20 JUNE
Featured Events
1995 George Jones and Tammy Wynette, who divorced in 1975 after six years of marriage, release an album together called One and also go on tour.
1995 Michael Jackson's ninth album, HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, is released. MTV becomes "MJTV" for a week to celebrate.
1988 MCA Records issues landmark albums by two of their hottest young R&B acts: Bobby Brown's Don't Be Cruel and New Edition's Heart Break.More
1972 The Tallahatchee Bridge in Money, Mississippi, made famous in Bobbie Gentry's "Ode To Billie Joe," collapses (it is later rebuilt).
1942 Brian Wilson (of The Beach Boys) is born in Inglewood, California.
20 JUNE
In Music History
2014 The BBC screens the documentary Billy Joel: The Bridge To Russia about his 1987 tour in the Soviet Union.
2012 The film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter sees its theatrical release in the United States, notable in the music world for having "Powerless" by Linkin Park playing over the end credits.
2006 Billy Preston's funeral is held at the Faithful Central Bible Church in Inglewood, California. Among the mourners are Little Richard, Andrae Crouch, Della Reese, The Temptations' Ali-Ollie Woodson and Joe Cocker, who sings his Preston-penned hit "You Are So Beautiful."More
2004 Paul McCartney performs his 3,000th live show, in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
2003 For his 54th birthday, Lionel Richie receives a special gift: a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. According to Richie, the star's location on Hollywood Blvd. isn't far from the Holiday Inn where The Commodores stayed on their first trip to LA while recording their debut album.
2001 The Cult return with their seventh studio album, and first new recording in seven years, Beyond Good and Evil.
1997 Lawrence Payton (tenor vocalist of The Four Tops) dies of liver cancer in Southfield, Michigan, at age 59.
1988 Saxon release their Destiny album on the EMI label.
1983 Grace Potter is born in Waitsfield, Vermont. While attending St. Lawrence University in New York in 2002, she meets drummer Matt Burr during a campus open-mic in and they form a rock band that evolves into Grace Potter And The Nocturnals.
1981 Gary U.S. Bonds, last seen on the Hot 100 in 1962, reaches #11 with "This Little Girl," written for him by longtime admirer Bruce Springsteen.
1978 Foreigner release their second album, Double Vision. Hits from the set include the title track and "Hot Blooded."
1975 Screaming Lord Sutch, wearing a leotard and buffalo horns, rides through Romford, England on a white horse to promote an upcoming festival appearance.More
1975 John Travolta makes his film debut as a Satanist in the horror flick The Devil's Rain, starring William Shatner. Just two years later, Travolta struts his stuff in Saturday Night Fever.
1975 Neil Young releases his 6th studio album, Tonight's the Night. A raw outpouring of emotion inspired by the drug-related deaths of Young's friends, it's initially considered too rough for mainstream release but ends up being one of the iconic albums of the decade.
1971 Twiggy Ramirez (guitarist, bassist for Marilyn Manson) is born Jeordie White in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, but will be raised in Coral Springs, Florida.
Lionel Richie Is Born
1949Lionel Richie is born in Tuskegee, Alabama. He becomes a member of the Commodores before finding fame as a solo artist.
Raised in a religious household, Richie considers a career in ministry but instead goes to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where he studies economics. With a background singing gospel in church and playing the saxophone, he joins some schoolmates to form the Commodores, sharing songwriting and vocal duties. His ballads ("Easy," "Sail On") become some of the biggest hits for the band, and in 1980 he writes one for Kenny Rogers: "Lady," which goes to #1. The following year he teams with Diana Ross on another song he wrote, "Endless Love," which spends nine weeks at #1 in America. His solo career begins in 1982, the same year he leaves the Commodores. With hits that include "All Night Long (All Night)," "Hello" and "Dancing On The Ceiling," he becomes one of the biggest stars of the decade.
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