August 23rd

 

Musical birthdays today include jazz pianist & film score composer [best remembered for the soundtrack to Godard's 'Breathless'] Martial Solal (94), satirist Mark Russell (89), South African jazz singer Letta Mbulu (79), Rick Springfield (72), Survivor frontman Jimi Jamison (70), Bucks Fizz singer Bobby G (68), ex-Orange Juice frontman Edwin Collins (62), Stone Temple Pilots guitarist Dean DeLeo (60), Happy Mondays lead singer Shaun Ryder (59), jazz pianist Brad Mehldau (51), folk singer Eliza Carthy (46), Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas (43) and Lianne La Havas (32). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for singer-songwriter and activist Malvina Reynolds, born on this day in 1900... for song & dance man Gene Kelly, born in 1912... for Keith Moon, who would have been 75 today... and for jazz trumpeter and bandleader Maynard Ferguson, who left us today in 2006. 

Also on August 23: President Harry Truman's daughter Margaret, an aspiring classical singer, presents her first concert before a crowd of 15,000 at the Hollywood Bowl. Reviews are generally negative, prompting a famously scathing letter from dad to Paul Hume, music critic for the Washington Post. Hume will keep the letter framed in his office for the rest of his career (1947)... John Lennon marries Cynthia Powell at the Mount Pleasant registry office in Liverpool. He then plays  gig with the Beatles that night at the Riverpark Ballroom (1962)... The Rolling Stones make their first of 20 appearances on the pop music show Ready, Steady, Go! (1963)... 'She Loves You' enters the British singles charts at no. 1 (1963)... In Jerusalem, Stravinsky's oratorio Abraham and Isaac is performed for the first time. Dedicated to the people of Israel, the Israel Festival Orchestra play under the baton of Robert Kraft (1964)... The Beatles play Shea Stadium for the last time, with some 11,000 seats unsold... At home, the group are atop the British singles charts again with the double A-side Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby. According to Paul, he came up with the name of the latter song after working with actress Eleanor Bron in the film Help!, and from frequent patronage of a wine & spirits shop in Bristol called Rigby & Evens Ltd. (1966)...  In the course of a wild 21st birthday party during the Who's current US tour, Keith Moon drives a Lincoln Continental limousine into the swimming pool of the Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan... Joni Mitchell plays live in the UK for the first time when she opens for folk rockers The Piccadilly Line at the Marquee Club in London (1967)... Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis marries high school sweetheart Deborah Woodruff ~ they are 19 and 18, respectively (1975)... The Heatwave Festival takes place in Toronto, Talking Heads, the B-52s, the Pretenders and Elvis Costello are among those on the bill. Tickets cost $30, and with only 50,000 attending, the event loses over $1 million... David Bowie goes to № 1 on the UK singles chart with 'Ashes to Ashes'. The release of the song was also accompanied by a video costing some £250,000 [a record at the time], but which will be seen only sporadically until the launch of MTV the following year (1980)... Bob Dylan's childhood home at 2425 7th Avenue East in Hibbing, MN is sold to an anonymous buyer (1990)... 'The Bigger They Come', a previously unreleased track by Peter Frampton and Steve Marriott, is heard for the first time on the soundtrack of the Don Johnson vehicle 'Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man' at the film's Los Angeles premiere (1991)... Queen become the first western rock group to receive official approval in Iran since the Khomeini revolution in 1979. Freddy Mercury was of Iranian ancestry, and bootleg CDs and tapes had been available for years (2004).