Births
1928 Serge Gainsbourg, singer who had a 1969 UK No.1 single with Jane Birkin ‘Je T'aime...Moi Non’, the only French language chart topper. Gainsbourg died of a heart attack on March 2nd 1991.
1939 Marvin Gaye, singer, songwriter who had a 1968 US No.1 & 1969 UK No.1 single with ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ and a 1982 US No.3 & UK No.4 single with ‘Sexual Healing’. He was shot dead by his father on April 1st 1984.
1941 Leon Russell, singer songwriter, mult-instumentalist. Worked with Phil Spector, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Glenn Campbell, wrote 'Delta Lady' a hit for Joe Cocker. Played on The Byrds 'Mr Tambourine Man.'
1943 Glen Dale, guitar, vocals, The Fortunes, (1965 UK No.2 & US No.7 single 'You've Got Your Troubles').
1946 Kurt Winter, Guess Who, (1970 US No.1 & UK No.19 single 'American Woman'). He died on 15th December 1997.
1947 Emmylou Harris, country singer, two albums with Gram Parsons, (1976 UK No.30 single 'Here There And Everywhere', US No. 37 single 'Mr Sandman'). Six times Grammy award winner.
1952 Leon Wilkeson, bass, Lynyrd Skynyrd, (1974 US No. 8 single, 'Sweet Home Alabama', 1982 UK No.21 single 'Freebird'). He died on 27th July 2001.
1953 David Robinson, The Cars, (1978 UK No.3 & US No.35 single 'My Best Friend's Girl', 1984 US No.3 & 1985 UK No.4 single 'Drive').
1956 Gregory Abbott, (1986 UK No.6 single 'Shake You Down').
1963 Keren Woodward, Bananarama, (1984 UK No.3 single 'Robert De Niro's Waiting', plus over 20 other UK Top 40 singles, 1986 US No.1 single 'Venus').
1967 Greg Camp, Smash Mouth, (1997 UK No.19 single 'Walkin' On The Sun').
1979 Jesse Carmichael, Maroon 5, (2004 UK No.1 album ‘Songs About Jane’, 2004 US No.1 & UK No.4 single ‘She Will Be Loved’).
Deaths
1998 Rob Pilatus (Milli Vanilli) died in a hotel room in Frankfurt, Germany.
2003 US soul singer Edwin Starr died aged 61. Had the 1970 US No.1 and UK No.3 single 'War.'
Events
1942 Glenn Miller and his orchestra recorded "American Patrol."
1963 "Best Foot Forward" with Liza Minnelli opened in New York City.
1964 The Beach Boys recorded "I Get Around."
1964 The Beatles had their fourth UK No.1 single with 'Can't Buy Me Love.' With advanced sales of over 2.1 million, it holds the record for the greatest advanced orders for a single in the UK.
1965 Freddie & the Dreamers recorded "Do The Freddie."
1965 The first edition of new music show 'Ready Steady Goes Live!' was shown on UK TV.
1965 The Who made their first radio appearance on the UK BBC's 'Joe Loss Pop Show.'
1966 A charity concert at The Hollywood Bowl took place featuring, Jan and Dean, Sonny & Cher, The Mamas And The Papas, The Turtles, Otis Redding, Donovan and Bob Lind.
1967 Steve Winwood left the Spencer Davis Group to form Traffic.
1967 The Beatles finished recording the album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
1967 154 Austrian Rolling Stones fans were arrested when a riot broke out at a 14,000-seated Town Hall gig; a smoke bomb was thrown on the stage.
1968 Jimi Hendrix appeared at the Paul Suave Arena, Montreal, Canada.
1971 Janis Joplin was at No.1 on the US album charts with 'Pearl.'
1972 John Lennon and Yoko Ono held a news conference in New York to discuss their appeal of the Immigration Department's decision to deport John.
1974 The British pirate radio station Piccadilly Radio went on the air.
1975 The Bay City Rollers were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Bye Bye Baby.'
1977 Stevie Wonder’s tribute to Duke Ellington, "Sir Duke," was released.
1977 Abba were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with their fifth No.1 'Knowing Me Knowing You.' And on this day made No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Dancing Queen' the groups only US No.1.
