2 NOVEMBER
Featured Events
2018 The Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, starring Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, opens in theaters. It wins four Oscars, including Best Actor for Malek.More
1995 Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders guest stars on the Friends episode "The One with the Baby on the Bus." She sings "Angel of the Morning" and learns "Smelly Cat" from Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow).
1985 The Miami Vice soundtrack album, featuring the #1-hit theme song, tops the albums chart in America, ushering in a new age of TV soundtracks.More
1978 Alice Cooper appears on The Muppet Show, where he performs "Welcome to My Nightmare" and "School's Out." He also offers to give the Muppets fame and riches if they'll sign their souls over to him. Kermit is horrified. Gonzo spends the entire episode looking for a pen.
1978 The Police release their debut album, Outlandos d'Amour. The working title, "Police Brutality," is changed to make is sound more romantic. The title loosely translates as "Outlaws of Love" but the term "Outlandos" is actually a mix of the words for "Outlaws" and "Commandos."
1974 George Harrison begins his Dark Horse tour with Ravi Shankar in Vancouver, BC. It's the first solo tour for any Beatle, and a drag on Harrison, who doesn't travel well. It's the last time he tours until 1991, when he joins Eric Clapton on some dates in Japan.
1968 Jose Feliciano's unique rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner," which he performed on acoustic guitar before Game 5 of the World Series on October 7, enters the Hot 100 at #89, making it the first version of the US National Anthem to chart (it peaks at #50). Many singers start adding their own flavor to the song; the next version to chart is Whitney Houston's Super Bowl performance in 1991, which hits #20.
1961 k.d. lang is born Kathryn Dawn Lang in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
1920 KDKA in Pittsburgh becomes the first commercially licensed radio station in the United States. They are not the first station on the air, but the first to get the broadcast license. With consumers unsure of the benefits of radio, the station announces results of the Harding-Cox presidential election, getting the news to those with a radio much faster than everyone who had to wait for the morning paper.
2 NOVEMBER
In Music History
2023 Using artificial intelligence to isolate John Lennon's vocals from an old demo, The Beatles release a new song: "Now And Then." It goes to #1 in the UK, their 18th chart-topper there.
2020 Thanks to a swell of views from children home during the coronavirus pandemic, "Baby Shark" overtakes "Despacito" as the most-viewed video in YouTube history, with a little over 7 billion views.
2016 Beyoncé goes country, performing her song "Daddy Lessons" with the Dixie Chicks at the CMA Awards. Eight years later, she becomes the first Black woman to top the Country chart when "Texas Hold 'Em" goes to #1.
2015 80-year-old Johnny Mathis returns home from an Ohio concert to find his iconic Hollywood Hills mansion, built by billionaire Howard Hughes in 1946, engulfed in flames. The fire consumes nearly all of the singer's possessions, save for a few mementos.
2014 English clarinetist Acker Bilk, known for the 1962 instrumental hit "Stranger On The Shore," dies at age 85 after years of health issues that included throat cancer, bladder cancer, and a stroke.
2013 'N Sync reunites for Chris Kirkpatrick's wedding, as his four bandmates serve as groomsmen for his nuptials to Karly Skladany.
2012 Brian Eno's new album LUX is previewed for travelers at Tokyo International Airport, a fitting move for a composer whose 1978 album Ambient 1: Music for Airports was designed for such purpose.
2007 In Glasgow, a reunited Verve play their first show since 1998. The band part ways again in 2009.
2007 A right of passage for any up-and-coming British musical act, Laura Marling makes her debut on Later…with Jools Holland, performing the songs "Ghosts" and "New Romantic" before a live studio audience. The former Squeeze founder's late night music variety show has become an institution in the UK, and many other networks rebroadcast it around the world.
2006 Surprising no one, Shakira is the big winner at the seventh annual Latin Grammy Awards, taking home four statues during the ceremony at Madison Square Garden. The Colombian pop star wins song and record of the year awards for "La Tortura," a duet with Spaniard Alejandro Sanz. She also receives trophies for female pop vocal album and album of the year for her Spanish-language Fijacion Oral, Vol. 1.
2006 Justin Timberlake hosts the MTV Europe Music Awards, where he also wins for Best Male Artist and Best Pop Artist. Gnarls Barkley wins Best Song for "Crazy."
2005 Depeche Mode is forced to cancel their tour opener in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after Hurricane Wilma devastates the area.
2003 David Cassidy guest stars on FOX's Malcolm in the Middle, where he plays aging teen idol Boon Vincent. Of the character, Cassidy says: "I drew from my experiences meeting the most egotistical, egocentric human beings who have ever dawned on a stage."
2001 Gorillaz' "Clint Eastwood" and Fatboy Slim's "Weapon Of Choice" each take three trophies at the Billboard Music Video Awards.
2001 Country singer Buddy Starcher, known for the 1965 spoken-word recording "History Repeats Itself," dies at age 95.
Stevie Wonder Hits #1 22 Years After First Topping The Chart
1985"Part-Time Lover" hits #1 on the Hot 100, 22 years after Stevie Wonder first topped the chart in 1963.
Wonder's first #1 on the chart was "Fingertips (Part 2)" in 1963, a live stomper recorded when he was 12 years old. "Part-Time Lover" is a different beast: a song about two people who are cheating on each other, and one of the first recorded on digital equipment. Wonder kept up a torrid pace in those 22 years, becoming one of the best-selling and most celebrated artists of that time span. His musical output slowed a bit in the early '80s as he waged a successful campaign to get Martin Luther King Jr's birthday declared a national holiday in the United States. His duet with Paul McCartney, "Ebony and Ivory," was one of the top songs of 1982, and "I Just Called To Say I Love You" was a huge hit in 1984. "Part-Time Lover" is his last #1 on his own, although "That's What Friends Are For," his collaboration with Dionne Warwick, Elton John and Gladys Knight, hits the top in 1986. Musically, "Part-Time Lover" is influenced by two songs recorded by Wonder's Motown labelmates The Supremes: "You Can't Hurry Love" and "My World Is Empty Without You." Lyrically, it has some basis in real life, as Wonder recalls a time when a man would call his house and try to disguise his voice when Stevie answered (a pitfall for straying lovers in the pre-cellphone era). Wonder's record of longest time between first and last #1 hits lasts until 1988, when the revived Beach Boys (without Brian Wilson) hit #1 with "Kokomo."
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