Pick a Day

9 NOVEMBER

In Music History

1967 In a battle of egos, The Byrds's Roger McGuinn boots David Crosby from the group. Crosby is replaced by Gene Clark and goes on to form Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

1966 According to the "Paul Is Dead" rumors, this was the day Paul McCartney "blew his mind out in a car," meeting his doom and being replaced with a lookalike.

1966 John Lennon visits London's Indica Gallery to see the exhibit Unfinished Paintings and Objects and meets the artist behind the showing, Yoko Ono. She presents him with a card that simply says, "Breathe," and he responds by panting. He attempts to hammer a nail into one of her interactive artworks, which invites viewers to do just that; since the exhibit does not open to the public till the next day, however, Ono refuses, leading the gallery's owner to beg her to reconsider due to John's fame. Ono still refuses, claiming to have never heard of The Beatles, but says he can hammer one in for five shillings. John responds that he'll let her have an imaginary five shillings if he can hammer in an imaginary nail. Two years later, the two meet again and quickly fall in love.

1962 In Birmingham, Alabama, two gunshots hit the side of the tour bus transporting Motown's Motortown Revue, as black acts are not welcome by everyone in the deep south. The show, at the National Guard Armory, marks the first time in the city's history that an integrated audience is allowed for a concert.

1962 The Miracles release "You've Really Got A Hold On Me."

1961 Liverpool record store owner Brian Epstein visits the local Cavern Club to check out the lunchtime show by a band he's heard a lot about: The Beatles. He becomes their manager, and in June 1962, lands them a deal with Parlophone Records.

1960 Dee Clark records "Your Friends."

1960 Elvis Presley begins filming his seventh movie, Wild In The Country.

1959 Sam Cooke is guaranteed $100,000 by RCA if he chooses to leave his current home, Keen Records.

1959 Johnny Mathis goes to #1 in America with his album Heavenly.

1958 Elvis Presley's massive hit "Hound Dog" - with "Don't Be Cruel" on the flip side - becomes only the third record in history to sell more than three million copies, following Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" and Gene Autry's "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer."

1955 The Everly Brothers, recently signed to Columbia as a country act, cut their first tracks in a studio lodged in Nashville's Old Tulane Hotel. The four recordings, which take only 22 minutes to lay down, yield no hits, and the duo is soon dropped from the label.

1948 Blue Öyster Cult bass player Albert Bouchard is born in Watertown, New York.

1948 Alan Gratzer (drummer for REO Speedwagon) is born in Syracuse, New York.

1946 Benny Mardones ("Into The Night") is born Ruben Armand Mardones in Cleveland, Ohio.