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This Week what happened was:

From Oct. 19 to 27th

1936, country singer Hank Snow records for the first time ... the songs are "Lonesome Blue Yodel" and "Prisoned Cowboy"...

1956, R&B singer Clarence Henry's "Ain't Got No Home" is released on the Argo Records label ... because he sings like a frog on the record, he is nicknamed "Frogman" and for the rest of his career is known as Clarence "Frogman" Henry ... the same week, Elvis makes his second appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show...

1960, Ben E. King, former lead singer for The Drifters, records his first solo numbers, "Spanish Harlem" and "Stand by Me" ... both songs climb high on the pop charts, to number 10 and number 4 respectively, and "Stand by Me" will prove to have long legs...

1964, "Oh Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbinson turns gold ... it is his ninth and last Top Ten single ... The Supremes release "Come See About Me"...

1970, Jim Morrison gets six months in the slammer for exposing his privates in Miami ... Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas marries actor Dennis Hopper ... they divorce eight days later, proving wrong those who said the marriage wouldn't last a week...

1971, 24-year-old Duane Allman dies in a motorcycle accident in Georgia...

1972, Philly soul singer Billy Paul gets on the soul charts with "Me and Mrs. Jones" ... the song will hold the top position for three weeks and will become a soul classic...

1975, Bruce Springsteen makes both the cover of Time and Newsweek ... Joan Baez signs on as a member of The Rolling Thunder Revue...

1983, Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon becomes the longest listed album ever on the Billboard chart - 491 continuous weeks...

1986, The Beastie Boys release their album License To Ill which will become the first rap album to reach number one on the album chart....

1988, Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain smashes his first guitar...

1995, Yolanda Saldivar is sentenced to life for the murder of Tejano singing star Selena...

1998, KISS launches its Psycho-Circus tour on Halloween in Los Angeles ... thousands attend in costume and The Smashing Pumpkins are the opener...

1999, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and John Entwistle, the surviving members of The Who, reunite for the first time in two years for a concert in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand...KISS, Tony Bennett, and the Dixie Chicks also are on the bill ... the concert marks the launch of Internet video company Pixelon and is webcast ... Korn debuts a new single, "Falling Away From Me," on the season premiere of South Park ... the boys in the band also lend their voices and likenesses ... Tina Turner announces plans for her final stadium concert tour...

2002, hip-hop giant Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC is shot dead in the studio ... police pursue many leads and theories as to motive: unpaid drug bills, rival rappers, armed robbery, insurance scams, rivalry over 50 Cent, and more...the crime remains unsolved to this day...

1883, New York sees the grand opening of its Metropolitan Opera House...

1908, Columbia takes out an ad in The Saturday Evening Post touting their new two-sided records...

1956, "Love Me Tender" is the first song to enter the pop charts at #1 ... Elvis' slow dance tune also appears on the Country and Western chart and the R&B chart, not to mention the Top 100 chart...

1961, 20-year-old Bob Dylan records his eponymous debut album accompanied only by his guitar and harmonica ... studio cost is a whopping $400 ... filling out the studio's tax reporting form, he lists his name as "Blind Boy Grunt" ... the young folkie goes on to become one of the most important musical figures of the 20th century...

1962, Live at the Apollo," one of James Brown's most brilliant performances, is captured in Harlem ... the LP will outsell all previous R&B albums with over a million copies sold ... the artist soon to be known as Little Stevie Wonder makes his first recording ... Steveland Morris Judkins doesn't have instant success with this first record, but the accolades are not far away...

1964, a London band known as the High Numbers is rejected after an audition with EMI ... formerly known as The Who, the four young rockers have recently come under the influence of manager Pete Meaden, who suggested the name change and dressed the boys in mod suits ... Meaden's all wet, but the kids are alright ... they'll resume their name and climb to fame...

1973, Keith Richards gets slapped with a £205 fine and is given a conditional discharge after his trial in London with actress Anita Pallenberg ... the bobbies arrested them after raiding their Chelsea home on June 26 and finding pot, smack, mandrax, an unlicensed S&W revolver, and an antique shotgun ... Pallenberg walks, too...

1977, Lynyrd Skynyrd fans take a gut shot this week when they learn that band members, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, and Ronnie Van Zant have died along with three members of their entourage in a plane crash in the swamp near Gillsburg, Mississippi ... the band is flying between Greenville, SC, and Baton Rouge, LA, when their chartered plane goes down, probably due either to mechanical failure or lack of fuel ... the whole band is aboard and the surviving members are all severely injured ... three days earlier marked the release of their sixth album Street Survivor, the cover of which featured the band members surrounded by flames ... the cover is changed after the catastrophe ... the crash marks the end of Lynyrd Skynyrd until the survivors reform the band a decade later...

