival by setting his guitar on fire during his set.

1974: Rare Earth drummer Peter Hoorelbeke is arrested for throwing his drumsticks into the crowd at the end of the band's concert.

1975: Elvis Presley enters Memphis' Mid-South Hospital, ostensibly to have "an extensive eye examination"; reports persist, however, that the King is actually having his crows' feet removed from his aging face.

1976: After eleven years with the group, guitarist Phil May leaves the Pretty Things.

1977: The night before their royal wedding, Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf and Silvia Sommerlath are serenaded in a Stockholm performance by the nation's biggest export, ABBA.

1977: Fleetwood Mac went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Dreams', the group's first and only US No.1.

1977: Johnny Rotten and Paul Cook of The Sex Pistols were stabbed and beaten when they were attacked in a car park outside a London pub.

1984: Dolly Parton releases the unfortunate career misstep Rhinestone in US movie theaters, featuring Parton as a country crooner who teaches Sylvester Stallone how to sing in the style.

1993: Having sold their label to Polygram three years earlier for half a billion dollars, A&M label founders Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss announce their intention to leave the company entirely. Begun in 1962, A&M was one of the first artist-owned labels, and the first successful independent label.

1995: Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace) was arrested in Camden, NJ, on robbery and aggravated assault charges.

1998: David Cassidy began selling a two-CD set exclusively on the cable TV shopping network QVC.

2000: It was reported that sales of pirate music CDs had now exceeded more than 500 million a year and accounted for one in every five sold. The Phonographic Industry estimated it was costing the music industry $5.1 billion in lost sales.

2000: Rapper Nate Dogg was arrested for allegedly kidnapping his girlfriend from her mother's house, holding her against her will, assaulting her and setting a car on fire. All charges were later dismissed.

2002: Billy Joel is admitted to Connecticut's Silver Hill Hospital for ten days in order to get his drinking under control.

2004: Ray Charles' funeral is held in Los Angeles at the First AME Church, featuring performances by Stevie Wonder, Glen Campbell, B.B. King, Wynton Marsalis, and Willie Nelson. Non-performing attendees include Little Richard, Clint Eastwood, and Berry Gordy, Jr.

2007: Singer Hank Medress (The Tokens) Died of lung cancer at age 68.

2008: A Lost Angeles hotel filed a lawsuit against Phil Spector for failing to pay more than $100,000 in outstanding bills for lawyers and expert witnesses in his murder trial. The Westin Bonaventure Hotel claimed that by the time Spector's trial ended with a hung jury, the defendants owed the hotel more than $104,000.

June 17

Births

1882: Igor Stavinstky (Composer)

1902: Sammy Fain (Pop Music Composer)

1910: Red Foley (Country Music Singer)

1930: Cliff Gallup (Guitar for Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps)

1943: Barry Manilow (born Barry Alan Pincus) (Singer & Piano Player)

1944: Chris Spedding (Guitarist)

1947: Greg Rolie (Keyboards for Santana, Journey)

1947: Glenn Buxton (Guitar for The Alice Cooper Band)

1957: Philip Chevron (Guitar for The Pogues)

1958: Jello Biafra (born Eric Reed Boucher) (Singer for The Dead Kennedys)

1962: Michael Monroe (Vocals for Hanoi Rocks)

1969: Kevin Thornton (Color Me Badd)

Events

1943: After planning to return to his hometown and resume his career as a barber, Perry Como is signed to RCA Records.

1954: Guitarist Danny Cedrone died following a freak accident; 10 days after he had recorded the lead guitar break on ‘Rock Around The Clock’ with Bill Haley and His Comets. Session player Cedrone was paid $21 for his work on the session, as at that time Haley chose not to hire a full-time guitarist for his group. He died of a broken neck after falling down a staircase.

1955: Eddie Fisher marries Debbie Reynolds in Hollywood. The couple would divorce in 1959 after Fisher was discovered to be carrying on an affair with Liz Taylor.

1964: Elvis Presley's 15th movie, Viva Las Vegas, co-starring Ann-Margret, opens nationwide in the US.

