November 1979

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  1
A Rolling Stone article reports that "the disco boom may be over," noting a sharp recent decrease in the sale of disco LP's.

At the opening show of his Slow Train Coming tour in San Francisco's Warfield Theater, born-again Christian Bob Dylan is booed by the audience.
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Guyana-born British reggae-funk- rocker Eddy Grant enters the U.S. soul chart for the only time this decade with "Walking on Sunshine," which will only reach #86 in just three weeks on the chart. The sone will later be an international funk hit in a 1982 cover version by Brooklyn-based Rockers Revenge. Grant himself -- a former member of late-Sixties interracial band the Equals -- will reemerge triumphant in 1983 with the hit singles "Electric Avenue" and "I Don't Wanna Dance" and the hit album Killer on the Rampage.

The debut albums by two-tone ska-rock bands the Specials and Madness enter the U.K. album chart at #4 and #16 respectively.

Six gunmen kill four protesters during an anti-KKK rally in Greensboro, N.C. At their 1980 trial, an all-white jury will clear the six.
4
An angry mob of Iranian students storms the U.S. embassy in Teheran, demands the return of the exiled Shah of Iran and takes 90 hostages. They will release all women and blacks but hold the remaining hostages for 444 days, monopolizing American attention and eventually striking a fatal blow to Jimmy Carter's presidency.
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The English Beat, another two-tone ska-rock band, release their debut single, a cover of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' "The Tears of a Clown" backed with "Ranking Full Stop," on the Specials' Two-Tone label.
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"The Genius," Ray Charles, enters the soiul single chart for the only time this year with "Just Because," which will peak at #69 in five weeks on the chart. His only other soul chart entry this year will be with the LP Ain't It So, which will enter the soul LP chart in two weeks, remaining there for four weeks and peaking at #59.
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Jefferson Starship singer Marty Balin's rock opera "Rock Justice" opens a four-day run at San Francisco's Old Waldorf night club. Balin stars in and codirects the musical, about a rock star who dreams he's on trial for not having a hit record. It will also be made into a videotape.
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Young turk record executive Ron Alexenberg's Infinity label goes out of business. Infinity's parent company, MCA Records, takes on Infinity's roster of talent, which includes Spyro Gyra (whose gold Morning Dance LP was Infinity's only big seller), Hot Chocolate, Orleans and Rupert Holmes. Infinity's much-ballyhooed acquisition of an album of songs by Pope John Paul II turned out to be a commercial flop. MCA president Sidney Sheinberg cited "present-day economic realities" as the reason for closing the label. In response, Alexenberg -- a former senior vice-president for promotion at Epic Records -- files a $2 million suit alleging breach of contract against MCA.
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Former Jethro Tull bassist John Glascock dies of a heart attack at age twenty-six in London. Though he recorded with Jethro Tull, Glascock's long battle with heart disease kept him from ever touring with the band.
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Chuck Berry is released from Lompoc Prison Farm in California after seving two months of his four-month sentence for tax evasion.
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Marianne Faithfull, currently embarking on her second solo singing career, is arrested at Oslo Airport in Norway for possession of marijuana.
 24
Peabo Bryson, who broke through to stardom in 1978, enters the soul chart with his biggest hit of the year, "Gimme Some Time," a duet with Natalie Cole that will peak at #8 in its fourteen weeks on the chart.
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Fleetwood Mac's first tour in two years begins in Pocatello, Idaho, just over a month after the release of the band's latest album, Tusk.
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Anita Pallenberg, Keith Richards' common-law wife, is cleared of murder charges in the shooting death of her young male companion, whose body had been found in her New York state home.

Michael Jackson receives a gold record for "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough," the first of four Top Ten hits from his album Off the Wall. Both "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and the album's "Rock with You" will hit Number One on the soul pop charts, and Off the Wall will become a Number One pop and soul LP.

Paul Simon, in an attempt to leave his record label, CBS, files two lawsuits against the company in New York State Supreme Court.
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