October 18th

 Musical birthdays today include Stealer's Wheel founding member Joe Egan (77), former Pylon lead singer Vanessa Briscoe Hay (71), Les Rita Mitsouko lead singer Catherine Ringer (69), Wynton Marsalis (65), Curtis Stigers (61), and Cardigans lead guitarist Peter Svensson (51). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for jazz pianist & songwriter Bobby Troup [best remembered for 'Get Your Kicks on Route 66'], born on this date in 1918... for jazz singer Anita O'Day, born in 1919... for blueswoman Jessie Mae Hemphill, born in 1923... for Canadian fiddler Buddy McMaster, born in 1924... for Chuck Berry, born in 1926... for Laura Nyro, who would have been 79... for REO Speedwagon lead guitarist Gary Richrath, who would have been 77... for Van Der Graaf Generator bassist Nic Potter, who would have been 75... for composer Charles Gounod, who died on this date in 1893... and for saxophonist David S. Ware, who left us today in 2013.

Also on October 18: Mahler conducts the first performance of his own 5th Symphony in Cologne (1904)... The BBC is formed to bring news, cultural programming, arts and music to homes in the UK (1922)... 21-year-old Elvis Presley pulls into a Memphis gas station, where he attracts a crowd of autograph seekers. After repeatedly asking Elvis to move on so that he can resume normal business, station manager Ed Hopper slaps the singer, who responds with a punch to the face that knocks Hopper to the ground. After police are called, the manager and one of his employees ~ who had also tried to take on the King ~ are arrested for assault (1956)... Taking a day off from their current British tour, the Beatles go into the studio and record six tracks to complete the Beatles for Sale LP (1964)... The Jimi Hendrix Experience play their first gig as a band, opening for French pop star Johnny Hallyday at L'Olympia in Paris (1966)... The Bee Gees have their first UK № 1 with 'Massachusetts' (1967)... John and Yoko are taken to Paddington Green police station after cannabis is discovered in the flat that they are staying in. Lennon will plead guilty next month and pay a fine of £150 ~ the seemingly minor conviction will assume much greater significance when the Beatle fights his battle to stay in the US in the '70s (1968)... The Rolling Stones release It's Only Rock 'N'Roll... Al Green's ex-girlfriend Mary Woodson pours a pot of boiling grits on the soul singer while he is in the shower in his Memphis home. Green suffers second-degree burns on his back, neck and arms and will undergo a religious conversion whilst recovering (1974)... The Buggles go to № 1 in Britain with 'Video Killed the Radio Star'. In two years' time, the video for the song will become the first ever played on MTV (1979)... Sonic Youth release Daydream Nation (1988)... After a 15-year court battle, the New York State Supreme Court rules that the Ronettes do not have the right to share the money earned by their producer Phil Spector through the use of the group's songs in movies, TV and advertising. Citing a 1963 contract signed by the group, the court also substantially reduces the amount they stand to gain from royalties on vinyl and CD sales (2002).

October 17th

 

Musical birthdays today include Gary Puckett (84), Defunkt trombonist Joseph Bowie (73), country singer Alan Jackson (68), Aqua vocalist René Dif (59), Ziggy Marley (58), Wyclef Jean (57), Eminem (54), and singer-songwriter Marcela Bovio (46). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for composer Herbert Howells, born on this date in 1892... for jazz guitarist Barney Kessel, born in 1923... for Jeanine Deckers, AKA the Singing Nun, born in 1933...for ska and reggae trombonist Rico Rodriguez, born in 1934... for Frédéric Chopin, who died on this date in 1849... for blues legend Alberta Hunter, who passed away in 1984... and for pop singer Teresa Brewer, who left us in 2007. 

