TODAY IN HISTORY – JANUARY 20th
1889 - Born on this day, Leadbelly, (Huddi William Ledbetter), Blues musician, who wrote 'Goodnight Irene', 'The Rock Island Line', and 'The Midnight Special'. He was once jailed for shooting a man dead during an argument over a woman. Leadbelly died on 6th December 1949.
1924 - Born on this day, Slim Whitman, American country singer, (1955 UK No.1 single 'Rose Marie', 1977 UK No.1 album 'Red River Valley'). He died of heart failure on June 19, 2013 surrounded by family at Orange Park Medical Center in Orange Park, Florida aged 90.
1943 - Born this day, Rick Evans, Zager & Evans, 1969 US and UK No.1 single In The Year 2525.
1945 - Born this day, Eric Stewart, guitarist, (Wayne Fontana and the) Mindbenders, 1965 UK No.2 single Game of Love. 1966 UK No.2 single Groovy Kind Of Love. Then 10cc, Donna, I’m not in love, The Things We Do for Love. Plus other top 30 hits.
1946 - Born this day, Jimmy Chambers, singer, Londonbeat, 1990 UK No.2 and 1991 US No.1 single I've Been Thinking About You.
1950 - Born this day, Paul Stanley [Eisen], guitar, vocals, Kiss, 1987 UK No.4 single Crazy Crazy Nights, Rock and Roll All Nite.
1959 - Born on this day, American guitarist and singer-songwriter, Rusty Anderson, best known as the accompanying lead guitarist for Paul McCartney's tours since 2001. Anderson has also worked with Gwen Stefani, Steven Tyler, Richie Sambora, Regina Spektor, Dido, Cat Stevens, Miley Cyrus, Eros Ramazzotti, Nelly Furtado and Meat Loaf.
1964 - This was a big day in US record stores as The Beatles album Meet the Beatles was released in the United States. It was The Beatles second album, but was the British group's US debut LP. The British Invasion had begun.
1965 - Died this day, Alan Freed disc jockey, the ‘Father of Rock ’n’ Roll’, in Palm Springs, California, from uraemia at the age of 43. Born 15 December 1922 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Freed was one of the first radio disc jockeys to program black music, or race music, as it was termed, for white audiences. In the 1950s, Freed, called ‘Moon Doggy’ at WJW Radio in Cleveland, coined the phrase, 'rock ’n’ roll', before moving to WABC in New York. He was fired by WABC for allegedly accepting payola (being paid to play records by certain artists and record companies). The 1959-1960 congressional investigation into payola made Freed the scapegoat for what was a wide spread practice. Freed, not so incidentally, died nearly penniless after the scandal was exposed.
1965 - Born this day, Heather Small, singer, M People, 1993 UK No.2 single Moving On Up plus over 15 other UK top 40 singles. Now a solo artist.
1968 - One hit wonders John Fred and the Playboy Band started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with Judy In Disguise, (With Glasses), it made No.3 in the UK. The song was inspired by The Beatles Lucy In The Sky.
1971 - Born on this day, Gary Barlow, vocals, piano, songwriter, Take That, (1995 UK No.1 single ‘Back For Good’ plus eight other UK No.1 singles, 1993 UK No.1 album 'Everything Changes spent 78 weeks on the UK chart). Solo, (1996 UK No.1 single ‘Forever Love’). Written songs for Donny Osmond, Charlotte Church, Bryan McFadden and Atomic Kitten. Re-formed Take That without Robbie Williams in 2006 for a sold-out European tour. Topped the UK singles and album charts simultaneously for the first time in their career when the single ‘Patience’ and album ‘Beautiful World’ both reached No.1 in Dec 2006.
1974 - After a car accident that had almost taken his life five months earlier, Stevie Wonder was back at work, playing a gig at the Rainbow Theatre in London. (He vowed never to drive again)
1975 - The US Top 5 singles: No.5, Stevie Wonder, 'Boogie On Reggae Woman', No.4, Ohio Players, 'Fire', No.3, Barry Manilow, 'Mandy', No.2, Neil Sedaka, 'Laughter In The Rain', No.1, The Carpenters, 'Please Mr Postman'.
1979 - Born this day, Rob Bourdon, drums, Linkin Park, 2002 US No.2 and UK No.4 single In The End, 2002 US No.2 and 2001 UK No.4 album Hybrid Theory.