1978, Keith Richards receives a suspended sentence of one year after pleading guilty to heroin possession in Toronto ... also this week Sid Vicious attempts to off himself at Rikers Island Jail, where he's awaiting trial for the murder of his ol' lady, Nancy Spungen ... the bad Pistol will get out and O.D. before he can be prosecuted for the crime...

1980, Paul Kantner's brain starts bleeding one night between recording sessions for Jefferson Starship ... the degree of brain hemorrhage he suffers almost always results in death or brain damage ... but, amazingly, a few weeks in the hospital is all it takes to bring him back to 100% ... apparently a hole in his cranium left over from an earlier motorcycle accident provides enough release of pressure to prevent permanent damage...

1988, Fantasy Records, after more than a decade of rancorous relations with John Fogerty, launches a suit claiming he plagiarized his own song, "Run Through the Jungle," during the composition of "The Old Man Down the Road" ... it will be 1995 before it is finally decided that Fantasy is fantasizing...

1992, long before her career as a writer of children's books, Madonna releases Sex--a steel-bound book of erotic photos of herself and other beautiful people that sells out the first run of a half million copies in no time ... she also releases her album Erotica this week ... it will sell over two million copies...

1998, the company with publishing rights to Alice Cooper's "Eighteen" files suit against Cooper's primary make-up rock emulators, KISS, claiming they ripped off his song "Eighteen" for their song "Dreamin'" ... Cooper has nothing to do with it and hasn't even heard "Dreamin'" when the suit is filed ... asked about the outcome years later, Cooper says, "I think we all forgot to show up at court. Paul Stanley bought me a cheeseburger to make up for the whole thing"...

2001, VH1 hosts its Concert for New York, which raises over $30 million for victims of 9/11 with performances by such heavy hitters as The Who, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Elton John, and Bon Jovi...

 Oct 11th to 18th

1926, Chuck Berry is born in San Jose, California ... his melding of blues with rockabilly elements will help shape the blueprint for rock 'n' roll ... in 1972 Berry's single "My Ding-a-Ling" nails the top slot on the Billboard Pop Chart ... the dirty ditty is to be his only No. 1 hit...

1941, Jim Seals is born in Sidney, Texas ... before enjoying a '70s career as one half of the soft-rock duo Seals and Crofts that cranked out hits such as "Summer Breeze" and "Diamond Girl," the pair were a part of The Champs that rocked the world with their instrumental "Tequila" in 1958 ... Seals also blew sax with rockabilly legend Eddie Cochran...

1958, an article in Billboard reports that Phil Spector, the writer and arranger of the Teddy Bears' hit "To Know Him is to Love Him," is studying to be a court reporter ... though the reclusive producer famed for creating "wall of sound" recordings in the 1960s never takes up that profession, his indictment for the murder of Lana Clarkson in 2003 promises to provide him with lots of courtroom experience...

1962, "Monster Mash" by Bobby Pickett & the Crypt-Kickers is the No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit ... cannily released to coincide with Halloween, the novelty tune with a Boris Karloff-like spoken vocal reappears on the charts in 1970 and 1973...

1966, Joan Baez is arrested along with 124 others at an anti-draft demonstration outside an induction center in Oakland, California...

1968, The New Yardbirds, later to become Led Zeppelin, plays its first British show at Surrey University ... RCA releases Jose Feliciano's bluesy rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" despite the blind singer having been roundly booed for his performance of the song at a World Series game earlier that month...

1971, Creedence Clearwater Revival is sued by a music publisher claiming that John Fogerty's song "Travelin' Band" is a ripoff of "Good Golly, Miss Molly" ... the suit is later dropped ... the next evening, a crowd expecting '50s teen idol Rick Nelson to play all his old hits at a Madison Square Garden show turns surly when he insists on performing new material ... the hostile reception is later memorialized in his song "Garden Party" that becomes a hit the following year ... a line from the song goes, "If memories are all I'd sing, I'd rather drive a truck" ... 21 years later this same week, Sinead O'Connor is booed off the Garden's stage at a concert honoring Bob Dylan ... the hostile crowd is reacting to the singer's appearance two weeks earlier on Saturday Night Live when she tore up a picture of the Pope...

1972, Creedence Clearwater Revival announces that its members "will devote our time to individual rather than group projects" ... the statement goes on to say, "We don't regard this as breaking up. We look at it as an expansion of our activities." The band never records or performs together again...

