June 9th

Musical birthdays today include Cox Family patriarch & fiddler Willard Cox (84), jazz pianist Kenny Barron (78), film score composer James Newton Howard (70), ex-UFO lead guitarist Paul Chapman (67), singer-songwriter Slaid Cleaves (57), operatic soprano Erika Miklósa (50), former Yummy Fur frontman Jackie McKeown (50), Muse frontman Matthew Bellamy (43), Afrobeat singer D'banj [né Dapo Oyebanjo] (41), and Anoushka Shankar (40). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for composer John Howard Payne [best remembered for 'Home Sweet Home'], born on this day in 1791... for Cole Porter, born in 1891... for bluesman Skip James, born in 1902... for Les Paul, born in 1915... for blues bassist & Muddy Waters sideman Calvin 'Fuzz' Jones, born in 1926... for R&B singer Johnny Ace, born in 1929...  for French popular singer Barbara [née Monique Serf], born in 1930.. for pioneering soul singer Jackie Wilson, who would have been 87... for former Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord, who would have been 80... for ex-Uriah Heep bassist Trevor Bolder, who would have been 70... for classical pianist Claudio Arrau, who died on this date in 1991... and for funk & soul singer Darondo [né William Pulliam], who left us five years ago today. 

Also on June 9th: Accompanied by his father Leopold and his sister Nannerl, 7-year-old Wolfgang Mozart leaves Salzburg for his first European concert tour (1763)...  At a private concert in Paris, Debussy and Stravinsky perform a four-hand piano version of the latter's score for The Rite of Spring,  which will premiere with great controversy in a year's time in its full orchestrated version (1912)... Jelly Roll Morton records 'Jelly Roll Blues' in Richmond, Indiana (1924)... On the last night of their tour with Roy Orbison, The Beatles perform at King George's Hall, Blackburn, Lancashire. It is at this show that the group's fans first start throwing jelly babies at them while they are on stage, after George Harrison's off-the-cuff remark on television that the band enjoy eating them (1963)... At Columbia Studio A in NYC, Bob Dylan records 14 tracks in one night, including the first version of Mr. Tambourine Man and the entirety of the Another Side of Bob Dylan album (1964)... Bob Dylan receives an honorary doctorate of music from Princeton University. Dylan will commemorate the event in the song 'Day of the Locusts (1970)... Elvis makes entertainment history by performing the first of four sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden. George Harrison, John Lennon, David Bowie, Bob Dylan and Art Garfunkel are in the audience. The performances are also being recorded for a live album... Bruce Springsteen signs his first contract with Columbia Records (1972)... Rick Wakeman announces that he is leaving Yes (1974)... The Rolling Stones release Some Girls, their first studio album with Ron Wood as a full member. The album cover was designed by Peter Corriston and features The Rolling Stones in garish drag alongside select female celebrities and lingerie ads. The cover immediately runs into trouble when Lucille Ball, Farrah Fawcett, Liza Minnelli [representing her mother Judy Garland], Raquel Welch, and the estate of Marilyn Monroe threaten legal action (1978)... Cyndi Lauper is at № 1 on the Billboard singles chart with 'Time after Time' (1984)... MC Hammer's second major-label release Please Hammer Don't Hurt' 'em goes to the top of the US album chart, where it will stay for 21 weeks, a longevity record since the establishment of the rankings (1990)... Buckingham Palace announces that Mick Jagger is to be given a knighthood for services to music (2002)... The 10-day Belgian music festival 'Lokerse Feesten', which prides itself on its horse-meat sausages, announces that it will be going meat-free on the day that vegetarian singer Morrissey appears. Organisers will order stalls to sell vegetarian food only on the 4th of August, the day the former Smiths lead singer is due to perform. In 2009, Morrissey left the stage at California's Coachella festival, saying he could "smell burning flesh". The booking "means a welcomed catering challenge for one day", the spokesman adds (2011).