November 14

Births

1947: Buckwheat Zydeco (Zydeco Musician)

1948: James "JY" Young (Guitar & Vocals in Styx)

1951: Stephen Bishop (Singer / Songwriter & Guitarist)

1952: Alec John Such (Bass for Bon Jovi)

1954: Yanni (Keyboardist & Composer)

1964: Joseph 'Run' Simmons (Rapper in Run- DMC)

1968: Brian Yale (Bass for Matchbox Twenty)

1969: Butch Walker (Singer & Guitar in Marvelous 3 and Solo)

1972: Douglas Payne (Bass for Travis)

1974: Adina Howard (R&B Singer)

1975: Travis Barker (Drummer for Blink 182)

Events

1951: Hank Williams makes his first national TV appearance, on CBS-TV's "The Perry Como Show," performing "Hey, Good Lookin'".

1957: The Boston stop on Alan Freed's "Biggest Show Of Stars" concert is the scene of yet another rock and roll "riot" when five audience members are arrested for fighting during a performance by Fats Domino. One audience member, a sailor, is stabbed during the fight.

1964: At the start of her first UK tour, Dusty Springfield causes a furor when she tells a local magazine: "I wish I'd been born colored. When it comes to singing and feeling, I want to be one of them and not me. Then I see how some of them are treated and I thank God I'm white."

1964: Them, the Van Morrison-led band who would later score a hit with the garage-rock classic "Gloria," backs up legendary bluesman Jimmy Reed during a British tour.

1967: Pink Floyd begin their first UK tour at the Royal Albert Hall in London, playing on a package bill with The Move, Nice, Amen Corner, and the headliner, the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

1987: In an initially awkward but eventually moving live event, David Letterman convinces guest Cher to sing "I Got You Babe" just one more time with embittered ex Sonny Bono on his NBC-TV Late Night program. Both Sonny and Cher are left in tears, though no reunion is forthcoming.

1990: This week's issue of Newsweek hits the stands, featuring what seems like a stark admission from the Who's Pete Townshend -- he's bisexual. "I know how it feels to be a woman because I am a woman," he says. "And I won't be classified as just a man." About his song "Rough Boys," which some saw as a gay anthem, he says, "...In a way it was a coming-out. That it was a real acknowledgment of the fact that I'd been surrounded by people that I really adored -- and was actually sexually attracted to -- who were men. And that the side of me that responded to those people was a passive side, a subordinate side."

1990: Record producer Frank Farin fired Milli Vanilli singers Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan because they were insisting on singing on their new album.

1991: Over 1,000 New Kids On The Block fans were given medical treatment after a minor riot during a concert in Berlin, Germany.

1992: John Cascella, keyboardist of John Mellencamp's band, was found dead in his car in Indiana. It is believed that he died of a heart attack.

1996: Michael Jackson married Debbie Rowe in Sydney Australia. The couple had met when he was diagnosed with vitiligo in the mid-1980s, and she was working as his dermatologist's assistant. The couple divorced on October 8, 1999, with Rowe giving full custody rights of the children to Jackson with Rowe receiving an $8-million settlement.

1997: Tonight's Bee Gees show at Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena rakes in a record $1,681,100 -- and yet doesn't sell out entirely.

November 13

Births

1933: Clyde McPhatter (Lead Singer in The Drifters)

1951: Bill Gibson (Drums for Huey Lewis and the News)

1953: Andrew Ranken (Drums for The Pogues)

1956: Aldo Nova (Singer & Guitarist)

1979: Nikolai Fraiture (Bass for The Strokes)

Events

1960: Sammy Davis Jr. marries Swedish actress May Britt, one of the first public celebrity interracial marriages.

1967: The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones buys Cotchford Farm, Sussex, England, the former home of Winnie the Pooh writer A.A. Milne. Statues of Pooh characters dot the ground.

1968: The Beatles' Yellow Submarine film premieres in New York.

