May 25th

Musical birthdays today include jazz saxophonist Marshall Allen (102), former Family keyboardist John Palmer (83), U.K. Subs lead singer Charlie Harper (82), Tokens vocalist Mitch Margo (79), Scorpions lead singer Klaus Meine (78), former Asleep at the Wheel steel guitarist Cindy Cashdollar (70), Paul Weller (68), ex-Megadeath lead guitarist Glen Drover (57), Tha Dogg Pound rapper Delmar 'Daz Dillinger' Arnaud (53), The Fray guitarist Joe King (46), pop singer Neon Hitch (38), and Union J vocalist JJ Hamblett (38). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for early 20th c. recording star Billy Murray, born on this day in 1877... for song & dance man Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson, born in 1878... for songwriter Hal David and big band singer Kitty Kallen, both born in 1921... for Beverly Sills, born today in 1929... for reggae singer & producer Sugar Minott, who would have been 68... for composer Gustav Holst, who died on this date in 1934... for blues harp virtuoso Alex Miller AKA Sonny Boy Williamson II, who died in 1965 [According to the Led Zeppelin biography 'Hammer of the Gods', whilst touring the UK in the early '60s, Sonny Boy once set his hotel room on fire by trying to cook a rabbit in a coffee percolator]....for Sublime frontman Bradley Nowell, who died of a drug overdose today in 1996 at the age of 28... for Mars Volta sound technician & vocal operator Jeremy Michael Ward, who died of an overdose today in 2003 at the age of 27... for ska & reggae pioneer Desmond Dekker, who passed away in 2006... for rapper Tero 'Camu Tao' Smith, who died in 2008... and for Bill Haley & His Comets bassist Marshall Lytle, who left us today in 2014. 

Also on May 25th: Gilbert & Sullivan's HMS Pinafore opens at the Opera Comique in London (1878)... A benefit concert is held at the original Madison Square Garden. Arturo Toscanini conducts a combined NBC Symphony and New York Philharmonic in a performance of music by Wagner, Verdi, and John Philip Sousa. The evening raises $100,000 for the Red Cross; during an intermission auction, NYC mayor Fiorello LaGuardia auctions off Toscanini's baton for $10,000 (1944)... Procol Harum's 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' enters the UK singles chart for the first time. It will go on to reach № 1, and by 2009 will be officially classed as the song most frequently played in public places in Britain over the last 75 years (1967)... Simon & Garfunkel score their second US № 1 album with Bookends (1968)... A benefit concert is held for Fairport Convention at The Roundhouse, London to raise money for the families of the band's drummer Martin Lamble and Richard Thompson's girlfriend, clothes designer Jeannie Franklyn, who were both killed in an accident driving back from a gig. Also on the bill are Family, The Pretty Things, Soft Machine and John Peel... At Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD, Led Zeppelin and The Who play on the same bill for the only time in their careers, with Zeppelin as the opening act. [On the tickets, their name is misspelt 'Lead Zeppelin'] (1969)... Carole King plays a free concert for an estimated crowd of 100,000 in NYC's Central Park (1973)... Rick Wakeman becomes the first member of Yes to have a № 1 LP outside the group when his Journey to the Centre of the Earth tops the UK album chart (1974)... After seeing The Hype [soon to change their name to U2] play at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin, Paul McGuinness becomes their manager (1978)... Dire Straits have the № 1 album on both sides of the Atlantic with Brothers in Arms. It is one of the first albums to be directed primarily at the CD market, and also one of the first to be recorded on digital rather than on analog equipment (1985)... The earliest known recording of Mick Jagger and Keith Richard, a home tape from 1961 of the duo performing several traditional blues songs, sells at Christies of London for £50,250 (1995)... Bob Dylan is diagnosed as suffering from histoplasmosis pericarditis, a fungal infection of the lungs, and is admitted to hospital, where he will stay for a week. Having just turned 56, Dylan later admitted "I really thought I'd be seeing Elvis soon". After being treated with antibiotics and rest, Bob will be back on the road only 10 weeks later, for 22 American and Canadian shows (1997)... 30 Eminem fans are are injured in a crowd surge at a gig in Washington DC. Five people were taken to hospital, one man having suffered a heart attack (2002)... Madonna cancels three shows in Israel after receiving death threats directed at both her and her children. A spokesperson says she was targeted because she symbolises the West and not because she practises the Jewish Kabbalah faith (2004)... The Sheriff's Office of Alameda Co., CA announce that they are officially closing the stabbing case of Meredith Hunter, the 18-year-old Rolling Stones fan who was killed at the 1969 Altamont free concert. After a renewed two-year inquiry, investigators have dismissed the theory that a second Hell's Angel took part in the stabbing (2005)... Sixties pop star Wayne Fontana is remanded into custody after admitting that he poured petrol over a bailiff's car and set fire to it. The judge admonishes the former lead singer of the Mindbenders for arriving at Derby Crown court dressed as the Lady of Justice. Fontana has to hand over a sword and scales to guards, but is allowed to wear a crown, cape and dark glasses to symbolise his claim that "justice is blind" (2007). 

