20 MARCH
In Music History
1993 Dr. Dre's debut solo single, "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang," peaks at #2 on the Hot 100, where it stays for one week.
1991 Michael Jackson signs the largest contract renewal in history to the time, inking a $65 million deal with Sony.
1990 Eric Clapton plays three songs on Saturday Night Live: "Pretending," "No Alibis" and "Wonderful Tonight."
1990 Sinead O'Connor releases her second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got. The single "Nothing Compares 2 U," written by Prince, propels her to stardom.
1989 After 37 years on the air, Dick Clark announces he will discontinue hosting his creation, ABC-TV's highly influential American Bandstand. The show continues with another host, but folds for good soon after.
1988 Canadian jazz pianist Gil Evans, who often worked with Miles Davis, dies of peritonitis at age 75.
1987 Poison frontman Bret Michaels collapses after their set at Madison Square Garden, where they're opening for Ratt. After waking up in the hospital, Michaels reveals that he's diabetic and the collapse was caused by insulin shock.
1986 Country singer Kathy Mattea releases her third album, Walk The Way The Wind Blows, featuring her breakthrough single - a cover of Nanci Griffith's "Love At The Five And Dime." It peaks at #3 on the country chart.
1984 Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats marries actress Britt Ekland.
1982 Nick Wheeler (lead guitarist for The All-American Rejects) is born in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
1980 At Asylum Records in New York, 28-year-old Joseph Riviera holds employees at gunpoint, demanding to talk to either Jackson Browne or one of the Eagles. When informed that they lived in California, Riviera pockets his pistol and leaves the building, later surrendering to police.
1976 Chester Bennington (lead vocalist for Linkin Park) is born in Phoenix, Arizona.
1976 Alice Cooper gets married for the first (and only) time. His bride is Sheryl Goddard, a 19-year-old dance instructor who performed on his Welcome To My Nightmare tour.
1975 Patti Smith and Television begin a 7-week residency at CBGB in New York City. During these shows, Smith refines the songs that later appear on her debut album Horses.
1972 Ringo Starr records "Back Off Boogaloo."
Glee Ends Six-Season Run
2015The series finale of Glee, titled "Dreams Come True," airs on FOX. During its six-year run, the influential musical drama made old music new again with a stream of hit covers... and broke records from Elvis Presley and The Beatles along the way.
Read more20 MARCH
Featured Events
2010 Three days after their lead singer Alex Chilton died of a heart attack, Big Star play the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, with a number of guests joining to pay tribute to Chilton.More
2003 On the day the Iraq war begins, Bruce Springsteen opens his Melbourne, Australia, show with a quiet, acoustic version of his hit "Born In The U.S.A." and follows it, pointedly, with a cover of Edwin Starr's "War."
1997 Yanni becomes the first Western artist to play a concert at the Taj Mahal when he performs the first of three shows at the monument. Before a financial settlement is reached, farmers displaced by the spectacle threaten to immolate themselves in protest.
1993 Reggae rules as "Oh Carolina" by Shaggy hits #1 in the UK while Snow's "Informer" holds the top spot in America. It's the first #1 for both artists - Snow is Canadian; Shaggy is Jamaican-American.
1991 Eric Clapton's 4-year-old son, Conor, dies after falling out of a window at his mother's apartment. Clapton later writes "Tears In Heaven" about Conor.
1990 Near Scranton and heading for a show in Syracuse, Miami Sound Machine's tour bus is hit by a tractor trailer on a snowy highway. Gloria Estefan suffers a serious spinal injury requiring four hours of surgery.More
1982 The duo Buckner & Garcia appear on American Bandstand to perform their hit single "Pac-Man Fever," the first successful song about a video game.More
1969 John Lennon marries Yoko Ono at the Rock of Gibraltar in Spain, which is still owned by Britain. The Beatles song "The Ballad of John and Yoko" describes their ordeal finding a location for the nuptials.
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