April 1st

Musical birthdays today include Rudolph Isley (86), The Tokens drummer & vocalist Phil Margo (83), former Turtles drummer Johnny Barbata (80), M lead singer Robin Scott (78), Jimmy Cliff (77), Susan Boyle (64), ex-ABC guitarist Mark White (64), Clifford Smith AKA Method Man (54), ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Jesse Tobias (53), Bijou Phillips (45), and Lady A lead singer Hilary Scott (39). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for Sergei Rachmaninoff, born on this day in 1873... for Alberta Hunter, born in 1895... for Arthur 'Guitar Boogie' Smith, born in 1921... for jazz saxophonist Kathy Stobart, born in 1924... for R&B singer Amos Milburn, born in 1928... for Debbie Reynolds, born in 1932... for country singer Jim Ed Brown, born today in 1934... for Ronnie Lane, who would have been 78... for Gil Scott-Heron, who would have been 76... for Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro, who would have been 71... for Scott Joplin, who died on this date in 1917... for Marvin Gaye, who was shot to death by his father at the age of 43 today in 1984... for Martha Graham, who passed away in 1991... for The Cult drummer Nigel Preston, who died of a drug overdose today in 1992 at the age of 32... and for Zombies guitarist Paul Atkinson, who left us today in 2004.

Also on April 1st: Handel's oratorio Judas Maccabeus is performed for the first time at Covent Garden (1747)... Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra make their Carnegie Hall debut (1924)... George Martin becomes head of A&R for EMI's Parlophone label (1955)... Elvis is given his first Hollywood screen test at Paramount Studios (1956)... Atlantic Records release John Coltrane's Giant Steps (1959)... The Beatles begin a three-month residency at Hamburg's Top Ten Club, playing 92 straight nights. The group play for seven hours a night on weekdays and eight hours at weekends with a fifteen-minute break every hour. It is during this visit that Astrid Kirchherr cuts Stuart Sutcliffe's hair into the style destined to become known as the 'Beatle haircut' which the band later adopt themselves (1961)... The Who record an appearance for Top of the Pops at the BBC's Manchester studio. The band then play a gig opening for Donovan at The Town Hall, Wembley, with Rod Stewart appearing at the bottom of the bill (1965)... Pye Records release David Bowie's first solo single, 'Do Anything You Say'. Bowie had previously recorded as David Jones and The Lower Third... The Troggs record 'Wild Thing' at Regency Sound Studios in London... John Lennon buys a copy of Timothy Leary's 'The Psychedelic Experience' and The Tibetan Book Of The Dead, where he reads near the beginning of the book's introduction 'When in doubt, relax, turn off your mind, float downstream...' (1966)... The Beach Boys announce that they are suing Capitol Records for $2 million in unpaid royalties (1969)... 50 musicians record the orchestral scores for The Beatles tracks 'The Long And Winding Road' and 'Across The Universe' for the Phil Spector produced sessions. The bill for the 50 musicians comes to £1,126 and 5 shillings... As an April Fool's joke, John Lennon and Yoko Ono issue a statement to the press that they are planning to have dual sex change operations (1970)... AC/DC make their live UK debut at the Red Cow in Hammersmith, London... The Buzzcocks play their first live gig at the Bolton Institute of Technology. The power is turned off by school authorities after three numbers (1976)... David Lee Roth announces that he is leaving Van Halen, on the same day that his version of The Beach Boys' 'California Girls' is released (1985)... Madonna's Like a Prayer is at № 1 on both the American and British album charts... Topping the singles rankings on both sides of the Atlantic is The Bangles' 'Eternal Flame' (1989)... Modest Mouse are at № 1  on the US album chart with We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. featuring former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr who joined the band in May 2006 (2007).

