November 19

 

Badfinger's tragic curse continued today in 1983 when bassist Tom Evans committed suicide by hanging himself from a willow tree in his garden at 36, following bandmate Pete Ham's similar suicide eight years earlier, both driven to despair by financial ruin and industry exploitation…

 

Rock's most accident-prone survivor found redemption today in 1994 when David Crosby received a successful liver transplant at UCLA Medical Center, giving the CSN&Y legend a second chance after decades of drug and alcohol abuse had nearly killed him…

 

We remember Frank Zappa's original Mother Ray Collins on his birthday today in 1936, the vocalist whose doo-wop background and theatrical performances were essential to The Mothers of Invention's early sound before personality conflicts with Zappa led to his departure in 1968…

 

Big band's smooth operator Tommy Dorsey was born today in 1905, the trombonist and bandleader whose orchestra nurtured a young Frank Sinatra and whose perfectionism made him one of the swing era's most successful leaders before his death in 1956…

 

Pop's strangest parent demonstrated spectacularly poor judgment on this day in 2002 when Michael Jackson dangled his baby from a third-floor Berlin hotel balcony, creating a media firestorm that further damaged the already troubled King of Pop's public image…

 

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers delivered their commercial breakthrough today in 1979 with 'Damn the Torpedoes,' the album featuring "Don't Do Me Like That" and "Refugee" that established Petty as heartland rock's most defiant voice despite label disputes…

 

Led Zeppelin closed their chapter today in 1982 with the release of 'Coda,' the collection of outtakes and unreleased tracks that served as the band's final statement after John Bonham's death had made continuing impossible two years earlier.