1965: The Moody Blues and the Kinks each make their US stage debut, with one opening for the other at New York's Academy of Music.

1965: The Beatles recorded "Yesterday".

1966: Guitarist Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac joins John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.

1966: Paul McCartney buys the farm in Kintyre, Scotland, that would later inspire his 1977 megahit ballad "Mull Of Kintyre."

1966: The Beatles recorded "Here, There And Everywhere," "Got To Get You Into My Life".

1967: Barbra Streisand sings for 135,000 fans at her concert in New York's Central Park, later released as the CBS-TV special and soundtrack album A Happening In Central Park.

1972: Ron McKernan, the keyboardist known to Grateful Dead fans simply as Pigpen, plays what is to be his last gig with the group, performing at the Hollywood Bowl before drinking himself to death less than a year later.

1973: Dolly Parton recorded "I Will Always Love You".

1977: Steve Winwood released his first solo Album Steve Winwood.

1978: Grace Slick is deemed too drunk to go onstage with Jefferson Starship tonight at their concert in St. Goarhausen in West Germany, but does so anyway, singing horribly and verbally abusing the audience with Nazi taunts. The crowd riots, causing over a million dollars in damage and leading Slick to quit the band, not returning until 1983.

1978: Andy Gibb became the first solo artist in the history of the US charts to have his first three releases reach No.1, when ‘Shadow Dancing’ hit the top of the chart. Spending seven weeks at No.1 it became the best selling single in the US in 1978.

1980: Led Zeppelin begin what would be their last tour with a concert in Dortmund, Germany.

1985: The famously reclusive Bob Dylan opens up on the syndicated radio show Rockline, taking calls from fans.

1986: Singer Kate Smith died from diabetes in Raleigh, NC at age 86.

1987: Rod Stewart becomes the proud parent of his fourth child, daughter Ruby, from his girlfriend, model Kelly Emberg.

1987: Florida real estate agent Vittoria Holman sued Motley Crue and their concert promoter for hearing loss allegedly incurred at a concert in December 1985. Holman and her daughter had front row seats less than 10 feet from the speakers. The case was settled out of court with the band's insurance company paying Holman over $30,000.

1988: Bruce Springsteen separates from Juliette Phillips

1989: Ringo Starr announces the second annual line-up of his All-Starr Band, featuring Billy Preston, Joe Walsh, Dr. John, Nils Lofgren and Clarence Clemons of the E Street Band, and The Band's Levon Helm and Rick Danko.

1989: New Kids On The Block went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'I'll Be Loving You Forever', the group's first US No.1.

1999: A teenage girl was crushed to death during a gig by Hole at the Hultsfred Festival, Sweden.

2005: Pete Doherty was thrown of a yacht after being found smoking crack cocaine. The Babyshambles singer had been invited onto the yacht with his girlfriend Kate Moss by Davinia Taylor, they were asked to leave the party and were dropped off in Porto Cervo.

2006: Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones enters rehab to kick his drinking habit, but will recover in time to join the band on its latest world tour in a month.

June 16

Births

1939: Billy "Crash" Craddock (Rockabilly Singer)

1941: Lamont Dozier (R&B Singer, Songwriter & Producer)

1942: Edward Levert (Vocals for The O'Jays)

1946: Ian Matthews (Singer for Fairport Convention & Matthews Southern Comfort)

1949: Peppy Castro (Vocals & Guitar for Blues Magoos)

1950: James Smith (The Stylistics)

1952: Gino Vannelli (Singer)

1953: Ian Mosley (Drums for Marillion)

1954: Gerry Roberts (Guitar for The Boomtown Rat)

1958: Patrick Waite (Musical Youth)

1966: MC Ren (Rapper for NWA)

1971: Tupac Amaru Shakur (born Lesane Parish Crooks) (Rapper)

Events

1962: Gary "U.S." Bonds makes his US television debut, performing his hit "Quarter To Three" on ABC-TV's American Bandstand.

1962: A young David Bowie makes his stage debut when his band, the Konrads, performs at Bromley Technical in Kent, England.