March 31st

Musical birthdays today include Shirley Jones (91), Herb Alpert (90), film score composer Arthur B. Rubinstein (87), original Mott the Hoople frontman Mick Ralphs (81), AC/DC lead guitarist Angus Young (70), ex-Stiff Little Fingers bassist Ali McMordie (66), Placebo bassist Stefan Olsdal (51), Garfunkel & Oates singer Kate Micucci (45), Ryan Bingham (44), Cobra Starship lead guitarist Ryan Blackinton (43), Fun lead guitarist Jack Antonoff (41), and Tokio Hotel bassist Georg Listing (38). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for Johann Sebastian Bach, born on this date in 1685... for Franz Josef Haydn, born in 1732... for blueswoman Etta Baker, born in 1913... for country singer Lefty Frizzell, born in 1928... for Anita Carter, born in 1933... for Isley Brother O'Kelly Isley Jr., who died on this date in 1986... for Selena Quintanilla-Pérez AKA Selena, who was murdered today in 1995 at the age of 23... and for saxophonist and bandleader Jackie McLean, who left us today in 2006. 

Also on March 31st: On his 62nd birthday, Haydn conducts the premiere performance of his 100th Symphony in the Queen's Concert Rooms, Hanover Square, London (1794)... Dvořák's opera Rusalka is performed for the first time at the National Theatre in Prague (1904)... The Vienna Concert Society riots during a performance of modernist music by Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton von Webern and others. The audience reaction brings a premature end to the concert as chairs as well as punches are thrown. The incident is still referred to in Austria as the 'Skandalkonzert' (1913)... RCA Victor introduce the 45 RPM single record, which has been in development since 1940. The 7-inch disc is designed to compete with the Long Playing record introduced by Columbia last year. Both formats offer higher fidelity and longer playing time than the 78 RPM record that is currently in use. Advertisements for new record players boast that with 45s, the listener can hear up to ten records with speedy, nearly silent and hardly noticeable changes. The first 45 disc, 'Texarkana Baby' by country & western singer Eddy Arnold, is issued by RCA in the US. It is made of green vinyl, as part of an attempt to colour-code singles according to the genre of music they featured. Others include red for classical music and yellow for children's songs (1949)... Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B. Goode' single is released. The song's original lyrics referred to Johnny as a 'colored boy', but Berry later acknowledges that he changed the words to 'country boy' to ensure radio play (1958)... Lonnie Donegan becomes the first British artist to enter the UK singles chart at № 1 with 'My Old Man's a Dustman'. The only previous singer to achieve the feat was Elvis Presley (1960)... The Beatles play their first gig in the south of England when they open for The Rebel Rousers in Stroud, Gloucs. (1962)... Filming for A Hard Day's Night, The Beatles give a 'live television performance' in front of a studio of screaming fans, one of whom is played by a 13-year-old extra named Phil Collins (1964)... Jimi Hendrix sets fire to his guitar live on stage for the first time during a show at the Astoria in London, on the opening night of a 24-date tour with The Walker Brothers, Cat Stevens and Engelbert Humperdinck. In 2008, the Fender Stratocaster burnt by Hendrix on this occasion will sell for £280,000 at a London auction of rock memorabilia (1967)... The Beatles Official Fan Club ceases operations... Deep Purple release Machine Head (1972)... Led Zeppelin release Presence, their seventh studio album (1976)... Kenny Loggins is at № 1 in the US with 'Footloose' (1984)... The Smiths' valedictory compilation album Louder Than Bombs is released in the US (1987)... Madonna appears on The Late Show With David Letterman. The network will have to delete 13 offending words from the interview before the show airs. Madonna also hands the host a pair of her panties and tells him to sniff them ~ Letterman politely declines and stuffs them into his desk drawer (1994)... Jimmy Page escapes being knifed when a fan rushes the stage at a Page and Plant gig in Auburn Hills, MI. The fan is intercepted by two security guards, whom he stabs instead, inflicting minor wounds. After his arrest, the assailant tells police that he wanted to kill the guitarist because of the 'Satanic vibrations' in the music he was playing (1995)... Whitney Houston and husband Bobby Brown are banned for life from the Bel Air hotel in Los Angeles after wrecking their room. Hotel employees say a TV was smashed, two doors were ripped from their hinges, and the walls and carpets stained with alcohol. It is reported that Whitney called in her lawyers to plead with the hotel management not to call the police. The suite is so badly damaged that it will be shut for five days for repair (2001)... A new world record for the longest non-stop concert is set by several hundred musicians in Japan. The performance began on the evening of 23 March in the city of Omi, with 650 musicians aged between 6 and 96 taking turns ~ over 2,000 tunes will be performed in a little more than 182 hours. Organisers praise the musicians, one of whom carried on despite a major earthquake during her piano piece. The previous world record was set in Canada in 2001 at 181 hours (2007).

