May 21st

Musical birthdays today include British folksinger Martin Carthy (78), Ronald Isley (78), original Animals guitarist Hilton Valentine (77), session guitarist Bill Champlin (72), Leo Sayer (71), guitarist Marc Ribot (65), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch (64), My Bloody Valentine frontman Kevin Shields (56), Forgetters frontman Blake Schwarzenbach (52), Mob Deep rapper Kejuan 'Havoc' Muchita (45), CKY frontman Deron Miller (43), ex-Three Days Grace frontman Adam Gontier (43), Suburban Legends guitarist Brian Klemm (37), former Sugababes vocalist Mutya Buena (34), and Honor Society drummer Alexander Noyes (33). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for radio bandleader Horace Heidt, born on this day in 1901... for Fats Waller, born in 1904... for jazz bassist Tommy Bryant, who would have been 89 today... for Atomic Rooster organist Vincent Crane, who would have been 76... for Chris 'The Notorious B.I.G.' Wallace, who would have been 47... for Russian pianist and popular singer Alexander Vertinsky, who died on this date in 1957... for big band singer Vaughn Monroe, who died in 1973... for studio musician & producer Paul Delph, who passed away in 1996... and for former Uriah Heep bassist Trevor Bolder, jazz trombonist Frank Comstock, and TV & film score composer Bob Thompson, all of whom left us five years ago today. 

Also on May 21st: The Mendelssohn Glee Club, the oldest surviving independent musical group in the United States after the New York Philharmonic, is founded in NYC (1876)... The Castiles, with Bruce Springsteen on vocals, appear at Freehold Regional High School in New Jersey. They are performing at their own school for the first time ~ all five members of the band are juniors at Freehold HS (1966)... Jimi Hendrix signs with Warner Brothers' Reprise Records, the label on which the three Experience albums will be released (1967)... Atlantic Records release the CSN&Y single 'Ohio', Neil Young's reaction to the Kent State shootings on the 4th of this month (1970)... Motown records release Marvin Gaye's album What's Going on (1971)... Two would-be concert promoters are arrested by police in Dover, DE on fraud charges in connection with selling mail order tickets for a forthcoming 'Elten John' show. The alternative spelling of the singer's stage name proves to be the giveaway as police take away over $12,000 in cheques (1974)... Stevie Wonder hits № 1 in the US with the single 'Sir Duke' (1977)... In Moscow, Elton John plays the opening date of a 10-show campaign in the USSR, making him the first western pop star to headline a solo tour in the Evil Empire (1979)... Joe Strummer is arrested at a particularly tempestuous Clash gig in Hamburg, Germany after smashing his guitar over the head of a member of the audience; he is released after an alcohol & drug test prove negative (1980)... David Bowie goes to № 1 on the US & UK singles chart with 'Let's Dance', featuring Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar. It is Bowie's first single to reach number one on both sides of the Atlantic (1983)... Mariah Carey hits back at Eminem's threats to sample the mushy voicemail messages she left on his mobile. Carey described the rapper as 'a little girl', saying it's "like dealing with a girlfriend in 7th grade, and he shouldn't do it because it'll get him in a bit of trouble with my lawyers" (2003)... Lou Pearlman, the impresario who created the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, is sentenced to 25 years in federal prison on charges involving a decades-long scam that swindled thousands of investors out of their life savings. Many victims were Pearlman's relatives, friends, and retirees who lost everything (2008)... Bono has emergency spinal surgery after suffering an injury whilst preparing for upcoming tour dates. The 50-year-old singer is treated at a specialist neurosurgery clinic in Munich and is expected to stay there for a number of days (2010)... Bob Dylan comes out on top as both the most inspirational individual for poets and the dream collaborative partner in a survey carried out by The Foyle Poetry Society. The extensive survey questioned poets asking which musician and which genre of music most inspired their writing. The young people, aged between 11 and 17 and from countries throughout the world, also voted for Regina Spektor, David Bowie, Florence and the Machine, Leonard Cohen, Morrissey and Pete Doherty (2011).