May 24th

Musical birthdays today include jazzman Archie Shepp (89), Bob Dylan (85), Patti LaBelle (82), session guitarist Waddy Wachtel (79), Blue Öyster Cult drummer Albert Bouchard (79), Daniel Amos singer & songwriter Terry Scott Taylor (76), Roseanne Cash (71), Cameo frontman Larry Blackmon (69), Dire Straits keyboardist Guy Fletcher (66), Black Crowes lead guitarist Rich Robinson (57), and Nine Inch Nails keyboardist Alessandro Cortini (50). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for rockabilly pioneer Rusty York and for composer Harold Budd, both of whom would have been 90 today... for rapper Dwight 'Heavy D' Myers, who would have been 57... for bluesman Elmore James, who died on this date in 1963... for Duke Ellington, who passed away today in 1974... for Byrds founding member Gene Clark, who died in 1991... for Wilco co-founder & guitarist Jay Bennett, who died in 2009... for Slipknot bassist Paul Gray, who died of a drug overdose today in 2010 at the age of 38... for Congolese soukous singer Ndombe Opetum, passed away in 2012...and for jazz drummer Jimmy Cobb, who died in 2020... and for Tina Turner, who left us two years ago today.

Also on May 24th: At the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna, Beethoven's Egmont Overture is performed for the first time (1810)... Country pioneer Jimmie Rodgers, now terminally ill with tuberculosis, makes his final recordings in NYC. The 'Yodelin' Brakeman' is so weak that he has to lie down on a cot in the studio in between the takes of 'Mississippi Delta Blues' and 'Years Ago'. He will die two days later in his room at the Taft Hotel (1933)... The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland. The host country have the winning entry with Lys Assia's 'Refrain' (1956)... The Beatles record the first instalment of their own BBC radio program, 'Pop Go the Beatles'. The Fabs' guests for their inaugural show are The Lorne Gibson Trio (1963)... Captain Beefheart, The Buffalo Springfield and The Doors appear on the same bill at the Whiskey A Go Go in West Hollywood, CA (1966)... The Rolling Stones release the single 'Jumpin' Jack Flash'... The Small Faces release the album Ogdens Gone Nut  (1968)... The Beatles hit № 1 in America with 'Get Back'. The group's only single that credits another artist, ~ the label of the 45 says 'The Beatles with Billy Preston ~ it is also their first release in the US in true stereo (1969)... At the Bath Festival in Somerset, England, Peter Green plays his last gig with Fleetwood Mac (1970)... Genesis fans turning up at the Club Roxy box office in Los Angeles to buy tickets for a forthcoming gig are surprised to find the band members Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford selling the tickets themselves (1980)... The Spice Girls go to № 1 on the Billboard album chart with their debut collection Spice, making them only the third all-female act to do so after the Supremes and The Go-Go's, and the first British girl group (1997)... Queen front man Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991, is honoured on a new set of millennium stamps issued by the Royal Mail. Mercury, who features on the 19p stamp, was a keen philatelist, and his collection was purchased by the Post Office in 1993. The stamp marks his contribution to the Live Aid charity concert in 1985, and causes controversy by showing Queen’s drummer, Roger Taylor, in the background - UK stamps by tradition only carry pictures of living persons who are members of the Royal Family (1999)... Paul McCartney performs live in Russia for the first time when he gives a concert for 20,000 fans on Moscow's Red Square (2003)... Billy Joel is served with a lawsuit filed by his former drummer for hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid royalties. Liberty Devitto claims that Joel hasn't paid him proper royalties for 10 years of his work. Devitto was Joel's drummer from 1975 until 2005, when he said he was abruptly sacked from the band. He says: "People get fired, they get severance or insurance for a certain period of time. I didn't even get a phone call. It was cold" (2009).