1965: Bob Dylan recorded ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ at Columbia Recording Studios in New York City.

1966: The Beatles made a surprise live appearance on the UK television program Top of the Pops, performing ‘Paperback Writer’ and ‘Rain’. It became The Beatles' last live musical television appearance, with the sole exception of the June 1967 worldwide transmission of ‘All You Need Is Love’.

1967: The first of the major rock festivals, Monterey Pop, is held in California, featuring established acts such as The Mamas and The Papas, Eric Burdon and the Animals, The Association, Booker T. and the MGs, The Who, and the Byrds, and also making superstars of several relatively new acts such as Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Simon and Garfunkel, Canned Heat, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and The Steve Miller Band. 50,000 attendees paid between $3.50 and $6.50 to see more than two dozen acts, all of whom agreed to play for free so all proceeds could go to charity. The event kicked off the famous "Summer of Love," in which thousands of college-age rock fans visited San Francisco, and also inspired John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas to write "San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)," later a hit for Scott McKenzie. Filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker's acclaimed 1969 documentary Monterey Pop was filmed during the festival.

1970: The organizers of the Woodstock music festival report that they have lost over $1.2 million on the event (money which they will later make up through movie and soundtrack rights).

1975: John Lennon sues US Attorneys General John Mitchell and Richard Kleindienst for alleged harassment during his recent deportation investigation.

1976: No longer just five, The Jacksons -- all six sons and three daughters -- get their own summer replacement variety show on CBS-TV.

1979: The Electric Light Orchestra started a five-week run at No.1 on the album chart with 'Discovery' their first No.1 LP, featuring the tracks 'Shine A Little Love', 'Don't Bring Me Down' and 'The Diary Of Horace Wimp'.

1980: The movie The Blues Brothers, adapted from John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd's classic SNL skit, premieres in Chicago. A love letter of sorts to Sixties R&B and soul, it will help re-establish the careers of its musical co-stars, including James Brown, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin.

1982: Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott died following sustained cocaine and heroin addiction.

1982: Donny Vanzant of 38 Special was arrested on stage in Tulsa, Oklahoma, (a dry town) for drinking alcohol in a public place.

1987: Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead officially gives permission for Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream to name a new flavor after him.

1988: Vince Neil of Motley Crue married mud wrestler Sharisse Rudell.

1989: Cliff Richard performs in front of 72,000 fans at Wembley Stadium in London to celebrate his 30th year in show business. Gerry and the Pacemakers show up to help honor Cliff, as do the Searchers.

1989: Smokey Robinson launches his own perfume for women, entitled simply "Smoke."

1990: The Rolling Stones' "Paint, It Black," re-released in the Netherlands as a single, climbs to the top of the charts 24 years after its initial release.

1993: The USPS issues a series of commemorative stamps honoring early rock heroes Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Ritchie Valens, Clyde McPhatter, and Dinah Washington.

1997: The Radiohead album "OK Computer" was released.

1999: Phil Collins received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2000: On the first night of his 'Up in Smoke' tour in Chula Vista, Snoop Dogg's tour bus was stopped at the Temecula border checkpoint in San Diego after the border patrol smelled marijuana wafting from the tour bus. One member of the crew was arrested.

2001: Four-year-old Daniel Karven-Veres drowned in Tommy Lee's swimming pool while attending a birthday party for Lee's 5-year-old son, Brandon. His parents, James Veres and Ursula Karven, sued Lee for negligence, claiming they should have been told that a swimming pool was involved, (their son could not swim). Lee was cleared by a jury in April 2003.

2002: A remixed version of Elvis Presley's 1967 single "A Little Less Conversation" hits #1 in the UK, released as part of a plan by his estate to regain the UK record for Number Ones from the Beatles.

2004: The original members of the New York Dolls reunite on stage after nearly 30 years, in a concert arranged by their #1 fan, Morrissey of the Smiths.

2007: 61-year-old Rod Stewart marries his third wife, 35-year-old model Penny Lancaster, on board the yacht Lady Ann Magee in Portofino, Italy.