Born on this day:
1920, Peggy Lee, singer
1926, Miles Davis, jazz trumpeter, music genius
1940, Levon Helm, drums, vocals, The Band
1945, Garry Peterson, drums, The Guess Who|
1946, Mick Ronson, guitarist, producer, David Bowie
1948, Stevie Nicks, vocals, Fleetwood Mac
1949, Hank Williams Jr., country singer, guitarist
1964, Lenny Kravitz, singer, guitarist
1976, Justin Pierre, vocals, Motion City Soundtrack
1977, Mark Hunter, vocals, guitar, Chimaira
1981, Isaac Slade, vocal, piano, The Fray
1964, Marianne Faithful recorded the Mick Jagger and Keith Richards song “As Tears Go By,” accompanied by future Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page on guitar and John Paul Jones on bass.
1968, Blues singer Little Willie John died in prison after being convicted of manslaughter. He co-wrote and was the first to record “Fever” (covered by Peggy Lee in 1958) and “Need Your Love So Bad” (covered by Fleetwood Mac). James Brown recorded a tribute album Thinking of Little Willie John... And a Few Other Nice Things.
1969, John and Yoko began an eight-day “bed in” in room 1742 of The Hotel La Reine Elizabeth, Montreal, Canada, to promote world peace. They recorded “Give Peace a Chance” in the hotel room.
1971, Don McLean recorded “American Pie.” For more on this story, see This Day in Music Spotlight.
1972, At the point of the band splitting up, David Bowie offered Mott the Hoople two of his new songs, “Suffragette City,” which they turned down, and “All the Young Dudes,” which they recorded. The song gave the group a #3 U.K. and U.S. Top 40 hit.
1973, The Edgar Winter Group went to #1 on the U.S. singles chart with “Frankenstein,” the band’s only U.S. #1. It reached #18 in the U.K. The group featured ex-McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer.
1994, Michael Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis Presley. The couple divorced in 1995.
1996, A fire at the home of Eric Clapton caused over one and a half million pounds worth of damage. Firemen arrived on the scene to find Clapton braving the blaze to save his collection of guitars.
2002, The first episode of The Osbournes was shown on MTV in the U.K.