March 16th

Musical birthdays today include operatic soprano Christa Ludwig (91), former Jordanaires vocalist Ray Walker (85), free jazz guitarist Keith Rowe (79), Jerry Jeff Walker (72), Kazakh accordionist & composer Ramzan Paskayev (72), Asleep at the Wheel frontman Ray Benson (68), Nancy Wilson (65), William Drayton, Jr. AKA Flavor Flav (60), Dokken drummer Jimmy DeGrasso (56), Scooter frontman H.P. Baxxter (55), Tracy Bonham (52), Mountain Goats lead singer John Darnielle (52), R&B and soul singer Tiffany Cobb AKA Blue Cantrell (43), and Wolfgang Van Halen (28). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for New Orleans Rhythm Kings clarinetist Leon Roppolo, born on this day in 1902... for jazz trumpeter Reuben 'Ruby' Braff, born in 1928... for jazz pianist Tommy Flanagan, who would have been 89... for singer-songwriter Fred Neil [best remembered for 'Everybody's Talkin'], who would have been 83... for Tammi Terrell, who died of a malignant brain tumour on this day in 1970 at the age of 24... for T-Bone Walker, who died in 1975... for former Bonham lead singer Daniel McMaster, who passed away in 2008... and for former Spinners vocalist Bobby Smith, who left us today in 2013.

Also on March 16th: Handel's oratorio Theodora premieres at Covent Garden (1750)... The NY Philharmonic are the first orchestra to play Anton Bruckner's 4th Symphony (1888)... At Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack, NJ, Miles Davis records the final tracks on what will become the album Collectors' Items (1956)... The Platters are at № 1 in both Britain and America with 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes' (1959)... 
The Beatles set a new record for advance sales in the US with 2.1 million copies of their latest single 'Can't Buy Me Love' (1964)... The Rolling Stones have their first UK № 1 with a song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards when 'The Last Time' tops the chart (1965)... The Beatles finish shooting the 'ski lift' segment of Help! in Innsbruck, Austria (1966)... 
 Fleetwood Mac, The Move, Amen Corner, Peter Sarstedt, The Tymes, Harmony Grass and Geno Washington all appear at 'Pop World 69' at London's Wembley Empire Pool (1969)... Simon and Garfunkel win both Song and Album of the Year at the Grammys, for Bridge over Troubled Water (1971)... John Lennon is served with a deportation order by the US Immigration & Naturalization Service, and immediately lodges an appeal with the New York office (1972)... Elvis plays live in Memphis for the first time since 1961 when he kicks off a four-night residency at the Mid-South Coliseum (1974)... After being with the label for just six days, The Sex Pistols are fired from A&M due to pressure from the company's other artists and its Los Angeles head office. 25,000 copies of 'God Save The Queen' were pressed and the band made £75,000 ($127,500) from the deal... Pink Floyd play the first of 5 sold-out nights at the Empire Pool, Wembley, performing their new album Animals in its entirety (1977)... The Who release Face Dances, their first album since the death of Keith Moon (1981)... MTV America launches a contest to give away Jon Bon Jovi's childhood home in Perth Amboy, NJ (1989)...  Seven members of country singer Reba McEntire's band and her road manager are among 10 people who are killed when their private jet crashes in California just north of the Mexican border. McEntire, who had given a private concert in San Diego for IBM employees the night before, was not on the plane (1991)... In Buenos Aires, The Ramones play what they say will be their final live show (1996)... The Hollies are inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame along with Genesis and ABBA... A previously unknown Led Zeppelin recording from the group's 1971 gig at  St Matthew's Baths Hall in Ipswich is unearthed at a rummage sale. The bootleg copy of the audio from the group's gig on November 16th 1971 was picked up for just "two or three pounds" by music fan Vic Kemp. "I was going through a stand of CDs at the car boot at Portman Road and the guy who was selling them said, 'You might be interested in this,'" Kemp told the Evening Star. "It must have been recorded by someone standing at the front with a microphone. You can hear Robert Plant talking to the audience quite clearly" (2010).