August 4th

Musical birthdays today include Tangerine Dream keyboardist Klaus Schulze (76), former Lightning Seeds frontman Ian Broudie (65), Flock of Seagulls lead guitarist Paul Reynolds (61), jazz drummer & Herbie Hancock sidewoman Terri Lyne Carrington (58), singer-songwriter Eva Amaral (51), R&B singer Marques Houston (50), and former Trivium drummer Nick Augusto (37).

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for Louis Armstrong, born in this day in 1901... for film score composer David Raksin, born in 1912... for guitarist & Oscar Peterson sideman Herb Ellis, born in 1921... for Bread bassist Larry Knechtel, who would have been 82 today... for Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby, who would have been 64... for country singer Lee Hazlewood, who died on this date in 2007... for bluesman Johnnie Bassett, who passed away in 2012... and for Pere Ubu bassist Tim Wright, who left us today in 2013.

Also on August 4th: Mozart marries Constanze Weber at St. Stephen's church in Vienna (1782)... Jimmie Rogers arrives in Bristol, TN and records two tracks ~ 'Sleep Baby Sleep' and 'The Soldier's Sweetheart' ~ in an afternoon session for Ralph Peer in a studio that the producer has set up in a furniture store at 408 State St. (1927)... Johnny Cash completes recording his debut album, Johnny Cash and His Hot & Blue Guitar. It will be the first LP released on Sun Records (1957)... Billboard Magazine expands its singles chart and calls it the 'Hot Hundred' ~ the first № 1 on the new listing is Ricky Nelson's 'Poor Little Fool' (1958)... The Rolling Stones play their first Saturday show at the Ealing Jazz Club in west London ~ it will be a regular gig for them for the next 22 weeks (1962)... The Beatles appear at the Queen's Theatre in Blackpool. Since the crowds around the theatre have blocked every entrance, The Beatles have to go through a construction area, up and cross some scaffolding to the roof of the building, and then be lowered through a trap door (1963)... Bob Dylan has his final recording session for Highway 61 Revisited, laying down satisfactory versions of 'Desolation Row' and 'Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues' (1965)... A female Monkees fan stows away on the band's plane as it takes them from Minneapolis to St. Louis. The girl's father threatens to bring charges for transporting a minor across state lines (1967)... Robert Plant and his wife are both badly injured when the hire car that he is driving spins off the road and crashes on the Greek island of Rhodes. Plant shatters both his left ankle and elbow, and will not be fully fit for the best part of two years. A forthcoming US tour has to be cancelled (1975)... A benefit concert is organised in Inglewood, CA by the remaining members of Little Feat to raise money for the family of their longtime leader Lowell George, who died in June. Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Emmylou Harris also perform (1979)... John Lennon goes into the Record Plant in NYC to begin recording what will prove to be his final album, Double Fantasy (1980)... Prince goes to the top of the US album chart with Purple Rain ~ the record will remain at № 1 for the next six months (1984)... Janet Jackson collapses on stage during a concert in St. Louis, the result of an ear infection that has become septic... Mariah Carey's debut single 'Vision of Love' is the № 1 song in America (1990)... Much of Amsterdam is left saying 'I want my MTV' after the channel switches off its feed to some 500,000 homes in the Dutch city. The move is made after network provider A2000 demands that MTV share its previously separate channel with two other operators and pay for distribution (1998)... Ex-Eurythmic Dave Stewart marries fashion photographer Anouska Fisz on a private yacht off Sardinia. Guests include Mick Jagger, Elton John, the members of Oasis, and ex-musical partner Annie Lennox (2001)... Bruce Springsteen has the № 1 album on both sides of the Atlantic with The Rising (2002).