Pick a Day

20 OCTOBER

In Music History

2023 She's got yule, babe: Cher releases her first holiday album, Christmas, with a cover of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" featuring Darlene Love. Cher sang backup on Love's original version 60 years earlier in 1963.

2017 14-year-old Tate McRae, who has built a substantial YouTube following with her dance videos, posts a video of her performing a song she wrote called "One Day." Her fans love it; the video goes viral and earns her a record deal, launching her to pop stardom.

2016 Little Big Town release the single "Better Man," which they later reveal was written by Taylor Swift, marking the first time she pitched a song to another artist.

2013 Kelly Clarkson marries Brandon Blackstock, Reba McEntire's stepson. They have two children before splitting up in 2020.

2011 John Mayer has throat surgery to treat a problem with his vocal cords, pushing back the release of his album Born and Raised.

2010 Lil Wayne, in prison on weapons charges, hits #1 in America with his album I Am Not a Human Being, recorded before he started serving his eight-month sentence.

2005 Jazz singer/pianist Shirley Horn dies of complications from diabetes at age 71.

2003 Amy Winehouse, 20, issues her first album, Frank, in the UK. It doesn't appear in America until 2007.

2002 A man identifying himself as Kid Rock's personal assistant is charged with felony and misdemeanor drug possession after a traffic stop on Rock's tour bus on the Florida Turnpike. Officers find a small amount of cocaine, two marijuana cigarettes, a glass pipe, and rolling papers on Kevin J. McMahon's person and in his luggage. He is released from jail on $16,000 bond.

2001 Raising money for victims of the September 11th attacks, Paul McCartney leads "The Concert For New York" in Madison Square Garden. Elton John, Billy Joel, David Bowie, The Who, and Eric Clapton all participate.

1999 Rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again is born Kentrell DeSean Gaulden in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As a teenager, he builds his fanbase on YouTube, where he becomes one of the platform's most-streamed artists, garnering 8 million views a day in 2019. His legal troubles prove to be as prolific as his musical output, but they don't hinder his success - his Sincerely, Kentrell album debuts at #1 while he's incarcerated on a weapons charge in 2021.

1999 A year after nearly dying from pneumonia, Johnny Cash finds himself battling the condition again. Cash is listed in serious condition at Baptist Hospital in Nashville.

1998 98 Degrees release their breakout album, 98 Degrees and Rising, featuring the hit singles "Because Of You" and "The Hardest Thing," as well as "True To Your Heart," a duet with Stevie Wonder from the Disney movie Mulan.

1997 Canned Heat guitarist Henry "The Sunflower" Vestine, age 52, dies of respiratory and heart failure in a Paris hotel room just after finishing a European tour with the band.

1996 Carly Simon is unable to perform due to stage fright, aboard the Queen Elizabeth II in New York.