ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY: 2.20

1965 - The Supremes entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 80 with "Stop! In The Name Of Love", eventually going to number-one. The Supremes' choreography for this song, with one hand on the hip and the other outstretched in a "stop" gesture, is as legendary as the song itself; the moves were taught to the Supremes by Paul Williams and Melvin Franklin of The Temptations.

1970 - The single "Instant Karma" by The Plastic Ono Band was released in the United States. John Lennon had written, recorded and mixed the track all in one day on Jan. 22, 1970.

"Everybody was going on about karma, especially in the ’60s,” Lennon revealed to David Sheff, “but it occurred to me that karma is instant, as well as it influences your past life or your future life. There really is a reaction to what you do now. That’s what people ought to be concerned about."

The title came from Melinde Kendall, the wife of Yoko Ono’s former husband Tony Cox. She had used the phrase in conversation with Lennon and Yoko Ono about the idea of ‘ultimate fates’.

1984 - The Smiths released their self-titled debut album. On the surface, the Smiths' sound wasn't radically different from traditional British guitar pop, but it was actually an astonishing subversion of the form, turning the structure inside out. Very few of the songs followed conventional verse-chorus structure, yet they were quite melodic within their own right. Morrissey had a distinctively ironic, witty, and literate viewpoint whose strangeness was accentuated by his off-kilter voice, which would move from a croon to a yelp in a matter of seconds, all sung over Johnny Marr's ringing, layered guitars.

1989 - Fine Young Cannibals released The Raw and the Cooked. Augmented by former Squeeze piano man Jools Holland and Talking Head's Jerry Harrison, FYC tied past and present musical styles together into artful new pop packages. The Raw & the Cooked features a shopping list of genres, Mod, funk, Motown, British beat, R&B, punk, rock, and even disco are embedded within the songs, while the rhythms, many synthetically created, are equally diverse. Music's past, present, and future, exceptionally combined.

2009 - The White Stripes, favorites of the host, play "We're Going To Be Friends" on the final episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. It ends up being the last performance by the group, which splits up two years later.

Birthdays:

Walter Becker, bassist and guitarist for Steely Dan, was born today in 1950. Walter Becker was one of the two leaders of Steely Dan, the band that defined the smooth studio craft of the 1970s. Along with his partner Donald Fagen, Becker honed a sophisticated blend of jazz, R&B, pop, and rock over the course of the '70s, a journey that culminated with the release of the sleek Gaucho in 1980. Both Fagen and Becker would release solo albums and reunite as Steely Dan.

Poison Ivy, of the Cramps, is 71. The Cramps celebrated all that was dirty and gaudy with a perverse joy that draws in listeners with their witches' brew of primal rockabilly and grease-stained '60s garage rock.

Kurt Cobain was born today in 1967. As a child, Cobain was artistic and had an ear for music, buying his first guitar at 14. Cobain had a generally happy childhood until his parents divorced. After that event, he was frequently troubled and angry, and his emotional pain became a subject of, and catalyst for, much of his later music. While some may have pinned the "voice of a generation" tag on him, he had utter disdain for it. Central to his message was a rejection of what he saw as the crude, commercial motive of labelling an age group.

But that's not to say he didn't have an instinctive feel for what made his audience's growing pains different from those of their predecessors. And the fact that Nirvana struck a chord not only with Generation X, but with a large swathe of blue-collar white, male America - men with despair and alienation of their own - was just one of dozens of problems Kurt Cobain had with success. For a champion of the punk ethic of anti-commercialism, multi-million record sales were a confusion. And intrusion by the press into his private life was insupportable for a man who had been a loner since childhood. "It was so fast and explosive," he said once, "I didn't know how to deal with it. If there was a rock star course, I would have liked to take it. It might have helped me."(Photo credit should read PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Did you know:

Kurt used to teach kids how to swim at the YMCA in Aberdeen, Washington

One of Kurt’s early bands was called Fecal Matter

He was once in a Creedence Clearwater Revival cover band

His top 5 albums:

Iggy & The Stooges – Raw Power (1973)

Pixies – Surfer Rosa (1988)

The Breeders – Pod (1990)

The Vaselines – Dying for It (1988, listed as Pink EP)

The Shaggs – Philosophy of the World (1969)

R.I.P.:

1980 - Bon Scott was pronounced dead on arrival at a London hospital after a heavy night's drinking. Best remembered as the original frontman of the legendary hard rock band AC/DC. Born in Scotland, he performed in his dad's pipe band. They relocated to Australia and after being in a handful of bands, joined AC/DC in 1974. With a limitless supply of dirty riffs, snarling vocals, and timelessly catchy, anthemic choruses, AC/DC went on to become one of the most important and most lasting forces in hard rock.

On This Day In Music History was sourced, copied, pasted, edited, and occasionally woven together with my own crude prose, from This Day in Music, Allmusic, Biography, Britannica, Song Facts, TripleM, Far Out Magazine, The Guardian, The Beatles Bible, and Wikipedia.

KBCO

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