Also on October 17: The opera Ascanio in Alba, composed by 15-year-old prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, premieres in Milan (1771)... In between lunchtime and evening sets at the Cavern Club, the Beatles pop over to Manchester to make their British television debut, performing 'Some Other Guy' and 'Love Me Do' on the Granada TV local magazine program People and Places (1962)... Manfred Mann starts a two week run at № 1 on the Billboard singles chart with 'Do Wah Diddy Diddy'... The Rolling Stones release 12 x 5, their second American album (1964)... The Kinks play their first US concert in four years, opening for Spirit at the Fillmore East in NYC. The American Federation of Musicians banned the group from playing stateside after a disastrous 1965 tour marred by several onstage fistfights (1969)... The Rolling Stones play a show in Brussels as part of their current European tour; opening acts are Billy Preston and the American group Kracker [the first act signed to Rolling Stones Records after the band created the label]. Saxophonist Bobby Keys fails to show for the gig, provoking Mick Jagger to sack him from the backing musicians. The excuse given by Keys [who will be banned from Stones tours until the early '80s] is that he filled his hotel bathtub with Dom Perignon and attempted to drink his way out while sitting in it (1973)... Lynyrd Skynyrd release Street Survivors, their last album with original members Ronnie Van Zant and Allen Collins (1977)... Bruce Springsteen releases The River (1980)... The Bee Gees become the only act to have a UK № 1 single in the '60s, '70s and '80s when 'You Win Again' tops the British charts (1987)... During an interview with the Observer Magazine, Noel Gallagher of Oasis says "Nothing would make me happier than Damon Albarn and Alex Cox [of rival band Blur] dying of AIDS". He will later apologize for the statement (1995)... The British tabloid press reports that Michael Jackson recently played a secret gig at a martial arts convention in Barnstaple, N. Devon. In fact, the man who arrived in the white stretch limo was Navi, a notorious London impersonator of the superstar... Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band play the first rock concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles (1999)... The 2-storey, 2-bedroom Montague Square townhouse owned by Ringo Starr through much of the '60s [and where John, Yoko and Jimi Hendrix were frequent houseguests] goes on the market for £575,000 (2000)... Two security guards at the University of California-San Diego's RIMAC Arena are fired after refusing to allow Bob Dylan into his own concert. The singer, who recently asked that security be tightened up on his Love and Theft tour, arrived backstage without his ID badge (2001)... Madonna and Guy Ritchie announce that their marriage is over (2008). 

October 16th

Musical birthdays today include former BTO bassist Fred Turner (83), Grateful Dead founding member Bob Weir (79), Greek pop singer Eleftheria Arvanitaki (68), Spandau Ballet guitarist Gary Kemp (67), Hüsker Dü leader Bob Mould (66), Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Michael 'Flea' Balzary (64), Wilson Phillips vocalist Wendy Wilson (57) and John Mayer (49). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for Christa Päffgen, AKA Nico, who would have been 88 today... for former Parliament-Funkadelic bassist Cordell 'Boogie' Mosson, who would have been 84... for Leonard Chess, founder of the pioneering rock and R&B label of the same name, who died on this date in 1969... for swing drummer Gene Krupa, who passed  away in 1973... and for Art Blakey, who left us today in 1990. 

Also on October 16: Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire for speaking voices and chamber orchestra premieres in Berlin after six weeks of daily rehearsals (1912)... Concert pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in WW I, premieres Richard Strauss' Parergon to the Symphonia Domestica for left hand alone and orchestra in Dresden (1925)... 18-year-old Richard Penniman, who is already using the stage name Little Richard, makes his first recordings for the RCA Camden label in the studios of Atlanta radio station WGST (1951)... The Beatles record 'Day Tripper' (1965)... At San Francisco's Fillmore West, Grace Slick performs publicly as lead singer of Jefferson Airplane for the first time (1966)... Creedence Clearwater Revival announce that they have disbanded (1972)... The № 1 song in the US today is 'Disco Duck' by Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots (1976)... Culture Club perform 'Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?' on Top of the Pops, where they are a last-minute replacement for Shakin' Stevens, who had suddenly fallen ill on the day of the taping (1982)... Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Robert Cray join Chuck Berry on stage in St. Louis for the concert that will be filmed for the documentary 'Hail Hail! Rock & Roll' (1986)... A tribute concert to Bob Dylan on the 30th anniversary of the release of his first Columbia album takes place at Madison Square Garden. Guest performers include Neil Young, Roger McGuinn, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Ron Wood and Eric Clapton. Dylan himself appears for group renditions of 'My Back Pages' and 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' before closing the proceedings with a solo 'Girl from the North Country' (1992)... Simon & Garfunkel kick off their Old Friends reunion tour with a show in Wilkes-Barre, PA (2003)... Legendary NYC club CBGB closes with a performance by Patti Smith, one of many artists who first came to fame on its stage. The venue was opened in 1973 with the full name CBGB-OMFUG, standing for 'Country, Bluegrass, Blues and Other Music for Uplifting Gormandizers' (2006).

