Today in Music History for Sept. 20:
In 1885, famous Canadian mezzo-soprano Eva Gauthier was born in Ottawa. She died in New York in 1958.
In 1966, "Beatle" member George Harrison travelled to India for his first meeting with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
In 1970, Jim Morrison, lead singer of "The Doors," was found guilty of indecent exposure and profanity in connection with a concert in Miami in March, 1969. Morrison was found innocent of lewdness and public drunkenness. He was later sentenced to six months in jail and fined $500. Morrison remained free on bail while the sentence was appealed, but died in July, 1971 before the appeal was heard.
In 1973, Neil Young became the first performer to play the famous Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles. In the audience were Elton John, Carole King and Jackson Browne.
In 1973, singer Jim Croce, 30, and five other people died when their single-engine plane hit a tree while taking off from Natchitoches, La. Among the other victims was Croce's longtime guitarist, Maury Muehleisen. Like Otis Redding before him, Croce's greatest fame came after his death. Within months, three of his LP's -- Life and Times, I Got a Name and You Don't Mess Around With Jim -- were in the top-20. And Croce's Time in a Bottle topped the Billboard singles chart in late 1973. Among Jim Croce's other hit singles was "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown."
In 1974, John Lennon was a guest deejay on Los Angeles station KWJ. As a favour to executives of Capitol Records, Lennon played Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World," which the company had been unable to persuade the station to play.
In 1975, teenybopper heart-throbs "The Bay City Rollers" were the first musical guests on the shortlived ABC variety show "Saturday Night With Howard Cosell."
In 1976, "The Captain and Tennille's" music variety show premiered on ABC.
In 1976, punk rockers "Siouxsie and the Banshees" debuted at the 100 Club in London. The drummer was Sid Vicious, who would soon join the "Sex Pistols" as bass guitarist.
In 1984, singer and songwriter Steve Goodman died at age 36 after a long battle with leukemia. He is best known as the composer of "The City of New Orleans," a train song which was a pop hit for Arlo Guthrie in 1972 and a country hit for Willie Nelson a decade later. Goodman wrote the song while campaigning for Edmund Muskie, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for U.S. president in 1972.
In 1989, the restored Pantages Theatre in Toronto opened to host the Canadian premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber's acclaimed musical "The Phantom of the Opera." The audience of 2,100, including Prince Edward, paid $1,000 each for tickets, with the estimated $1 million in profits going to a Toronto hospital. Before the show opened, $23.8-million worth of tickets had been sold, at the time the largest pre-opening sale in legitimate theatre history.
In 1989, the musical "Miss Saigon," based on Puccini's opera "Madame Butterfly," premiered at London's Theatre Royal. It opened on Broadway in 1991 and in Toronto two years later.
In 1994, composer Jule Styne, whose Broadway musicals included "Gypsy" and "Funny Girl," died in New York at age 88. He wrote 1,500 songs, among them "People" from "Funny Girl," which became Barbra Streisand's signature tune, and "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" from "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," the 1948 show that made a star of Carol Channing. Styne won an Academy Award for "Three Coins in the Fountain," the title song for a 1954 movie and a 1968 Tony for the Broadway musical "Hallelujah Baby."
In 1996, composer, arranger and conductor Paul Weston died at age 84. He was a pioneer in the recording of "mood music" easy listening orchestral albums, beginning in the late 1940s. "Music for Dreaming" was the first and that was followed by such hit LPs as "Mood for 12" and "Solo Mood -- Hi-Fi from Hollywood."
In 1997, during a performance at the Grand Ole Opry, singer Johnny Paycheck was asked if he wanted to join the cast of the famed show. He accepted on the spot. The onstage job offer was believed to be a first for the Opry, which has been on the air since 1925.
In 2003, musician Melissa Etheridge and actress Tammy Lynn Michaels held a commitment ceremony. The couple -- parents of twins -- announced their split in 2010.
In 2005, J.D. Fortune of Toronto was chosen as the new singer for the Australian rock band "INXS" on the CBS reality show "Rock Star: INXS." They released their album "Switch" in late November. The lead single "Pretty Vegas" and the album went No. 1 in Canada and the band embarked on a world tour. (On this day in 2011, Fortune wrote that he and the band had parted amicably).
In 2009, Latin Grammy-winner Colombian pop star Juanes, known for his social activism, headlined his "Peace Without Borders" concert at Havana's Plaza of the Revolution. It coincided with the United Nations' International Day of Peace. It was estimated than more than one million people attended the five-and-a-half hour concert.
In 2010, with the band's fourth release, "Les chemins de verre," Montrealers "Karkwa" became the first French-language band to win Canada's $20,000 Polaris Music Prize, which is awarded to the best Canadian album based on merit, not sales or genre.
In 2011, a Los Angeles school was renamed in honour of Grammy-winning guitarist Carlos Santana. The LA Unified school board approved the name "Carlos Santana Arts Academy" for what had been called Valley Region Elementary School No. 12 in the San Fernando Valley.
In 2011, Canadian singer J.D. Fortune wrote in his blog that he was no longer a member of the Australian rock band "INXS" and that the split was amicable. He said that he was not fired and didn't quit, but that the band would continue without him. He rose to stardom after winning the TV reality show "Rock Star: INXS" in 2005 and becoming the new frontman for the band. (A week later, "INXS" announced that Irish singer-songwriter Ciaran Gribbin was their new lead singer.)
In 2011, a contract for "The Beatles" 1965 concert at San Francisco's Cow Palace that stated the group would not perform before a segregated audience sold for more than $23,000 at an online auction.
In 2011, Robert Whitaker, the photographer who shot the infamous "butcher" cover for The Beatles' "Yesterday and Today" album, died of cancer in Sussex, England. He was 71. His photo showed the band in white coats surrounded by decapitated baby dolls and slabs of raw meat. Capitol Records ordered the cover changed, and ones with the original photo are collector's items. He also did the photos for the Fab Four's "Revolver" album.
In 2016, AC/DC bassist Cliff Williams announced his departure from the group in a video posted on the band's YouTube channel, the same day the group wrapped up its "Rock or Bust" tour in Philadelphia.
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The Canadian Press