May 23rd

Musical birthdays today include Irish folk singer Luka Bloom (71), Radiohead drummer Philip Selway (59), session saxophonist Mindi Abair (57), Maroon 5 drummer Matt Flynn (56), Jewel (52), blink-182 drummer Scott Raynor (45), Pipettes vocalist Gwenno Saunders (45), Tristan Prettyman (43), ex-Sugababes vocalist Heidi Range (43), and singer-songwriter & mandolinist Sarah Jarosz (35). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for song & dance man Scatman Crothers and big band leader Artie Shaw, both born on this day in 1910... for jazz trumpeter Humphrey Lyttleton, born in 1921... for Foggy Mountain Boys singer & guitarist Mac Wiseman, born in 1925... for Rosemary Clooney, born in 1928... for electronic music pioneer Robert Moog, born in 1934... for producer & former Chairmen of the Board frontman General Johnson, who would have been 85... for classical pianist Wilhelm Kempff, who died on this date in 1991... for jazz guitarist Joe Pass, who died in 1994... for folk singer & activist Utah Phillips, who passed away in 2008... and for Franco-Egyptian singer-songwriter Georges Moustaki, who left us today in 2014. 

Also on May 23rd: Beethoven's only opera Fidelio premieres at the Kärntertor Theatre in Vienna (1814)... At the Park Theater in NYC, Don Giovanni is performed in America for the first time, with Mozart's librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte in attendance (1826)... Shuffle along, the first all-black musical in the US, opens on Broadway (1921)... The Everly Brothers hit № 1 in the US with 'Cathy's Clown' (1960)... John Coltrane & sidemen convene for the first of the Africa/Brass sessions (1961)... Roy Orbison and the Beatles kick off a joint tour of the UK in Nottingham (1963)... Ella Fitzgerald becomes the first artist to have a hit with a cover of a Beatles' song when her version of 'Can't Buy Me Love' enters the British Top 40 (1964)... The Who release their rock opera Tommy (1969)... Jefferson Airplane are prevented from giving a free concert in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco authorities having recently passed a resolution banning electric instruments in public. The group will later write the song ‘We Built this City’ in response to the incident (1973)... George Harrison announces the launch of his own label, Dark Horse Records (1974)... Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band launch their 117-date Darkness on the Edge of Town tour with a show in Buffalo, NY (1978)... Tom Petty files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The move is partly the result of a dispute with Petty’s record label, which was recently purchased by MCA (1979)... The UK Musicians Union moved a resolution to ban synthesizers and drum rhythm machines from sessions and live concerts fearing that their use would put musicians out of work (1982)... Photographer Michael Lavine takes what will be the publicity shots for Nirvana’s Nevermind album at Jay Aaron Studios in Los Angeles. The idea for the front cover shot of the baby swimming was adopted after Kurt Cobain and Dave Grohl saw a TV documentary on water babies, and was taken by Kirk Weddle. Several babies were used; five-month old Spencer Eldon’s photo came out best (1991)...   Hanson notch a sellout in less than 20 minutes in the Detroit market for a June 29 show at the Pine Knob Amphitheater (1998)... The musical ‘Up for Grabs’ opens at London’s Wyndham Theatre featuring Madonna in the lead role. The first night crowd complains that the singer is lacking in vocal power, and that they have to strain to hear her lines (2002)...  King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden presents the surviving members of Led Zeppelin with the Polar Music Prize in Stockholm, recognising them as “great pioneers” of rock music. Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones are joined by the daughter of drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980. The Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, manager of Swedish pop group Abba, who named it after his record label, Polar Records previous winners include Sir Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and producer Quincy Jones (2006). 