1969: John Lennon purchases the island Dorinch off the Ireland coast and invites any hippie who wishes to live there.

1973: Jerry Lee Lewis' son Jerry Lee Jr. is killed in a highway accident near Hernando, MS. The elder Lewis had already lost his only other son, Steven Allen, in a 1962 drowning.

1974: An imposter posing as Deep Purple guitar player Ritchie Blackmore crashes a borrowed Porsche in Iowa City, IA, having already conned food and shelter from several Deep Purple fans.

1975: Hank Williams Jr. undergoes four hours of plastic and oral surgery at Nashville's Baptist Hospital to repair damages from a 500-foot fall in an August mountain accident.

1982: Men At Work started a 15-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with their debut album 'Business As Usual', which went on to sell over five million copies in the US.

1985: New York's Whitney Museum presents an exhibition celebrating Bob Dylan's 25 years in the music industry.

1987: Sonny and Cher reunite for a performance on TV show Late Night with David Letterman.

1990: Patricia Boughton filed a lawsuit against Rod Stewart claiming that a football he kicked into the crowd during a concert at Pine Knob Music Theatre had ruptured a tendon in her middle finger. And as a result the injury had made sex between her and her husband difficult.

1992: 90,000 people attend Elton John's Mexico City concert, his first in the country.

2002: The three surviving member of Led Zeppelin announced they were re-forming after 22 years for a US stadium tour.

2004: Rap artist Ol' Dirty Bastard, (real name Russell Jones), collapsed and died at a Manhattan recording studio in New York aged 35. A spokesman for his record company, said the rapper, had complained of chest pains, was dead by the time paramedics reached him. ODB was a founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan in the early 1990s.

2005: Astronauts on at the US space station in orbit around the Earth are woken up today by Paul McCartney, singing "Good Day Sunshine" live from his concert in Anaheim, CA.

November 12

Births

1944: Booker T. Jones (Piano for Booker T. and the MGs)

1945: Neil Young (Singer / Songwriter & Guitarist)

1947: Buck Dharma (Lead Vocals & Guitar for Blue Oyster Cult)

1964: David Ellefson (Bass for Megadeth)

1984: Omarion (Omari Ishmael Grandberry) (R&B Singer in B2K and Solo)

Events

1931: Abbey Road recording studios open in London's pricey St. John's Wood.

1955: Billboard begins its "Top 100" chart, with the first Number One listed as "Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing" by the Four Aces. The magazine wouldn't resolve all its pop charts into one until 1959.

1955: Hill Valley, CA native Marty McFly travels back to this date from 1985 to make sure his parents get together; while in 1955, he plays "Johnny B. Goode" at a local sock hop, inspiring Chuck Berry's "new sound." (Not really.)

1966: Teens on Los Angeles' Sunset Strip protesting a recent curfew are beaten by police, inspiring Stephen Stills to write the Buffalo Springfield hit "For What It's Worth."

1966: The Grateful Dead are the house band at a dance put on by the Hell's Angels biker gang at San Francisco's Sokol Hall.

1966: The Monkees debut album started a 13-week run at No.1 on the US album chart, selling over 3 million copies in three months.

1968: Jimi Hendrix' third album, Electric Ladyland, causes a controversy in England over the cover, which features the singer/guitarist surrounded by a bevy of naked women. A major British chain refuses to stock it; the American version is released with an alternate cover.

1969: The Supremes and the Temptations' second joint TV special, G.I.T. On Broadway, airs on NBC. (The title stands for "Gettin' It Together"; the show consisted of both groups performing show tunes.)

1970: The Doors made their last appearance with Jim Morrison in New Orleans.

1979: Kenny Rogers begins filming the CBS-TV movie The Gambler, based on his 1978 smash tune of the same name. It will spawn four sequels.

1987: Sly Stone arrives one hour late for a major comeback concert in Santa Monica, CA, only to be arrested at the gig for failure to pay child support.

