20 SEPTEMBER
Featured Events
2014 Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass" hits #1 for the first of eight weeks, replacing "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift (a Size 2!).
1979 The Clash bass player Paul Simonon, frustrated because the crowd at The Palladium in New York City isn't standing, smashes his instrument on stage. The photo is later used as the cover of their London Calling album.More
1973 Jim Croce is killed in a plane crash in Natchitoches, Louisiana, at age 30. More
1969 The cartoon group The Archies claim the top spot in America with "Sugar, Sugar," which spends four weeks at #1.
1969 John Lennon leaves The Beatles but agrees to not make an official announcement. The recording of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" marks the last time all four Beatles were together in the same studio.
20 SEPTEMBER
In Music History
2020 Weezer and Fall Out Boy go head to head on Celebrity Family Feud, with FOB coming out on top.
2014 Lauryn Hill turns up an hour-and-a-half late for her show at the Brixton Academy, performs speeded-up remixes of her songs, and is booed by the crowd.
2010 Leonard Skinner, the namesake of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd, dies of Alzheimer's disease at age 77. As a gym teacher at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, Florida, he sent Ronnie Van Zant to the principal's office because his hair was too long.More
2008 R&B singer Nappy Brown dies of a combination of ailments in Charlotte, North Carolina, at age 78. Known for the '50s hits "Don't Be Angry" and "Night Time Is the Right Time."
2005 JD Fortune wins the CBS reality competition Rock Star: INXS to become the group's new lead singer. INXS used various guest vocalists after the 1997 death of Michael Hutchence; Fortune stays with the group until 2011.
2005 The benefit concert "From The Big Apple To The Big Easy" is held in New York's Madison Square Garden in order to raise funds for the Gulf Coast cities and towns devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Among others, Simon & Garfunkel, Elvis Costello, Lenny Kravitz and Elton John perform at this charity concert.
2004 Billy Joel gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2003 Howard Jones plays a sold out concert at the Shepherds Bush Empire, London. The concert marks 20 years since the release of his first single, "New Song."
2003 Fire destroys a lodge on Chuck Berry's Wentzville, Missouri, estate (arson is the cause, but no one is ever arrested for the crime).
2001 Jennifer Lopez does her first full set as a headliner when she plays a show in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
2000 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is released a year after its popular predecessor. The skateboarding video game features a mix of punk, metal and hip-hop on its soundtrack, including Bad Religion's "You" and the Anthrax/Public Enemy collab "Bring The Noise."
2000 The first episode of MTV Cribs airs on the music network, showcasing the (mostly) lavish homes of Jewel, Moby, and The Osbournes. The popularity of the show helps The Osbournes land their own hit reality series a couple years later.More
2000 Traditional country music singer and yodeler Don Walser receives the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Award during ceremonies at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.
1997 Nicholas Traina (lead singer for Link 80) dies of a self-administered morphine overdose in San Francisco, California, at age 19. Traina was the son of bestselling romance author Danielle Steel.
1997 Music Festival of India, a touring gala celebrating the 50th anniversary of India's independence gets under way at Cleveland's Masonic Temple.
Gram Parsons Burns In The Desert
1973The body of The Byrds guitarist Gram Parsons is stolen and taken to Joshua Tree National Park, where it is set on fire.
Parsons died the previous day after a visit to Joshua Tree when he took an overdose of alcohol and morphine. His body is at Los Angeles International Airport, scheduled to be flown to his family in New Orleans, but his friends Phil Kaufman and Michael Martin have other ideas: Showing up at the airport in Kaufman's hearse (his everyday vehicle), they claim the body, signing the release forms as "Jeremy Nobody." They head to Joshua Tree, about 200 miles away, stopping at a bar along the way where they drink a toast to Parsons. Arriving at the Cap Rock landmark in the park, they unload Parsons' casket, douse it with gas and set it on fire. Cap Rock has special significance, as it's where Parsons enjoyed an evening with Keith Richards doing peyote. The following day, authorities find the body, and Kaufman and Martin are later arrested, fined, and given suspended sentences. Kaufman claims that Parsons had asked for the desert consecration, and that he was simply carrying out his wishes. The incident becomes legend and provides Parsons with a far more elegant coda than his hotel room overdose.
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