October 15th

 

Musical birthdays today include Barry McGuire (89), Richard Carpenter (80), Chris de Burgh (78), Tito Jackson (73), Beautiful South drummer Dave Stead (60), heavy metal guitarist Dax Riggs (53), and R&B singer Jessie Ware (42).  

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for blueswoman Victoria Spivey, born on this date in 1906... for jazz pianist & vocalist Nellie Lutcher, born in 1912...  for big band trombonist Paul Tanner, born in 1917... for R&B duo Mickey & Sylvia's Mickey Baker, born in 1925... for Fela Kuti, who would have been 88... and for Cole Porter, who left us today in 1964. 

Also on October 15: Commissioned by Catherine de Medici, Le Ballet Comique de la Reine, widely considered to be the first ballet, is staged in Paris (1581)... ASCAP [American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers] is founded (1914)... The War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, the first municipally owned opera palace in the United States, opens with a production of Tosca (1932)... Buddy Holly opens for Elvis Presley at the Big D Jamboree, held at the Cotton Club in Lubbock, Texas. Talent scout Eddie Crandall, who is in the audience, will arrange an audition for the bespectacled guitarist with Decca Records (1955)... The Beatles [minus Pete Best] and two members of Rory Storm's backing band the Hurricanes [Ringo Starr and Lou Walters] record a version of 'Summertime' in a Hamburg recording studio. The track, which is cut onto a 78 RPM disc, is the first known session with John, Paul, George and Ringo playing together (1960)... Jimi Hendrix signs his first recording contract in the UK ~ according to the terms, he will receive $1 and a 1% royalty on all of his sales... Pink Floyd [who are paid £15 for the gig], The Move, Denny Laine, Soft Machine, Yoko Ono and a West Indian steel drum band all play the London Roundhouse launch of the International Times, which will become Britain's longest-running underground. newspaper. Paul McCartney attends as a spectator in Bedouin robes (1966)... The Four Tops have the № 1 single in both the US and the UK with 'Reach out and I'll Be There' (1967)... Led Zeppelin give their debut performance in the UK under their new name at Surrey University (1968)... Keith Richards is found guilty of trafficking cannabis by a court in Nice. The guitarist is given a one-year suspended sentence, fined 5,000 FF, and banned from entering France for two years (1973)... Debby Boone's 'You Light up My Life' begins a 10-week run at  № 1 on the Billboard singles chart, a new record for the rock era (1977)... Abba play their first North American concert, in Vancouver (1979)... In Los Angeles, Bob Dylan shoots the first video of his career, for 'Sweetheart like You' (1983)... Paul and Linda McCartney are the guest voices for an episode of the Simpsons entitled 'Lisa the Vegetarian'. Macca's stipulation for appearing was that Lisa's decision to become a vegetarian be a permanent character change, to which the show's producers agreed (1995)... Michael Jackson plays the last show on the HIStory tour, at King's Park Rugby Stadium in Durban, South Africa During the tour, Jackson performed 82 concerts in 58 cities to over 4.5 million fans, visiting 5 continents and 35 countries (1997)... Jon Bon Jovi becomes the latest musician to disapprove of the use of his songs in John McCain's US presidential run. Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin had been using 'Who Says You Can't Go Home' in her rallies. Foo Fighters, Heart and Jackson Browne have already taken legal action to prevent their songs from being used by the senator's presidential campaign (2008).

October 14th

 Musical birthdays today include Cliff Richard (87), jazz-rock bassist Colin Hodgkinson (82 ), Moody Blues frontman Justin Hayward (80), Nazareth lead singer Dan McCafferty (80), Boney M vocalist Marcia Barrett (77), bluesman Kenny Neal (68), Thomas Dolby (67), Twisted Sister drummer A.J. Pero (66), The Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines (51), and singer-songwriter Savannah Outen (33). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for New Orleans R&B singer Robert Parker, born on this day in 1930... for Bing Crosby, who died on this date in 1977... for Leonard Bernstein, who passed away in 1990... and for Freddy Fender, who left us today in 2006.