1990: Ron Wood, formerly of the Faces and currently of the Rolling Stones, is badly injured when hit by a car in London, breaking both legs.

1997: Keyboardist and Singer Billy Preston is sentenced to four years in prison in California's Avenal State Prison for cocaine use and fraud when he arranged a fake burglary of his home in 1994. He will serve a year and a half.

1997: Carly Simon is hospitalized with breast cancer, undergoing both chemo and a mastectomy.

1999: Glam legend Gary Glitter is acquitted in England's Bristol Crown Court of sexual assault on a minor stemming from an incident with a fan in the Eighties; however, that same day, Glitter (real name Paul Gadd) is sentenced to four months in jail for four counts of possessing child pornography found in 1997.

2002: The city of Atlanta declared this day as TLC day to remember Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes who was killed in a car crash on 26th April 2002 aged 30.

2003; Drummer Tony Thompson, who had played drums with Led Zeppelin at Live Aid in 1985, died of cancer. He was most famous as the drummer with Chic, whose single 'Le Freak' hit No.1 in the US. He also played on David Bowie's hit single 'Let's Dance'.

2004: The funeral of longtime (and highly influential) British DJ John Peel is held in Suffolk, England, with attendees including Robert Plant, The White Stripes, and members of Underworld, Pulp, and the Undertones.

2005: Vietnamese authorities visit Gary Glitter's home in Ba Ring Vung Tau and find his live-in companion, a fifteen-year-old girl. The singer, however, has vanished.

2007: Former Culture Club frontman, Boy George was charged with the false imprisonment of a 28-year-old man. Police said the offence was alleged to have taken place at the 47-year-old's home in Hackney, in London on 28 April of this year.

2008: Mitch Mitchell, the British drummer with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was found dead in his US hotel room at age 61. Mitchell had been working with Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames when in 1966 he was invited to audition for a new band being formed to back Jimi Hendrix. During the 70's Mitchell failed an audition for Paul McCartney's new band, Wings.

November 11

Births

1929: LaVern Baker (R&B Singer)

1945: Vince Martell (Lead Guitar for Vanilla Fudge)

1945: Chris Dreja (Rhythm Guitar & Bass for The Yardbirds)

1950: Jim Peterik (Lead Vocals & Guitar for Survivor)

1953: Andy Partridge (Singer / Songwriter & Guitarist for XTC)

Events

1944: Frank Sinatra, late of the Harry James big band, signs with Columbia as a solo recording artist.

1963: After a gig in Birmingham, England, the Beatles find themselves attempting to escape a throng of fanatically devoted fans for the first time, escaping through the crowd by dressing up as policemen.

1965: Journalist Al Aronowitz gets the garage band The Velvet Underground their first gig -- at the Summit High School dance in Summit, NJ.

1967: Van Morrison makes his only appearance on ABC-TV's American Bandstand, lip-synching his big hit, "Brown Eyed Girl."

1968: American record buyers are scandalized when John Lennon and Yoko Ono release their new album Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins with a cover depicting the two of them standing unashamedly in full-frontal nudity. Record stores eventually carry the experimental album in a brown paper wrapper.

1969: Jim Morrison of the Doors is arrested by the FBI for drunk and disorderly behavior and interfering with the flight of an aircraft in Phoenix, AZ, after a flight attendant on his trip from Los Angeles accuses him of attacking and sexually harassing her. Morrison and his flight companion, American actor Tom Baker, spend the night in local jail but are released the next day on $2,500 bail. The charges are later dropped.

1970: Ringo Starr and his first wife, Maureen, become the proud parents of their first child, daughter Lee Parkin, at Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital in Hammersmith, London.

1970: Bob Dylan publishes his first novel, a poorly-received stream-of-consciousness work called Tarantula.

1972: Berry Oakley (Bass for Allman Brothers) was involved in a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia, just three blocks from where Duane Allman had his fatal motorcycle accident the year before.  He refused medical treatment and got a ride home.  Three hours later, he was rushed to the hospital, delirious and in pain, and died of cerebral swelling caused by a fractured skull.  He was 24 years old.