1977 Fleetwood Mac went to No.1 on the US album chart with 'Rumours.'
1977 Frank Sinatra scored his first ever UK No.1 album with 'Portrait Of Sinatra', his 46th album release.
1981 CBS records launched the 'Nice Price' series of back catalogue albums in the UK. The first batch priced at ?2.99 included early albums by Bob Dylan, Santana, Billy Joel, Abba, Janis Joplin and Simon and Garfunkel.
1981 Born on this day, Scott Cain, Australian singer and winner of the third Australian Popstars competition. (2002 Australian No.1 single ‘I'm Moving On’).
1983 Pink Floyd scored their third UK No.1 album with 'The Final Cut.'
1983 Born on this day, Jasiel A. Robinson, (Yung Joc), 2007 US No.1 with T-Pain, ‘Buy U a Drank, Shawty Snappin'.
1987 Bandleader and drummer Buddy Rich died aged 69 due to complications caused by a brain tumour. Worked with Frank Sinatra, had his own US TV show.
1987 U2 kicked off their 29-date North American Joshua Tree tour at Arizona State Activity Centre.
1987 The Prince album "Sign O' The Times" was released worldwide.
1990 Eric Clapton was fined ?300 with ?10 costs by Walton-on- Thames Magistrates court, after being booked for speeding at 105mph; Clapton was also banned from driving for three months.
1990 Nirvana went into Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin and started work on demo versions of ‘In Bloom’, ‘Dive’, ‘Lithium’, ‘Pay To Play’, ‘Imodium’, ‘Sappy’ and ‘Polly’ with Butch Vig producing.
1991 LL Cool J gave a pair of sneakers to every student and teacher at The Thompson Middle School in Dorchester, to celebrate them winning the 'foot locker cool school video' contest.
1994 Ace Of Base went to No.1 on the US album chart with 'The Sign.'
1995 2Pac started a four week run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Me Against The World.’
1993 Roberta Flack appeared on the ABC-TV soap opera "Loving."
1997 Joni Mitchell was reunited with Kilauren Gibb. Gibb was the daughter that Mitchell had given up for adoption 32 years before.
1998 A new wing opened at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum opened in Cleveland, OH.
1999 The Black Crowes performed in Knoxvilled, TN. One of the concergoers later sued the band for $385,000 in a claim that he had suffered significant hearing loss at the show.
2000 Westlife went to No. 1 on the UK singles chart with 'Fool Again'. It made the Irish group the first in chart history to debut at No. 1 with their first five releases.
2001 Mariah Carey signed the richest recording deal in history. The 31-year old singer signed a deal with Virgin for three albums worth ?60m. The singer had sold over 120 million records worldwide, scoring 14 US No.1 singles.
2002 Lee Anderson Minnelli sued her stepdaughter Liza Minnelli for elder abuse and breach of contract. The claim was filed based on the will of Vincente Minnelli.
2004 Coldplay singer Chris Martin was accused of attacking a photographer after leaving a London restaurant with his wife Gwyneth Paltrow. A Coldplay spokesman said photographer Alessandro Copetti had been running after Paltrow's taxi and tripped. Mr Copetti said he had been taking pictures of the singer and his wife outside a restaurant when Martin kicked him from behind.
2005 Kanye West had to abandon a signing appearance in Fresno, California, after a fight broke out between a fan and a security guard. West was taken out of the back door of the new FTK urban boutique, while the owners locked all the doors and cleared around 1,000 fans from the store's parking area.
2006 a John Lennon schoolbook containing the 12-year-old's drawing of Lewis Carroll's poem The Walrus and the Carpenter was sold at auction for ?126,500, ($239,733). The poem inspired Lennon to write The Beatles' 1967 song ‘I Am the Walrus.’ Also sold for ?12,000, ($22,741) was a ship's log book written by Lennon during a stormy trip to Bermuda in 1980, and a letter from Paul McCartney to his bandmates Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr failed to reach its ?50,000, ($94,742) reserve price.
2006 Gnarls Barkley started an eight-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Crazy.' The American duo made chart history by becoming the first act ever to reach No.1 with through computer downloads only. The single was not available to buy in shops until the following week.
2006 Embrace went to No.1 on the UK album chart with 'This New Day', the bands third UK No.1 album.
