19 OCTOBER
Featured Events
2012 Justin Timberlake marries actress Jessica Biel at a super-secret ceremony in Italy.
1985 Thanks to an innovative video that takes place in a comic book, "Take On Me" gives the Norwegian group a-ha a #1 hit in America.More
1984 The Talking Heads concert movie Stop Making Sense opens in theaters. A highly unconventional film that doesn't rely on crowd shots or backstage footage, it's hailed as a triumph of the genre.More
1979 Prince releases his sophomore album, Prince, containing the #1 R&B hit "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and the original version of "I Feel For You," later a hit for Chaka Khan. It's his first album certified Platinum for sales over 1 million.
1977 In Greenville, South Carolina, Lynyrd Skynyrd play their last show before the plane crash that kills three of their members. Nazareth is the opening act.
1958 In Nashville, Brenda Lee records "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree." To get her in the Christmas spirit, her producer, Owen Bradley, sets up a Christmas tree and turns on the air conditioning.
19 OCTOBER
In Music History
2021 The TV series Queens, starring Brandy and Eve as members of a hip-hop group from the '90s who reunite in the '20s, debuts on ABC.
2014 Raphael Ravenscroft, who played the famous saxophone solo on "Baker Street," dies at age 60.
2013 Noel Harrison, whose "Windmills Of Your Mind" won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for the 1968 heist film The Thomas Crown Affair, dies of a heart attack at age 79.
2011 Texas-born blues pianist Earl Gilliam dies at age 81 of advanced lung disease.
2011 Blues guitarist John-Alex Mason, age 35, dies of complications after surgery to remove cancerous tissue.
2007 Trini Lopez is given the Lifetime Achievement honor at the Latinos of Distinction Awards in Ontario, California.
2006 Nick Valensi of The Strokes and his wife, photographer/actress Amanda de Cadenet, welcome fraternal twins, Silvan and Ella.
2005 Yusuf Islam, the singer/songwriter formerly know as Cat Stevens, is named songwriter of the year at the ASCAP Awards in London. Islam also receives the song of the year honor for "First Cut Is The Deepest," which was first released in 1967.
2004 Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart are the lead performers on the Alfie soundtrack. Jagger sings lead on about one-third of the songs, including the first single "Old Habits Die Hard." Another version with Jagger, Stewart and Sheryl Crow is included as a bonus track.
2001 Luciano Pavarotti is acquitted of tax evasion in a trial in his home town of Modena, Italy. The opera star, who was accused of owing the government $18 million for income earned from 1989-95, faced a nominal 18-month prison sentence.
1999 Primus issue their sixth studio album, Antipop. The song "Eclectic Electric" features guitar from James Hetfield of Metallica, and Jim Martin, formerly of Faith No More.
1997 Vince Gill honors John Denver with a performance of "Take Me Home Country Roads" at the Grand Ole Opry. Denver died a week earlier in a plane crash.
1997 After a number of health scares related to a lifetime of drug and alcohol abuse, original Alice Cooper guitarist Glen Buxton dies of viral pneumonia at age 49.
1995 Don Cherry, acclaimed trumpet player and father of Neneh and Eagle-Eye Cherry, dies of liver cancer at age 58.
1993 Counterparts, Rush's 15th studio album, hits stores.
After A Vicious Legal Battle, Petty Releases Damn The Torpedoes
1979Following a vicious legal battle with MCA Records, the third Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers album, Damn The Torpedoes, is released on the label's new subsidiary, Backstreet Records.
After releasing two albums, the band's label, Shelter Records, was sold to MCA. Petty refused to go along, leading to a spate of lawsuits that played out while the band was recording the album. After Petty declared bankruptcy, he and the label came to an agreement where the band recorded for Backstreet, which would be dedicated to Petty. United against a common enemy, the band formed a stronger bond and found a creative spark not present on their previous album, You're Gonna Get It! (1978). Damn The Torpedoes, produced by Jimmy Iovine, is a breakthrough, selling over 3 million copies in America and reaching #2 on the Albums chart. The song "Refugee" is directly inspired by what transpired: Everybody's had to fight to be free You see you don't have to live like a refugee
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