March 30th

Musical birthdays today include Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge (84), Eric Clapton (80), MC Hammer (63), Tracy Chapman (61), former Queens of the Stone Age drummer Joey Castillo (59), Celine Dion (57), Snow Patrol bassist Mark McLelland (49), Norah Jones (46), Blue vocalist Simon Webbe (46), and singer-songwriter Anna Nalick (41). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for Frankie Laine, born on this day in 1913... for Sonny Boy Williamson I, born in 1914... for former Surfaris bassist Ken Forssi, R&B singer Al Goodman, and Jay and the Americans frontman Jay Traynor, all of whom would have been 82... for Randy van Warmer, who would have been 70... for ex-Lagwagon drummer Derrick Plourde, who took his own life today in 2005 at the age of 33... and for producer Phil Ramone, who left us today in 2013.  

Also on March 30th: Richard Strauss' 1st Symphony receives its premiere in Munich (1881)... The Julliard Musical Foundation is incorporated in NYC (1920)... Buddy Knox becomes the first artist of the rock era to write his own № 1 hit, when his song 'Party Doll' tops the US singles chart (1957)... The Chiffons start a four week run at № 1 on the US singles chart with ‘He’s So Fine’. In 1971 George Harrison will be taken to court for allegedly plagiarizing the song on his 1970 hit ‘My Sweet Lord’ and ordered to pay $587,000 to the writers... 16-year-old Lesley Gore records 'It's My Party' (1963)... During an appearance by Jimi Hendrix on 'Top Of The Pops', a technician puts on the backing track of Alan Price's 'Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear', to which Hendrix responds "I don't know the words to this one, man"... The photo session for the cover of Sgt. Pepper takes place at Chelsea Manor studios in London with Michael Cooper. After the shoot, The Beatles resume work at Abbey Road on ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’, adding guitars, bass, tambourine, and backing vocals. The session begins at 11:00 pm and ends at 7:30 am (1967)... John Denver has the № 1 single in the US with 'Sunshine on My Shoulders' (1974)... The Sex Pistols play their first show at the 100 Club in London. They will begin a weekly residency at the venue in June (1976)... Paul Simonon and Nicky Headon of The Clash are arrested in Camden Town, London after shooting down racing pigeons with air guns from the roof of Chalk Farm Studios. Four police cars and a helicopter are required to make the collar. The fines total £800 (1978)... R.E.M. begin recording Automatic for the People at Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, NY (1992)... Pink Floyd release their final studio album, The Division Bell (1994)... Mick Jagger makes a nostalgic visit to his old school to open the new arts centre named after him at Dartford Grammar. The singer says he spent 'the worst years of his life' at the school (2000)... A man is arrested by police and detained under the Mental Health Act after trying to force his way into Paul McCartney’s mansion, screaming "I must get to him!" The middle-aged man burst through security patrols into McCartney’s isolated Sussex estate; guards who feared an assassination attempt were scrambled to intercept him as he sped towards the front door. He was finally halted by trees and a fence just yards from Sir Paul’s six-bedroom home at Peasmarsh (2007).

March 29th

Musical birthdays today include Astrud Gilberto (85), Evangelis Papathanassiou AKA Vangelis (82), Terry Jacks (81), original Toto frontman Bobby Kimball (78), Stranglers keyboardist Dave Greenfield (76), Jane's Addiction lead singer Perry Farrell (66), Blues Traveler frontman John Popper (58), and Cansei de Ser Sexy guitarist Luiza Sá (44). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for organ virtuoso E. Power Biggs, born on this day in 1906... for Pearl Bailey, born in 1918... for Parliament/Funkadelic bass vocalist Ray Davis, who would have been 85 today... for Australian rocker Billy Thorpe, who would have been 79... for jazzman Michael Brecker, who would have been 76.. for Waitresses lead singer Patty Donahue, who would have been 69... for conductor Annunzio Montovani, who died on this date in 1980... for composer Carl Orff, who left us today in 1982... and for Jeanine 'The Singing Nun' Deckers, who took her own life today in 1985 at the age of 52. 

