May 1st

Musical birthdays today include Judy Collins (81), Rita Coolidge (75), ex-Henry Cow sax & winds player Tim Hodgkinson (71), songwriter & producer Glen Ballard (67), Ray Parker, Jr. (66), Will Kimbrough (56), Tim McGraw (53), original Smashing Pumpkins bassist D'arcy Wretzky (52), Lynyrd Skynyrd bassist Johnny Colt (52), original Suede lead guitarist Bernard Butler (50), and ex-Reel Big Fish trombonist Dan Regan (43). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for Kate Smith, born on this day in 1907... for country singer Sonny James, born in 1929...  for blues harmonica virtuoso Marion 'Little Walter' Jacobs, who would have been 90... for jazz singer Shirley Horn, who would have been 86... for Stax session keyboardist Carson Whitsett, who would have been 75... for former April Wine and B.T.O. bassist Jim Clench, who would have been 71... for Les Rita Mitsouko frontman Fred Chichin, who would have been 66... for Link 80 lead singer Nick Traina, who would have been 41... for former Lost Sounds guitarist Jimmy Lindsey Jr. AKA 'Jay Reatard', who would have been 40... for composer Antonin Dvořák, who died on this date in 1904... for Spike Jones, who died in 1965... for composer Aram Katchaturian, who passed away in 1978... and for blues guitarist Charles 'Skip' Pitts, who left us  today in 2012. 

Also on May 1st: Mozart's opera Le Nozze di Figaro has its premiere at the Burgtheater of Vienna (1786)... On her 24th birthday, Kate Smith makes her US national radio debut on CBS (1931)... Herman's Hermits are at № 1 on the Billboard singles chart with 'Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter' (1965)... The Beatles play their last ticketed live show in Britain at the Empire Pool, Wembley (1966)... Elvis marries Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas. The wedding license costs $15, the cake $3,500... The FBI arrests Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys on suspicion of evading the military draft. The singer, whose deferment papers are in fact in order, is released in time to join the rest of the band in Ireland for the beginning of a European tour (1967)... Reprise records release Joni Mitchell's album Clouds... Bob Dylan tapes an appearance for The Johnny Cash Show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. After two solo numbers from Dylan, Johnny Cash joins him for a rendition of 'Girl From The North Country' (1969)... D.C. mayor Walter Washington proclaims a 'Marvin Gaye Day' in the nation's capital (1973)... The Carpenters perform at the White House at the personal invitation of President Richard Nixon (1974)... Led Zeppelin go to № 1 on the US album chart with Presence. The № 1 single in the country is The Bellamy Brothers' 'Let Your Love Flow' (1976)... The Clash kick off their 'White Riot' tour at the Roxy in London, sharing the bill with The Jam and The Buzzcocks (1977)... Mick Fleetwood files for bankruptcy (1984)... The five-bedroom 1902 house where Kurt Cobain was living at the time of his death goes up for sale, for an asking price of $3 million. The carriage house in which the Nirvana guitarist committed suicide was demolished last year (1997)... 'The Paintings of Paul McCartney' exhibit opens at the Lyz Art Forum, Siegen, Germany. The show features 70 canvasses by the former Beatle, including a piece called 'Bowie Spewing', Macca's representation of a young David Bowie (1999)... Coldplay become the first British band since The Beatles to place a single in the US top 10 in the first week of its release, when 'Speed of Sound' debuts in the Billboard Hot 100 at № 8 (2005)... A Minnesota man is accused of impersonating a member of Pink Floyd at a US hospital while racking up as much as $100,000 in unpaid medical bills. Phillip Michael Schaeffer, 53, went for treatment on April 20 and claimed he was Pink Floyd singer-guitarist David Gilmour and that he didn't have health insurance. The man was treated and released three days later from St. Cloud Hospital, but not before signing an autograph for an employee’s son (2013).