April 23rd

Musical birthdays today include jazz saxophonist & musicologist Vern 'Bunky' Green (88), former King Crimson violinist David Cross (75), ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra drummer Narada Michael Walden (72), Boston lead singer Tommy DeCarlo (59), Rancid lead singer & bassist Matt Freeman (58), ex-Interpol bassist Carlos Dengler (50), and hip-hop artist, DJ & producer Sydney 'Syd tha Kyd' Bennett (32). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for composers Ruggiero Leoncavallo and Dame Ethel Smyth, both born on this day in 1858... for Sergei Prokofiev, born in 1891... for blues pianist Charlie 'Cow Cow' Davenport, born in 1894... for drummer & bandleader Bobby Rosegarden, born in 1924... for Roy Orbison, who would have been 88... for original Jethro Tull bassist Glenn Cornick, who would have been 77... for former Def Leppard co-lead guitarist Steve Clark, who would have been 62... for pianist and former Miles Davis sideman Red Garland, who died on this date in 1984... for songwriter Harold Arlen [best remembered for the soundtrack of 'The Wizard of Oz', including the tune for 'Somewhere over the Rainbow'], who died in 1985... for New York Dolls lead guitarist John 'Johnny Thunders' Genzale, Jr., who died in suspicious circumstances today in 1991 at the age of 39... for former Outsiders frontman Tom King, who passed away in 2011... and for country-rock bassist and Gram Parsons sideman Chris Ethridge, who left us today in 2012.  

Also on April 23rd: The 8-year-old Mozart arrives in London for the first time to continue his musical studies (1764)... Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta Patience, the world's first theatrical production to be lit entirely by electric lights, premieres at the Opera Comique in London (1881)... Elvis opens his first Las Vegas engagement, a 2-week run at the New Frontier Hotel. Presley is not the typical Vegas Strip entertainer of the time and meets with a very cool reception (1956)... John Lennon and Paul McCartney adopt the pseudonym The Nerk Twins for a performance at the Fox & Hounds Pub in Caversham, Berks. (1960)... At the Olatunji Center of African Culture in NYC, John Coltrane plays his final recorded gig (1967)... The Beatles are at № 1 on the UK singles chart with 'Get Back', the group's 16th UK chart-topper. Credited to 'The Beatles with Billy Preston' on the label of the 45 RPM, it was the group's only single that lists another artist. 'Get Back' is also the Beatles' first single release in true stereo in the US (1969)... The Rolling Stones release the album Sticky Fingers. The band's first release on their own label via Atlantic Records, the cover was designed by Andy Warhol, who was paid $15,000 for his efforts. The LP sleeve featured a close-up of a pair of jeans with a working zip. Widely assumed to be that of Mick Jagger, the crotch photographed for the cover was actually that of actor Joe Dallesandro (1971)... Sire Records release The Ramones' eponymous debut album (1976)... Sid Vicious films himself performing his version of 'My Way' for The Sex Pistols' film 'The Great Rock n Roll Swindle' (1978)... David Bowie hits №  1 on the UK album chart with Let's Dance', while the title track sits atop the US singles chart (1983)... On his 52nd birthday, Roy Orbison joins Bruce Springsteen on stage at a concert by the latter in Denver, CO. The audience serenade the 'Pretty Woman composer' with 'Happy Birthday'... 
Whitney Houston breaks a chart record held jointly by The Beatles and The Bee Gees when 'Where Do Broken Hearts Go', becomes her seventh consecutive US № 1 single (1988)... Peter Hodgson of Liverpool finds a tape in his attic containing 16 of The Beatles' earliest recordings made in 1959. The tape includes 'Hello Little Girl', a Lennon-McCartney composition that the Beatles never recorded and Ray Charles' 'Hallelujah, I Love Her So'. The sessions were taped on a reel-to-reel recorder that Hodgson's father had lent to Paul McCartney (1995)...  While out on a drink and drug-fuelled spree, Amy Winehouse hits and head-butts two men. After drinking all day, Amy visits the Good Mixer pub in Camden, London with Babyshambles guitarist Mik Whitnall. Inside she allegedly punches Mustapha el Mounmi in the face after he refuses to give way to her at the pool table. The singer then leaves to visit Bar Tok in the early hours and once inside the establishment shouted "I am a legend! Get these people out, I want to take drugs!" After leaving the bar a good Samaritan tries to get her a cab, but she believes that he is trying to molest her, and allegedly head-butts him in the face (2008)... Bob Dylan releases the album Together through Life  (2009).