January 27th

Musical birthdays today include Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason (73), Ronettes vocalist Nedra Talley (71), Thin Lizzy drummer Brian Downey (66), J. Geils Band keyboardist Seth Justman (66), Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers (60), New Order keyboardist Gillian Gilbert (56), Cowboy Junkies lead singer Margo Timmins (56), rapper Adrian 'Tricky' Thaws (49), ex-Faith No More lead singer Mike Patton (49), Take That vocalist Mark Owen (45), and Katy Rose (30). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born on this day in 1756... for composer Édouard Lalo, born in 1823... for Broadway composer Jerome Kern, born in 1885... for trumpeter Oran 'Hot Lips' Page, born in 1908... for Elmore James, born in 1918... for Bobby 'Blue' Bland, who would have been 87 today... for jazz vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, who would have been 76... for singer-songwriter Kate Wolf, who would have been 75... for Giuseppi Verdi, who died on this date in 1901... for Mahalia Jackson, who passed away in 1972... for singer-songwriter Gene McFadden, who died in 2006... and for former Ohio Players lead guitarist Leroy 'Sugarfoot' Bonner, who left us five years ago today.

Also on January 27th: Verdi's opera La battaglia di Legnano premieres at the Teatro Argentina in Rome (1849)... Elvis Presley's single 'Heartbreak Hotel' is released by RCA Records, who have just purchased the singer's contract from Sun Records for $35,000 (1956)... John Coltrane rejoins the Miles Davis group, making the trumpeter's ensemble a sextet... Little Richard enters the Oakwood Theological College in Huntsville, AL, where he will be ordained as a Seventh Day Adventist minister (1958)... Frank Sinatra plays a benefit concert for Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference at Carnegie Hall (1961)... The Beatles appear at the Aintree Institute in Liverpool. The group has played here many times before, but this will be their last performance at the venue. Brian Epstein becomes infuriated when promoter Brian Kelly pays the band's £15 fee with handfuls of loose change. Epstein takes this as an insult to the group, and resolves that The Beatles will never play for Kelly again (1962)... After another day of frustration in Columbia Studio A in NYC, Bob Dylan calls an indefinite halt to work on Blonde on Blonde. Producer Bob Johnston suggests moving the sessions to the CBS studios on Music Row in Nashville. Dylan entrusts Johnston with rounding up the musicians while he and the Hawks go back out on the road (1966)... The Bee Gees make their US live debut at the Civic Center in Anaheim, CA (1968)... David Bowie arrives in the US for the first time; he cannot play live because of unresolved work permit difficulties, but he does generate publicity when he wears a dress to a promotion event in Manhattan (1971)... 'Superstition', the lead single from Stevie Wonder's Talking Book album, gives the singer his second № 1 single in the US, 10 years after his first. Jeff Beck created the original drum beat while in the studio with Wonder. After writing the song, Wonder offered it to Beck to record, but at the insistence of Berry Gordy, Wonder himself recorded it first (1973)... The Clash sign with CBS Records in the UK for £100,000 (1977)... John Lennon's final album, a collaboration with Yoko Ono entitled Milk and Honey, is released... Madonna makes her first appearance in the UK on the Channel 4 music program The Tube performing 'Holiday'. The show is broadcast live from the Hacienda Club in Manchester (1984)... Oasis make their London live debut when they play at the King's Cross club 'Water Rats'. The gig is by invitation only (1994)... James Brown is charged with possession of marijuana and unlawful possession of a firearm after police are called to his South Carolina home. Brown later claims that he is using the cannabis to improve his eyesight (1998).