March 20 in Music History: The Temptations release their debut album, T-Rex plays their final show

1948 – Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra are featured in the first televised symphonic concert.

1960 – Elvis Presley starts his first recordings since being discharged from the US Army. A 12 hour session in a Nashville recording studio produces his next #1 single, “Stuck On You.” Scotty Moore and Bill Black, who had quit Presley’s touring band in 1957, are in the studio with him for the last time.

1964 – The Temptations release their debut album Meet the Temptations on the Gordy (Motown) label. The lineup on the cover features Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, Otis Williams, and newest Temptation Davis (later David) Ruffin. Ruffin had just joined the act three months before this album was released, and actually only appears on “The Way You Do The Things You Do.”

1969 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono marry in Gibraltar. They spend their honeymoon in Amsterdam campaigning for an international “Bed-In” for peace. The couple then goes to Montreal and records “Give Peace a Chance” during a “Bed-in” at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. They planned another “Bed-in” in the United States, but were denied entry.

1971 – Nearly six months after her death, Janis Joplin’s “Me And Bobby McGee” hits #1 in the US for the first of two weeks. It is her only Top 10 hit.

1977 – T-Rex play their final gig when they appear at The Locarno in Portsmouth, England.

1989 – After 37 years on the air, Dick Clark announces he will discontinue hosting his creation, ABC-TV’s highly influential American Bandstand.

1991 – Eric Clapton’s four year old son, Conor, falls to his death from the 53rd story of a New York City apartment after a housekeeper who was cleaning the room left a window open. The tragedy inspires his song “Tears in Heaven.”

1991 – It is announced that Michael Jackson and Sony had signed a contract that gave him an $18 million advance for the forthcoming album Dangerous. The contract also made Jackson the CEO of the newly formed Nation Records (which changed its name to MJJ). The deal was reported to be worth $1 billion, the largest in history.

Information for this post was gathered from This Day in Music, The Music History Calendar, On This Day, and Wikipedia.