January 18th

Musical birthdays today include Bobby Goldsboro (83), English session keyboardist Dave Greenslade (81), singer-songwriter & Nashville session man R. Stevie Moore (72), Hudson Brothers vocalist Brett Hudson (71), former Thompson Twins frontman Tom Bailey (70), producer and guitarist Jim O'Rourke (55), ex-Black Crowes lead guitarist Luther Dickinson (51), former BBMak vocalist Christian Burns (50), Hard-Fi frontman Richard Archer (47), R&B singer Estelle (44), and Joanna Newsom (42). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for sound engineer Ray Dolby, who would have been 90 today... for former Temptations lead singer David Ruffin, who would have been 83... for Greek bouzouki virtuoso & Rebetika pioneer Vassilis Tsitsanis, who died on this date in 1984... for former Agent Orange bassist Brent Liles, who passed away in 2007... and for Kate McGarrigle, who left us today in 2010. 

Also on January 18th: The Metropolitan Opera House in NYC hosts its first jazz concert. On the bill are Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden (1944)... The Beatles break into the American Top 40 for the first time, as 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' enters the upper reaches of the Billboard chart at № 35. The song will go on to spend 7 weeks at № 1  (1964)... The Rolling Stones record 'The Last Time' and 'Play with Fire' at RCA Studios in Los Angeles, with Phil Spector contributing the memorable acoustic guitar figure on the latter track (1965)... The Jimi Hendrix Experience tape a performance of 'Purple Haze' for broadcast on Top of the Pops (1967)... Former members of Free (Paul Rodgers & Simon Kirke), Mott The Hoople (Mick Ralphs), and King Crimson (Boz Burrell) form Bad Company. The band goes on to score a US № 1 album with their debut release (1974)... Barry Manilow is at № 1 on the US charts with 'Mandy'. In Britain, the top spot is occupied by Status Quo with 'Down Down', the group's only № 1 of their 52 UK chart hits between 1968 and 1996 (1975)... Warren Zevon's album Excitable Boy is released (1978)... Wendy O. Williams of The Plasmatics is arrested on stage in Milwaukee and charged with the offence of public lewdness for simulating sex with a sledgehammer. Williams later files a multimillion dollar civil suit against the Milwaukee Police, claiming they sexually assaulted and beat her during the arrest, but a jury rejects her claims (1981)... Van Halen launch their aptly named 103-date '1984' tour with a show in Jacksonville, FL (1984)... Dionne Warwick's 'That's What Friends Are for' goes to № 1 in the US. All profits from the single will go to AIDS charities (1986)... At the age of 38, Stevie Wonder becomes the youngest living person to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At a ceremony held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NYC, other inductees include The Rolling Stones, The Temptations, Otis Redding and Dion DiMucci (1989)... Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson are divorced after less than two years of marriage (1996)... Tori Amos has the № 1 single in the UK with 'Professional Widow',  a song which has widely been interpreted as an attack on Kurt Cobain's widow Courtney Love (1997)... Animals in Michael Jackson's private zoo are declared to be in good health after officials pay a surprise visit to the singer's Neverland ranch. A medical officer from the US Department of Agriculture inspects the property following concerns voiced by the animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Jackson earlier moved out of Neverland and took up residence in Bahrain (2006)... An extensive collection of Beatles memorabilia goes on display in a new museum in Buenos Aires. Rodolfo Vazquez, a 53-year-old accountant, turned his mammoth Beatles collection into a museum with more than 8,500 objects, setting the new world record for the largest collection of Beatles memorabilia. Some of the items include a box of condoms bearing the names of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, a brick from the Cavern Club, a chunk of the stage from the Star Club in Hamburg, and certified copies of the band members' birth certificates. Among his favorite items were 64 boxes of chewing gum in the form of Beatles records (2011).