September 14th

 

Musical birthdays today include saxophonist Oliver Lake (78), operatic tenor Maryn Hill (76), Nazareth bassist Pete Agnew (74), Strawberry Alarm Clock founding member and guitarist Ed King (71), producer Steve Berlin (65), country singer John Berry (61), A-Ha lead singer Morten Harket (61), ex-La's bassist John Power (53), former Everclear bassist Craig Montoya (50), rapper Nas [né Nasir Jones] (47), ex-Pussycat Dolls singer Ashley Roberts (39), and Big Time Rush vocalist Logan Henderson (31). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for operatic soprano and philanthropist Alice Tully, born on this day in 1902... for cabaret singer Eric Bentley, born in 1916... for Captain Beefheart sideman Alex St. Clair, who would have been 79 today... for Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Steve Gaines, who would have been 71... for Free lead guitarist Paul Kossoff, who would have been 70... for avant-garde cellist Tom Cora, who would have been 67... for Amy Winehouse, who would have been 37... and for blues great Furry Lewis, who left us today in 1981. 

Also on September 14: Handel completes the Messiah after 23 days of nearly round the clock work (1741)... In the early morning hours on board a British frigate in Baltimore harbor, Francis Scott Key writes the poem that will become the lyrics to The Star Spangled Banner (1814)... Little Richard enters a New Orleans studio to begin two days of recording. Things are going badly when the singer and producer Bumps Blackwell go to a bar & grill across the street for lunch. Little Richard spots an upright piano in the corner and improvises what will become 'Tutti Frutti' on the spot. The song takes 15 minutes to record when work resumes (1955)... The filming of The Magical Mystery Tour continues. The Beatles' attempts to find quiet, secluded fields in which to shoot are repeatedly frustrated by hordes of pursuing fans who track them down (1967)... Roy Orbison's house in Nashville burns down. The two elder sons of the singer, who is currently on tour in the UK, die in the blaze (1968)... The first episode of the adventure of the musical comic strip band The Archies airs on US TV (1968)... The № 1 single in the US today is Eric Clapton's cover of 'I Shot the Sheriff' (1974)... In Egypt, The Grateful Dead play a concert at the foot of the Great Pyramid (1978)... The Rolling Stones play an incognito pre-tour warm-up show at Sir Morgan's Cove Club in Worcester, MA. They are billed as Little Boy Blue & the Cockroaches, but their identity is leaked by a local radio station, and a riot breaks out outside the club as 4,000 fans try to get into the 350-seat venue. Police make a dozen arrests (1981)... The first MTV Video Music Awards are held, with Bette Midler and Dan Aykroyd handling MC duties. David Bowie wins Video of the Year for China Girl (1984)... In an interview with Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan describes his new album Under the Red Sky as "...intentionally both long and short, so you can draw all kinds of conclusions" (1990)... Steve Earle is sentenced to 1 year in prison for possession of crack... Counting Crows release August and Everything after, which will become one of the biggest selling albums of the '90s (1994)... Paul McCartney's original handwritten first draft of the lyrics to 'Getting Better' sells for £161,000 at auction at Sotheby's of London (1995)... A crowd of over 2,000 gather to watch Pete Townshend unveil an English Heritage Blue Plaque at 23 Brook Street, Mayfair, London, to mark the townhouse where Jimi Hendrix lived in 1968-69 (1997)... HMV stores in Canada remove all Bob Dylan CDs from their shelves in protest at the singer's signing of a deal with Starbucks to make the coffee giant the exclusive sellers of his latest release (2005)... The Grateful Dead's original tour bus, newly refurbished, goes on display in an auto museum in the town of Volo, Illinois. The 1965 Gillig bus, dubbed 'Sugar Magnolia' by Jerry Garcia, was used by the band on their frequent cross-country tours between 1967 and 1985 (2005)... Whitney Houston files for divorce from Bobby Brown after 14 years of marriage (2006).