May 31

Births

1935: Herb Alpert (Trumpet Player)

1938: Peter Yarrow (Guitar & Vocals for Peter, Paul and Mary)

1938: Johnny Paycheck (Donald Eugene Lytle ) (Country Singer & Guitarist)

1944: Mick Ralphs (Guitarist for Mott The Hoople & Bad Company)

1948: John Bonham (Drummer for Led Zeppelin)

1952: Karl Bartos (Percussion & Keyboards for Kraftwerk)

1954: Vicki Sue Robinson (Disco Singer)

1962: Corey Hart (Singer)

1963: Wesley Willis (Singer?)

1964: MC Darryl 'D' McDaniels (Rapper in Run-DMC)

1964: Scotti Hill (Guitarist for Skid Row)

1980: Andrey Hurley (Drummer for Fall Out Boy)

Events

1917: The first jazz record, "Dark Town Strutters' Ball," was released.

1956: Elvis Presley is the featured guest on Roy Orbison and the Teen Kings' weekly KOSA-TV show in Odessa, TX.

1956: A still-struggling Buddy Holly catches a showing of John Wayne's new movie, The Searchers, at the State Theatre in Lubbock, TX. At two points, the star sarcastically replies "that'll be the day" to another character, giving Buddy the impetus to write his first hit song.

1958: Guitarist Dick Dale performs his new song, "Let's Go Trippin'," at Balboa, California's Rendezvous Ballroom, a moment generally considered the birth of the surf music genre.

1961: Chuck Berry opens Berry Park in Wentzville, Missouri, with a public area featuring a petting zoo, picnic area, miniature golf, Ferris wheel, and swimming pool.

1964: The Dave Clark Five make their first appearance on CBS-TV's Ed Sullivan Show, performing "Glad All Over." Ed likes the clean-cut boys so much he has them on 18 more times over the course of the show's life, more than any other rock band.

1966: Lulu's first movie, To Sir With Love, begins filming in London.

1966: Filming begins on "The Monkees (Here Come The Monkees)," the first filmed episode of the television series The Monkees (though not the first shown).

1968: During his vocal overdub on the Beatles song "Revolution 1," John Lennon begins to shout and scream "all right" and other wordless nonsense vocalizations over the long six-minute jam of the original recording, joined by Yoko Ono (attending her first Beatles session). The screaming and conversation between he and Yoko would become an integral part of the eventual track "Revolution 9."

1969: The Supremes host tonight's episode of ABC-TV's Hollywood Palace, also featuring The Jackson 5 and Sammy Davis Jr.

1969: The Rolling Stones recorded "Honky Tonk Women."

1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono record "Give Peace a Chance".

1973: Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham celebrates his 25th birthday with a Robert Plant-led audience sing-a-long of "Happy Birthday" at the band's show in Los Angeles, then by carousing with friend George Harrison afterward. Harrison playfully throws the birthday cake at Bonham, who tosses George into the hotel pool.

1975: Freddy Fender went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Before The Next Teardrop Falls', his only US No.1.

1976: The Who secures its place as the World's Loudest Rock Band with a 120-decibel, 76,000-watt blast of a performance at Charlton Athletic Grounds in London. The record would stand for nearly a decade.

1977: The as-yet-unpublished tell-all book from Elvis Presley's bodyguards Sonny and Red West, entitled Elvis: What Happened? begins to leak out a chapter at a time to newspapers in England and Australia.

1982: R.E.M. signed a five-album deal with I.R.S. Records, an independent label based in California.

1991: Country singer Randy Travis marries manager Lib Hatcher in Hawaii during a vacation.

1991: Tracy Lawrence is shot in Shoney's parking lot on Music Row just after completing vocals for his debut album. Lawrence and a female friend were robbed by three gunmen prior to the shooting.

1998: Geri Halliwell (Ginger Spice) announced she had quit The Spice Girls saying "This is because of differences between us. I am sure the group will continue to be successful and I wish them all the best.