1975: Reba McEntire signs her first recording contract, with Mercury Records.

1986: Pink Floyd announce their intention to record a new album and tour under their band name, a name which recently departed leader Roger Waters considers his alone.

1990: A 21 year-old AC/DC fan died after being attacked outside the Brendan Byrne Arena in New Jersey where the band were playing a gig that night.

1994: Christie's auction house in New York City holds their first-ever auction of rock memorabilia, including the Beach Boys' guitars, a stage outfit worn by Jimi Hendrix, and John Lennon's famous Army fatigues.

1994: The Monkees' Micky Dolenz guest stars, along with Rick Neilsen of Cheap Trick and Billy Vera, on tonight's "" episode of ABC-TV's Boy Meets World.

1999: Singer Brandy was admitted into a hospital in Southern California due to dehydration from overwork.

2000: The original Meters reunite for one and only one gig in San Francisco, their first since 1977.

2003: A London High Court orders Van Morrison to pay $67,000 in lost revenue to Gary Marlow, owner of the Crown Hotel in Wiltshire, England, after canceling a planned gig there.

2004: M'hammed Soumayah, bodyguard for Liza Minelli, sues ths singer for $100 million for allegedly forcing him to have sex with her or be fired.

2004: Coldplay fan Sarah Sainsbury wrote to the band asking for their autographs so she could sell them to raise funds at her school charity. Coldplay sent her a triple platinum disc worth over $7,500. 

November 10

Births

1947: Glen Buxton (Guitar for Alice Cooper)

1948: Greg Lake (Vocals & Bass for King Crimson & Emerson, Lake and Palmer)

1966: Steve Mackey (Bass for Pulp)

1967: Mushroom (Andrew Vowles) (Massive Attack)

1970: Warren G (Warren Griffin)

1975: Jim Adkins (Lead Singer and Guitarist with Jimmy Eat World)

1978: Eve (Eve Jihan Jeffers) Rapper

1979: Chris Joannou (Bass for Silverchair)

1983: Miranda Lambert (Country Artist)

Events

1955: In his Nashville hotel room, songwriter Mae Axton plays Elvis Presley a demo of a song she's co-written called "Heartbreak Hotel."

1958: Sam Cooke and Lou Rawls, then a member of Cooke's backup band, are badly injured in a car crash in Marion, AR, while touring with the gospel group the Pilgrim Travellers. Rawls is hurt so badly he is actually pronounced dead at the scene; chauffeur Edward Cunningham, however, is the only actual casualty.

1966: British newspapers break the news that the Beatles will indeed refuse all future offers to tour.

1967: The Beatles film three separate videos for their new single, "Hello Goodbye," at London's Saville Theatre. The three are eventually edited together to form one video, but the BBC, which has just given in to a Musician's Union ban on lip-syncing, refuses to air the clip.

1970: Martha Reeves of the Vandellas gives birth to her first and only son, Eric.

1984: Former Rufus singer Chaka Khan was at No.1 on the singles chart with 'I Feel For You.' Written by Prince, the song featured Stevie Wonder on harmonica and the Rap was by Grandmaster Melle Mel. The repetition of Khan's name by rapper Melle Mel at the beginning of the song was originally a mistake made by producer Arif Mardin, who then decided to keep it.

1994: Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Robert Plant perform an all-acoustic version of "Stairway To Heaven" while visiting a Japanese talk show.

1997: American session guitarist Tommy Tedesco died of lung cancer aged 67. Described by "Guitar Player" magazine as the most recorded guitarist in history recording with The Beach Boys, Everly Brothers, The Supremes, The Monkees, The Association, Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Zappa, Sam Cooke, Cher, and Nancy and Frank Sinatra. And played on many TV themes including Bonanza, The Twilight Zone, M*A*S*H and Batman.

