This Day in Music History – May 20th

1954 – Bill Haley and the Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock” was released. It was not successful until it was released in 1955 on the soundtrack to “Blackboard Jungle.”

1960 – Alan Freed, a disc jockey, was indicted for income tax evasion stemming from payola.

1968 – Pete Townshed and Karen Astley were married.

1969 – Peter Cetera (Chicago) was beaten up by four men at a Chicago Cubs-Dodgers baseball game. The men objected to the length of Cetera’s hair. Cetera underwent four hours of emergency surgery.

1970 – The Beatles film “Let It Be” opened in the U.K.

1977 – The stage show “Beatlemania” opened at the Winter Garden Theater, New York.

1978 – “The Buddy Holly Story” premiered in of Lubbock, TX.

1980 – KISS released the album “Unmasked.”

1980 – In Hamburg, Germany, Joe Strummer (The Clash) was arrested for hitting a violent audience member with his guitar during a show.

1992 – Aerosmith donated $10,000 to support “Corporal Politics,” a controversial art exhibition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

1996 – The Metallica single “Until It Sleeps” was released world-wide, excluding North America, where it was released the next day.

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