Births
1946 Pete Agnew, Nazareth, (1973 UK No.9 single 'Broken Down Angel' 1976 US No. 8 single 'Love Hurts').
1949 Steve Gaines, guitar, Lynyrd Skynyrd, 1974 US No. 8 single 'Sweet Home Alabama', 1982 UK No.21 single 'Freebird'). Killed in a plane crash on 20th October 1977.
1950 Paul Kossoff, guitar, Free, (1970 UK No.2 & US No.4 single 'All Right Now'). Formed Back Street Crawler. Kossoff died of a heart attack on 19th March 1976.
1954 Barry Cowsill, The Cowsills, (1967 US No.2 single 'The Rain The Park & Other Things'. 1969 US No.2 single the theme from 'Hair'). TV's Partridge Family was based on The Cowsills.
1955 Steve Berlin, Los Lobos, (1987 UK & US No.1 single 'La Bamba').
1959 Morten Harket, vocals, (1985 US No.1 single 'Take On Me'. 1986 UK No.1 single 'The Sun Always Shines On TV'). The first Norwegian group to score a UK and US No.1.
1967 John Power, bass, vocals, The La's, (1990 UK No.13 single 'There She Goes'). Cast (1996 UK No.4 single 'Flying').
1970 Graig Montoya, bass, Everclear, (2000 UK No.36 single 'Wonderful', 1997 album 'So Much For The Afterglow').
1970 Mark Webber, Pulp, (1995 UK No.2 single 'Common People').
1972 Nas, (Nasir Jones), US rapper, (1996 UK No.12 single 'If I Ruled The World', 2007 US No.1 album 'Hip Hop Is Dead').
1981 Ashley Roberts, singer, The Pussycat Dolls, (2005, US No.2 & UK No.1 with their debut single 'Don't Cha' featuring Busta Rhymes). The Pussycat Dolls became only the fourth ever girl band to enter the UK charts at No.1 with their debut single. (The other's being the Spice Girls, B*Witched and Girls Aloud).
1983 Amy Winehouse, UK singer, songwriter, (2007 UK No.1 album 'Back To Black', 2006 UK No.6 single 'Rehab').
Deaths
1989, Perez Prado died of a stroke. Had the US & UK 1955 No.1 single 'Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White'.
Events
1927 Gene Austin recorded "My Blue Heaven."
1955 Little Richard entered a New Orleans recording studio to begin two days of recording. Things were not going well and during a break, Richard and his producer; Bumps Blackwell went to the Dew Drop Inn for lunch. Richard started playing the piano in the bar like crazy, singing a loud and lewd version of 'Tutti Frutti.' With only fifteen minutes left in the session, Richard recorded the song and coined the phrase, "a-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bam-boom."
1966 Appearing at The Orchid Ballroom, Purley, Surrey, England, Otis Redding. Tickets 10 shillings, ($1.40).
1967 The Jimi Hendrix Experience appeared on UK music show Top Of The Pops.
1967 Filming continued for The Beatles 'Magical Mystery Tour' in South West England. The Beatles searched for a quiet, secluded field in which they could conduct filming but once they'd disembarked from the bus and set up for shooting, scores of onlookers began to crowd around, causing a traffic jam that required the police to step in.
1968 Roy Orbison's house in Nashville burnt down, his two eldest sons both died in the blaze. Orbison was on tour in the UK at the time of the accident.
1968 The first episode of the comic strip 'The Archies' was aired on US TV. The recording group had contributions from Ron Dante, Andy Kim, Jeff Barry and others. Rock mogul, Don Kirshner (who also brought us The Monkees), was put in charge of the studio group. The following year The Archies started a eight-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Sugar Sugar', becoming the longest running one hit wonder in the UK.
1969 Genesis played their first gig for money in Surrey, England, at a cottage owned by a Sunday school teacher.
1970 Stevie Wonder married Syreeta Wright a former secretary at Motown Records.
1971 During a US tour Led Zeppelin appeared at Berkley Community Theatre, Berkley, California. The set list included: Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Since I've Been Loving You, Black Dog, Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven, That's the Way, Going to California, What Is and What Should Never Be and Whole Lotta Love.
1974 Appearing live at Wembley Stadium, London, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Joni Mitchell, The Band, Jesse Colin Young and Joe Walsh.
1974 Eric Clapton scored a US No.1 with his version of the Bob Marley song 'I Shot The Sheriff'.
1974 Mike Oldfields second album 'Hergest Ridge' started a three-week run at No.1 on the UK chart.
1974 Stevie Wonder started a two-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Fulfillingness First Finale' his second US No.1.
1976 Jeff Beck's second album, "Wired," goes gold.
1979 Kenny Rogers received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1979 The film Quadrophenia was released. Based on The Who's 1973 rock opera the film featured Phil Daniels, Toyah Willcox, Ray Winstone, Michael Elphick and Sting.
1981 Pink Floyd's movie "The Wall" began production.
1983 Metallica introduced a new song, "Disposable Heroes," at the Metal Hammer festival in Germany.
1985 The MTV Awards are held for the first time. Bette Midler and Dan Aykroyd co-hosted the show.
1991 David Bowie's band Tin Machine released their second album "II." They also kicked off their first and only tour.
1993 "The Hits/The B-Sides" box set was released by Prince.
1991 Paul Young went to No.1 on the UK album chart with 'From Time To Time-The Singles Collection' his third UK No.1 LP.
1991 Paula Abdul scored her sixth US No.1 single with 'The Promise Of A New Day', a No.52 hit in the UK.
1994 The Temptations receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1994 US singer Steve Earle was sentenced to 1 year in jail after being found guilty of possession of crack cocaine.
1995 Earth, Wind and Fire received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1995 Hand written lyrics for "Getting Better" by Paul McCartney sold for $249,000 at a Sotheby's auction.
1995 The lyrics to The Beatles song 'Getting Better' hand-written by Paul McCartney sold for L161,000 at a Sotheby's auction in London.
1996 Peter Andre scored his first UK No.1 single when 'Flava' went to the top for one week.
1996 Suede went to No.1 on the UK album chart with 'Coming Up'.
1997 Over 2000 fans watched Pete Townshend unveil a English Heritage Blue Plaque at 23 Brook Street, Mayfair London, to mark where Jimi Hendrix had lived in 1968-69. Hendrix was the first pop star to be awarded with the plaque.
1998 Metallica began recording the album "Garage Inc."
1999 The Strokes made their live debut at The Spiral in New York.
2002 No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani married Gavin Rossdale of Bush in St. Paul's church London.
2003 Mary J. Blige was at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Love & Life' the singers second US No.1.
2005 Britney Spears gave birth to a baby boy by Caesarean section. Spears and husband Kevin Federline had been taken to the UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, under police escort, early in the morning.
2005 HMV stores in Canada removed Bob Dylan CDs from their shelves in protest at the singer's deal to only sell his new album in Starbucks after he signed an exclusive contract with the coffee giant. The chain has previously boycotted CDs by Alanis Morissette and The Rolling Stones to complain at exclusive deals.
2006 Whitney Houston filed for divorce from singer Bobby Brown, after 14 years of marriage.