1973, The Rolling Stones' "Angie" is the No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit ... reportedly a paean to David Bowie's missus, the song is covered by Tori Amos in the '90s ... that same week the Supreme Court refuses to review a Federal Communications Commission directive ordering broadcasters to censor songs with drug-oriented lyrics before airing them ... it will be another three decades before the FCC becomes concerned over breasts...

1975, Neil Young undergoes surgery on his vocal chords ... his recovery is slow and he is obliged to quit midway through a tour the following year with Stephen Stills due to the strain on his voice...

1976, Ike and Tina Turner split up their act...

1986, Eric Clapton and Keith Richards rock out at an affair honoring Chuck Berry on his 60th birthday...

1991, John Mellencamp is hospitalized in Seattle after suffering a dizzy spell ... a doctor later attributes his malady to "too much coffee, stress, and not enough breakfast"...

1992, country singer Lynn Anderson is sprung from a Nashville jail after doing two days for contempt of court ... the sentence stems from Anderson cursing at her former husband in front of their teenage children...

1995, Sting's former financial adviser is sentenced to six years in the cooler for bilking the performer out of $9.4 million...

1996, Madonna gives birth to daughter Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon ... the father is Carlos Leon, the singer's trainer ... there is no word on whether it is a virgin birth...

1997, Sir Paul McCartney receives six curtain calls at the Royal Albert Hall for the world premiere of his symphonic poem Standing Stone performed by the London Symphony Orchestra ... despite popular acclaim, critics give the composition low marks saying it's forgettable and dull ... the same week, Virginia concert promoter Patricia Richardson brings a suit against Snoop Doggy Dog and his manager charging that they duped her into bringing packages with seven pounds of pot to a venue where Snoop was performing, leading to her arrest...

1998, The Crossroads Center, a $6.5 million recovery center for drug addicts, opens in Antigua ... the facility is underwritten by Eric Clapton, a former heroin addict...

and that was the week that was.

Oct. 4 to 10th

1957, rock-and-roll wild man Jerry Lee Lewis records "Great Balls Of Fire"...

1959, Bobby Darin becomes the youngest ever to headline at the Copa Room of the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas ... he displaces the prior record-holder Johnny Mathis ... Darin is 22; Mathis had been 23 when he first headlined...

1957, in Sidney, Australia, Little Richard announces his intention to give up rock and roll and "live for the Lord" ... he flies to Los Angeles the following day and is baptized a Seventh Day Adventist ... he will abide by his decision for five years before resuming his musical career...

1962, Little Richard and the Beatles are reported to have hit it off nicely...the once and future stars are performing at a concert in Liverpool ... Little Richard is the headliner and The Beatles are among the warm-up acts...

1966, British rocker Johnny Kidd meets his demise in a car crash ... he is the leader of the Pirates who had a hit with "Shakin' All Over" in 1966 and were one of the earliest of the raunchy British rock bands ... this same week, the U.S. government declares LSD an illegal drug ... The Jimi Hendrix Experience is formed in London...

1969, blues giant Muddy Waters is severely injured in an automobile accident near Chicago in which three others are killed...

1970, the musical Jesus Christ Superstar debuts on Broadway...

1976, The Who and The Grateful Dead pair up as dual headliners for a concert at the Oakland-Alameda County Stadium...

1978, The Rolling Stones appear on Saturday Night Live performing "Beast of Burden" ... Nancy Spungen, the girlfriend of Sid Vicious is found dead in a room they share at Chelsea Hotel in New York ... Spungen has been stabbed to death and Vicious is charged with her murder ... released on bond, he will die of a heroin overdose before he can be tried...

1980, Bob Marley collapses onstage at a Wailers concert in Pittsburgh at what will prove to be his final performance ... he will die of a brain tumor about seven months later...

1988, Keith Richards is the musical guest on Saturday Night Live ... during the show he performs a skit in which he hilariously parodies Mick Jagger...

1995, Alice in Chains' "Grind," a cut from their latest album, is released for radio play via satellite uplink to halt the spread of tape copies that had been prematurely leaked to radio stations earlier in the month...

1996, it is a musical chainsaw massacre at an environmental benefit concert in Jacksonville, Oregon, when Bonnie Raitt and band are drowned out by protesting loggers who rev chainsaws and light firecrackers to show their opposition to saving the redwoods...

1997, promoter of getting high in the Colorado Rocky Mountains John Denver dies when an experimental plane he is flying crashes into Monterey Bay in Northern California...

From Sept 29th to 30th.

1791, Mozart's The Magic Flute premieres in Vienna...

1880, John Philip Sousa - composer of "Semper Fidelis" and dozens of other frozen-weekday-mornings-on-the-high-school-football-field hits - is promoted to director of the United States Marine Corps Band...

