20 NOVEMBER
In Music History
2024 Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, and Louis Tomlinson attend the funeral for their One Direction bandmate Liam Payne, who died a month earlier after falling from a balcony. Payne's death dashed hopes of a reunion for the group, which split up in 2016.
2018 Skrillex is ordered to pay $1.6 million to a fan, Jennifer Fraissl, who was injured when he performed a stage dive in 2012 at his show at the Belasco Nightclub in Los Angeles.
2016 Ariana Grande wins Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards. Justin Bieber is also a big winner, taking home four trophies. Green Day takes a swipe at Donald Trump, who was elected president two weeks earlier, in their performance of "Bang Bang," going into a chant of "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA."
2013 Loretta Lynn is honored at the White House with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The singer is awarded as "one of the first successful female country music vocalists in the early 1960s, courageously breaking barriers in an industry long dominated by men."
2010 Little Smokey Smothers, Blues guitarist and singer, dies of natural causes in Chicago, Illinois, at age 71.
2008 Newly married Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz (of Fall Out Boy) welcome a baby boy: Bronx Mowgli Wentz.
2007 Bob Relf (of the '60s soul duo Bob & Earl) dies at age 70 after a long period of ill health.
2005 Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor album becomes her ninth UK chart-topper, while "Hung Up" starts its second week at #1 on the singles chart, her 11th on that tally.
2005 Blues rocker Chris Whitley dies of lung cancer in Houston, Texas, at age 45.
2003 After a long investigation, acclaimed "Wall of Sound" producer Phil Spector is formally charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson at his home in Los Angeles. Spector enters a plea of not guilty, and is later indicted for murder.
2002 Stevie Wonder threatens to sue his mother, Lula Hardaway, for a passage in her new autobiography where she claims Stevie lost his virginity to a prostitute. The story is deleted from future copies.
2002 After an altercation at a gas station, D'Angelo is arrested and charged with various misdemeanors. The singer becomes more reclusive and step away from music. He doesn't tour again until 2012 and doesn't issue another album until 2014.
2001 Creed release their third album, Weathered. The lead single, "My Sacrifice," finds frontman Scott Stapp reconnecting with his better self, but he continues to battle mental health issues and depression, and the band breaks up in 2004. They return in 2009 to make one last album, Full Circle.
2001 Deana Carter releases Father Christmas.
2001 Pink releases her breakthrough second album, M!ssundaztood, which includes the hits "Get The Party Started" and "Family Portrait."More
Fan Takes Over When Keith Moon Passes Out
1973After Keith Moon passes out at his drum kit, The Who pull a fan from the audience to take over.
Read more20 NOVEMBER
Featured Events
2013 "Livin' On A Prayer" by Bon Jovi returns to the Hot 100 at #25 thanks to a viral video of a Boston Celtics fan dancing to the song. Billboard tweaked their methodology earlier in the year so streaming views of songs were factored into the chart tally.More
2012 Fiona Apple cancels the remaining dates on her Idler Wheel tour to care for her dying dog.More
2007 The debut album from Amy Winehouse, Frank, is finally released in the US eight months after her second album, and three years after its British release. Although critically acclaimed and massively influential in her native UK, it fails to set the American charts on fire, reaching its peak of #33 only after the singer's untimely death in 2011.
2003 After returning to his Neverland home following a raid on it a few days before, and in response to an arrest warrant, Michael Jackson is charged with child molestation in Santa Barbara, California. The singer is immediately released after posting three million dollars' bail.
2003 The first ever Vibe Awards takes place in Santa Monica, California, with 50 Cent winning for Artist of the Year, Dopest Album (Get Rich or Die Tryin') and Hottest Hook ("In Da Club").
1976 George Harrison and Paul Simon share the stage on Saturday Night Live to perform "Homeward Bound" and "Here Comes The Sun." Earlier in the year, the show's producer Lorne Michaels offered The Beatles $3000 to reunite. In the opening sketch, he is seen arguing with Harrison over how much of that money he should get.
1976 Paul Simon opens Saturday Night Live dressed as a turkey (in honor of Thanksgiving).More
1969 James Brown drags his road-weary band into King Studios in Cincinnati, where Clyde Stubblefield starts banging out a drum pattern. Brown makes it the basis of a song, which he calls "Funky Drummer." It's just a minor hit, but becomes one of the most sampled songs in hip-hop.
1955 In the music equivalent to the Babe Ruth trade, Sun Records owner Sam Phillips sells Elvis Presley's contract to RCA for $35,000. It wasn't all bad for Phillips: Presley had just one year left on his contract, and Phillips invested the money in a local hotel chain called the Holiday Inn, which made him a bigger fortune than anything he did in music.
©2026 Songfacts®, LLC