Rock 'n' Roll History for
April 20


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1949 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
Phil Spector's father, Benjamin, who was deeply in debt, committed suicide. On his gravestone were inscribed the words "Ben Spector. Father. Husband. To Know Him Was To Love Him". The inscription would serve as the inspiration for Phil's composition, "To Know Him Is To Love Him", a 1958 US #1 and UK #2 hit for his trio, The Teddy Bears.

1959 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
Goldband Records releases "Puppy Love" by Dolly Parton, a song that was recorded two years earlier when she was just eleven years old. The record will flop and Dolly would have to wait until 1968 to make her first Billboard chart appearance with a Porter Wagoner duet called "The Last Thing On My Mind".

1963 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
Rick Nelson married Kris Harmon, daughter of Tom Harmon, the 1940 Heisman Trophy Winner from the University of Michigan. Six months later, on October 25th, Tracy Kristine Nelson was born at St. John's Hospital near Santa Monica. The couple began having troubles in 1977 and went through a nasty and expensive divorce in December, 1982.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
The Rolling Stones record "Jumpin' Jack Flash" at Olympic Studios in London, England. The song will reach #1 in the UK and #3 in the US, as well as reaching the Top Ten in thirteen other countries around the world.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
The New York Times reports Catholic and Protestant youth groups have adopted the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" as a religious symbol.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
The theme song from the TV show Soul Train called TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia) topped the Billboard Hot 100 for the first of two weeks. It made #22 in the UK. The song was recorded by MFSB (Mothers, Fathers, Sisters, Brothers), the house band at Sigma Sound Studios. Vocals were provided by The Three Degrees.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
84 year old George Burns (born Nathan Birnbaum), who starred in the movie Oh God with John Denver, becomes the oldest person to have a hit on the Billboard Hot 100 when "I Wish I Was 18 Again" peaked at number forty-nine. When asked if he wished he were 18 again, Burns replied "I wish I was 80 again." Before this, his most recent charting record had been a spoken word comedy routine with his wife and partner Gracie Allen in the Summer of 1933.

1981 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
John Phillips, the former leader of The Mamas And The Papas, is jailed in Los Angeles after pleading guilty to drug possession charges. His five year sentence will be suspended after thirty days in exchange for 250 hours worth of community service.

1985 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
Wham! became the first group to release cassettes in the People's Republic of China.

April 20
The Commodores land their only post-Lionel Richie hit when "Nightshift" peaks at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 during a thirteen week stay in the Top 40. In addition, the song led the R&B chart for four weeks.

1987 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
A record store in Callaway, Florida is shut down and a part-time clerk is arrested for selling a copy of "2 Live Is What We Are" by 2 Live Crew to a 14-year-old boy. Officials have deemed the recording "obscene" because of its pornographic lyrics.

1991 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
44 year old Steve Marriott, who found success in Small Faces and Humble Pie, died when a fire thought to have been caused by a cigarette swept through his 16th-century home in Arkesden, Essex. He and Peter Frampton were in the process of re-forming and had written and recorded several new songs at the time of his death.

April 20
Wendy and Carnie Wilson, daughters of The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, along with Chynna Phillips, daughter of The Mamas And Papas' John Phillips, combined their talents to hit #1 on the Billboard singles chart for the third time with "You're In Love". It was a #29 hit in the UK.

1998 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
Michael Jackson attended an unveiling of a wax statue of himself at the Grevin Museum of Wax in Paris. Jackson provided one of his own outfits to dress the figure.

1999 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
Billy Joel performs what he says is his last Rock music concert at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. He planed on devoting his efforts to Classical music, but later returned to touring and singing his hits.

2002 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
Alan Dale, who reached Billboard's #14 spot with "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" and #10 with "Sweet And Gentle", died of heart failure at the age of 76. Both of his 1955 hits sold over a million copies.

2013 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
Neil Diamond sang "Sweet Caroline" at Fenway Park in Boston during the seventh inning stretch. The city was celebrating returning to normal day-to-day life after the accused Boston Marathon bomber had been arrested the day before.

April 20
Record Store Day, an internationally celebrated event to celebrate the art of music, spurred sales of 244,000 vinyl LPs according to Nielsen SoundScan. It was the largest one-week total for vinyl albums since SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
Norway's Ministry of Culture announced that the country will start turning off FM radio on January 11, 2017, with the intent to stop transmission of the last FM signal to the country's northernmost regions by December 13 of that year. In its statement, the Norwegian government said the cost of transmitting national radio channels through the FM network is eight times higher than via the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) system, the standard digital radio technology used across Europe.

2017 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
70-year-old Cuba Gooding Sr., the lead singer of the '70s Soul group The Main Ingredient, was found dead in his car in Woodland Hills, California. The band is most often remembered for their 1972, million selling, Billboard #3 hit, "Everybody Plays The Fool".

2018 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
81-year-old Roberta Flack suffered a stroke while performing at The Apollo Theatre and was forced to leave the stage. Her management later announced that she was "doing fine," but the incident marked the end of her touring days. During her career, Roberta placed eleven songs on the Billboard Top 40, with three of them, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, "Killing Me Softly With His Song" and "Feel Like Makin' Love", reaching number one.

2021 - ClassicBands.com

April 20
Les McKeown, front man for the Bay City Rollers, died at the age of 65. The band landed in the Billboard Top 40 six times in the mid-1970s with hits including "Saturday Night" (#1), "Money Honey" (#9) and "You Made Me Believe In Magic" (#10). He was predeceased by two other members, Alan Longmuir on July 2nd, 2018, and Ian Mitchell on September 2nd, 2020.



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