September 3

Musical birthdays today include Norwegian composer Knut Nystedt (98), Beach Boy Al Jardine (71), original Thin Lizzy lead guitarist Eric Bell (66), Grand Funk Railroad drummer Don Brewer (65), Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones (58), and Sum 41 bassist Jason McCaslin (33). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for bluesman Memphis Slim, born on this day in 1915... for Western Swing singer Hank Thompson, who would have been 88... for Outlaw Country star Tompall Glaser, who would have been 80... for Canned Heat founder and original lead singer Alan Wilson, who died today in 1970 at the age of 27... for Keith Harwood, studio engineer noted for his work with Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and David Bowie, and who was killed in a road accident today in 1977... and for 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' composer Johnny Marks, who left us today in 1985. 

Also on September 3: The no. 1 single in America is The Mitch Miller Singers' 'Yellow Rose of Texas', written in 1853 (1955)... Following a pattern that is becoming familiar, a Rolling Stones concert ends in a riot after 30 fans jump onto the stage and the band members flee (1965)... Donovan tops the American charts with 'Sunshine Superman' [also a no.2 hit in the UK], which features the guitar work of session man Jimmy Page (1966)... After a two week absence, Ringo rejoins the band. He finds his drum kit covered with flowers to welcome him back (1968)... Arthur Brown is arrested at the Pop '70 Festival in Palermo, Italy, after the singer sets his hat alight during the performance of his hit 'Fire' and strips naked on the stage. He will spend 4 days in solitary confinement before being released (1970)... Bill Wyman, Ron Wood, David Bowie and Keith Moon are among the members of the all-star band recruited to play Peter Sellers' 50th birthday party in Los Angeles (1975)... The 3-day Us festival, bankrolled by Apple Computers co-founder Steve Wozniak, opens in San Bernardino, CA. Headliners include The Police, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Talking Heads, the Kinks and the Ramones. David Bowie, who receives $1 million for his one-hour set, is widely criticized after it is revealed that he paid each member of his backing band $350 (1982)... The no. 1 single in the UK is UB 40's 'Red Red Wine' (1986)... Ike Turner is released from prison after serving 18 months of a 4-year sentence for drug and weapons possession. The singer claims in an interview with Variety soon thereafter that he has spent upwards of $10 million on cocaine over the years (1988)... The Rolling Stones 40th anniversary Licks Tour kicks off in Boston, MA (2002)... Sir Cliff Richard stuns the music world by choosing not to renew his contract with EMI Records, signing with Eminem's label Universal Music instead. Sir Cliff had sold more than 250 million records with EMI during his 46-year career (2004)... The Rolling Stones perform for 89,620 fans at the Magnetic Hill Concert Site near Moncton NB, making it the largest crowd for a musical event in Canadian history (2005)... Hundreds of Paris Hilton albums are found tampered with in record shops throughout the UK in the latest stunt by 'guerilla artist' Banksy. The provocateur had replaced the American socialite turned singer's CD with his own remixes, giving them titles such as 'Why Am I Famous?' and 'What Have I Ever Done?' He had also changed pictures of Hilton on the CD sleeve to show her topless and with a basset hound's head (2006)... Internal emails sent by the promoters of Michael Jackson's planned 2009 comeback tour are published, and see them voice concerns about the singer's stability, both physical and mental. In one of them, sent the day the King of Pop arrived in London to announce his This Is It shows, he is described as 'an emotionally paralysed mess'. The singer had locked himself in his hotel room and was said to be drunk and despondent (2012). 

September 2

Musical birthdays include jazz pianist Horace Silver (85), Impressions founding member Sam Gooden (79), Jimmy Clanton (75), Martha & the Vandellas singer Rosalind Ashford (70), Caravan drummer Richard Coughlin (66), ex-ELO violinist Mik Kaminski (62), MC Chris (38), and Panic! at the Disco drummer Spencer Smith (26).

