1980 - Steely Dan releases Gaucho. It’s nearly conceptual; seven tracks of sex workers and johns, dope addicts and coke dealers, spoiled love affairs and the one man everyone in their neighborhood knows not to go near. Seven tracks of high-class pulp, elevated with elaborate horns and impossible chords. The album is meticulously produced (at times threatening to squeeze out any emotional resonance) and features contributions from Rick Derringer and Mark Knopfler. (Photo by Scott Gries/Getty Images)
1987 - "Mony Mony" by Billy Idol replaces "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany at #1 in the US. Both songs were originally recorded in the '60s by Tommy James & the Shondells. Billie Joe Armstrong recently covered "I Think We're Alone Now".
1992 - Adam Sandler sings "The Thanksgiving Song" on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update.
Weekend Update anchor Kevin Nealon introduces the segment as the start of a new tradition, where each year an SNL performer will compose and perform an original Thanksgiving song. The tradition doesn't stick, but Sandler's off-the-wall contribution becomes a holiday favorite.
1995 - Bruce Springsteen releases The Ghost Of Tom Joad. An album that focused on the increasingly sharp divide between the rich and the poor in America, more explicitly political than Nebraska.
While there's an undertow of bitterness in this album's tales of an America that has turned its back on the working class and the foreign-born, there's also a tremendous compassion in songs like "The Line," "Sinaloa Cowboys," "Balboa Park," and the title cut, which lend their subjects a dignity fate failed to give them.
1995 - Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day is arrested for mooning the audience during a show in Milwaukee. He pays a $141.50 fine for indecent exposure.
2003 - The newest members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced including George Harrison, who becomes the third Beatle to enter the Rock Hall as a solo performer; John Lennon was inducted in 1992 and Paul McCartney in 1999. The group was inducted in 1988.
Birthdays:
1941- David Porter, singer-songwriter and producer, is born in Memphis, Tennessee. A prolific songwriter, he's known for contributing to hits like Sam & Dave's "Soul Man" and "Hold On, I'm Comin," Mariah Carey's "Dreamlover," and Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It."
Bjork is 58. A visionary artist who effortlessly blends avant-garde and pop elements, Björk makes music that is as innovative as it is emotional. When the Icelandic singer, songwriter, producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. launched her career with the Sugarcubes. She established her new artistic direction with 1993's Debut, an international, multi-platinum hit.
R.I.P.:
Actor, singer, songwriter, and guitarist David Cassidy died at the age of 67 in 2017. He was known for his role as Keith Partridge, the son of Shirley Partridge (played by his stepmother Shirley Jones), in the 70s musical-sitcom The Partridge Family, which led to him becoming one of popular culture's teen idols. The Partridge Family had the 1970 US No.1 single 'I Think I Love You'.
Legendary manager of Led Zeppelin Peter Grant died in 1995 at the age of 60. Known as being one of the shrewdest and most ruthless managers in rock history, Grant secured 90% of concert gate money and intimidated record store owners who dealt in bootlegs. The former wrestler, also worked as a film extra and bodyguard.
On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Allmusic, Albumism, Classic Bands, Song Facts and Wikipedia.
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