Rock 'n' Roll History for
October 20


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1955 - ClassicBands.com

October 20
Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, The Four Lads and Pat Boone appear together in concert at the Brooklyn High School auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio.

October 20
Harry Belafonte records a traditional Jamaican Folk tune called "The Banana Boat Song" ("Day-O") in the Grand Ballroom of the Webster Hall in New York City. It reached #5 in the US in early 1957 and later became Belafonte's signature song. He would later say, "I took that song and honed it into an anthem that the world loved."

1962 - ClassicBands.com

October 20
The Four Seasons' "Big Girls Don't Cry" is released. It will become their second consecutive Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit, spending five weeks at the top. The song also led the Billboard R&B chart for three weeks.

October 20
"Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett, reached the top of Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart. This novelty song, which was recorded in less than two hours, has now become an annual favorite.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

October 20
Apple Records releases John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Wedding Album". The LP came in an elaborate box set and included photos, drawings by Lennon, a reproduction of the marriage certificate, a picture of a slice of wedding cake and a booklet of press clippings about the couple. The album was not well received, only managing to climb to #178 during a brief three week stay on the Billboard 200. In the UK, it did not chart at all.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

October 20
The Rolling Stones had the number one song in the US with "Angie". It made #5 in the UK. It is often reported that the song was written about David Bowie's wife at the time, the former Angela Barnett, but many reliable sources say that the song is really about Anita Pallenberg, the long-time love of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

October 20
Eric Burdon and his wife Rose have a baby girl in Palm Springs, California and name her Mirage. They later change it to Alex.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

October 20
Led Zeppelin's film, The Song Remains the Same, a mixture of concert footage and fantasy sequences, premieres at Cinema I in New York.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

October 20
Three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, his sister Cassie Gaines (one of three backing singers) and manager Dean Kilpatrick were killed in a plane crash en route from Greenville, South Carolina, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The remaining members, Gary Rossington, Allen Collins, Billy Powell and Leon Wilkeson were seriously injured, but all recovered. The band was finished for ten years, until the survivors invited Ronnie's younger brother Johnny to join them in a reunion concert.

1979 - ClassicBands.com

October 20
Herb Alpert, who led his Tijuana Brass on seventeen instrumental chart hits in the mid 1960s, reached number one in the US with a dance tune called "Rise". It made #13 in the UK. Next Spring the song will win a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.

October 20
Bob Dylan makes his only appearance on Saturday Night Live, performing three songs from his Christian album "Slow Train Coming".

1992 - ClassicBands.com

October 20
Arista Records releases Kenny G's "Breathless". Although it received negative reviews from critics, the album would go on to reach #2 on the Billboard 200 chart and be certified Diamond for shipments of over fifteen million copies in the United States.

1997 - ClassicBands.com

October 20
Henry Vestine, guitarist for Canned Heat, died in a Paris hotel room at the age of 52 from heart and respiratory failure. The band had placed nine albums on the Billboard Hot 200 chart between 1967 and 1971, and scored three Top 40 hits with "On The Road Again" (#16), "Going Up The Country" (#11) and "Let's Work Together" (#26).

2001 - ClassicBands.com

October 20
An all-star lineup including David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, Elton John and The Who appear at The Concert For New York City at Madison Square Garden in a five hour show to benefit the victims of the 9/11 attack.

2014 - ClassicBands.com

October 20
Cat Stevens first album in five years, "Tell 'Em I'm Gone", began streaming on www.NPR.org. The LP was supported by a six-date tour beginning in December, his first string of North American dates in thirty-five years.



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