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for folk singer & songwriter Tom Glazer, born today in 1914... for Brazilian jazz guitarist and samba pioneer Laurindo Almeida, born in 1917... for former Mingus sideman Clifford Jordan, born in 1931... for Billy Preston, who would have been 67 today... for longtime New York Metropolitan Opera director Sir Rudolf Bing, who died in 1997... and for Starship lead guitarist Mark Abrahamian, who left us a year ago today at the age of 46. 

Also on September 2: On tour in the USA, the Beatles play Philadelphia's Convention Hall. After the show, John Lennon, unaware of the city's recent history of racial tensions, is heard to express surprise that the audience of 13,000 was entirely white (1964)... The Doors record their first demos at World Pacific Jazz Studios in Los Angeles, cutting six original Jim Morrison songs (1965)... The no. 1 single in the UK today is Rod Stewart's 'You Wear It Well' (1972)... George Harrison marries Olivia Arias at the Henley-on-Thames registry office (1978)... Teddy Pendergrass announces that only women will be admitted to concerts on the tour to promote his latest album 'Life Is a Song Worth Singing' (1978)... The Human Rights Now! world tour kicks off at London's Wembley Stadium with Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman, Sting and Youssou N'Dour on the bill (1988)... Ozzy Osbourne is arrested on charges of threatening to kill his wife Sharon. All charges will be dropped after the couple reconcile [and Ozzy does a court-ordered stint in rehab] (1989)... Michael Jackson becomes the first artist in the history of the Billboard Top 40 singles chart to debut at no.1, with 'You Are Not Alone' (1995)... Burglars break into Björk's London home while the singer is asleep. The intruders make off with valuable recording equipment without rousing her (2002). 

September 1

Musical birthdays today include former Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Seiji Ozawa (78), ex-Sly and the Family Stone drummer Greg Errico (67), Barry Gibb (67), former Jam bassist Bruce Foxton (58), Gloria Estefan (56), Toto lead singer Joseph Williams (53), Franco-Tunisian pop singer Lââm (42), Scissor Sisters multi-instrumentalist Scott 'Babydaddy' Hoffman (37), Fall Out Boy guitarist Joe Trohman (29), and Tokio Hotel's Bill and Tom Kaulitz (24). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for composer Johann Pachelbel [of Canon in D fame], born on this date in 1653... for jazz great Art Pepper, born today in 1925... for Conway Twitty, who would have been 80... for jazz-funk keyboardist Don Blackman, who would have been 60... for Delta bluesman R.L. Burnside, who died today in 2005... for former Echo & the Bunnymen keyboardist Jake Brockman, killed in a motorcycle accident today in 2009... and for lyricist Hal David, who left us a year ago today. 

Also on September 1: Atlantic Records buy Ray Charles' contract from the Swingtime label, where the pianist had been recording in the mellower style of Nat King Cole (1952)... An aspiring 19-year-old singer/pianist named Jerry Lee Lewis arrives at the Sun Studios in Memphis to ask for an audition. Told that owner Sam Phillips is on vacation in Florida, Lewis records some demos that Phillips will hear when he returns (1956)... The Byrds open an 11-night run at LA's Whiskey-A-Go-Go (1966)... David Bowie releases his first single, 'Love You till Tuesday' ~ it fails to chart (1967)... The Beatles hold a meeting at Paul McCartney's house in London to decide upon a course of action following the death of manager Brian Epstein. They decide to postpone a planned trip to India to begin work on the Magical Mystery Tour film for TV (1967)... Blondie sign their first major label contract, with Chrysalis Records (1977)... Bob Dylan takes a 5-year lease on a rehearsal space in Santa Monica, CA that he subsequently christens Rundown Studio. It will be an important centre for much of Dylan's late '70s and early '80s musical activity (1977)... U2 release their very first record, an EP entitled U2-3. With an initial run of 1,ooo individually numbered copies, it will be available only in Ireland (1979)... Mick Jones is fired by the Clash, whose other three members accuse him of 'drifting away from the original concept of the group' (1983)... Tina Turner has her first solo US no. 1 single with What's Love Got to Do with It. The song was originally written in the late '70s, and was passed on by Cliff Richard and Donna Summer before finding a home with Turner (1984)... The no. 1 single in the UK is Atomic Kitten's cover of the 1980 Blondie hit The Tide Is High (2002).

