November 27th

Musical birthdays today include operatic tenor Neil Rosenshein (70), Genesis guitarist Daryl Stuermer (65), Aquarium frontman Boris Grebenshchikov (64), classical and jazz violinist Victoria Mullova (58), Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin (55), Napalm Death bassist Shane Embury (50), Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy (48), Divine Heresy drummer Tim Yeung (39), and classical violinist Hilary Hahn (38). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for former Booker T. & the MGs drummer Al Jackson, Jr., who would have been 83 today...  for country singer Eddie Rabbitt, who would have been 77... for Jimi Hendrix, who would have been 76... for composer Arthur Honegger, who died on this date in 1955... for stage singer Lotte Lenya, who passed away in 1981... for soul singer Barbara Acklin, who died in 1998... and for pioneering rock guitarist Mickey Baker, who left us today in 2012. 

Also on November 27: Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra is performed for the first time in Munich (1896)... Mick Jagger is fined £16 for speeding in Tettenhall, Staffs. His solicitor tells the court: "The Duke of Marlborough had longer hair than my client and he won some famous battles. His hair was powdered, I think because of fleas. My client has no fleas" (1964)... The Grateful Dead are among the bands providing the musical entertainment as Ken Kesey and his Band of Merry Pranksters hold the first Electric Kool-Aod Acid Test in San Francisco (1965)... The Beatles release the Magical Mystery Tour album in the US (1967)... The Rolling Stones kick off their latest North American tour by opening a 3-night stand at Madison Square Garden in NYC. The concert, which is recorded, will become the Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! album (1969)... George Harrison releases All Things Must Pass. The triple album, which includes a number of songs that were left over from Beatle sessions, the set will go on to be certified 6x Platinum by the RIAA, making it the best selling album by a solo Beatle (1970)... The British Phonographic industry place advertisements in the national press claiming that 'home taping is wiping out music'. The Boomtown Rats, 10cc, Elton John and Cliff Richard are all backing the campaign (1981)... Freddie Mercury's funeral service is conducted by a Zoroastrian priest for 35 of his close friends and family, with Elton John and the remaining members of Queen among those in attendance. Mercury is then cremated at Kensal Green Cemetery, West London (1991)... A disturbed INXS fan brings the funeral of Michael Hutchence to a standstill when he tries to launch himself from a 20 ft high balcony with a cord around his neck. He is subdued by police and taken away to a psychiatric unit (1997)... Multimillionaire defence contractor David H. Brooks books NYC's Rainbow Rooms and his daughter Elizabeth’s favourite acts for her bat mitzvah. Stars who appear included 50 Cent, Tom Petty, Aerosmith, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Stevie Nicks. 50 Cent, who was paid $500,000 to appear, performs only four songs but does manage to work in the lyric 'Go shorty, it's your bat miztvah, we gonna party like it's your bat mitzvah'. The evening costs an estimated $10 million, including the price of corporate jets to ferry the performers to and from the venue (2005).