Musical birthdays today include film score composer Harry Rabinowitz (99), Pierre Boulez (90), Diana Ross (71), Plastic People of the Universe violinist Jiří Kabeš (69), ELO keyboardist Richard Tandy (67), Steven Tyler (67), former Boston bassist Fran Sheehan (66), film score composer Alan Silvestri (65), ex-Communards multi-instrumentalist Richard Coles (53), Acadian singer-songwriter Roch Voisine (52), Kenny Chesney (47), ex-Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha (47), producer Thomas 'Tommie Sunshine' Lorello (44), and folk singer & multi-instrumentalist Seth Lakeman (38).
Shoutout to the Great Beyond for saxophonist James Moody, who would have been 90 today... for Teddy Pendergrass, who would have been 65... 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 former Mötley Crüe drummer Randy Castillo, who died in 2002... for Jan Berry [of Jan & Dean fame], who succumbed today 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 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)... 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).
Shoutout to the Great Beyond for saxophonist James Moody, who would have been 90 today... for Teddy Pendergrass, who would have been 65... 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 former Mötley Crüe drummer Randy Castillo, who died in 2002... for Jan Berry [of Jan & Dean fame], who succumbed today 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 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)... 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).
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