2002: On tonight's "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation" episode of FOX-TV's The Simpsons, guest stars Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, Lenny Kravitz, and Brian Setzer operate a rock and roll fantasy camp.

2003: David Bowie is forced to cancel the remainder of his concert in Nice, France, when laryngitis causes his voice to go out completely in the middle of "Ziggy Stardust."

November 9

Births

1936: Mary Travers (Singer / Songwriter in Peter, Paul and Mary)

1941: Tom Fogerty (Rhythm Guitar in Creedence Clearwater Revival)

1948: Joe Bouchard (Bass for Blue Oyster Cult)

1964: Pepa (Sandra Denton) (Rapper in Salt ‘N’ Pepa)

1970: Scarface, (Brad Terrance Jordan) (Rapper)

1970: Susan Tedeschi (Blues Artist)

1973: Nick Lachey (Singer in 98 Degrees & Solo)

1978: Sisqo (Mark Andrews) (R&B Singer in Dru Hill & Solo)

Events

1956: Buddy Holly begins his first solo tour, opening for country singers George Jones and Hank Locklin.

1958: Elvis Presley's massive hit "Hound Dog" b/w "Don't Be Cruel" becomes only the third record in history to sell more than three million copies, following two seasonal favorites: Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" and Gene Autry's "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer."

1959: Sam Cooke is guaranteed $100,000 by RCA if he chooses to leave his current home, Keen Records.

1960: Demetra Plakas (Drums for L7)

1963: The Beatles' new single, "I Want To Hold Your Hand," becomes the first-ever UK single to receive advance orders of one million copies.

1963: "Louie, Louie" was released by the Kingsmen.

1967: In a battle of egos, the Byrds' Roger McGuinn boots David Crosby from the group, leaving Crosby to form CSNY instead.

1967: The first issue of the rock periodical Rolling Stone hits the shelves in San Francisco, CA, with a cover featuring John Lennon, in a still from his upcoming movie How I Won The War, and a free roach clip with every issue.

1968: Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant marries his first wife. Maureen, in London, then holds the wedding reception at the local club the Roundhouse, where the group plays its first London gig.

1971: Carly Simon attends James Taylor's concert at Carnegie Hall and the two fall madly in love.

1990: The IRS seizes Willie Nelson's bank accounts and real estate holdings to pay off $16 million in back taxes.

1993: The Dave Matthews Band released their first album, ‘Remember Two Things’ on the Bama Rags label.

1996: For the first time, Bob Dylan licenses one of his songs for commercial use, in this case, "The Times They Are A-Changin'" to the Bank of Montreal.

1997: Paul Weller (The Jam & The Style Council) was arrested and spent the night in a French jail after smashing up his hotel room. His record company paid $8,000 to cover the damage; Weller was released the following day.

1998: Michael Jackson successfully settles his lawsuit with London's Daily Mirror newspaper, which had claimed his face was disfigured by endless cosmetic surgery. Jackson claimed the photos had been doctored.

1998: Rick James bangs his head back and forth during a performance in Denver, CO, causing a blood vessel in his neck to rupture and bringing on a minor stroke.

1999: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announces the century's big winners, sales-wise: The Beatles have sold the most albums (106 million), with Garth Brooks and Barbra Streisand the most successful male and female solo artists. Elvis Presley leads the pack on gold and platinum certifications with 77 (singles) and 80 (albums), while Elton John's "Candle In The Wind '97" (rewritten as a tribute to the recently-deceased Princess Diana) is the best-selling single of the century. The best-selling album, surprisingly, is the Eagles' Greatest Hits 1971-1975, which has just overtaken Michael Jackson's Thriller.

2000: Gretchen Wilson and her boyfriend, Mike Penner, have a daughter, Grace.

