March 18th

Musical birthdays today include musical theatre composer John Kander [best known for Cabaret and Chicago] (96), former Doobie Brothers drummer John Hartman (73), session guitarist Bernie Tormé (71), Irene Cara (64), ex-Hüsker Dü drummer Grant Hart (62), singer-songwriter James McMurtry (61), Alice in Chains lead guitarist Jerry Cantrell (57), ex-Lush guitarist Miki Berenyi (56), Dana Owens AKA Queen Latifah (53), Evan and Jaron Lowenstein (49), original Jamiroquai bassist Stuart Zender (49), Sutton Foster (48), ex-LFO vocalist Devin Lima (46), Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine (44), Trevor Powers AKA Youth Lagoon (34), and multi-instrumentalist and composer Dylan Mattingly (32). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, born on this day in 1844... for country singer-songwriter Lester 'Smiley' Burnette', born in 1911... for jazz trumpeter Pat Halcox, born in 1930... for Wilson Pickett, who would have been 81... for Alan Parsons Project founder Eric Woolfson, who would have been 78... for Procol Harum drummer B.J. Wilson, who would have been 76... for The Mamas and the Papas co-founder John Phillips, who died in 2001... and for Chuck Berry, who left us five years ago today. 

Also on March 18th... Arnold Schoenberg's string sextet Verklärte Nacht, considered one of the most influential pieces in  early 20th century orchestral music, premieres in Vienna... In a Milan hotel room, Enrico Caruso makes the first surviving recording of classical opera. He sings 109 arias for The Grammophone Company and is paid $5000 (1902)... 
In NYC, the Met performs its first opera by an American composer, The Pipe of Desire by Frank Shepherd Converse (1910)... Frank Sinatra makes his first studio recording, a demo of the song 'Our Love' with The Frank Mane Band (1939)... At A&R Studios in NYC, Stan Getz, João Gilberto and collaborators hold the first of two days of sessions that will become the Getz/Gilberto album, the success of which is credited with launching the international popularity of the bossa nova style (1965)... The UK music magazine New Musical Express announces that former Spencer Davis Group lead vocalist Steve Winwood is planning to form a new group with Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason. [The ensemble  choose the name Traffic]... The Beatles score their 13th US № 1 single with the double A-side 'Penny Lane'/'Strawberry Fields Forever' (1967)... Neil Young hits № 1 in America with 'Heart of Gold', his only stateside Top 20 as a solo performer to date. Meanwhile, Paul Simon's eponymous debut solo effort is at the top of the album chart... T-Rex play the first of two sold-out shows at Wembley's Empire Pool. Ringo Starr films the gig for the Apple documentary 'Born to Boogie' (1972)... The Clash release their first UK single, 'White Riot' (1977)... The Bee Gees have the top 3 entries on the US singles chart, with 'Night Fever' at № 1, '(Love is) Thicker Than Water', written by brother Andy at № 2, and 'Emotion' by Samantha Song written and produced by The Bee Gees at № 3 (1978)... After having produced the sessions for his Empire Burlesque album himself, Bob Dylan makes what is to many the surprising announcement that he has asked hip hop producer Arthur Baker to do the final mix (1985)...  A radio station in Fresno, CA announces that it has arranged to have all of its Cat Stevens records destroyed by having a steamroller run over them;  the former singer, now a convert to Islam, recently made remarks in an appearance at a British university that were widely interpreted as supportive of the Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie (1989)...
After attending an in-store promo appearance at Dublin's Virgin Megastore, the four members of U2 are fined £500 each after being found guilty of selling condoms in the establishment illegally (1991)... At the 100 Club in London, the Sex Pistols announce that they are reuniting nearly 20 years after their split (1996)... The remains of the Notorious B.I.G. are laid to rest in Inglewood, NJ (1997)... During a promotional appearance by British boy band A1 in a record store in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta,  four girls are killed and two others seriously injured when the crowd breaks into a stampede (2001)... Eddie Vedder inducts The Ramones into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame (2002)... Courtney Love exposes her breasts during an appearance on David Letterman's TV talk show. The singer, who has her back to the audience, flashes the host while singing the song Danny Boy. After the taping, she goes on to perform a surprise gig at the Plaid nightclub in Manhattan, where she is alleged to have injured a spectator by throwing a microphone stand into the crowd. Ms. Love is charged with assault and reckless endangerment (2004)... Organisers of an attempt to reunite 19 people who watched The Beatles play in a town hall in 1963 receive claims from 24 people who said they were there. Billy Shanks is helping to lead the search for the audience members of the gig in Dingwall, Ross-shire, Scotland 48 years earlier. He said that some who turned up thought the music was rubbish and left to join an audience of 1,200 watching a local band in nearby Strathpeffer (2011)... David Bowie's first album in a decade becomes the fastest seller of the year, hitting the No.1 spot in the UK in its first week of release. The Next Day is the 66-year-old's first № 1 since 1993's Black Tie White Noise, and has sold 94,000 copies in the first week (2013).