Also on March 29th: Vivaldi is dismissed from his position as a music teacher at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice for spending too much time on his own operas (1716)... 24-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven makes his concert debut at the Vienna Burgtheater, introducing his 1st Piano Concerto (1795)... Beethoven's funeral in Vienna is attended by Schubert, Czerny, Kreutzer and other musical luminaries (1827)... The Royal Albert Hall opens in London with Queen Victoria in attendance (1871)... Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin premieres at Moscow's Maly Theatre (1879)... Mick Jagger requires 8 stitches to close a gash in his head after an overenthusiastic fan throws a chair at the stage during a gig in Marseille (1966)... At Abbey Road, the Beatles finish recording 'Good Morning, Good Morning', and then go to work on a new song with the working title of 'Bad Finger Boogie', which they will soon change to 'With a Little Help from My Friends' (1967)... Diana!, the soundtrack LP of Diana Ross' first solo TV special, is released (1971)... Dr Hook and The Medicine Show get their picture on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine after their hit 'The Cover of Rolling Stone' reaches № 6 on the US singles chart. According to members of the group, they really did buy five copies for their mothers, as per the lyrics of the song (1973)... King Crimson release the album Starless and Bible Black (1974)... All six Led Zeppelin LPs to date are now in the Bilboard Top 100 albums chart, including their most recent release Physical Graffiti at № 1 (1975)... David Bowie kicks off his Low/Heroes 77-date world tour at the San Diego Sports Arena (1978)... After attending a Dire Straits show during their residency at the Roxy in Los Angeles, Bob Dylan asks Mark Knopfler and drummer Pick Withers to play on the sessions for his next LP. Slow Train Coming will be the album, recorded in Muscle Shoals, AL in May of 1979, with Jerry Wexler producing. Dylan had first heard Knopfler when his assistant Arthur Rosato played him the single 'Sultans of Swing' (1979)... Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon album spends its 303rd week on the US album chart, beating the record set by Carole King's 1971 № 1 album Tapestry. The album remains in the US Billboard charts for 741 discontinuous weeks from 1973 to 1988, longer than any other album in chart history. After moving to the Billboard Top Pop Catalog Chart, the album notches up a further 759 weeks, and will reach a total of over 1,500 weeks on the combined charts by May 2006 (1980)... U2 play the final gig of their 29-date War tour at London's Hammersmith Palais (1983)... Falco is at the top of both the US and UK singles charts with 'Rock Me Amadeus', making him the first German-speaking artist to score an American № 1 (1986)... 
The David Bowie Internet Radio Network broadcasts its first show for Rolling Stone Radio, a selection of Bowie's favourite songs with the singer introducing each track (1999)... Brian Wilson is honored in a three hour tribute at New York's Radio City Music Hall. Guest performers include Billy Joel, Paul Simon, The Go-Gos and the trio of Carly Simon, David Crosby and Jimmy Webb. Also singing Beach Boy songs are Ann and Nancy Wilson, Elton John and Aimee Mann. Brian Wilson himself joins the festivities when he takes the stage for the final three songs, 'Barbara Ann', 'Surfin' U.S.A.' and 'Fun, Fun, Fun' (2001)... A court in Lithuania sentences French rock star Bertrand Cantat, lead singer of the group Noir Desir, to eight years in prison for killing his actress girlfriend during a domestic quarrel. Cantat was convicted of fatally beating Marie Trintignant in a Vilnius hotel room in 2003. Cantat admitted killing Ms Trintignant but maintained it was an accident (2004)... Neil Young is operated on for a brain aneurysm at a hospital in New York. Doctors expect the 59- year-old to make a full recovery. The aneurysm was discovered when Young complained of blurry vision and then collapsed after the induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month (2005).

