May 13th

Musical birthdays today include harmonica player Richard 'Magic Dick' Salwitz (73), original Fleetwood Mac guitarist & co-lead singer Danny Kirwan (68), Stevie Wonder (68), Roxy Music drummer Paul Thompson (67), ex-Porcupine Tree drummer Chris Maitland (54), Alison Goldfrapp (52), Hootie & the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker (52), rapper Parrish 'PMDE' Smith (50), guitarist & multi-instrumentalist Brian ' Buckethead' Carroll (49), and Maroon Five bassist Mickey Madden (39).

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for composer Arthur Sullivan, born on this day in 1842... for Gil Evans, born in 1912... for country singer Johnnie Wright, born in 1914... for jazz pianist & frequent Miles Davis and John Coltrane sideman Red Garland, born in 1923... for Ritchie Valens, who would have been 77 today... for Mary Wells, who would have been 75... for jazz drummer Alfred 'Tubby' Hall, who died on this date in 1945... for country & western swing singer Bob Wills, who died in 1975... for Chet Baker, who passed away in 1988... for producer & record company executive Eddie Barclay, who died in 2005... and for Booker T & the M.G.'s bassist Donald 'Duck' Dunn, who left us today in 2012.

Also on May 13th: The first commercial FM radio station goes on the air in Bloomfield, CT as WDRC (1939)... 'The Pajama Game' opens on Broadway. It will go on to have a run of 1,063 performances (1954)... The Monkees' second album More Of The Monkees' goes to № 1 on the UK charts. In 1967, only four albums reached № 1 in Britain: The Sound Of Music soundtrack, which spends 17 weeks at the top; Sgt Pepper, 25 weeks; and The Monkees first and second albums, which spend a total of 10 weeks at № 1... The Supremes score their 10th US № 1 single with 'The Happening'; it reaches № 6 in the UK. It is the group's last single to be released under the name of The Supremes; henceforth they will be known as Diana Ross and the Supremes (1967)... John Lennon and Paul McCartney arrive in NYC for a press junket to help launch Apple Corps in the US (1968)... Led Zeppelin become the first British rock group to appear in Hawaii, when they play the Civic Auditorium in Honolulu. A review in the Honolulu Advertiser states 'The showmanship exceeded any rock performance here to date. I wondered before the concert if Led Zeppelin could sound as good as their Atlantic album – they sounded better' (1969)... The Beatles final original release of any kind takes place with the world premiere of the film 'Let It Be' in New York (1970)... Grace Slick crashes her Mercedes into a wall near the Golden Gate Bridge and is hospitalised (1971)... Boney M top the UK singles chart with 'By the Rivers of Babylon' (1978)... Warner Bros. Records release Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms (1984)... Bruce Springsteen marries Julianne Phillips in Lake Oswego, OR (1985)...  Oasis become the fastest selling group in UK history after all 330,000 tickets for their summer shows sell out in just nine hours. The tickets for shows at Knebworth and Loch Lomand were priced at £22.50 (1996)... Dionne Warwick is arrested at Miami International Airport for possession of marijuana after authorities find 11 joints in a lipstick case in the singer's hand luggage. The charges are dropped after Warwick completes a drug program and makes a contribution in an undisclosed amount to charity (2002)... Brian May is placed under 24-hour security watch after a deranged man announced he was setting off to murder him, and then disappeared. Police are hunting for a schizophrenic who left a letter behind at his home blaming the Queen guitarist for his illness. In it the man said May was an 'impostor', and that he was the real rock star. He signed the letter 'Brian May' (2007)... The US Postal Service issued a 42-cent postage stamp in honour of Frank Sinatra. The design shows a '50s-vintage image of Sinatra, wearing a fedora (2008)... Like A Rolling Stone has been voted as Bob Dylan’s best-ever song by Rolling Stone Magazine, who asked the opinions of a panel of writers, academics and musicians to compile a poll to mark Dylan's 70th birthday on 24th May. 'Like A Rolling Stone' was described by U2's Bono as 'a black eye of a pop song', while Mick Jagger praised the simplicity of Desolation Row. Keith Richards argued that the original 1963 solo version of Girl from The North Country, ranked 30th, was superior to Dylan's 1969 duet of the same song with Johnny Cash (2011).