August 31

Musical birthdays today include Crickets drummer Jerry Allison (74), studio musician and Jazz Crusaders founding member Wilton Felder (73), Van Morrison (68), Scorpions guitarist Rudolf Schenker (65), violist Kim Kashkashian (61), Waterboys multi-instrumentalist Anthony Thistlethwaite (58), Go-Go's drummer Gina Schock (56), Squeeze lead singer Glenn Tilbrook (56), Debbie Gibson (43) and Biffy Clyro guitarist Simon Neil (34). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for songwriter and composer Alan Jay Lerner, born on this day in 1918... for composer and guitarist Robbie Basho, who would have been 73... for former Fleetwood Mac member and solo artist Bob Welch, who would have been 68... for singer-songwriter and session guitarist Chris Whitley, who would have been 53... and for jazz vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, who left us today in 2002. 

Also on August 31: Elvis Presley plays for the last time outside of the US, at the Empire Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia. 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)... 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)... 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 no. 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 no. 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)... 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)... 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 autocue with the lyrics to all the songs, and a reminder of the name of the city in which he is performing (2006). 

August 30

Musical birthdays today include jazz singer Jewel Brown (76), Specials bassist Horace Panter (60), ex-Swing Out Sister and Magazine drummer Martin Jackson (55), former Panic! at the Disco led guitarist Ryan Ross (27), and classical piano prodigy Emily Bear (12).

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for country music legend Kitty Wells, born on this day in 1919... for bebop trumpeter Kenny Dorham, who would have been 89... for John Phillips, who would have been 78... for influential British DJ John Peel, who would have been 74... and for the Velvet Undergropund's Sterling Morrison, who died in 1995 two days after his 48th birthday. 

Also on August 30: Bob Dylan releases Highway 61 Revisited (1965)... Two weeks after Woodstock ends, the second Isle of Wight festival begins. Bob Dylan, The Band, Joe Cocker, The Moody Blues and The Who are the headliners playing for some 150,000 fans who have paid 25 shillings ($3) per ticket. Among those spotted in the crowd are John & Yoko, George, Ringo, Jane Fonda, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor (1969)... The Texas International Pop Festival opens in Lewisville TX with Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Santana and Grand Funk Railroad headlining (1969)... Backed by Elephant's Memory, John & Yoko play Madison Square Garden to raise money for the One to One charity. The performance is recorded, and partially released on the Sometime in New York City album (1972)... The no. 1 single in the US is Steve Winwood's 'Higher Love' (1986)... Bruce Springsteen's wife Julianne Phillips files for divorce after salacious pictures of her husband and singer Patti Scialfa  are published worldwide (1988)... James Taylor and Carly Simon perform live together before a crowd of 10,000 at Martha's Vineyard. It is the first time the pair have appeared on the same stage since 1979. The former couple play their own solo sets before joining forces to raise money for the local agricultural society (1995)... Stella McCartney marries publisher Alasdhiar Willis on the Isle of Bute in Scotland. Guests include dad Sir Paul, Madonna, Chrissie Hynde and Chris Martin (2003). 

August 29

Musical birthdays today include Blood, Sweat & Tears multi-instrumentalist Dick Halligan (70), Radiators guitarist Dave Malone (61), Fairground Attraction's Eddi Reader (54), Planet X guitarist Tony McAlpine (53), former Cocteau Twins lead singer Liz Fraser (50), Brian Jonestown Massacre founder Anton Newcombe (46), Ned's Atomic Dustbin bassist Alex Griffin (42) and Simple Plan bassist David Desrosiers (33). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for Charlie 'Bird' Parker, who would have been 93 today... for GG Allin, who would have been 57... for Michael Jackson, who would have been 55... and for bluesman Jimmy Reed, who died today in 1976. 

