November 7th

 

Musical birthdays today include operatic soprano Dame Gwyneth Jones (85), rocker Johnny Rivers (79), Joni Mitchell (78), John 'Jellybean' Benitez (64), Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer (61), former Salt-N-Pepa rapper Sandra Denton (57), Hothouse Flowers keyboardist Liam Ó Maonlai (57), Texas lead singer Sharleen Spiteri (54), classical pianist Hélène Grimaud (52), Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck (50), Hellogoodbye lead singer Forrest Kline (38), Pussy Riot performance artist Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (32), and Ella Yelich-O'Connor AKA Lorde (25). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for trumpeter Al Hirt, born on this day in 1922... for operatic soprano Dame Joan Sutherland, born in 1926... for soul singer Dee Clark, who would have been 83... for country singer-songwriter Stephen Bruton, who would have been 71... and for R&B singer Carter Cornelius, who left us today in 1991. 

Also on November 7:  The Stoughton Musical Society, the oldest choral society in the US, is founded in the Massachusetts town of the same name (1786)... Frank Sinatra marries his second wife, actress Ava Gardner. The couple will separate in 1953 and divorce in 1957 (1951)... Eddie Cochran enters the Top 40 in the US and Britain with 'Summertime Blues', his first hit (1958)... The Beatles travel to Ireland and make their only appearances ever in the country, playing two shows at the Adelphi Cinema in Dublin. The group also meet up with screenwriter Alun Owen, who has been appointed to write the screenplay for The Beatles' first (as yet untitled) motion picture. Owen will spend three days with The Beatles observing their hectic lifestyle (1963)... Reginald Dwight (AKA Elton John) and his song writing partner Bernie Taupin sign with DJM Music Publishers Their signatures have to be witnessed by their parents because they are both under 21 years of age. Taupin answered an advertisement for a lyric writer placed in the New Musical Express ~ the pair have since collaborated on over 30 albums (1967)... The Rolling Stones kick off their sixth North American tour at the University of Northern Colorado at Fort Collins, CO. Also on the bill are Ike and Tina Turner, Chuck Berry and BB King (1969)... MCA Records president Mike Curb announces that the label is dropping 18 acts who purportedly 'exploit and promote hard drugs through music', including such notorious characters as The Cowsills and Connie Francis (1970)... Atlantic Records release Bette Midler's debut album The Divine Miss M (1972)... Billy Joel releases Piano Man, his first album on Columbia (1973)... Ted Nugent wins the US National Squirrel Shooting Contest, reportedly skewering one of the rodents at 150 yards according to an article in Rolling Stone (1974)... Hall and Oates are at № 1 on the US singles chart with 'Private Eyes' (1981)... John Fogerty is victorious in the case brought against him by Fantasy Records, the owners of the rights to the songs that he wrote while the leader of Creedence Clearwater Revival. The label alleged that Fogerty plagiarised his own 'Run through the Jungle' for his 1985 hit 'The Old Man down the Road'... WB  Records release R.E.M.'s major label debut album Green (1988)... Guitarist Izzy Stradlin quits Guns N’ Roses and is replaced by Gilby Clarke. Stradlin cites as his reasons a combination of Axl Rose's personal behaviour and the difficulties of being around Slash, Matt Sorum and Duff McKagan owing to his new-found sobriety (1991)... Pink Floyd's David Gilmour is invested with the MBE by Queen Elizabeth II (2003)... Eminem hits № 1 on the UK singles chart with 'Just Lose It' (2004).