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Today In Music History

November 22 in Music History: Happy Birthday, Karen O

Yeah Yeah Yeahs performed at the Armory in Minneapolis on Saturday, June 3, 2023.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs performed at the Armory in Minneapolis on Saturday, June 3, 2023.Sara Fish for MPR

November 22, 2023

History Highlight:

Karen Orzolek (Karen O) of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is 45 today. Born in Busan, South Korea and growing up a mild-mannered, well-behaved child, Karen is now known for her stage antics like spitting water on herself and wearing crazy outfits made by her fashion-designer friend Christian Joy. Fun fact: The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' first ever gig was opening for The White Stripes.

Also, Today In:

1957 - Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel appeared as Tom and Jerry on American Bandstand.

1963 - US president John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The incident inspires several songs, including Connie Francis' "In The Summer Of His Years" and The Beach Boys' "Warmth Of The Sun."

1968 - The Beatles released The White Album, a double album that contains both the soothing "Blackbird" and discomfiting "Helter Skelter."

1975 - KC and the Sunshine Band started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with "That's The Way (I Like It)," the group's second US No.1 of the year.

1987 - Jesus and Mary Chain singer Jim Reid was arrested in Canada after being accused of assaulting members of the audience with his microphone stand, he was released on $2,000 bail.

1990 - Bill Wyman announced that his 17-month marriage to model Mandy Smith was over. With the consent of her mother, Smith had started dating the 47-year-old Rolling Stones bassist when she was aged 13.

1994 - Pearl Jam released their third studio album Vitalogy, which was first released on vinyl and became the first vinyl album to appear on the U.S. chart, since the domination of the compact disc format. They followed the release in other formats two weeks later, whereupon it became the second-fastest-selling CD in history, behind only the band's previous release Vs.

1997 - Michael Hutchence of INXS died in Sydney. The frontman was just 37.

2009 - At the American Music Awards, Adam Lambert makes a statement with a lascivious performance of his debut single, "For Your Entertainment," where he drops a smooch on his (male) keyboard player

2010 - After just one week of availability on the iTunes store, The Beatles music sold more than 450,000 albums and 2 million individual songs. The Fab Four's debut on iTunes was accompanied by an extensive world-wide marketing campaign.

2011 - At her concert in Madison Square Garden, Taylor Swift brought out James Taylor - whom she's named after - to perform "Fire And Rain" and "Fifteen."

2005 - Poems written by Bob Dylan in his college days sold for $78,000 at a New York City auction. The 16 pages of poems were the first known time Robert Zimmerman used the Dylan name and came from his studies at the University of Minnesota during 1959-60.

2020 - For the third consecutive year, Taylor Swift won Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards. She accepted the award from a Nashville studio where she is re-recording her first six albums.

Birthdays:

Jesse Colin Young of the Youngbloods is 82.

Floyd Sneed, drummer of Three Dog Night, was born today in 1942.

Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads is 73.

Highlights for Today in Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.