May 22nd

Musical birthdays today include former Parliament-Funkadelic vocalist Calvin Simon (84), Elton John collaborator Bernie Taupin (76), Specials keyboardist & songwriter Jerry Dammers (71), Icehouse frontman Iva Davies (71), Morrissey (67), Type O Negative lead guitarist Kenny Hickey (), producer & former MK Ultra lead singer John Vanderslice (59), R&B singer and producer Donell Jones (53), and Project Dirty lead singer Rhett Fisher (46). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for Richard Wagner, born on this day in 1813... for Original Dixieland Jass band trombonist Eddie Edwards, born in 1891... for Sun Ra, born in 1914... for Persian classical musician Jalil Shahnaz, born in 1921... for chansonnier Charles Aznavour, born in 1924... for jazz trumpeter Kenny Ball, born in 1930... for jazz multi-instrumentalist John Grimaldi, who would have been 70... for former Eleven keyboardist & singer Natasha Schneider, who would have been 70... and for classical pianist Steven DeGroote, who left us today in 1989. 

Also on May 22nd: On his 59th birthday, Wagner lays the cornerstone of his Festival Theatre Hall in Bayreuth (1872)... In Milan, Verdi conducts the premiere performance of his Requiem (1874)... In Hibbing, MN, Robert Allen Zimmerman, the future Bob Dylan, has his bar mitzvah at the Agudath Achim synagogue, even though he will not be 13 for another two days (1954)... Jerry Lee Lewis arrives in London to begin a UK tour. He and his new 14-year-old bride are besieged by reporters at Heathrow Airport (1958)... Ornette Coleman and sidemen record The Shape of Jazz to Come at Radio Recorders studio in Los Angeles (1959)... Frank Zappa opens his 'Studio Z' in Cucamonga, CA (1963)... The Beatles have the № 1 single on both sides of the Atlantic with 'Ticket to Ride' (1965)... Percy Sledge goes to № 1 in the US with 'When a Man Loves a Woman' (1966)... Florence Ballard makes what will prove to be her last public appearance with The Supremes, as they perform 'The Happening' on the Tonight Show (1967)... Frank Sinatra performs with a full orchestra at Oakland-Alameda Coliseum as a fundraiser for US presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey (1968)... Paul McCartney & Wings top the Billboard singles chart with 'Silly Love Songs' (1976)... Nearly 30 years after the 'payola' law destroyed the career of DJ Alan Freed, it is finally used to convict someone in the record industry: promo man Ralph Tashjian is found guilty of distributing cocaine and money to radio stations to get more airplay for, among others, Bruce Springsteen (1989)... Fleetwood Mac reunite with their classic late-70s lineup for the first time in a decade, performing the first of two specials for the show MTV Unplugged. The experience convinces the group to tour together again (1997)... At the ASCAP Pop Music Awards, Steely Dan receive the lifetime songwriting achievement Founders Award (2000)... White Stripes drummer Meg White marries Jackson Smith, tying the knot in a small ceremony at ex-husband and bandmate Jack White’s Nashville home (2009).

