Rock History November 20
1967, Strawberry Alarm Clock were at number one on the singles chart with “Incense And Peppermints.”
1967, The Beach Boys release the Smiley Smile, the follow-up to Pet Sounds. This avant-garde album fails was not warmly received by critics, and failed to chart, despite boasting the singles “Heroes and Villains” and “Good Vibrations.” It has subsequently achieved much more respect over time.
1968, Mike Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites are approached by Albert Grossman to help the newly solo Janis Joplin put together her own band.
1968, The Monkees film Head opened in six cities. Reviews were harsh and the picture was a box office disaster.
1970, The Allman Brothers Band performed at the Boston Tea Party, Boston.
1970, Pink Floyd made their first ever appearance in Cincinnati, Ohio, when they played at Taft Auditorium.
1970, Derek and the Dominoes performed at the Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, California.
1971, Isaac Hayes started a two week run at number one on the singles chart with “Theme From Shaft” Hayes won a Grammy award for Best Original Film Score.
1971, Led Zeppelin play the first of two “Electric Magic” shows at London’s Wembley Empire Pool. The shows incorporate trapeze artists, performing pigs, and vaudeville performers with Bronco, Stone the Crows, and the headliners. Tickets for the shows sold out in four minutes.
1971, The Grateful Dead played at Pauley Pavillion, on the UCLA campus, in Westwood, California.
1971, Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy, released at the end of October, hits the US charts. The album, considered by many to be the best-ever Who compilation, is released just as The Who cross over the five-year mark during which five percent of The Who’s record royalties had to be paid to their first producer Shel Talmy as a result of his 1966 lawsuit. Many of the singles, so familiar to The Who’s British and European fans, are heard first here by most U.S. Who fans. The album peaks at number eleven.
1971, The Who open their second 1971 the tour at the Charlotte Coliseum, in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are the first rock act to sell out this venue. Keith greets the crowd, “It’s nice to see so many people in Charlotte. I didn’t know there WAS this many people in Charlotte!” The pre-recorded tapes mess up and Pete almost drags Bobby Pridden over the amplifiers.
1972, David Bowie appeared at Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee.
1972, Yes played at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York.
1973, American musician, parodist, satirist Allan Sherman died of emphysema ten days before his 49th birthday. He had the 1963 US number two and UK number 14 single “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah.”
1973, Neil Young played at the Auditorium Theatre, Chicago.
1974, Keith Moon, drummer with The Who, collapsed during a concert after his drink was spiked with horse tranquilizer. 19 year-old Scott Halpin who was in the audience, volunteered to replace him on drums for the remaining three numbers.
1975, Les McKeown of The Bay City Rollers was found not guilty of causing the death of a 76 year old woman that he had hit with his car the previous May. Witnesses said that Euphemia Clunie was walking across the road and had changed directions four times. McKeown was convicted of driving recklessly and fined £150 ($240) and banned from driving for a year.
1975, The Who kicked off a month-long North American tour at The Summit in Houston. At a party afterwards drummer Keith Moon was arrested for disorderly conduct and spent the night in jail.
1976, Paul Simon hosted NBC’s Saturday Night Live where he performed live with George Harrison on “Here Comes The Sun” and “Homeward Bound.” Paul McCartney and John Lennon were both in New York City watching the show on TV.
1977, Aerosmith performed at McNichols Sports Arena, Denver, Colorado.
1978, Boston played at the Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland.
1978, Rush performed at the Tucson Convention Center Arena, Tucson, Arizona.
1979, ZZ Top appeared at the Hirsch Memorial Coliseum, Shreveport, Louisiana.
1980, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band played at the Rosemont Horizon, Rosemont, Illinois.
1981, Prince played the first night on his 56-date North American Controversy tour at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1982, Van Halen appeared at the Frank Erwin Center, Austin, Texas.
1984, A large crowd of fans watched the unveiling of a Hollywood Walk of Fame Star for Michael Jackson in front of Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. Jackson became star number 1,793 on the famed walk.
1985, The Grateful Dead performed at Henry J. Kiser Convention Center in Oakland, California.
1991, The Rolling Stones announced they’d signed a £20 ($32) million deal with Virgin Records, to make three albums over six years.
2005, Robbie Williams smashed a Guinness World Record by selling more than 1.6 million tickets for his 2006 World Tour in one day. The tickets, snapped up on the first day of sale, were valued at an estimated £80 ($128) million.
2007, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke admitted he was among the thousands of people who paid nothing to download the band’s latest album In Rainbows. Speaking to BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq, Yorke said, “There wasn’t any point. I just move some money from one pocket to the other.” According to one survey, three in five people paid nothing at all for it. Yorke added that no one was allowed to have copies of the master recording in case it was leaked beforehand.
Born on November 20: Norman Greenbaum (1942); Duane Allman (1946); Joe Walsh (1947); Jim Brown, drums, UB40 (1957); Mike Diamond, The Beastie Boys (1965); Jared Followill, bassist, Kings Of Leon (1986)
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Aerosmith, Boston, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, David Bowie, keith Moon, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Rush, Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Bay City Rollers, The Beach Boys, The Grateful Dead, The Monkees, The Who, Van Halen, ZZ Top.
