May 14

Births

1916: Skip Martin (Jazz Saxophonist)

1925: Al Porcino (Jazz Trumpeter)

1932: Bob Johnston (Producer)

1936: Bobby Darin (Singer)

1936: Charlie Gracie (Guitarist & Singer)

1943: Jack Bruce (John Symon Asher) (Bass for Cream)

1944: Troy Shondell (Singer)

1945: Derek Leckenby (Lead Guitar in Herman's Hermits)

1945: Gene Cornish (Guitar in The Rascals)

1952: David Byrne (Guitar & Vocals for The Talking Heads)

1956: Steve Hogarth (Marillion)

1962: C.C. Deville (Guitar for Poison)

1962: Ian Astbury (Singer & Guitarist for Southern Death Cult & The Cult)

1963: Fabrice Morvan (Vocals for Milli Vanilli) .. or was he??

1966: Mike Inez (Alice In Chains)

1971: Danny Wood (New Kids On The Block)

1973: Shanice (R&B Singer)

1979: Dan Auerbach (Vocals & Guitar for The Black Keys)

Deaths

Events

1938: Duke Ellington recorded the song "Caravan".

1956: Buddy Holly visits his optometrist's office to correct his horrible 20/800 vision with primitive contact lenses, but Buddy hates them, and decides to keep his signature glasses.

1956: "The Platters" was released. It was the group's first album.

1957: Elvis Presley was rushed to a Los Angles hospital after swallowing a porcelain cap from one of his front teeth, which then lodged its-self in one of his lungs.

1959: Jazz Saxophonist Sidney Bechet died from lung cancer on his sixty-second birthday.

1964: Jan and Dean began recording "Little Old Lady From Pasadena."

1966: For the record ninth time in three years, the Kingsmen's hit version of "Louie Louie" enters the Billboard singles charts.

1968: Elvis Presley meets with NBC-TV producer Bob Finkel, helming his upcoming Christmas special with Singer, and tells him he wants to use this event to reintroduce and prove himself once again to the rock audience.

1968: On a publicity tour to promote their new venture, Apple, John Lennon and Paul McCartney agree to appear on NBC-TV's Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Unfortunately, Carson is on vacation that week, and his replacement, sportscaster Joe Garagiola, has almost no idea what to talk about with the pair (at one point, he actually asks which one of the two is Ringo). Guest Tallulah Bankhead, for her part, seems to look upon the duo's appearance as an affront to her Golden Age of Hollywood stardom. The interview is a disaster, cut short so as to give the appearance that the two lead Beatles have somewhere to go. The only existing video copy is a three-minute excerpt a fan films by pointing a video camera at his TV set; fan audio of the entire interview has been widely bootlegged.

1969: During a UK tour, Fairport Conventions van crashed on the M1 motorway on the way home from a gig in Birmingham killing the group's 19 year-old drummer Martin Lamble and Richard Thompson's girlfriend Jeannie Franklyn.

1970: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young release the single "Ohio"

1976: 33 year-old Keith Relf, former lead singer for The Yardbirds, was electrocuted while tuning a guitar which was not properly earthed. The accident happened in his West London home where he was found by his eight year old son, still holding the plugged-in electric guitar.

1985: Ronald Reagan presents Michael Jackson with a special Presidential Humanitarian Award at the White House for his work against drunk driving.

1987: Frank Sinatra, who had played South Africa in the past, suddenly condemns the apartheid regime publicly, referring to president P.W. Botha as "a bum."

1988: Atlantic Records' 40th Anniversary celebration takes place at New York's Madison Square Garden, featuring appearances from many famous artists on the label's roster: The Bee Gees, Wilson Pickett, The Rascals, The Coasters, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Crosby Stills and Nash, Foreigner, Yes, Genesis, and the event's main attraction, a rare reunion of Led Zeppelin, featuring John Bonham's son Jason taking over drums for his late father.

1992: The album "Revenge" was released by KISS. The album featured a new drummer, Eric Singer.

1993: Christie's auction house in London sells the acoustic guitar on which Elvis Presley recorded his first Sun single, "That's All Right, Mama" b/w "Blue Moon Of Kentucky," to an unnamed bidder for $152,000. On the same day, the US tabloid Weekly World News claims that Elvis Presley has only recently died.

1997: Mark Morrison was jailed for three months after threatening a police officer with an electric stun gun, he was also ordered to pay $600 costs.

1998: Frank Sinatra died of a heart attack at age 82.

1998: George Michael pled no contest in the Beverly Hills Municipal Court to committing a lewd act in a park restroom. He was fined $810, given 80 hours of community service, and ordered to undergo counseling.

2003: Lawyers for Britney Spears and the Skechers footwear company settled a dispute over a deal for the pop star to market a line of roller skates and accessories. Spears had filed a $1.5 million breach of agreement lawsuit against Skechers in December, claiming the company failed to pay her adequately. Skechers had responded with a $10 million lawsuit, accusing Spears of fraud and breach of the three-year licensing agreement she signed in January 2002.

2004: Phil Spector was arrested after getting into a scuffle with his chauffeur at his California mansion. The 64 year old record producer was taken into custody and later released after a court date was set.

2005: A judge in Springfield, Massachusetts, ordered rapper 50 Cent to stay clean of drugs and take an anger management course to avoid spending time in jail. The rapper appeared in court charged with assaulting three women at a concert in 2004 after leaping into the crowd.

2005: Jimmy Martin (Bluegrass Musician) died of bladder cancer.

2006: Ashton "Family Man" Barrett, former bassist with Bob Marley's Wailers, loses a lawsuit alleging that Island Records and Marley's estate have failed to pay him millions in royalties.