May 21st

Musical birthdays today include British folksinger Martin Carthy (85), Ronald Isley (85), original Animals guitarist Hilton Valentine (84), session guitarist Bill Champlin (79), Leo Sayer (78), guitarist Marc Ribot (72), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch (71), My Bloody Valentine frontman Kevin Shields (63), Forgetters frontman Blake Schwarzenbach (59), Mob Deep rapper Kejuan 'Havoc' Muchita (52), CKY frontman Deron Miller (50), ex-Three Days Grace frontman Adam Gontier (50), Suburban Legends guitarist Brian Klemm (44), former Sugababes vocalist Mutya Buena (41), and Honor Society drummer Alexander Noyes (39). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for radio bandleader Horace Heidt, born on this day in 1901... for Fats Waller, born in 1904... for jazz bassist Tommy Bryant, boen in 1930... for Atomic Rooster organist Vincent Crane, who would have been 83... for Chris 'The Notorious B.I.G.' Wallace, who would have been 54... for Russian pianist and popular singer Alexander Vertinsky, who died on this date in 1957... for big band singer Vaughn Monroe, who died in 1973... for studio musician & producer Paul Delph, who passed away in 1996... and for former Uriah Heep bassist Trevor Bolder, jazz trombonist Frank Comstock, and TV & film score composer Bob Thompson, all of whom left us today in 2014. 

Also on May 21st: The Mendelssohn Glee Club, the oldest surviving independent musical group in the United States after the New York Philharmonic, is founded in NYC (1876)... The Castiles, with Bruce Springsteen on vocals, appear at Freehold Regional High School in New Jersey. They are performing at their own school for the first time ~ all five members of the band are juniors at Freehold HS (1966)... Jimi Hendrix signs with Warner Brothers' Reprise Records, the label on which the three Experience albums will be released (1967)... Atlantic Records release the CSN&Y single 'Ohio', Neil Young's reaction to the Kent State shootings on the 4th of this month (1970)... Motown records release Marvin Gaye's album What's Going on (1971)... Two would-be concert promoters are arrested by police in Dover, DE on fraud charges in connection with selling mail order tickets for a forthcoming 'Elten John' show. The alternative spelling of the singer's stage name proves to be the giveaway as police take away over $12,000 in cheques (1974)... Stevie Wonder hits № 1 in the US with the single 'Sir Duke' (1977)... In Moscow, Elton John plays the opening date of a 10-show campaign in the USSR, making him the first western pop star to headline a solo tour in the Evil Empire (1979)... Joe Strummer is arrested at a particularly tempestuous Clash gig in Hamburg, Germany after smashing his guitar over the head of a member of the audience; he is released after an alcohol & drug test prove negative (1980)... David Bowie goes to № 1 on the US & UK singles chart with 'Let's Dance', featuring Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar. It is Bowie's first single to reach number one on both sides of the Atlantic (1983)... Mariah Carey hits back at Eminem's threats to sample the mushy voicemail messages she left on his mobile. Carey described the rapper as 'a little girl', saying it's "like dealing with a girlfriend in 7th grade, and he shouldn't do it because it'll get him in a bit of trouble with my lawyers" (2003)... Lou Pearlman, the impresario who created the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, is sentenced to 25 years in federal prison on charges involving a decades-long scam that swindled thousands of investors out of their life savings. Many victims were Pearlman's relatives, friends, and retirees who lost everything (2008)... Bono has emergency spinal surgery after suffering an injury whilst preparing for upcoming tour dates. The 50-year-old singer is treated at a specialist neurosurgery clinic in Munich and is expected to stay there for a number of days (2010)... Bob Dylan comes out on top as both the most inspirational individual for poets and the dream collaborative partner in a survey carried out by The Foyle Poetry Society. The extensive survey questioned poets asking which musician and which genre of music most inspired their writing. The young people, aged between 11 and 17 and from countries throughout the world, also voted for Regina Spektor, David Bowie, Florence and the Machine, Leonard Cohen, Morrissey and Pete Doherty (2011).

