Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today November 19
1990
Milli Vanilli loses its Grammy: pop's biggest fraud explodes
The Recording Academy strips Milli Vanilli of the Best New Artist Grammy after it is confirmed that Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan sang not a single note of their hits. The scandal triggered class-action lawsuits and a still-living debate about authenticity, lip-syncing and star manufacturing. Pop never looked at a microphone the same way again.
Milli Vanilli
1905
Tommy Dorsey is born, watching whom Sinatra learned to breathe
On November 19, 1905, Tommy Dorsey was born in Pennsylvania, son of a miner who put both his sons on instruments to keep them out of the pit. He led one of the great swing orchestras and hired a young singer called Frank Sinatra, who years later said he had learned breath control by watching him play trombone: Dorsey held very long phrases without any visible sign of when he breathed.
Tommy Dorsey
Frank Sinatra
1922
Salil Chowdhury is born, who composed for Indian cinema in thirteen different languages
On November 19, 1922, Salil Chowdhury was born in Bengal, a musician and activist who began writing songs for the peasant movement and for left-wing popular theatre. He then became one of Indian cinema's great composers, working in thirteen languages: Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil and more. He put Western choral harmony inside Indian classical melodies.
Salil Chowdhury
1939
Pete Moore is born: the Miracles' bass voice and co-writer of "The Tracks of My Tears"
On November 19, 1939, Warren Moore was born in Detroit, the bass in the vocal group that got Motown off the ground. As well as singing harmonies he wrote and arranged: he co-wrote "Ooo Baby Baby" and "The Tracks of My Tears" with Smokey Robinson, two of the most covered songs in the label's catalogue. He later left the stage to concentrate on producing and arranging for others.
Pete Moore
The Miracles
Smokey Robinson
1960
Matt Sorum is born, the drummer who held up Guns N' Roses' imperial era
Matt Sorum is born in Long Beach, California; he jumped from The Cult to Guns N' Roses just in time to record the colossal “Use Your Illusion” albums. His precise, powerful hitting sustained the most chaotic tours of nineties rock, and he later carried the fire with Velvet Revolver. A specialist in volcanic bands, he was always the adult behind the drums.
Matt Sorum
Guns N' Roses
1859
Ippolitov-Ivanov is born, who went to the Caucasus to collect melodies and came back with a whole work
On November 19, 1859, Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov was born in Russia, a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov who in 1882 settled in Tiflis, Georgia, to run the opera house. He spent eleven years there collecting Caucasian folk music, and out of that work came his "Caucasian Sketches", whose closing march became one of the most recognisable orchestral pieces in the Russian repertoire.
Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov
1936
Ray Collins is born: the singer who met Frank Zappa in a bar and started a band
On November 19, 1936, Ray Collins was born in California, a bar singer who in 1964 crossed paths with a guitarist called Frank Zappa. Out of that meeting came the Mothers of Invention and "Freak Out!", one of rock's first double albums, a mixture of doo-wop, noise and satire. Collins left the group several times because Zappa was impossible, and in his last years lived on very little by choice.
Ray Collins
Frank Zappa
The Mothers of Invention
1943
Fred Lipsius is born, whose arrangements beat "Abbey Road" to a Grammy
On November 19, 1943, Fred Lipsius was born in the Bronx, saxophonist and arranger for Blood, Sweat & Tears, the band that put a jazz horn section inside rock. The arrangements of "Spinning Wheel" and "You've Made Me So Very Happy" are his. In 1970 that album won the album of the year Grammy ahead of the Beatles' "Abbey Road", a decision still argued about.
Fred Lipsius
Blood, Sweat & Tears
1971
Tony Rich is born, who won a Grammy with his first album and then vanished from radio
On November 19, 1971, Tony Rich was born in Detroit. He started out writing songs for others at L.A. Reid and Babyface's label. In 1996 he released his own album and "Nobody Knows" was an enormous hit: it won the Grammy for best rhythm and blues album. He then decided not to repeat the formula, fell out with the industry and kept recording on his own for decades, far from the charts.
Tony Rich
1989
Tyga is born: the rapper launched thanks to a cousin of Travie McCoy
On November 19, 1989, Michael Stevenson was born in California, to a Jamaican mother and a Vietnamese father. His cousin was a bandmate of Travie McCoy, who heard him rap and took him on tour when he was barely a teenager. He later signed with Lil Wayne and landed a run of club hits through the 2010s, on a formula of minimal hooks and heavy beats.
Tyga
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