August 31st

 

Musical birthdays today include Van Morrison (79) violinist Yitzhak Perlman (79), Scorpions guitarist Rudolf Schenker (76), violist Kim Kashkashian (72), Waterboys multi-instrumentalist Anthony Thistlethwaite (69), Go-Go's drummer Gina Schock (67), Squeeze lead singer Glenn Tilbrook (67), Debbie Gibson (54), and Biffy Clyro guitarist Simon Neil (45). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for songwriter and Broadway composer Alan Jay Lerner, born on this day in 1918... for Crickets drummer Jerry Allison, who would have been 85... for composer and guitarist Robbie Basho, and for studio musician and Jazz Crusaders founding member Wilton Felder, both of whom would have been 84.. for one-time Fleetwood Mac member and solo artist Bob Welch, who would have been 79... for singer-songwriter and session guitarist Chris Whitley, who would have been 64... and for jazz vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, who left us today in 2002. 

Also on August 31: In Paris, Rossini's opera William Tell has its premiere (1829)... In Berlin, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera is performed for the first time (1928)... Elvis Presley plays for the last time outside of the US, at the Empire Stadium in Vancouver, BC. Some 26,000 are in attendance (1957)... The Ronettes' 'Be My Baby', which will be the group's only stateside top 10 hit, enters the US charts. Lead singer Veronica Bennett will soon shorten her first name to Ronnie, and change her last name to Spector (1963)... After two previous LPs which attracted minimal notice, Dionne Warwick releases Make Way for Dionne Warwick, which will live up to its name by becoming her first album to hit the Billboard chart (1964)... Four days after the death of their manager Brian Epstein, The Beatles convene a press conference in London to announce that henceforth they shall be conducting their own financial affairs (1967)... Decca Records release what has often been called the Rolling Stones' most political song, Street Fighting Man, written after Mick Jagger attended a March, 1968 anti-war demonstration outside the US embassy in London, during which mounted police repeatedly charged the crowd of 25,000. The single will fail to crack the US top 40, as many radio stations will refuse to play it for its 'subversive content' (1969)... Neil Young releases After the Gold Rush (1970)... John Lennon testifies before an INS investigative committee that former president Richard Nixon initiated steps to have him deported for leading protests outside the Republic National Convention in Miami in 1972... Traffic play their last live show, at England's annual Reading Festival (1974)... George Harrison is found guilty of 'subconscious plagiarism' of the Ronnie Mack Song 'He's So Fine' when writing 'My Sweet Lord'. After earnings from the song have been paid to Mack's estate, the Chiffons reunite to record their own version of Harrison's 1970 worldwide hit (1976)... Prince's film Purple Rain opens nationwide in the UK (1984)... The № 1 album in the US is Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms (1985)... The largest pre-order of albums in the history of Columbia Records occurs when 2.5 million advance copies of Michael Jackson's 'Bad' are shipped to record shops across the US. The album will go on to sell over 13 million copies (1987)... Oasis are at № 1 on the UK charts with their third release, Be Here Now. The album sold 1.2 million copies on its first day of release (1997)... Dixie Chicks release the album Fly, which debuts at № 1 on the Billboard chart. It will go on to sell some 12 million copies, making the Chicks the only country band to date, and the only all-female group in any genre, to have back-to-back RIAA-certified Diamond albums (1999)... The British medical magazine Thorax issues a warning to music fans saying that playing loud music in the car can induce a collapsed lung in the listener.  A 19-year-old had been treated in Bristol for the condition after repeatedly subjecting himself to the 1,000-watt bass box in his Fiat Panda (2004)... Blondie and Public Enemy perform at a rally in front of CBGB to save the landmark club, whose lease expires today (2005)... The New York Times runs a story about the contractual demands of rock stars when on tour. Ozzy Osbourne insists that there a be an eye, ear, nose & throat doctor on call at every venue. The Beach Boys require a licensed masseur, Meatloaf a mask and an oxygen tank. David Bowie requires that the temperature of his dressing room be between 14º  and 18º C at all times, and Paul McCartney must have arrangements of white Casablanca lilies. Mick Jagger has to have an onstage auto-cue with the lyrics to all the songs, and a reminder of the name of the city in which he is performing (2006)... The Verve hit № 1 in the UK with their final album, entitled Forth (2008).