May 20th

Musical birthdays today include former Paul & Paula vocalist Jill Jackson (84), Cher (80), former Violent Femmes drummer Guy Hoffman (72), film score composer Zbigniew Preisner (71), Go-Go's guitarist Jane Wiedlin (68), Susan Cowsill (67), ex-Haircut 100 frontman Nick Heyward (65), Busta Rhymes (54), ex-3LW vocalist Naturi Naughton (42), and Starting Line lead singer Kenny Vasoli (42). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for jazz arranger & pianist Bob Florence, born on this day in 1932... for Motown producer Fred 'Shorty' Long, who would have been 86... for Joe Cocker, who would have been 82... for producer Andy Johns, who would have been 76... for composer & pianist Clara Schumann, who died on this date in 1896... for original Drifters vocalist Rudy Lewis, who died of a probable drug overdose today in 1964 at the age of 27... for flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal, who passed away in 2000... for Robin Gibb, who died in 2012... and for Ray Manzarek, who left us today in 2014. 

Also on May 20th: As an event to raise funds for a permanent home, the NY Philarmonic gives the first performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony in the US, in Battery Park's Castle Gardens. The chorus was sung in translation, making it the first time it was performed in English anywhere (1846)... Cliff Richard makes his TV debut on the UK show 'Thank Your Lucky Stars' (1961)... Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey grow tired of waiting for John Entwistle and Keith Moon to arrive for The Who's  gig at the Ricky Tick Club in Windsor, UK, so they take to the stage with the bass player and drummer of the local band that opened the show. When Moon and Entwistle finally arrive in the middle of the set, a fight breaks out on stage, with Townshend clubbing Moon over the head with his guitar. Moon and Entwistle announce that they are quitting the band [and rejoin a week later]... Yet another one of the shows on Bob Dylan's current UK tour turns raucous, as members of the audience at the ABC Theatre in Edinburgh unhappy with the electric portion of the concert boo and slow-clap between numbers, and blast on their own harmonicas (1966)... The Beatles new album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band receives its first radio airplay anywhere, with a special preview on the Kenny Everett BBC Light program 'Where It's At'. The DJ plays every track from the album except 'A Day In The Life', which the BBC has banned saying it could promote drug use... The Young Rascals go to № 1 on the US singles chart with 'Groovin'' (1967)... The Beatles, armed with a batch of new songs after their visit to India, convene at George Harrison's home in Esher, Surrey. They tape 23 new songs on George's 4-track recorder, many of which will end up on the group's next two albums, the White Album and Abbey Road. The demos include ‘Cry Baby Cry’, Revolution’, ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, ‘Blackbird’ and ‘Child of Nature’ [a Lennon song that will later become ‘Jealous Guy’] (1968)... While watching a baseball game in Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, Peter Cetera gets into an altercation with four Marines who object to the length of his hair. The Chicago lead singer ends up with a broken jaw and will spend two days in intensive care... Led Zeppelin begin three days of recording and mixing sessions at A&R Studios in NYC,  laying down 'Heartbreaker' and various other parts for new tracks for the group's forthcoming second album. The band are under pressure to finish the sessions so the album can be released in time for the autumn market (1969)... The Beatles' final film 'Let It Be' opens simultaneously in London and Liverpool one week after its world premiere in NYC (1970)... Polydor Records release In the City, the debut album from The Jam (1977)... Paul McCartney & Wings' 'With a Little Luck' is the № 1 single in the US... 'The Buddy Holly Story', a biopic with Gary Busey in the title role, has its world premiere in the late singer's hometown of Lubbock, TX (1978)... U2 cause traffic chaos in Kansas City, MO after they pay for traffic control to close down five lanes of a downtown thoroughfare so that they can shoot the video for 'Last Night On Earth'. Apart from major traffic jams, a Cadillac crashes into a plate glass window trying to avoid a cameraman... Foo Fighters release their second album The Colour And The Shape. Even though the band are American, they chose the alternative spelling of 'colour' as a nod to the record's British producer Gil Norton (1997)... Frank Sinatra's funeral, with numerous celebrities in attendance, is held at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills (1998)... R.E.M. have their final US № 1 album with Reveal (2001)... James Brown is pardoned for his past crimes in South Carolina. Brown served a two-and-a-half-year prison term after an arrest on drug and assault charges in 1988, and is now granted a full pardon by the State Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services. The Godfather of Soul, who appears before the board, sings 'God Bless America' to them after the decision (2003).

