Today in Music: a look back at pop music

(Nov. 23)

Today's birthdays include Bruce Hornsby, of Bruce Hornsby and the Range, who was born in 1954 (age 48); and Joseph Sumner, Sting's son, in 1976 (age 26).

Today's musical milestones:

In 1955, the Cadillacs' "Speedoo" entered the pop music charts. "Speedoo" was the nickname of the Cadillacs' lead vocalist Earl Carroll.

In 1968, Country Joe McDonald quit the Fish.

In 1974, Gary Wright quit Spooky Tooth.

In 1976, Jerry Lee Lewis was arrested outside Graceland after waving a pistol around and demanding to see Elvis Presley.

In 1985, Big Joe Turner died at age 74. He'd suffered a heart attack some months earlier. Many people credit Turner with cutting the first rock 'n' roll record, "Shake, Rattle and Roll," in 1954.

In 1992, Roy Acuff, the "King of Country Music," died of congestive heart failure. He was 89.

In 1993, Emerson Lake and Palmer were immortalized in the Hollywood Rock Walk of Fame.

In 1995, following Thanksgiving Day dinner in Omaha, Neb., members of Alanis Morissette's band and her opening act, the Rentals, held an impromptu bowling tournament. The Rentals won.

In 1996, Elton John was honored as the founder of the Elton John AIDS Foundation at a gala celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.

In 1997, Cranberries lead singer Dolores O'Riordan gave birth to her first child, a boy, in a Toronto hospital. She and husband Don Burton named their son Taylor Baxter Burton.

In 1998, Shania Twain was nominated for five American Music Awards. Rapper-turned-actor Will Smith got four nominations and Celine Dion, three.

Also in 1998, Metallica sued Amazon.com in federal court in Los Angeles, claiming the Web site was selling a bootleg album not approved by the band.

And in 1998, Los Angeles businessman Donald Bohana was sentenced to 15-years-to-life in prison for the August 1994 murder of Delores Jackson, the former sister-in-law of Michael Jackson and ex-wife of Tito Jackson.

In 1999, Metallica reunited with composer/arranger Michael Kamen at New York's Madison Square Garden for an encore of their classical orchestra collaboration first performed in April 1999 in San Francisco.

Also in 1999, the funeral for Doug Sahm of the Texas Tornados was held in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. Sahm, 58, had been found dead in a Taos, N.M., hotel room. The cause of death was heart disease.

Topping the charts on this date:

Runaround Sue - Dion (1961), Wedding Bell Blues - The 5th Dimension (1969), You Light Up My Life - Debbie Boone (1977), We Built This City - Starship (1985).

Today's musical quiz:

What's Shania Twain's real first name? Answer: Eileen. Shania means "I'm on my way" in Ojibwa (Indian) dialect.