10 NOVEMBER
Featured Events
2007 For the first time, country(ish) artists occupy the top three spots on the US albums chart: 1) Carrie Underwood - Carnival Ride 2) Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand 3) Gary Allan - Living Hard
2002 Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, Lenny Kravitz, and Brian Setzer guest star on The Simpsons in an episode where they run a rock and roll fantasy camp. The first rule of the camp: There are no rules! Second rule: No outside food.More
1992 Ween's major-label debut, Pure Guava, is released on Elektra records. The album features the single "Push th' Little Daisies," which gets them attention on MTV after being featured on the channel's animated series Beavis and Butt-head. During the clip, Butt-head quips, "These guys have no future."More
1988 After a 6-year hiatus where he waits out the '80s, Steve Miller starts touring again, kicking off with a show in Burlington, Vermont.
1969 Sesame Street debuts on American public television. Many of the lessons are taught with songs, and in later seasons, musicians drop by to help out: Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Ray Charles, Dixie Chicks and Alicia Keys are among the many to appear on the show. The two big names that turn down offers: Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand.More
1938 On her radio show, Kate Smith sings the Irving Berlin song "God Bless America" for the first time, introducing it to the country. Berlin composed the song for a 1918 musical he wrote, but decided not to use it.More
10 NOVEMBER
In Music History
2020 Through her lawyer, Britney Spears tells a court she is afraid of her father and will not perform again if he is in charge of her career. Since 2008, she has been under conservatorship, with her father in charge of her health and finances.
2019 In Houston, Joe Walsh stages the first annual VetsAid concert to assist veterans. He's joined on the bill by ZZ Top, Sheryl Crow and The Doobie Brothers.
2017 Outsider her home in Nashville, Carrie Underwood takes a nasty fall, breaking her wrist and mangling her face. She doesn't appear in public again until April 15, 2018, when she performs "Cry Pretty" - a song partly inspired by the incident - at the ACM Awards.
2017 Following a publicity campaign where she purges her social media accounts and posts video of a hissing snake, Taylor Swift releases her sixth album, Reputation.More
2013 At the MTV Europe Awards, Miley Cyrus smokes a joint while accepting her Best Video award for "Wrecking Ball." The ceremony is held in Amsterdam, so it's legal.
2012 No longer an item: Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez. The pair announce their breakup after dating for about a year. Bieber plays an acoustic version of "Cry Me A River" at his show in Boston. A decade earlier, Justin Timberlake wrote the song about his split with Britney Spears.
2006 R&B singer-songwriter Gerald Levert, age 40, dies of acute intoxication after taking various prescription painkillers combined with Xanax and antihistamines. The death is ruled accidental.
2003 David Bowie is forced to cancel the remainder of his gig in Nice, France, when laryngitis causes his voice to give out in the middle of "Ziggy Stardust." Doctors assign Bowie three days rest.
2003 An emotional tribute to the recently deceased Johnny Cash is held at Nashville's famous Ryman Auditorium, featuring classic Cash songs performed by Sheryl Crow, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Kid Rock, and Steve Earle, among others.
2003 The paperback version of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain's Journals is released, sparking renewed interest in the dead rock star. A disorganized collection of his writings and drawings, the front cover warns, "if you read, you'll judge."
2002 Johnny Griffith dies of a heart attack at age 66. As a keyboardist for Motown's in-house band, The Funk Brothers, he played on several of the label's hits, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Stop! In the Name of Love."
2002 8 Mile, starring Eminem, tops the box office while his song from the film, "Lose Yourself," sits at #1, making him the first performer since Prince (Purple Rain and "When Doves Cry") in 1984 with a song and movie simultaneously at #1.
2001 Country singer Chalee Tennison and guitarist Mark Gillespie marry following a three-year courtship. The marriage is Tennison's fourth and Gillespie's first.
2000 Singer-songwriter Billy Yates makes his Grand Ole Opry debut, performing his single "What Do You Want From Me Now."
1998 On their way to perform at the 1998 MTV Europe Music Awards at Milan's Fila Forum, British girl group All Saints are held up for six hours in London by a walkout of Milan airport employees.
"Rapper's Delight" Becomes First Rap Song On Hot 100
1979"Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang becomes first rap song to hit the Billboard Hot 100, entering the chart at #84.
Once DJs like Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash figured out how to loop the instrumental breaks on records, rappers could step up to the mic for as long as their rhymes could take them. Crews of rappers formed in New York City, where they wowed the crowds at block parties. Sylvia Robinson, an R&B singer who had a hit record in 1956 with "Love Is Strange," owned the New Jersey label Sugarhill Records and took notice. She set out to make a rap record suitable for radio. The first challenge was making the track. She chose "Good Times" by Chic as the anchor, sampling the disco hit to form the beat, which was augmented by a live bass interpolation played by Chip Shearin, a 17-year-old who was paid $70 to play the bass loop for 15 minutes straight. The other challenge was finding rappers. Instead of working with an established crew, Robinson created one with help from her 18-year-old son, who found three guys in Englewood, New Jersey who could rap: Michael "Wonder Mike" Wright, Henry "Big Bank Hank" Jackson, and Guy "Master Gee" O'Brien. They were dubbed "The Sugarhill Gang" (named for the label) and sent to rhyme over the track. The hook is based on some common patter heard at the block parties: "hip hop and you don't stop." The verses are a combination of stories and word-salad that flow with the beat. A lot of it is benignly braggadocious ("I'm going down in history as the baddest rapper there ever could be"), but most of it is pure fun. Wonder Mike rhymes about going to a friend's house and having to eat his mama's nasty food; Hank raps about Lois Lane dumping Superman for him, a bit lifted from a more legitimate MC: Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush crew. Released on September 16, 1979, the 12-inch single, which runs nearly 15 minutes, catches on in clubs around New York City. The 7-inch single, edited to just under five minutes, becomes a brisk seller in the area. On the chart dated November 10, "Rapper's Delight" becomes the first rap song to enter the Hot 100. It moves steadily up the chart, becoming the first rap Top 40 on January 5, 1980, when it hits #37. A week later, it peaks at #36. One of the club-goers to hear the song early on is Nile Rodgers of Chic, who threatens a lawsuit. He and his co-writer Bernard Edwards cut a deal, making them co-authors of "Rapper's Delight" so they earn royalties. It is another decade before cases of sampling are sorted out in court. The Sugarhill Gang return to the chart in 1981 with "8th Wonder" (#82) and the following year with "Apache (Jump On It)" (#53). Sugarhill Records signs more rap acts, most notably Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Groups like Whodini and Afrika Bambaataa have some success on major labels, but it takes a while for rap to find a wider audience, since very few radio stations will play it. When it does catch on, "Rapper's Delight" is fondly remembered as a classic of the genre, a throwback to when the beats were basic and the rhymes were fun.
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