Also on October 14: Mendelssohn's overture for A Midsummer Night's Dream is performed for the first time at Potsdam for Frederick William IV, King of Prussia (1843)... The 16-year-old Stravinsky finishes his first surviving composition, an unpublished Tarantella for piano (1898)... BMI [Broadcast Music, Inc.] is founded to compete with ASCAP [American Society of Composers and Publishers] (1939)... The Everly Brothers have their first US № 1 with 'Wake up, Little Susie', and Elvis releases 'Jailhouse Rock' (1957)... Pink Floyd play their first ever 'underground' set, at All Saints Hall in Notting Hill (1966)... Joan Baez is arrested at a sit-in at the US Army induction center in Oakland, California (1967)... The Jackson Five make their national TV debut on ABC's variety show 'Hollywood Palace'... The New Jersey State Police issue an arrest warrant for Frank Sinatra in relation to his alleged Mafia connections (1969)... The music publishing firm Arco Industries file a $500,0o0 lawsuit against John Fogerty, claiming that the Creedence Clearwater Revival hit 'Travelin' Band' 'contains substantial material copied from' Little Richard's 'Good Golly Miss Molly'. The suit is eventually thrown out (1971)... Michael Jackson has his first solo US № 1 with 'Ben' (1972)... David Bowie releases Heroes (1977)... Cyndi Lauper releases her debut album She's So Unusual (1983)... Def Leppard become the first act in chart history to sell seven million or more copies of two consecutive LPs, as Hysteria. the follow-up to the 1983 hit Pyromania tops the album charts on both sides of the Atlantic (1987)... Eric Clapton is suspended from driving in France after being pulled over for speeding ~ at 210 km/hr (135 MPH) ~ on the A6 Autoroute near Merceuil in Burgundy. He is given a €750 fine and his UK license is confiscated. After paying his fine, Clapton poses for photographs with the members of the local gendarmerie and leaves again in the Porsche ~ with his personal assistant at the wheel (2004).

Ocober 13th

 

Musical birthdays include Nana Mouskouri (92), Paul Simon (85), Chicago founding member & songwriter Robert Hamm (82), Sammy Hagar (79), Soft Machine saxophonist Alan Wakeman (79), John Ford Coley (78), operatic soprano Leona Mitchell (77) Fairport Convention multi-instrumentalist Simon Nicol (76), Marie Osmond (67) Anthrax lead singer Joey Belladonna (66), Broken Social Scene drummer Justin Peroff (49) Ashanti (46), and Korean pop singer Park Jimin (44).

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for Art Tatum, born on this date in 1909... for Yves Montand, born in 1921... for jazz percussionist Johnny Lytle, born in 1933... for Pharoah Sanders, who would have been 86... for Ed Sullivan, who died on this date in 1974... and for Earth, Wind & Fire founding member Wade Flemons, who left us in 1993.

Also on October 13: Six-year-old Wolfgang Mozart gives a recital for Empress Maria Theresa of Austria at the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. Also attending is Princess Maria Antonia [the future Marie Antoinette] (1762)...  The Beatles make their debut on ITV's 'Sunday Night at the Palladium', topping the bill in a show broadcast to an estimated 15 million viewers. An article promoting the appearance in today's 'Daily Mirror' also contains the first recorded appearance in print of the term 'Beatlemania' (1963)... The Who record 'My Generation' at Pye Studios in London (1965)... Janis Joplin's ashes are scattered on Stinson Beach in Marin County, CA in a small private ceremony (1970)... The Rolling Stones have the № 1 album in the US with Goats Head Soup (1973)... Neil Young has polyps removed from his vocal chords at a Los Angeles hospital (1975)... Led Zeppelin convene at Headley Grange to begin rehearsing the songs that will go on the In through the Out Door album (1978)... U2 score their first UK № 1 album with the Unforgettable Fire. In the US, Stevie Wonder's 'I Just Called to Say I Love You' tops the singles chart (1984)... Bob Dylan plays a show at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. True to form, he opens the show with 'Masters of War' (1990)... Billy Joel appears live on NPR's 'Performance Today' program to play his new sonata entitled 'Reverie' (1997)... UK tabloids report that Toni Braxton pulled out of this year's MOBO awards in the US because one of her breast implants ruptured. A spokesman for her Arista record label says "We don't comment on the personal lives of our artistes" (2000)... British rock group Muse files for an injunction to keep Celine Dion from going forward with plans to call her forthcoming Las Vegas review 'Muse'. Lead singer Matt Bellamy says "We don't want anyone to think that we're Celine Dion's backing band" (2002)... In a video message on his website, Ringo Starr announces that he no longer has time to sign autographs, and asks fans not to send him any mail at all. "No more fan mail, and no objects of any kind to be signed, please. Nothing" (2008).

