August 16th

 

Musical birthdays today include outlaw country singer Billy Joe Shaver (85), Golden Earring frontman Barry Hay (76), Stooges drummer Scott 'Rock Action' Asheton (74), Tubes founding member Bill Spooner (74), INXS guitarist Tim Farriss (66), Madonna (65), The Chicks multi-instrumentalist Emily Strayer (51), and singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton (43).

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for Nadia Boulanger, the first woman to conduct a major metropolitan orchestra [the Boston Symphony], born on this date in 1887... for jazz pianist Bill Evans, born in 1930... for Soft Machine guitarist Kevin Ayers, who would have been 79... for bluesman Robert Johnson, who died today in 1938 at the age of 28... for Elvis Presley, who died in 1977... and for Alan Caddy, lead guitarist of The Tornadoes [their 1962 hit 'Telstar' was the first single by a British act to hit the top 5 on the US Billboard chart], who passed away today in 2000... and for Aretha Franklin, who left us three years ago today.

Also on August 16: Beethoven completes his Piano sonata in e minor, op. 90 (1814)... At the Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, NJ, John Coltrane and sideman record the tracks that the Prestige label will release as the album Lush Life after the saxophonist's departure for Atlantic in 1961 (1957)...  12-year-old Little Stevie Wonder releases his first Motown single, entitled 'I Call It Pretty Music (But the Old People Call It the Blues)'. The session musicians include Marvin Gaye on drums... Brian Epstein informs Pete Best of his firing, but still asks the drummer to play with the Beatles tonight at the Riverpark Ballroom in Chester. When Best refuses, Johnny Hutchinson of local act The Big Three takes his place in the drummer's chair (1962)... The Byrds play the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco for the first time... The Monkees release their first single, 'Last Train to Clarksville' (1966)... The Jackson Five make their debut before the general public, opening for The Supremes at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles... The Beatles spend most of the day in the studio working on 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps', going through 14 takes... Bruce Springsteen's new band Earth make their debut at the Off Broad Street Coffee House in Red Bank, NJ ~ admission is 75 cents. The group will last for six months before breaking up (1968)... On day two of Woodstock, Hippie leader Abbie Hoffmann is bodily thrown offstage by Pete Townshend during The Who's set. Townshend will later say that he didn't recognize the activist at the time (1969)... 'Lola' by The Kinks reaches № 2 on the UK singles chart, its peak position. It is kept out of the top spot only by Elvis Presley's 'The Wonder of You', the singer 16th British № 1 (1970)...  The Ramones play their first public gig, at a recently opened club on the Bowery called CBGB (1974)... Peter Gabriel announces that he is leaving Genesis. The group will audition more than 400 singers over the next 18 months before promoting from within, deciding that long-time drummer Phil Collins could front the band (1975)... The Knack's 'My Sharona' is awarded a gold record (1979)... Paul Simon marries Carrie Fisher (1983)... Madonna marries Sean Penn (1985)... On the 20th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, over 30,000 fans descend on Memphis, TN to complete a 10-minute mourning circuit circling the King's grave. A poll shows that approximately a third of those present are keeping an eye out for Elvis in the crowd (1997)... Madonna's 47th birthday turns less than happy when the singer suffers three cracked ribs, a broken collarbone and a fractured hand in a horse-riding accident on her country estate in Wiltshire. The singer is treated at hospital in Salisbury (2005).