September 26th

 

Musical birthdays today include R&B singer and keyboardist Georgie Fame (79), Brian Ferry (77), country singer Lynn Anderson (, ex-10cc drummer Stuart Tosh (71), ex-Jefferson Starship guitarist Craig Chaquico (68), Carlene Carter (67), former Everything But the Girl lead singer Tracey Thorn (60), heavy metal guitarist Al Pitrelli (60), Boyz II Men vocalist Shawn Stockman (50), Good Charlotte drummer Dean Butterworth (45), and British composer & clarinet virtuoso Mark Simpson (34). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for George Gershwin, born on this day in 1898... for country singer Marty Robbins, born in 1925... for cabaret singer Julie London, born in 1926... for Olivia Newton-John, who would have been 74... for punk rocker Darby Crash [né Jan Beahm], who would have been 63... for former Blind Melon frontman Shannon Hoon, who would have been 55... for Bessie Smith, who died in an road accident on this date in 1937 at the age of 43... and for Robert Palmer, who left us today in 2003. 

Also on September 26: Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor premieres at La Scala (1835)... West Side Story premieres on Broadway (1957)... The Greenbriar Boys begin  2 week residency at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village. Their opening act, Bob Dylan, receives a rave review from New York Times music critic Robert Shelton ~ the piece will be instrumental in bringing the virtually unknown Dylan to prominence on the Village scene (1961)... Buckingham palace announces that The Beatles are to receive the OBE (1965)... Pink Floyd play their first live show in the US, at the Fillmore West in San Francisco (1967)... The Beatles release Abbey Road (1969)... John Lennon begins the recording sessions for what will become the Plastic Ono Band album (1970)... Paul McCartney, wife Linda and Denny Laine return to London from Nigeria, where they recorded Band on the Run (1973)...  The Clash release their first American single, their version of 'I Fought the Law' ~ it fails to chart (1979)... The Go-Gos have the № 1 album in the US today with Beauty and the Beat (1981)... Michael Jackson's Bad tops the American album chart. It will eventually yield five Stateside № 1 singles, the first album ever to do so (1987)... Paul McCartney kicks off his first major tour in 10 years in Drammen, Norway. The world tour that follows will also include the former Beatle's first US dates since 1976 (1989)... The initial 300,000 unit shipment of Elton John's 'Candle in the Wind 1997' single to Japan sells out within 90 minutes of its delivery to shops throughout the country (1997)... MTV Russia launches at midnight with a broadcast of 'Prodigy Live in Moscow', which was taped the previous year (1998)... Green Day's American Idiot is the № 1 album on both sides of the Atlantic (2004).