1935, Porgy and Bess is performed in public for the first time in Boston...

1943, Louis Jordan and His Tympani Five release "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby?"...

1945, Señor Pelvis logs his first paying gig when he brings down five bucks cold cash for second place at the Mississippi-Alabama Dairy Show talent contest ... the future King is 10 years old when he wins by singing "Old Shep"...

1956, Elvis is so huge that his "Love Me Tender" has sold 856,327 copies before it's even released...

1961, folkie Caroline Hester's first album on Columbia features young Bob Dylan on harmonica ... the producer, John Hammond, likes Dylan's style and promptly signs him to a solo record deal ... Dylan will start recording within a few weeks...

1962, the Beatles release their first single, "Love Me Do" ... the whole world responds to their command...

1963, Eric Clapton is asked to replace "Top" Topham in the Yardbirds ... Topham is only 16 years old and his parents have pressured him out of the band after a very brief tenure ... Clapton is a classmate of vocalist Keith Relf in art college ... already known as "Slowhand," Clapton will develop the distinguished Yardbirds guitar chair that will later be inhabited by Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page...

1967, though she doesn't actually lose her mind, this is the week that Gladys Knight releases "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" ... written by Motown writers Barret Strong and Norman Whitfield, the tune reaches #2 on the pop charts and #1 on the R&B charts ... it will be covered by literally hundreds of artists over the years, most notably Marvin Gaye, who will take it to #1 on the pop charts in 1968 ... also this week in 1967 out on the psychedelic West Coast Mickey Hart takes up stick duties with the Grateful Dead ... it proves to be a bad week to join, as the entire band is busted for pot at their house in the Haight ... it's also the week that "Brown Eyed Girl" tops out at #10 for Van Morrison...

1969, tragedy strikes David Crosby on the day Crosby, Stills & Nash goes gold ... Crosby's honey, Christine Gail Hinton, is killed in a head-on auto crash north of San Francisco...

1970, Jack Bruce joins Tony Williams and fellow Miles Davis veterans John McLaughlin and Larry Young to form the monster fusion group, Lifetime ... also this week in 1970, Janis Joplin, who has just finished recording the album Pearl is found dead of an apparent heroin overdose in a Hollywood hotel room ... this is also the week in which Led Zeppelin III is released ... the album features "Since I Been Loving You," perhaps the spine-tinglingest rock blues tune ever recorded...

1975 drummer Al Jackson Jr. is shot to death in his Memphis home ... the pulse of Booker T. & The MGs--the Stax Records house band--Jackson played on dozens of soul hits ... police initially suspect Jackson's wife who had shot him the previous July ... the case remains unsolved and Memphis police refuse to discuss it...

1976, Jerry Lee Lewis proves that coolness and common sense are not necessarily positively correlated when he supposedly opens fire on a soda bottle with a .357 magnum and hits his bass player, Norman Owens, twice - seriously wounding him in the chest ... Lewis is later charged with discharging a firearm within city limits...

1977, the hardest working man in show business is apparently also the hardest slave driver in the business, inspiring his entire band to walk out on him just before a scheduled concert in Hallandale, Florida ... their beefs are the usual - too much work and too little money from boss James Brown...

1980, One Trick Pony, Paul Simon's film about a world-weary touring club musician, premieres in New York ... like Capeman - his later attempt at a Broadway show - the film itself bombs but the soundtrack kills ... this despite celluloid appearances by Lou Reed, Sam & Dave, and the Lovin' Spoonful...

1982, the first CD players hit the market in Japan...

1989, while on a motorcycle trip from LA to the Grand Canyon, Bruce Springsteen stops in a honky tonk in Prescott, Arizona, and plays a full set with the house band ... while the Boss is slumming with the real people, he overhears barmaid Brenda Techanec bemoaning her difficulty meeting hospital expenses ... a week later he sends her a check for $100,000...

1991, following the theft of Michael Jackson's crystal-beaded glove, rapper M.C. Hammer offers a $50,000 reward for the relic's return...

1996, Van Halen can't seem to get along with his lead vocalists ... this week he finds David Lee Roth intolerable again, having brought the dynamic singer back to record some greatest hits 11 years after he was originally kicked out of the band ... Sammy Hagar has already been booted earlier in '96 ... in retaliation Roth tells the press that the band only asked him back as a publicity stunt and never planned to actually let him back in...

1997, a Wu-Tang fan files suit after Method Man leaps off the stage and lands on her, knocking her unconscious ... the suit blames band members Method Man, RZA, and Redman, as well as the student government that sponsored the show, saying the fan, Juanita L. Evans, was distracted by rapper Redman and didn't see the flying Method Man...