January 7th

 

Musical birthdays today include Covent Garden orchestral conductor Richard Armstrong (78), Rolling Stone magazine co-founder Jann Wenner (75), Kenny Loggins (73), country singer-songwriter Marshall Chapman (72), film score composer José María Vitier (67), former Go-Go's bassist Kathy Valentine (62), and ex-Pop Will Eat Itself frontman Clint Mansell (58), singer-songwriter Vladimir Ondrasik AKA Five for Fighting (56), trumpeter & pop singer David Longoria (50), and Black Veil Brides guitarist Jeremy 'Jinxx' Ferguson (35). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for composer Francis Poulenc, born on this day in 1899... for jazz trumpeter Red Allen, born in 1906... for country singer Jack Greene, born in 1929... for classical violinist Iona Brown, who would have been 80... for pioneering British blues harmonica player Cyril Davies, who died at the age of 31 today in 1964... for New Orleans R&B singer Larry Williams, who took his own life in 1980 at age 44... for L.A. session drummer John Guerin, who died in 2004... and for Rush drummer Neil Peart, who left us one year ago today. 

Also on January 7th: Marian Anderson makes her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in New York in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, becoming the first black person to perform there as a company member... 'Rock around the Clock' by Bill Haley & His Comets enters the UK charts for the first time (1955)... Black Sabbath release Paranoid, their second studio album in the US. The collection features the band's best-known signature songs, including the title track, 'Iron Man' and 'War Pigs'. The LP was originally titled War Pigs, but the record company allegedly changed it to Paranoid, fearing backlash from supporters of the ongoing Vietnam War (1971)... James Taylor and Carly Simon and James Taylor become parents when their daughter Sarah Maria is born... Aerosmith kick off their 56-date North American 'Get Your Wings' tour with a show at the Michigan Theater in Detroit (1974)... Pink Floyd release the single 'Another Brick in the Wall (part 2) in the US (1980)... R.E.M. play a Greenpeace Benefit show at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA for 500 people. The gig is recorded with a solar powered mobile recording studio (1993)... 'The Beatles Book Monthly' ceases publication after 40 years. Author Sean O'Mahony, who set up the magazine in 1963, says that with only two of the Fab Four left alive, the round number of four decades is a good point to stop (2003).