May 6th

Musical birthdays today include bluesman Eddie C. Campbell (75), jazz bassist David Friesen (72), Bob Seger (69), Mary MacGregor (66), They Might Be Giants co-frontman John Flansburgh (64), Fastball lead singer Tony Scalzo (50), Stereolab lead singer Laetitia Sadier (46), Foo Fighters lead singer Chris Shiflett (43), and Evile lead singer Matt Drake (33). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for dance band leader Billy Cotton, born on this day in 1899... for jazz & skiffle guitarist Denny Wright, who would have been 90 today... for former Average White Band drummer Robbie McIntosh, who would have been 64... for jazz violinist & bandleader Ted Weems, who died on this date in 1963... for jazz trombonist Kai Winding, who died in 1983... for Marlene Dietrich, who passed away in 1992... for songwriter Otis Blackwell [best remembered for 'Great Balls of Fire' and 'Don't Be Cruel'], who died in 2002... and for Go-Betweens frontman Grant McLennan, who left us today in 2006. 

Also on May 6th: At Rudy Van Gelder's studio, Dexter Gordon records Doin' Allright, his first album for Blue Note (1961)... In their Clearwater, Florida hotel room, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards work out the opening guitar riff of 'Satisfaction', following Richard's purchase of a Gibson fuzz-box earlier that day (1965)... At Abbey Road, The Beatles record overdubs for 'I'm Only Sleeping' and experiment with the mixing. The song features then then-unique sound of a reversed guitar duet, with both parts played by George Harrison... Bob Dylan opens the UK leg of his world tour at the ABC Club in Belfast (1966)... Atlantic Records release Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway's eponymous duet album (1972)... Paul Simon sets out on his first tour without partner Art Garfunkel since 1964, using The Jesse Dixon Singers as a back- up group on stage. Simon's tour of America and Europe will be recorded and released as the album Live Rhymin' (1973)...The Boomtown Rats play their first gig in England, appearing at London's Club 51 (1977)... Oasis score their first UK № 1 single with 'Some Might Say' (1995)... In the wake of the generated by Dixie Chicks member Natalie Maines’ comments about President George W. Bush and the Iraq war, a Pueblo, CO radio station suspends two of its disc jockeys for playing music by the group (2003)... Starbucks bans the sale of Bruce Springsteen's latest album Devils and Dust over concerns about its adult content. A spokesman for the the retailer - which stocks CDs at its branches in the US - says that they will be promoting other albums instead (2006).