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Today in Music History

August, 20

  • 2000 Bon Jovi brings down the curtain on the 28-year career of London’s Wembley Stadium as a live music venue. The show is the group’s fifth at the 80,000-seat venue.
  • 1999 Blues Traveler bassist Bobby Sheehan is found dead in bed at his New Orleans home. Sheehan, who had recently begun work on a solo project, is 31.
  • 1998 Rape charges against rapper DMX (Earl Simmons) are dropped after test results reveal that the DNA from his blood does not match that of the semen found at the crime scene. Upon announcing the findings, the judge dismisses all seven counts of felony sexual assault filed June 18 against the rapper.
  • 1997 Patrick O’Hearn files suit against Robert Miles over the latter’s song “Children.” The suit claims that Miles’ song is a rip-off of O’Hearn’s 1985 copyright “At First Light.” O’Hearn charges that song was plagiarized in 1995 when Miles was a full-time disk jockey in Italy.
  • 1997 Alabama Governor Fob James joins the mayors of Montgomery and Georgina, Ala., in the Alabama State Capitol to dedicate a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 65 to the memory of country great Hank Williams. The section of roadway is renamed the “Hank Williams Memorial Lost Highway.”
  • 1996 Superstars Louis Miguel and Santana receive stars on the Hollywood walk of fame.
  • 1996 Rock ‘n’ roll singer Rio Reiser dies.
  • 1996 Rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg settles out of court with the Woldemariam family in a wrongful death suit which the family brought against the rapper three years earlier. Twenty-year-old Phillip Woldemariam was shot and killed by Snoop Doggy Dogg’s bodyguard from the back of a moving car, which the rapper himself drove. The pair claims the shooting occurred in self-defense.
  • 1985 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “Power of Love,” Huey Lewis & the News. The million-selling single, which is featured in the hit film “Back to the Future,” is the band’s first No. 1 song.
  • 1974 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “(You’re) Having My Baby,” Paul Anka with Odia Coates. Anka last hit No. 1 with “Lonely Boy” in 1959, marking the longest gap between top singles.
  • 1969 Frank Zappa disbands the Mothers of Invention following a short tour in Canada.
  • 1951 Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy is born in Dublin, Ireland.
  • 1948 Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin is born in West Bromwich, England. Five of the group’s albums reach No. 1 on Billboard’s pop album chart. In the mid-80s Plant organizes the Honeydrippers, featuring rock legends Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Nile Rodgers. The ensemble has a No. 3 hit in 1985 with “Sea of Love.”
  • 1942 Isaac Hayes is born in Covington, Texas.