Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today November 15
1945
Frida is born, ABBA's dark-haired voice and its most improbable story
Anni-Frid Lyngstad is born in Björkåsen, Norway: a child of the German occupation who emigrated to Sweden fleeing the stigma. From that hard beginning she became ABBA's brunette half, her dark timbre the perfect counterweight to Agnetha on “The Winner Takes It All”. Today she is a princess by marriage: no pop biography is more novelistic.
Anni-Frid Lyngstad
ABBA
1932
Clyde McPhatter is born, whose gospel voice founded soul and founded the Drifters
On November 15, 1932, Clyde McPhatter was born in North Carolina, son of a Baptist minister, singing in his father's choir from childhood. He was the first to bring gospel's way of singing into rhythm and blues: the cries, the breaks, the unfiltered emotion. In 1953 he founded the Drifters. He drank heavily and died in 1972, aged 39, convinced the industry had forgotten him.
Clyde McPhatter
The Drifters
1932
Petula Clark is born, the child prodigy who conquered America with “Downtown”
Petula Clark is born in Epsom, England: a child star of British wartime radio who reinvented herself as queen of adult pop. “Downtown” (1964) made her the first British woman to score a US number one during the British Invasion. Her eight-decade career is among the longest in show business.
Petula Clark
1937
Little Willie John is born, who recorded "Fever" first and died in prison at thirty
On November 15, 1937, William Edward John was born in Arkansas and raised in Detroit. In 1956, aged eighteen, he recorded "Fever", the original version: two years later Peggy Lee turned it into an eternal standard and hardly anyone remembered where it came from. He stood barely five foot four and had an enormous voice. In 1966 he was convicted of manslaughter after a fight and died in prison two years later.
Little Willie John
Peggy Lee
1968
Ol' Dirty Bastard is born: the rapper who collected welfare in a limousine
On November 15, 1968, Russell Jones was born in Brooklyn, RZA's cousin and a founding member of Wu-Tang. His nickname came from a kung-fu film and meant he had no father to his style: nobody rapped like that. In 1995 he took a television camera with him to collect his food stamps, arriving by limousine with his children. He died in 2004, two days before his thirty-sixth birthday.
Ol' Dirty Bastard
Wu-Tang Clan
1888
Artie Matthews is born, who founded the first Black-owned music conservatory
On November 15, 1888, Artie Matthews was born in Illinois, a ragtime pianist who worked in the brothels of St. Louis and published a series of pieces now considered among the genre's finest. In 1921 he did something more lasting: he founded a music conservatory in Cincinnati, the first Black-owned one in the United States, which he ran for thirty-six years and through which thousands of students passed.
Artie Matthews
1923
Văn Cao is born, who wrote Vietnam's anthem and was then sidelined for decades
On November 15, 1923, Văn Cao was born in Vietnam, a composer, poet and painter who in 1944 wrote "Tiến Quân Ca", the march that a year later became the national anthem. In the 1950s he signed an artists' manifesto calling for freedom of expression and the government sidelined him: he spent three decades unable to publish anything, surviving on minor commissions while his anthem played daily.
Văn Cao
1953
Alexander O'Neal is born, sacked by Prince from the band Prince was about to launch
On November 15, 1953, Alexander O'Neal was born in Mississippi. He came to Minneapolis and was picked to sing in a group Prince was putting together. It did not last: they argued over money and Prince replaced him with Morris Day. The band was called The Time and became famous. O'Neal carried on alone and in the mid-eighties strung together rhythm and blues hits, especially in the United Kingdom.
Alexander O'Neal
Prince
1957
Kevin Eubanks is born: the jazz guitarist who spent fifteen years on late-night television
On November 15, 1957, Kevin Eubanks was born in Philadelphia, son of a church organist and nephew of two jazz musicians. He played with Art Blakey and Roy Haynes before agreeing in 1992 to lead the band on a late-night television show, a job that gave him stability and fifteen years of daily exposure. In 2010 he left it to go back to the clubs and to recording his own albums.
Kevin Eubanks
1967
E-40 is born: the rapper who invented words everyone later used
On November 15, 1967, Earl Stevens was born in Vallejo, California. He set up his own label with his family because no record company wanted to sign someone from northern California. His trademark is linguistic: he invents words and phrases that sound absurd at first and end up in the mouths of rappers across the country. He has released more than thirty albums and remains independent.
E-40
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