May 27th

Musical birthdays today include composer & academic Thea Musgrave (91), jazz pianist Ramsay Lewis (84), country singer Don Williams (80), Cilla Black (76), Bruce Cockburn (74), pop singer & former New Seekers vocalist Marty Kristian (72), ex-Jefferson Starship bassist Pete Sears (71), Dee Dee Bridgewater (69), Siouxsie Sioux [neé Susan Ballion] (62), Crowded House frontman Neil Finn (61), Black Crowes keyboardist Eddie Harsch (52), The LOX rapper Jason 'Jadakiss' Phillips (44), OutKast rapper André Benjamin AKA André 3000 (44), and Australian singer-songwriter Michael de Grussa (37). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for Julia Ward Howe, author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, born on this day in 1819... for Chilean popular singer Ester Soré, born in 1917... for rapper & former TLC vocalist Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, who would have been 47 today... for violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, who died on this date in 1840... for musical educator W. Otto Meissner [organiser of the first American public high school band in Connersville, IN in 1906], who died in 1967... for Appalachian fiddler Uncle Charlie Osborne, who passed away in 1992... and for Gil Scott-Heron, who left us today in 2012. 

Also on May 27th: Buddy Holly & the Crickets release their debut single 'That'll Be the Day'... Toronto's CHUM-AM 1050 becomes Canada's first radio station to broadcast in an all pop & rock format (1957)... Bob Dylan's breakthrough second  album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is released... Harold Vick records Steppin' out, his first and only album for Blue Note as a leader (1963)... Eleven boys are suspended from a grammar school in Coventry, England for refusing to cut their hair, in emulation of The Rolling Stones (1964)... To celebrate Cilla Black's birthday, her manager Brian Epstein organises illuminated greetings at London's Piccadilly Circus and at sites in Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham (1967)... Declan McManus plays his first live London gig as Elvis Costello... The Sex Pistols single 'God Save The Queen' is released in the UK. Banned by TV and radio, high street shops and pressing plant workers refuse to handle the record. It still manages to sell 200,000 copies in one week and peaks at № 2 on the UK charts behind Rod Stewart's 'I Don't Want to Talk About It'. There have been persistent rumours ~ never confirmed or denied ~ that it was actually the biggest-selling single in the UK at the time, and that the British Phonographic Industry conspired to keep it out of the top spot (1977)... In Tel Aviv, Leonard Bernstein's Halil for Flute & Orchestra is performed for the first time, with the composer conducting and Jean-Pierre Rampal as principal flautist (1981)... The Smiths are at № 1 on the UK independent chart with their debut single 'Hand In Glove.' The band recorded the track after their manager Joe Moss paid £250 for a one-day recording session at Strawberry Studios in Stockport (1983)... Cliff Richard releases his 100th single, 'The Best of Me' (1988)... The Stone Roses play at Spike Island, Widnes, Cheshire to a capacity crowd of 30,000. The event, considered a failure at the time due to sound problems and bad organisation, has become legendary in the UK over the years as a 'Woodstock for the baggy generation' (1990)... The Eagles played their first concert in fourteen years when they do a reunion show in Burbank, CA. The two-and-a-half-hour gig ends with two encores, closing with 'Desperado' (1994)... Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya and Pink go to № 1 on the US singles chart with their remake of 'Lady Marmalade.' A hit for LaBelle in 1975, this version is taken from the Baz Luhrmann film 'Moulin Rouge!' (2001)... Robbie Williams comes first in a poll asking British music fans to name the greatest live solo artist in pop & rock history, beating out Elvis, Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie in the process. A UK nation-wide survey of 25,000 people saw the former Take That star coming in ahead of Madonna, Michael Jackson and Bob Dylan as well (2005)... The advertising firm of Saatchi & Saatchi are fired by Dr Martens for running an advertising campaign featuring dead rock stars such as Kurt Cobain and Sid Vicious wearing the brand's boots in heaven. David Suddens, the chief executive of Dr Martens parent company Airwear, says that the brand had not commissioned the series of four print ads, stating "Dr Martens are very sorry for any offence that has been caused by the publication of images showing dead rock icons wearing Dr Martens boots" (2007)... Sir Paul McCartney is awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music by Yale University (2008)... The NME publishes an article reporting that  many musicians are annoyed by fans filming gigs on their smartphones. Jack White and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are both now putting up signs at their concerts asking people to leave their mobiles in their pockets (2013).