1982 - During an Ozzy Osbourne concert in Des Moines, Iowa, a member of the audience threw a bat onto the stage. Stunned by the light, the bat lay motionless, and thinking it was a rubber fake, the singer picked it up and attempted to bite its head off. As he did this, the bat started to flap its wings and Ozzy soon realized it wasn't fake but in fact a living thing. After the show Ozzy was immediately rushed to the nearest hospital for rabies shots.
1983 - Def Leppard released their third studio album 'Pyromania' which featured new guitarist Phil Collen and was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The album has now sold over 10 million copies in the US.
1985 - Foreigner had their only UK No.1 single with I Want To Know What Love Is.
1988 - The Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Yoko, Sean, and Julian Lennon all attend. Paul McCartney does not attend, sending instead a letter stating that continuing business differences with the other ex-Beatles was the reason for his absence.
1990 - Michael Bolton started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with How Am I Supposed To Live Without You, the singers first No.1 and the first No.1 single of the 90's in the US.
1996 - Bobby Brown was fined $1,000, sentenced to 2 years probation and ordered to attend anger management classes after assaulting a security guard.
2000 - Tourism chiefs in Liverpool were banned from putting up motorway signs saying 'Liverpool, the Birthplace Of The Beatles', because the Highways Agency thought the signs would distract motorists.
2001 - A memorial service was held for Kirsty MacColl who was killed in a boating accident off the coast of Mexico in December 2000. Bono and Billy Bragg were among the friends and fans that packed St Martin-in-the-Fields church, London.
2002 - George Harrison had the posthumous UK No.1 single with the re-release of the 1971 former No.1 My Sweet Lord. It replaced Aaliyah's More Than A Woman, the only time in chart history that one deceased artist had taken over from another at No.1.
2002 - Stereophonics started a two-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with their second No.1 'Just Enough Education To Perform.'
2003 - 8 Mile, starring Eminem toppled The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers from its four-week hold at the top of the UK box office. The story of a Detroit rapper took £4,440,334 at 423 cinemas in the UK and Ireland.
2012 - Etta James, most often remembered for her signature song, 'At Last', which reached No. 2 on the Billboard R&B chart, died from complications of leukemia at the age of 73. She also placed nine other songs in the American Top 40, won three Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
1889 - Born on this day, Leadbelly, (Huddi William Ledbetter), Blues musician, who wrote 'Goodnight Irene', 'The Rock Island Line', and 'The Midnight Special'. He was once jailed for shooting a man dead during an argument over a woman. Leadbelly died on 6th December 1949.
1924 - Born on this day, Slim Whitman, American country singer, (1955 UK No.1 single 'Rose Marie', 1977 UK No.1 album 'Red River Valley'). He died of heart failure on June 19, 2013 surrounded by family at Orange Park Medical Center in Orange Park, Florida aged 90.
1943 - Born this day, Rick Evans, Zager & Evans, 1969 US and UK No.1 single In The Year 2525.
1945 - Born this day, Eric Stewart, guitarist, (Wayne Fontana and the) Mindbenders, 1965 UK No.2 single Game of Love. 1966 UK No.2 single Groovy Kind Of Love. Then 10cc, Donna, I’m not in love, The Things We Do for Love. Plus other top 30 hits.
1946 - Born this day, Jimmy Chambers, singer, Londonbeat, 1990 UK No.2 and 1991 US No.1 single I've Been Thinking About You.
1950 - Born this day, Paul Stanley [Eisen], guitar, vocals, Kiss, 1987 UK No.4 single Crazy Crazy Nights, Rock and Roll All Nite.
1959 - Born on this day, American guitarist and singer-songwriter, Rusty Anderson, best known as the accompanying lead guitarist for Paul McCartney's tours since 2001. Anderson has also worked with Gwen Stefani, Steven Tyler, Richie Sambora, Regina Spektor, Dido, Cat Stevens, Miley Cyrus, Eros Ramazzotti, Nelly Furtado and Meat Loaf.
1964 - This was a big day in US record stores as The Beatles album Meet the Beatles was released in the United States. It was The Beatles second album, but was the British group's US debut LP. The British Invasion had begun.
