Monday, April 4, 2011

April 4


Birthdays
1915: Muddy Waters (Blues Artist)
1934: Clive Davis (Music Producer)
1938: Norro Wilson (Country Artist)
1939: Hugh Masekela (Jazz Trumpeter)
1941: Major Lance (R&B Singer)
1948: Carol Douglas (Disco Singer)
1948: Berry Oakley (Bassist for The Allman Brothers)
1948: Pick Withers (Drummer for Dire Straits)
1951: Steve Gatlin (The Gatlin Brothers)
1952: Dave Hill (Lead Guitar for Slade)
1952: Gary Moore (Guitarist for Thin Lizzy)
1952: Pete Haycock (Guitar & Vocals for Climax Blues Band)
1963: David Gavurin (Guitarist for The Sundays)
1972: Magnus Sveningsson (Bass for The Cardigans)

Events
1939: Glenn Miller recorded "Moonlight Serenade".

1956: Elvis Presley played the first of two nights in San Diego Arena in San Diego, California. The local Police chief issued a statement saying if Elvis ever returned to the city and performed like he did, he would be arrested for disorderly conduct.

1960: RCA Victor decides to release all future singles -- starting with its next, Elvis Presley's "Stuck On You" -- in both mono and stereo versions.

1960: Elvis Presley recorded "Are You Lonesome Tonight."

1960: At tonight's Academy Awards, Frank Sinatra's "High Hopes" (from the comedy A Hole In The Head wins the Oscar for Best Original Song.

1964: The Beatles break all American chart records when the latest Billboard chart shows them with the Top Five records in the country simultaneously (#5: "Please Please Me," #4: "I Want To Hold Your Hand," #3: "She Loves You," #2: "Twist And Shout," #1: "Can't Buy Me Love"). Even more incredibly, nine other singles are scattered in various other positions around the "Hot 100." The Beatles had similarly dominated Canada and Australia's Top Ten earlier in the month.

1964: A court orders the Trashmen of "Surfin' Bird" fame to pay royalties to Beechwood Music, holder of the copyright for the Rivington's 1962 hit "Papa Oom Mow Mow," which the Trashmen hit borrows heavily from.

1967: Paul McCartney advises Beatles PR man Derek Taylor, currently producer of the upcoming Monterey Pop Festival, to consider this new guitar phenomenon he's seen named Jimi Hendrix.

1968: After hearing about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, riots break out in several black communities across the nation. In Boston, where James Brown is scheduled to perform, mayor Kevin White asks the singer to call for calm on stage and urge Bostonians not to riot. Meanwhile, at New York City's New Generation club, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Al Kooper, Buddy Guy, Ted Nugent, and Joni Mitchell respond by gathering for an all-night jam in tribute.

1970: Janis Joplin reunites with Big Brother and the Holding Company in San Francisco for a one-off reunion concert.

1970: Crosby Stills Nash & Young went to No.1 on the US album chart with Deja Vu. The first album which saw Neil Young joining Crosby, Stills and Nash featured three US Top 40 singles: 'Teach Your Children', 'Our House' and 'Woodstock.'

1973: A taped Elvis Presley concert entitled Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii is telecast on NBC and proves to be a huge success. The total worldwide audience for the show, the first commercial worldwide satellite broadcast, amounts to over a billion people.

1977: British CBS released the Clash's self-titled fist album.

1983: Danny Rapp (Danny and the Juniors) died in 1983 of an apparent suicide by gunshot in a hotel in Arizona.

1996: Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia's ashes are scattered in the Ganges River in India by Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir and Garcia's widow, Deborah.

1996: While on parole, Wilson Pickett is arrested for possession of two grams of cocaine at his home in Englewood, NJ.

2000: Diana Ross announced that she would reunite with the Supremes. The two members of the Supremes at the time had joined after Ross had left the trio.

2002: It was announced that the 19-year-old band Megadeth had broken up. The break up was due to an injury to Dave Mustaine's left arm and hand that had left him unable to play guitar.

2003: The Rolling Stones make their stage debut in India, performing at Bangalore Palace in the middle of a monsoon!

2005: A man who won an out-of-court settlement in 1994 against the singer for a similar charge testifies in Michael Jackson's current molestation trial.

2007: A Swedish couple ran into trouble with authorities after trying to name their baby Metallica. Michael and Karolina Tomaro went to court with the country's National Tax Authority about naming their daughter after the rock band. The six-month-old has been baptised Metallica, but tax officials said the name was "inappropriate". Under Swedish law, both first names and surnames need to win the approval of authorities before they can be used.

2008: Procol Harum's Gary Brooker wins an appeal in London to an earlier ruling, which stated that Harum organist Matthew Fisher was entitled to 40 percent of the royalties from the band's 1967 smash "A White Shade Of Pale." Though the new ruling notes that Fisher wrote the organ line and should be co-credited, it also overturns the royalty award by noting that Fisher waited 38 years to sue.

2008: Beyonce Knowles married Jay-Z at his New York apartment. Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and wife Gwyneth Paltrow and Beyonces former bandmates in Destiny's Child, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams all attended the private ceremony.