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Today in Music

January, 19

  • 2000 Josh Clayton-Felt, former vocalist for Los Angeles-based band School Of Fish, dies of testicular cancer. He is 33.
  • 1999 Buckwheat Zydeco leader Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural undergoes surgery in Nashville to remove vocal-cord lesions.
  • 1999 Jean-Michel Jarre, the French rock composer and performer, delivers a petition to the European Parliament signed by hundreds of leading European recording artists calling for better legal protection against music piracy on the internet.
  • 1999 The U.S. Supreme Court without comment refuses to hear a 1998 lawsuit brought by ticket buyers against Ticketmaster. The suit charges that the firm engaged in anticompetitive behavior and price-fixing with promoters.
  • 1999 Bizzy Bone of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, a Grammy Award-winning rapper goes on trial in Columbus, Ohio, on charges that he dragged a student barber down a flight of stairs.
  • 1998 Carl Perkins, the rockabilly pioneer whose song “Blue Suede Shoes” and lightning-quick guitar-playing influenced Elvis Presley, the Beatles and a slew of other performers, dies at the age of 65, from complications following a recent series of strokes.
  • 1998 The National Assn. of Chiefs of Police present Pat Boone with its first annual Michael the Archangel Award. The award recognizes the artist’s efforts in support of families of officers killed in the line of duty.
  • 1993 A pre-inaugural gala in Landover, Md., toasting incoming president Bill Clinton features a reunion of Fleetwood Mac performing “Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow),” the unofficial campaign song for Clinton and his running mate, Al Gore. Other performers included Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, Little Richard and Chuck Berry.
  • 1993 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds a $2.5 million award to gravel-voiced singer Tom Waits over use of a “sound alike” artist to mimic his voice in a 1988 television commercial. The court rejects arguments by Frito-Lay and its advertising firm that federal copyright law bars such awards of damages.
  • 1977 Aretha Franklin performs “God Bless America” at Jimmy Carter’s inaugural eve presidential gala in Washington.
  • 1957 Johnny Cash makes his first network TV appearance, on CBS’ “Jackie Gleason Show.”
  • 1949 Singer Robert Palmer is born in Batley, England. He hits No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1986 with the gold record “Addicted to Love,” for which he earns his first Grammy Award.
  • 1946 Dolly Parton is born in Locust Ridge, Tenn. She becomes one of the biggest stars in country music, winning her first Grammy Award for her self-titled 1978 album. Two of her songs top Billboard’s pop singles chart: the title song to the film “9 to 5” and “Islands in the Stream,” a duet with Kenny Rogers.
  • 1943 Janis Joplin is born in Port Arthur, Texas. She dies of a heroin overdose on Oct. 4, 1970. Her biggest hit is “Me and Bobby McGee,” which is a posthumous No. 1 hit for two weeks in 1971.
  • 1939 Phil Everly is born in Chicago. He is the younger half of the duo the Everly Brothers. The two score five No. 1 hits, the biggest of which is “All I Have to Do Is Dream.”