October 12th

 Musical birthdays today include Status Quo guitarist Rick Parfitt (78), The Damned frontman David Lett (70), jazz trumpeter Chris Botti (64), Dixie Chicks fiddle player Martie McGuire (57), and New Found Glory lead singer Jordan Pundik (47).

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for composer Ralph Vaughn Williams, born on this date in 1872... for James 'Sugar Boy' Crawford, New Orleans R&B pianist and songwriter, born in 1934... for Luciano Pavarotti and Sam Moore [of Sam & Dave], both born in 1935... for longtime Temptations vocalist Melvin Franklin, who would have been 84... for Smithereens lead singer Pat DiNizio, who would have been 71... for Gene Vincent, who died today in 1971 at the age of 46... for original B-52's guitarist Ricky Wilson, who passed away today in 1985 at 32... for John Denver, who died in an airplane crash today in 1997... for bandleader Ray Coniff, who died in 2002... and for Blue Cheer frontman Dickie Peterson, who left us today in 2009. 

Also on October 12: G.F. Handel completes his oratorio Samson (1742)... The Chrysler Corporation launches high fidelity record players for their 1956 line of cars. The unit measures 4 inches wide and just under a foot high and is mounted under the instrument panel. The 7-inch discs spin at 16 2/3 RPM and require 3 times as many grooves per inch as an LP. The players will be discontinued as an option in 1961 (1955)... During a tour Down Under, Little Richard gives a press conference in Sydney to announce that he has renounced rock 'n' roll and embraced God, telling the assembled journalists a story of dreaming of his own damnation after praying when one of the engines of a plane he was on caught fire. The singer will perform nothing but gospel for the next 5 years, but then returns to rock (1957)... Working on what will be the Rubber Soul album at Abbey Road, the Beatles lay down 'Run for Your Life' [John Lennon will later admit to lifting two lines from Elvis' 'Come on Baby, Let's Play House'] and 'Norwegian Wood', with the sitar making its debut on a western pop song in the hands of George Harrison (1965)... Big Brother and the Holding Company have the № 1 album in the US with Cheap Thrills (1968)... Jesus Christ Superstar premieres on Broadway (1971)... The Who release Odds & Sods (1974)... Rod Stewart makes his final appearance as frontman for The Faces in a show at Nassau Coliseum, NY (1975)... Sid Vicious stabs his girlfriend Nancy Spungen to death at the Chelsea Hotel (1978)... U2 release October, their second studio album (1981)... Jennifer Rush becomes the first to hit № 1 with the diva standard 'The Power of Love', topping the UK charts (1985)... Nirvana are the musical guests on Saturday Night Live (1991)... Pink Floyd play the first of a scheduled 15-night run at Earl's Court, London. A minute into 'Shine on You Crazy Diamond', a scaffolding stand holding 1,200 spectators collapses, hurling them 20 feet to the ground. It takes over an hour to free everyone from the wreckage ~ 36 will have to be hospitalised. The band send a free t-shirt and a handwritten note of apology to all those seated in the faulty bleachers, and the show is rescheduled (1994)... The Backstreet Boys are forced to cancel a show in Madrid after 7,000 fans show up for a 5,000 seat performance and a riot breaks out (1997)... Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young appear at Madison Square Garden to announce a forthcoming album and their 'CSNY2K' tour (1999)... Oasis go to № 1 on the UK album chart with Dig Out Your Soul, the group's final studio LP (2008).