March 28th

Musical birthdays today include former Jethro Tull keyboardist John Evan (77), Reba McIntire (70), Cheryl 'Salt' James (59), country singer Rodney Atkins (56), Lost Boyz rapper Terrence 'Mr. Cheeks' Kelly (54), The Killers lead guitarist Dave Keuning (49), cigar-chomping music blogger, scourge of white supremacists & Guinness minority shareholder William Ruben Helms (46), and Stefani Germanotta AKA Lady Gaga (40). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for bandleader Paul Whiteman, born on this day in 1890... for classical pianist Rudolf Serkin, born in 1903... for jazz trumpeter Thad Jones, born in 1923...foroperatic soprano Elizabeth Bainbridge, born in 1930... for Commodores keyboardist Milan Williams, who would have been 77 today... for original Feeder drummer Jon Lee, who would have been 57... for composer Modest Mussorgsky, who died on this date in 1881... for Sergei Rachmaninoff, who passed away in 1943... for W.C. Handy, the 'Father of the Blues', who died in 1958... for bluesman Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup, who died in 1974... for film score composer Maurice Jarre, who passed away in 2009... and for bluegrass banjo legend Earl Scruggs, who left us today in 2012.  

Also on March 28th: The Vienna Philharmonic plays its first concert, with founder Otto Nicolai conducting (1842)... Classical music-formatted WQXR in NYC, owned by The New York Times, bans all singing commercials from its airwaves as of this day (1944)... Art Pepper records Art Pepper + 11, his only album as a leader in the big band format (1959)... Madame Tussaud's unveils the waxwork images of The Beatles, making them the first pop stars ever to be so honoured... Pirate Radio Caroline begins broadcasting from the former Danish ferry 'Fredericia' in the North Sea off the English coast (1964)... Working on the Sgt. Pepper sessions at Abbey Road studios in London, John Lennon records his lead vocal for ‘Good Morning Good Morning’, and Paul McCartney added a lead guitar solo to the track. Lennon has decided he wants to end the song with animal sound effects, and asks that they be sequenced in such a way that each successive animal be capable of scaring or eating the preceding one (1967)... Simon & Garfunkel have their only UK № 1 with 'Bridge over Troubled Water' (1970)... Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy is released. The album title is a dedication by the band to their fans who appeared at venues they dubbed 'Houses of the Holy' (1973)... In Buffalo, NY, Genesis kick off their first North American tour since Peter Gabriel's departure as lead singer. Phil Collins now takes over the position (1976)... Blondie hit № 1 on the US singles chart with 'Rapture', the group's fourth stateside chart-topper (1981)... David Crosby is arrested after crashing his car on the San Diego Freeway. Police also find cocaine and a pistol in the CS&N star's car. When the police ask Crosby why he carries the gun, he replies, "John Lennon" (1982)... Run DMC release their self-titled debut album (1984)... Over $100,000 worth of damage is caused to the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre in Orange Co., CA when Ozzy Osbourne invites the first two rows of the audience to come on stage. Several others take up the offer and the band are forced to flee (1992)... Wilco release their debut album A.M. (1995)... Jimmy Page accepts substantial undisclosed libel damages from a magazine which claimed he caused or contributed to the death of his Led Zeppelin bandmate John Bonham. Page's solicitor Norman Chapman told High Court Judge Mr Justice Morland that the feature in Ministry magazine printed in 1999 claimed Page was more concerned with keeping vomit off his bed than with saving his friend's life, and that he stood over Bonham wearing Satanist robes and performing a useless spell (2000).