March 19th

Musical birthdays today include Pete Townshend (81), Irish singer-songwriter Paul Brady (79), Grace Jones (78), ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill (77), AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd (72), producer & former Human League keyboardist Martin Ware (70), ex-Ace of Base lead singer Jenny Berggren (54), rapper Mario 'Yo Gotti' Mims (45), and Franco-Malian pop singer Inna Modja (42). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for operatic soprano Nellie Melba, born in this day in 1861... for saxophonist & bandleader Georgie Auld, born in 1919... for West End musicals composer Sandy Wilson, born in 1924... for British traditional pop singer Alma Cogan, born in 1934... for country singer-songwriter Mickey Newbury, who would have been 86... for former T Rex bassist Steve Currie, who would have been 77... for Joey Ramone, who would have been 75... for composer Charles Ives, who died on this date in 1954... for Coleman Hawkins, who passed away in 1969... for jazz singer Susannah McCorkle, who took her own life today in 2001 at the age of 55... and for former Freddie and the Dreamers frontman Freddie Garrity, who left us today in 2006. 

Also on May 19th: Bach's Mass in B Minor is performed in America for the first time, at the May Festival in Cincinnati, OH (1886)... A Denver Opera Company production of Friedrich von Flotow's Martha is the first opera to be broadcast on radio in its entirety, on local station 9ZAF (1921)... Alan Freed is indicted along with seven other DJs for accepting $30,650 in payola from six record companies (1960)... The Beatles hold a launch party at manager Brian Epstein's house in London for the Sgt Pepper album. Linda Eastman is present as the official press photographer (1967)... Paul Simon releases the single 'Kodachrome', named after the Kodak 35mm film. It will become a № 2 hit in the US, but is not released as a single in Britain because the BBC refuses to play a song with a trademarked name (1973)... Keith Richards crashes his car near Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire after falling asleep at the wheel; marijuana and cocaine are found in the vehicle by the police, resulting in another court date for the guitarist (1976)... Dire Straits release 'Sultans of Swing' for the first time on the Vertigo label in Britain. The single fails to chart, but will be re-released several months later to considerably greater success (1978)... Eric Clapton holds a party at his Surrey house celebrating his recent marriage to Patti Boyd. Clapton has set up a small stage in the garden, and as the evening progresses, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr ended up jamming together along with Clapton, Ginger Baker and Mick Jagger. The all-star band runs through a selection of Little Richard and Eddie Cochran songs (1979)... Ringo Starr and his future wife Barbara Bach are involved in a car crash less than half a mile from where Marc Bolan was killed; the car is a write-off but neither Starr nor Bach is seriously injured (1980)... Sire Records release The Ramones' album Animal Boy (1986)... James Brown is arrested for the fifth time in 12 months. Following a car chase with police near his home, he is charged with assault, resisting arrest and possession of illegal weapons. He will eventually receive a 6 year jail sentence (1988)... A guitar played by both John Lennon and George Harrison sells for $408,000 at auction. The custom-made instrument, built in 1966 by VOX, was bought by an unidentified US buyer in New York. Harrison played 'I Am The Walrus' on the guitar in a scene from Magical Mystery Tour in 1967. Lennon used it in the video for 'Hello, Goodbye' later that year. After playing the guitar, Lennon gave it as a 25th birthday present to Alexis 'Magic Alex' Mardas, a member of The Beatles' inner circle in the late '60s (2013).