November 8

Births

1945: Don Murray (Drummer for Turtles)

1947: Minnie Riperton (R&B Singer)

1949: Bonnie Raitt (Singer / Songwriter)

1954: Rickie Lee Jones (Singer / Songwriter)

1957: Porl Thompson (Guitar for The Cure)

1961: Leif Garrett (Singer)

1970: Rat (Guitar for Ned’s Atomic Dustbin)

1977: Bucky Covington (Country Artist)

1985: Jack Osbourne (Ozzy’s Son)

Events

1961: Liverpool record store owner Brian Epstein calls Liverpool's Cavern Club to see when the Beatles would next be performing, with the intent to see if their live show matched their reputation.

1962: A bullet is fired at Motown's tour bus while traveling through Savannah, GA, but fortunately none of the (all African-American) stars are hurt.

1963: Having heard Priscilla Presley was with her fiance Elvis, and reportedly attempting to beat her to the altar, actress and Viva Las Vegas co-star Ann-Margret is quoted in the L.A. press as being "in love" with Elvis and deeply thinking of marriage with him. Priscilla, on the Colonel's advice, is sent back to Memphis to avoid controversy (but not before Priscilla throws a vase across the room, screaming that the expatriate Ann should "keep her ass in Sweden where she belongs").

1965: The Dave Clark Five perform for Queen Elizabeth II at London's annual Royal Variety Performance.

1968: Diana Ross leaves the Supremes to begin her solo career, and is replaced by Jean Terrell.

1968: John Lennon's divorce from first wife Cynthia is finalized, without Lennon present; the Beatle is at Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London with Yoko Ono, currently pregnant with the child she will miscarry later in the month.

1970: Jim Morrison of the Doors makes the spoken-word recordings which would later become the basis of the group's album An American Prayer.

1971: Paul McCartney throws a party at London's Empire Ballroom to officially launch his new group, Wings.

1971: Led Zeppelin released their fourth album. With no title printed on the album, and generally referred to as Four Symbols, The Fourth Album or Led Zeppelin IV, it has gone on to sell over 37 million copies worldwide. The 19th century rustic oil painting on the front of the album was purchased by Robert Plant from an antique shop in Reading, Berkshire, England. The 20th century urban tower block on the back of the full gatefold LP cover is Butterfield Court in Eves Hill, Dudley, England.

1974: After returning to her Howard Johnson's hotel room in Jericho, CT, following a show at the nearby Westbury Music Fair, singer Connie Francis is attacked at knifepoint and raped. Francis successfully sues the chain for $3 million for neglecting to repair a broken lock and torn screen on her room before the attack. Her rapist is never brought to justice, and Francis finds herself so shattered by the incident she quits touring for seven years and eventually divorces her husband, Joseph Garzilli.

1975: David Bowie makes his US television debut on CBS' Cher variety show, performing his latest hit, "Fame."

1975: John Lennon names close friend Elton John the godfather of his new son, Sean.

1977: Glam queen Suzi Quatro makes her first appearance as Leather Tuscadero, the little sister of Fonzie's girlfriend Pinky, on ABC-TV's Happy Days.

1987: The Beach Boys' Carl Wilson marries his second wife, Gina Martin, daughter of legendary crooner Dean.

1988: Jerry Lee Lewis declares bankruptcy.

1994: Sonny Bono, half of Sonny and Cher and former mayor of Palm Springs, CA, is elected to the US House of Representatives.

1994: A memorial service is held for legendary guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith, late of the MC5 and The Sonics, at Mariner's Church in Detroit, MI.

1995: A financially strapped Michael Jackson merges his company, ATV Music Publishing -- the one with all the Beatles hits -- with Sony Music Publishing in a deal worth some $110 million. Jackson keeps half-ownership of the new company, but as debts mount, that share is whittled down over time.

2002: David Gilmour, longtime guitarist for Pink Floyd, is made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.

2009: Former Smiths frontman Morrissey stopped a concert halfway through his second song after being hit by a beer bottle. The 50-year-old singer who was hit in the eye by a plastic bottle of beer, said goodnight to the 8,000 strong crowd in Liverpool, England before walking off.