21 APRIL
Featured Events
2014 Big Sean becomes the first rapper to perform at the White House when he duets with Ariana Grande on "Right There" at the annual Easter Egg Roll.
2004 Future Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson gets voted off season three of American Idol, where she finishes in seventh place.More
2004 Michael Jackson is officially charged with child molestation after a California grand jury determines there is enough evidence to proceed with allegations made against him for time spent at his Neverland Ranch.
1984 "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)" goes to #1 on the Hot 100, giving Phil Collins his first solo chart-topper on the tally. He will have six more.
1960 For about 20 years, it was common practice for record companies to pay DJs to play songs, but now the US government is cracking down on what they call "Payola." Dick Clark testifies before congress and admits that he took money and gifts to play records - estimating 27% of his playlist to be paid. Clark emerges more powerful than ever, selling off conflicting interests and expanding his music empire. On the other hand, another prominent DJ and TV host, Alan Freed, refuses to admit that he took payola, insisting that he was a consultant to the industry. His career never recovers despite his massive influence and success.
21 APRIL
In Music History
2013 Christina Amphlett (frontwoman of The Divinyls) dies after a long battle with breast cancer at age 53.
2012 Nicki Minaj goes to #1 in America with Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, becoming the first female rapper with a #1 album since Eve in 1999.
2008 Soul singer Al Wilson dies at age 68 of kidney failure.
2007 Rock guitarist Lobby Loyde (of Billy Thorpe and The Aztecs, The Coloured Balls) dies at age 65 of lung cancer.
2006 Faith Hill and Tim McGraw kick off their Soul2Soul II tour in Columbus, Ohio, which becomes the highest-grossing country tour of all time. On some dates, their opening act is a young singer named Taylor Swift.
2003 Nina Simone dies at age 70 after a long battle with breast cancer.
2003 British pop group S Club 7 announces it is splitting up after five years.
2003 EMI and Universal Music sue the file-sharing service Napster for copyright violations.
2001 Peter Buck of R.E.M. gets unruly on a British Airways flight and is arrested. He is accused of drinking 15 glasses of wine, overturning a service cart and engaging in other bad behavior, but charges are eventually dropped. Buck claimed that ingesting both a sleeping pill and wine caused him to lose it.
2000 Neal Matthews Jr. (of Elvis Presley's backing group, The Jordanaires) dies of a heart attack at age 70.
1998 Faith Hill releases her third album, Faith, which delivers her first pop hit, "This Kiss."
1993 Bill Wyman, formerly of The Rolling Stones, marries his third wife, 33-year-old fashion designer Suzanne Accosta, in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France.
1992 The Cure release their ninth studio album, Wish, which features their hit single "Friday I'm In Love." Their highest-charting album, it debuts at #1 in the UK and #2 in the US.
1990 Sinead O'Connor's cover of the Prince song "Nothing Compares 2 U" goes to #1 in America, where it stays for four weeks. It thrusts O'Connor into the spotlight, which she quickly rejects, finding the rituals of fame vapid and materialistic. Two years later, she makes news for tearing up a picture of the Pope on live TV.
1990 The International Ska Festival & Earth Day Celebration goes down at the Greek Theatre in San Francisco, with performances by The International Beat, The Uptones, and Bad Manners. With 10,000 attending, it's an early indicator that ska is finding an audience in America.
Prince Dies
2016Prince dies at age 57 after overdosing on fentanyl, a highly addictive opioid.
Prince played his last concert on April 14 in Atlanta, closing the show with "Purple Rain." The next morning, his plane made an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois, when he lost consciousness. He was taken to a local hospital and given Narcan - his representatives said he was feeling the effects of the flu and also dehydrated. Dr. Howard Kornfeld, an opioid addiction specialist from California, was summoned to treat Prince on April 20. He couldn't go right away, so he sent his son, Andrew Kornfeld, to start the treatment. When Andrew Kornfeld arrives at the Paisley Park compound where Prince lives in Chanhassen, Minnesota, he and two members of Prince's staff find him dead in an elevator. Kornfeld calls 911; paramedics arrive a short time later, but Prince had passed away hours earlier. News of his death spreads fast. At first it seems like a hoax, but it gradually becomes clear that Prince has made his transition to the afterworld, just months after the passing of David Bowie. Tributes pour in, his music saturates the airwaves, and his albums re-enter the charts: on the Billboard 200 dated May 7, he holds eight spots, including the top two (The Very Best Of Prince, followed by Purple Rain). The medical examiner's report is issued on June 2, listing his weight at time of death at 112 pounds (his height is 5'3"). On April 19, 2018, the investigation into his death is closed with no charges filed. That investigation reveals that Prince took a counterfeit Vicodin pill spiked with fentanyl, but could not determine how he obtained it.
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