March 27th

Musical birthdays today include former Shadows keyboardist Alan Hawkshaw (88), Status Quo bassist Andy Bown (79), Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks (74), multi-instrumentalist & longtime Paul McCartney sideman Paul Wickens (67), former INXS keyboardist & principal songwriter Andrew Farriss (66), former Gun Club and Nick Cave guitarist Brian 'Kid Congo Powers' Tristan (66), Johnny Hates Jazz lead singer Clark Datchler (61), jazz singer Stacey Kent (57), ex-Time Frequency lead singer Mary Kiani (56), Mariah Carey (55), Blues Traveler drummer Brendan Hill (55), Procol Harum bassist Matt Pegg (54), Black Eyed Peas lead singer Fergie (50), Dillinger Escape Plan frontman Greg Puciato (45), and pop singer Laura Critchley (41). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for Sarah Vaughn, born on this day in 1924... for cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and record industry executive Mo Ostin, both born in 1927... for bluesman Johnny Copeland, who would have been 87... for rockabilly & country singer Janis Martin, who would have been 85... for former Genesis drummer John Mayhew, who would have been 78... for Associates vocalist Billy Mackenzie, who would have been 68... for jazz saxophonist Clifford Jordan, who died on this date in 1993... for Rolling Thunder Revue drummer Howie Wyeth, who passed away in 1996... for Ian Dury, who died in 2000... and for Dudley Moore, who left us in 2002. 

Also on March 27th: Franz Joseph Haydn makes his last public appearance at a performance of his oratorio The Creation in Vienna to mark the composer's 76th birthday. Beethoven and Antonio Salieri are also in attendance (1808)... CBS Laboratories announce a new stereophonic Long Playing (LP) record that is playable on ordinary monaural LP phonographs (1958)... Beatlemania continues to take the world by storm, as the Fab Four now occupy the top 6 positions on the Australian pop chart (1964)... The Supremes score their fourth US № 1 with 'Stop! In the Name of Love' (1965)... Fats Domino makes his UK debut at London's Saville Theatre with The Bee Gees and Gerry & the Pacemakers opening for him... Columbia Records release the first Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits package (1967)... The Beatles have their final UK № 1 on the Parlophone EMI label with 'Lady Madonna' (1968)... Ringo Starr becomes the first of the Beatles to release a solo album that is neither a film soundtrack nor an avant-garde experiment, as Sentimental Journey hits the shops (1970)... At RCA Studios in Memphis, Elvis records what will prove to be his last top ten hit, 'Burning Love' (1972)... Rolling Stone magazine reports that after becoming a disciple of Sri Chinmoy, Carlos Santana changed his name to 'Devadip', which means 'the lamp of the light of the Supreme' (1973)... Eric Clapton and Patti Harrison married in Tucson, AZ (1979)... Former Small Faces and Faces bassist Ronnie Lane is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis [He will succumb to the disease in 1997] (1982)... Van Halen kick off a 112 date North American tour at the Hirsch Memorial Coliseum in Shreveport, LA. It is the band's first tour with Sammy Hagar on lead vocals (1986)... U2 perform from the roof of a store in downtown L.A. to make the video for 'Where The Streets Have No Name', attracting thousands of spectators and bringing traffic to a standstill. The police eventually stop the shoot (1987)... The wife of Velvet Revolver singer Scott Weiland is arrested on suspicion of burning over $10,000 of his belongings outside their home after police in Los Angeles find a bin of smouldering clothes. Earlier that day, the couple left two rooms vandalised after an argument at a luxury hotel (2007)... X Factor winner Leona Lewis becomes the first British woman to top the US pop chart in more than 20 years with her single ‘Bleeding Love.’ Kim Wilde was the last UK female to top the Billboard Hot 100, with her 1987 cover version of the Supremes hit ‘You Keep Me Hangin' On’. Petula Clark was the first, with her 1965 track ‘Downtown' (2008)... David Bowie's landmark album Ziggy Stardust is celebrated with a blue plaque in central London. Former Spandau Ballet frontman Gary Kemp unveils the marker at the spot where the iconic cover shot of the 1972 release was taken. The location in Heddon Street, just off Regent Street, is now a pedestrianised area filled with bars and restaurants (2012).

