Rock History October 20
1962, Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt Kickers started a two-week run at number one on the US singles chart with “Monster Mash.” It became a number three hit in the UK eleven years later in 1973. The song had been banned by The BBC in the UK, deemed offensive.
1965, The Who performed at the Top Rank Ballroom in Southampton, England.
1967, Davy Jones of The Monkees opened his own boutique in Greenwich Village named Zilch.
1968, Cream and Deep Purple appeared at the San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, California.
1969, The Who begin a six-night stand at the Fillmore East in New York accompanied by the Joshua Light Show. After the show Bill Graham throws a party for The Who at Max’s Kansas City. Led Zeppelin, who were in the audience for the show, also attend.
1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono release The Wedding Album in the US. Highlights include “John and Yoko,” in which the couple yell each others name for 25 minutes
1971, The Velvet Underground played at Birmingham University, England during a UK tour.
1971, King Crimson appear at Liverpool University, Liverpool, England.
1972, David Bowie played at the Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, California.
1973, Queen appeared on the In Concert show on UK BBC Radio One.
1973, The Rolling Stones went to number one on the singles chart with “Angie,” the group’s seventh US chart topper.
1974, Aerosmith appear at the Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island.
1975, The Allman Brothers Band performed at The Forum, Inglewood, California.
1976, Led Zeppelin’s film The Song Remains The Same, premiered in New York City. The charity night raised $25,000 for the Save The Children fund.
1977, Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines from Lynyrd Skynyrd were all killed along with manager Dean Kilpatrick, the pilot and co-pilot when their rented plane ran out of fuel and crashed into a heavily forested area five miles from Gillsburg, Mississippi. The crash seriously injured the rest of the band and crew who were due to play at Louisiana State University that evening. The crash occurred days after the release of Street Survivors.
1978, The Police made their US debut at CBGB’s, New York. The trio had flown on low cost tickets with Laker Airtrain from the UK, carrying their instruments as hand luggage.
1979, On Saturday Night Live, Bob Dylan performs three songs from his religiously inclined Slow Train Coming album.
1979, Herb Alpert started a two week run at number one on the singles chart with “Rise,” giving the co-founder of A&M records his second chart topper
1979, The Eagles started a nine week run atop the album charts with The Long Run, the band’s fourth number one.
1980, U2 released their debut album, Boy on Island Records. It was produced by Steve Lillywhite. Boy included U2’s first hit single, “I Will Follow.” The album’s release was followed by the group’s first tour of continental Europe and the United States. The album received generally positive reviews from critics. It peaked at number 52 in the UK and number 63 in the US.
1981, Foreigner played at the Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland.
1982, The Who play the Kingdome in Seattle, Washington.
1983, The Grateful Dead appeared at The Centrum, in Worchester, Massachusetts.
1983, American country and western singer, songwriter, Merle Travis died of a heart attack aged 65. Acknowledged as one of the most influential American guitarist’s of the twentieth century. He wrote “Sixteen Tons,” a 1955 US number one for Ernie Ford. He appeared in the 1953 movie From Here to Eternity singing “Reenlistment Blues.”
1994, Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker presented this week’s edition of the UK music show Top Of The Pops, introducing Michelle Gayle, Let Loose and INXS.
2011, US photographer Barry Feinstein, best known for taking enduring pictures of musicians such as Bob Dylan and George Harrison, died aged 80. Feinstein was responsible for capturing more than 500 record sleeves, including Harrison’s All Things Must Pass album and the cover photograph for Dylan’s album The Times They Are A-Changin. Feinstein’s picture of Dylan at a damp ferry port on the banks of the River Severn was also used in No Direction Home, Scorsese’s 2005 film about the musician. The Rolling Stones’ sleeve for Beggars Banquet, shot in a graffiti-covered toilet, was also Feinstein’s work.
2014, John Holt, reggae singer and songwriter who first found fame as a member of the Paragons, died aged 67. Holt wrote the song “The Tide Is High,” which was famously covered by Blondie.
Born on October 20: Jelly Roll Morton (1890); Wanda Jackson, singer-songwriter, guitarist (1937); Jay Siegel, The Tokens (1939); Ric Lee, drummer, Ten Years After (1945); Tom Petty (1950); Alan Greenwood, keyboards, Foreigner (1951); David Ryan, drummer, The Lemonheads (1964); Norman Blake, Scottish singer-songwriter, guitarist, Teenage Fanclub (1965); Snoop Doggy Dogg, aka,Calvin Broadus (1971); Paul Wilson, bass, Snow Patrol (1978)
Link to Today in Rock History archives.
Cream, Deep Purple, John Lennon, Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Monkees, The Police, The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground, The Who.