Also on August 29: Roy Orbison's 'Oh, Pretty Woman' is released in the US. The lyric was inspired by a remark that Orbison's songwriting partner Bill Dees made when his [Orbison's] wife Claudette interrupted their conversation to say that she was going out. When Orbison asked if she was okay for money, Dees interjected "A pretty woman never needs any money" (1964)... The Beatles play their last scheduled concert, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, CA. They do not play any songs from Revolver, their most recent release, and close the show with 'Long Tall Sally' (1966)... Edwin Starr tops the US singles charts with 'War' (1970)... The no. 1 single in the UK today is Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You up' (1987)... U2 play the second rock concert in the history of Yankee Stadium [Billy Joel's in 1990 was the first] (1992)... Oasis release their debut album Definitely Maybe, which will become the fastest-selling debut of all time (1994)... During the VMAs at Radio City Music Hall, Madonna stuns a packed house by passionately kissing Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera while performing a racy version of Like a Virgin (2003)... 77-year-old Fats Domino is rescued by helicopter from the flooding in New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina. He had earlier told his agent that he planned to remain in his home despite the order to evacuate (2005). 

August 28

Musical birthdays today include former Chicago drummer Danny Seraphine (65), ex-Stranglers lead guitarist Hugh Cornwell (64), Shania Twain (48), LeAnn Rimes (31) and  Florence Welch (27).  

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for song and dance man Donald O'Connor, who would have been 88 today... for Velvet Underground founding member Sterling Morrison, who would have been 71... for Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů, who died on this day in 1959... and for Hilly Krystal, founder and owner of CBGB, who left us today in 2007. 

Also on August 28: Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin has its premiere in Weimar (1850)... Tamla Motown Records releases The Marvelettes' 'Mister Postman', which will become the label's first no. 1 hit (1959)... Bob Dylan is one of the performers at the Washington Civil Rights March. In addition to performing duets with Joan Baez and folk revivalist Len Chandler [with the latter on the traditional 'Hold On'], Dylan solos on Blowin' in the Wind and Only a Pawn in Their Game (1963)... After playing a show at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens, NYC, the Beatles meet Bob Dylan for the first time, at the Delmonico Hotel in Manhattan. Dylan and mutual journalist friend Al Aronovitz introduce the Beatles to marijuana (1964)... Bob Dylan kicks off his now legendary 1965-66 world tour with a show at the Forest Hills Stadium. The format presented at this show is to remain constant throughout the next nine months on the road. The 45-minute opening set features Dylan solo, just guitar and harmonica, followed by a similar-length electric set with the band. A large contingent in the audience boo throughout the second half, something else that will be a constant throughout the tour (1965)... Nearing the end of their final American tour, the Beatles play Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles before a crowd of 45,000. The group's attempt to escape from the stadium in an armored truck is thwarted when the main gate is found to be locked. and the Beatles have to spend two hours in the back of the vehicle before they can leave (1966)... Simon & Garfunkel's fourth studio album 'Bookends' is at the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic (1968)... Working at London's Trident Studios, the Beatles begin recording John's new song Dear Prudence. They build the song instrument by instrument using 8-track equipment more advanced than anything at Abbey Road. Paul plays drums in place of Ringo, who has been AWOL from the group since the 22nd (1968)... Billy Joel is at no. 1 on the US album charts with River of Dreams. According to the singer, he chose the title because most of the songs in the collection came to him in his sleep. Then-wife Christie Brinkley painted the cover, later voted worst album cover of the year by the readers of Rolling Stone (1993)... Isaac Hayes, co-author of the Sam & Dave classic 'Soul Man', writes a letter of protest to Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, demanding that the Senator stop using his song, which supporters had changed to 'I'm a Dole Man' (1996)... Noel Gallagher quits Oasis, saying that he can no longer work with his brother Liam (2009).