Every day on Radio Nova, just before 11am, we play a couple of songs key to “today in music history” Have a listen! But for now – here’s some light reading and watching. May 20th in Music History looks like this.
In 1966, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey of The Who grew tired of waiting for John Entwistle and Keith Moon to arrive for their gig in Windsor, England so they took to the stage with the bass player and drummer of the local band that opened the show. When Moon and Entwistle arrived in the middle of The Who set, a fight broke out, with Townshend hitting Moon on the head with his guitar. Moon and Entwistle quit the band… For a week.
1967 The Beatles new album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band had a special preview on BBC radio, playing every track from the album, except ‘A Day In The Life’ which the BBC had banned saying it could promote drug taking.
Nasty stuff in 1969, while watching a baseball game in Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, Peter Cetera of Chicago was set upon by four Marines because they didn’t like the length of his hair. They broke his jaw, resulting in the singer spending two days in intensive care.
1969 Led Zeppelin started three days of recording in New York City, putting down tracks for the bands second album, including recording Heartbreaker
1995, Don Henley from The Eagles marries model Sharon Summerall. Guests included Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, David Crosby, Randy Newman, Jimmy Buffett, Jackson Browne, Billy Joel, Sting and Sheryl Crow.
1997, Foo Fighters release their second album ‘The Colour And The Shape’ (Note that spelling of Colour- Not the US way)
1998, Frank Sinatra’s funeral took place in Los Angeles.
2006 Heavy metal monsters Lordi became Finland’s first ever Eurovision Song Contest winners after their song Hard Rock Hallelujah won in Athens. The band won the Eurovision public vote after singing their heavy rock anthem dressed in horror costumes.
2023, A smashed Kurt Cobain guitar sells big at the Hard Rock in New York. It was also signed by the band. Estimated to land between 60-80K, it sold for a little bit more than that.
It’s Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees anniversary today and Ray Manzarek’s too, keyboard player with The Doors, he died in 2013.
Check out the weekly Podcast. Marty Miller’s This Week in Music History.
