November 18th

 Musical birthdays today include jazz singer Sheila Jordan (94), Graham Parker (72), Queensrÿche bassist Rudy Sarzo (72), John Parr (70), film score composer Carter Burwell (68), jazz & rock drummer Cindy Blackman (63), Kim Wilde (62), Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett (60), Polyphonic Spree lead singer Tim DeLaughter (57), Duncan Sheik (53), country singer Jessi Alexander (46), Thrice frontman Dustin Kensrue (42), and Avenged Sevenfold bassist Johnny Christ (38). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for pianist and composer Jan Paderewski, born on this day in 1860... for violinist and conductor Eugene Ormandy, born in 1899... for Buena Vista Social Club guitarist Compay Segundo, born in 1907... for songwriter Johnny Mercer, born in 1909... for Hank Ballard, born today in 1928... for operatic soprano Gianna d'Angelo, born in 1929... for Don Cherry, who would have been 86... for Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten, who died of a drug overdose at the age of 29 on this day in 1972... for Cab Calloway, who passed away in 1994... and for folk rock singer & guitarist Doug Sahm, who left us today in 1999. 

Also on November 18: Soprano Marie Selika Williams becomes the first black artist to perform at the White House (1878)... The Czech National Opera House in Prague opens with a production of Smetana's Libuše (1883)... The New York Philharmonic gives its first concert at Carnegie Hall (1892)... Fats Domino appears on the Ed Sullivan Show performing 'Blueberry Hill'. Before the song became a rock and roll standard it had been recorded by various artists including Louis Armstrong, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Gene Autry and Jimmy Dorsey (1956)... The Beatles receive silver LP discs for 'Please Please Me' and 'With the Beatles' at a ceremony held at EMI House in London. They also receive a silver EP for 'Twist and Shout' and a silver single for 'She Loves You'. The band then attend a cocktail party and a formal lunch in the EMI boardroom with company executives and invited guests (1963)... Cat Stevens starts a three-week run at № 1 on the US album chart with Catch Bull At Four. The title was taken from one of the Ten Bulls of Zen, a series of short poems and accompanying pictures that are intended to illustrate the stages of a Buddhist practitioner's progression towards enlightenment (1972)... Genesis release The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. The double album is the group's final LP with Peter Gabriel as lead singer (1974)... Bruce Springsteen makes his live debut in the UK at London's Hammersmith Odeon (1975)... The Jam release This Is the Modern World (1977)... R.E.M. make their first appearance outside the US when they are guests on the Channel 4 UK TV show 'The Tube'. The following night they make their live UK debut when they play at Dingwalls, London (1983)... Nirvana record their MTV Unplugged special at Sony Studios, New York. The band play a setlist composed of mainly lesser-known material and cover versions of songs by The Vaselines, David Bowie, Meat Puppets and Lead Belly. The album will win the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album in 1996 (1993)... Britney Spears scores her third US No. 1 album with 'Britney.' The album's success makes her the first female artist in music history to have her first three studio albums debut at the No. 1 spot. This record however will later be broken by Spears herself with her 4th studio album In the Zone which charted in the same position (2001)... Following allegations of the sexual abuse of a 12-year old boy, police raid Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch. Jackson denies the allegations; the search comes on the day that his latest greatest hits album, Number Ones, was released in the US (2003)... The Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line goes into general release in the US (2005).