March 26th

Musical birthdays today include Diana Ross (81), Plastic People of the Universe violinist Jiří Kabeš (79span>), ELO keyboardist Richard Tandy (77), Steven Tyler (77), former Boston bassist Fran Sheehan (76), film score composer Alan Silvestri (75), ex-Communards multi-instrumentalist Richard Coles (63), Acadian singer-songwriter Roch Voisine (62), Kenny Chesney (57), ex-Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha (57), producer Thomas 'Tommie Sunshine' Lorello (54), and folk singer & multi-instrumentalist Seth Lakeman (48). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for film score composer Harry Rabinowitz, born on this day in 1916... for composer Pierre Boulez, born in 1925... for saxophonist James Moody, born in 1926... for Teddy Pendergrass, who would have been 72 today... for Ludwig van Beethoven, who died on this date in 1827... for Noël Coward, who passed away today in 1973... for Eric Wright AKA Eazy-E, who died in 1995... for Mötley Crüe drummer Randy Castillo, who died in 2002... for Jan Berry [of Jan & Dean fame], who succumbed in 2004 to long-term health problems that had plagued him ever since a near-fatal car crash in 1966... and for guitarist and music journalist Adrian Godfrey AKA Nikki Sudden, who left us today in 2006. 

Also on March 26th: On a Good Friday, J.S. Bach conducts the first performance of his St. John Passion at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig (1723)... At Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack, NJ, John Coltrane and sidemen record the tracks that will become the Settin' the Pace album when released on the Prestige label three years later. Coltrane, who had moved on to Atlantic by then, did not approve the final mix (1958)... The Beatles perform at the Casbah Coffee Club, West Derby, Liverpool, their last performance before travelling to Hamburg for their second visit (1961)... Mick Jagger, Brian Jones and Bill Wyman all receive electric shocks from a faulty microphone on stage during a Rolling Stones show in Denmark. Wyman is knocked unconscious for several minutes... John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers release their debut album, John Mayall Plays John Mayall (1965)... In Vancouver, Bob Dylan plays his final North American gig on his current world tour. After 'Ballad of a Thin Man', Dylan tells the crowd "Mr. Jones lives in Lincoln, Nebraska... He hangs round bowling alleys there. He also owns watermill rights, but we don't talk about that when we're in Nebraska. We just let Mr. Jones have his little way" (1966)... 
Marvin Gaye is at № 1 on the UK singles chart with 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine'. The song was first recorded by The Miracles, and had also been a million seller in 1967 for Gladys Knight and the Pips (1969)... Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary pleads guilty to 'taking immoral liberties' with a 14 year old girl in Washington D.C. and is sentenced to ninety days in jail. Just days earlier, the trio had won a Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children for their album Peter, Paul and Mommy (1970)... Hall and Oates have their first US № 1 single with 'Rich Girl' (1978)... With a one-off concert, The Police become the first western rock group since 1968 to play in Bombay, India (1980)... Duran Duran top the UK singles chart for the first time with 'Is There Something I Should Know'. On this day, they are greeted by 5,000 screaming fans in NYC as they make a promotional appearance at a midtown Manhattan branch of Sam Goody's (1983)... Radio stations in South Africa ban all of Stevie Wonder's records after he dedicated the Oscar he won the night before to Nelson Mandela (1985)... Morrissey's Viva Hate is the № 1 album in the UK (1988)... Gorillaz release their eponymous debut album... An action figure of Eminem is facing a ban from UK shops. Woolworth's and other major chains are refusing to stock the dolls after public warnings from psychologists that  parents who buy the dolls for children will be inadvertently giving their approval to bad language (2001)... Total Guitar magazine publishes the results of a readers poll voting the solo by Jimmy Page in 'Stairway To Heaven' as the greatest guitar solo of all time. The 1971 track comes in ahead of tracks by Van Halen, Queen, Jimi Hendrix and The Eagles. On the 20th anniversary of the original release of the song, it was announced via US radio sources that the song had logged an estimated 2,874,000 radio plays, which, run back to back, would amount to 44 years (2006)... The Los Angeles Times publishes an apology for claiming rap mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs was involved in the 1994 shooting of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur. The Times, which published the original story on its website, initially said its claims were based on FBI records, witness accounts and other unnamed sources. The apology follows a claim that the newspaper was conned by a prisoner who doctored the documents used (2008).