1965 - Died this day, Alan Freed disc jockey, the ‘Father of Rock ’n’ Roll’, in Palm Springs, California, from uraemia at the age of 43. Born 15 December 1922 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Freed was one of the first radio disc jockeys to program black music, or race music, as it was termed, for white audiences. In the 1950s, Freed, called ‘Moon Doggy’ at WJW Radio in Cleveland, coined the phrase, 'rock ’n’ roll', before moving to WABC in New York. He was fired by WABC for allegedly accepting payola (being paid to play records by certain artists and record companies). The 1959-1960 congressional investigation into payola made Freed the scapegoat for what was a wide spread practice. Freed, not so incidentally, died nearly penniless after the scandal was exposed.
1965 - Born this day, Heather Small, singer, M People, 1993 UK No.2 single Moving On Up plus over 15 other UK top 40 singles. Now a solo artist.
1968 - One hit wonders John Fred and the Playboy Band started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with Judy In Disguise, (With Glasses), it made No.3 in the UK. The song was inspired by The Beatles Lucy In The Sky.
1971 - Born on this day, Gary Barlow, vocals, piano, songwriter, Take That, (1995 UK No.1 single ‘Back For Good’ plus eight other UK No.1 singles, 1993 UK No.1 album 'Everything Changes spent 78 weeks on the UK chart). Solo, (1996 UK No.1 single ‘Forever Love’). Written songs for Donny Osmond, Charlotte Church, Bryan McFadden and Atomic Kitten. Re-formed Take That without Robbie Williams in 2006 for a sold-out European tour. Topped the UK singles and album charts simultaneously for the first time in their career when the single ‘Patience’ and album ‘Beautiful World’ both reached No.1 in Dec 2006.
1974 - After a car accident that had almost taken his life five months earlier, Stevie Wonder was back at work, playing a gig at the Rainbow Theatre in London. (He vowed never to drive again)
1975 - The US Top 5 singles: No.5, Stevie Wonder, 'Boogie On Reggae Woman', No.4, Ohio Players, 'Fire', No.3, Barry Manilow, 'Mandy', No.2, Neil Sedaka, 'Laughter In The Rain', No.1, The Carpenters, 'Please Mr Postman'.
1979 - Born this day, Rob Bourdon, drums, Linkin Park, 2002 US No.2 and UK No.4 single In The End, 2002 US No.2 and 2001 UK No.4 album Hybrid Theory.
1982 - During an Ozzy Osbourne concert in Des Moines, Iowa, a member of the audience threw a bat onto the stage. Stunned by the light, the bat lay motionless, and thinking it was a rubber fake, the singer picked it up and attempted to bite its head off. As he did this, the bat started to flap its wings and Ozzy soon realized it wasn't fake but in fact a living thing. After the show Ozzy was immediately rushed to the nearest hospital for rabies shots.
1983 - Def Leppard released their third studio album 'Pyromania' which featured new guitarist Phil Collen and was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The album has now sold over 10 million copies in the US.
1985 - Foreigner had their only UK No.1 single with I Want To Know What Love Is.
1988 - The Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Yoko, Sean, and Julian Lennon all attend. Paul McCartney does not attend, sending instead a letter stating that continuing business differences with the other ex-Beatles was the reason for his absence.
1990 - Michael Bolton started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with How Am I Supposed To Live Without You, the singers first No.1 and the first No.1 single of the 90's in the US.
1996 - Bobby Brown was fined $1,000, sentenced to 2 years probation and ordered to attend anger management classes after assaulting a security guard.
2000 - Tourism chiefs in Liverpool were banned from putting up motorway signs saying 'Liverpool, the Birthplace Of The Beatles', because the Highways Agency thought the signs would distract motorists.
2001 - A memorial service was held for Kirsty MacColl who was killed in a boating accident off the coast of Mexico in December 2000. Bono and Billy Bragg were among the friends and fans that packed St Martin-in-the-Fields church, London.
2002 - George Harrison had the posthumous UK No.1 single with the re-release of the 1971 former No.1 My Sweet Lord. It replaced Aaliyah's More Than A Woman, the only time in chart history that one deceased artist had taken over from another at No.1.
2002 - Stereophonics started a two-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with their second No.1 'Just Enough Education To Perform.'
2003 - 8 Mile, starring Eminem toppled The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers from its four-week hold at the top of the UK box office. The story of a Detroit rapper took £4,440,334 at 423 cinemas in the UK and Ireland.
2012 - Etta James, most often remembered for her signature song, 'At Last', which reached No. 2 on the Billboard R&B chart, died from complications of leukemia at the age of 73. She also placed nine other songs in the American Top 40, won three Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.