September 11th

 

Musical birthdays today include composer Arvo Pärt (87), Lola Falana (80), Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart (80), Leo Kottke (77), former Buckinghams lead singer Dennis Tufano (76), Styx singer/songwriter Tommy Shaw (69), ex-Culture Club drummer Jon Moss (65), Moby (57), Harry Connick, Jr. (55), former Letters to Cleo lead singer Kay Hanley (54), Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft (51), and Coldplay guitarist Jonny Buckland (45). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for English composer William Boyce, born on this date in 1711... for bluesman Robert 'Barbecue Bob' Hicks, born in 1902... for British guitarist John Martyn, who would have been 74 today... for composer Anton Bruckner, who died on this date in 1896... for reggae star Peter Tosh, who was murdered in his home during a robbery in 1987... and for Weather Report keyboardist Joe Zawinul, who left us today in 2007. 

Also on September 11: In a saloon in Pittsburgh, PA, Stephen Foster's song 'Oh! Susannah' is performed for the first time (1847)... Soprano Jenny Lind, who will become known as 'The Swedish Nightingale', arrives in New York under the sponsorship of P.T. Barnum to begin her first American tour (1850)... W.C. Handy publishes 'St. Louis Blues' (1914)... Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun takes over as producer of his label's latest signing, 21-year-old Ray Charles, at Atlantic Studios on W. 56th St. in Manhattan (1952)... With session drummer Andy White replacing Ringo at George Martin's insistence, the Beatles make another attempt at recording their first single, 'Love Me Do', at EMI Studios, Abbey Road. The 45 RPM that is released on the 5th of October will be a version including Ringo, the Andy White take ending up on the 'Please Please Me' album (1962)... 'Help!' is the № 1 US album, the 6th time the Beatles have topped the chart... The Rolling Stones make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show (1965)... Filming for 'The Magical Mystery Tour' begins. The Beatles have no shooting script or storyboards of any kind, nor even any clear idea of what they wish to accomplish. The tour bus sets off for the West Country of England with no particular destination, eventually stopping for the night at Teignmouth, Devon, where the Fab Four are greeted by hundreds of fans (1967)... Donny Osmond has his only American № 1 with 'Go Away, Little Girl'. The song was also a chart-topper for Steve Lawrence in 1963 (1971)... The № 1 single in the US today is KC and the Sunshine Band's '(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty' (1976)... John Cougar Mellencamp becomes the only male artist in American chart history to simultaneously have two singles in the top 10 ['Jack and Diane' and 'Hurts So Good'] and the № 1 album [American Fool] (1982)... Michael Jackson appears at the Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool. Over 3,000 fans were treated by Merseyside EMTs for fainting, hysteria, and minor injuries from the crush of the crowd of some 125,000, the largest audience of the 123-date 'Bad' world tour (1988)... Green Day turn down an invitation to guest star on Sesame Street, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong saying "We couldn't handle a mosh pit full of five-year-olds" (1995)... Walking to his job in lower Manhattan as a comic book illustrator, Gerard Way witnesses the 9/11 attacks on the WTC. The day's events inspire him to start a band, which will become My Chemical Romance. Meanwhile, Sir Paul McCartney, in an airplane awaiting takeoff at JFK, composes the single 'Freedom' after seeing the burning towers in the distance. All profits from the song will go to the Robin Hood Foundation, a charity set up to aid the families of NYC police and firemen... Bob Dylan releases the album Love and Theft (2001)... Leicester University in the UK releases the results of a study showing that more than a quarter of classical music listeners have tried cannabis. Researchers at the institution have been trying to find out what people's musical tastes reveal about their lifestyles. They find that blues buffs are the most likely to have received a traffic ticket, Hip-hop fans are more likely to have had multiple sex partners and are the biggest drug consumers among the 2,500 people surveyed. The study will be published next month in the journal Psychology of Music (2006).