2000: After a heart attack following a show in Puerto Rico, Salsa artist Tito Puente had open heart surgery in New York City from which he never recovered.

2000: Janet Jackson announced that she was getting a divorce from dancer Rene Elizondo. The marriage had been kept secret for nine years.

2000: R&B Singer Johnnie Taylor died of a heart attack at Charlton Methodist Hospital in Dallas, Texas at the age of 66.

2004: Guitarist Robert Quine was found dead of a heroin overdose in his New York City home. He worked with Richard Hell And The Voidoids, Lou Reed, Brian Eno, Lloyd Cole, Marianne Faithfull, Tom Waits and They Might Be Giants.

2005: Strawberry Field (no s), the Liverpool orphanage which inspired the Beatles' famous song, is closed by the Salvation Army after almost seventy years.

2007: Rob Grill, lead singer of the Grass Roots, is arrested for illegal possession of prescription painkillers at his home in Mount Dora, FL.

May 30

Births

1908: Mel Blanc (Voice of Bugs Bunny & Daffy Duck)

1909: Benny Goodman (Clarinetist & Bandleader)

1944: Lenny Davidson (Guitar for The Dave Clark Five)

1955: Nicky 'Topper' Headon (Drummer for The Clash)

1958: Marie Fredriksson (Vocals for Roxette)

1960: Stephen Duffy (Singer, songwriter, guitarist, founding member of Duran Duran)

1964: Tom Morello (Guitar for Rage Against The Machine)

1964: Wynonna Judd (Country Singer)

1966: Stephen Malkmus (Guitar & Vocals for Pavement & Solo)

1967: Sven Pipien (Bass for The Black Crowes)

1967: Tim Burgess (Vocals for The Charlatans)

1971: Patrick Dahlheimer (Bassist for Live)

1974: Cee-Lo Green (Thomas Callaway) (Singer, rapper, songwriter and record producer for Goodie Mob, Gnarls Barkley & Solo)

1974: Big L (Lamont Coleman) (Rapper)

Events

1966: University of New Brunswick student Anne Murray catches her first big break when the producers of the CBC-TV variety show Singalong Jubilee, for whom she'd auditioned two years earlier, offer her a weekly contract on the program.

1966: Dolly Parton marries her first and only husband, Carl Dean, in Ringgold, GA.

1968: The Beatles began recording what became known as the White Album. The double-LP whose official title was simply ‘The Beatles’ became the first Beatles album released with the Apple label. The first track they recorded was ‘Revolution’.

1969: The Beatles' latest single, John Lennon's autobiographical "The Ballad Of John And Yoko," is immediately banned at many radio stations in America due to its supposedly blasphemous lines "Christ, you know it ain't easy / You know how hard it can be / The way things are going / They're gonna crucify me." Some DJs create homemade versions of the song with the word "Christ" reversed, so as to defuse the controversy.

1972: Roxy Music makes their stage debut at The Great Western Express Festival in Lincolnshire, England.

1974: Bernadette Whelan, a 14 year-old David Cassidy fan, died of heart failure four days after attending a concert of his. Over 1,000 other fans had to be given first aid during the White City Stadium show.

1978: Led Zeppelin begin recording what would be their final studio album, In Through The Out Door.

1980: Carl Radle (Bass for Derek and the Dominoes) died from a kidney infection, exacerbated by the effects of alcohol and narcotics at the age 0f 38.

1987: Adam Horovitz from The Beastie Boys was arrested while on tour after a beer can hit a fan during a disturbance in Liverpool, England.

1990: Midnight Oil closed down 6th Avenue in New York City as they played a protest concert in front of Exxon's offices. The protest was in reaction to the Exxon Valdez disaster.

1991: Morrissey played the first date on his debut 'Kill Uncle' US concert tour at San Diego Sports Arena, California.

1992: Paul Simon marries his third wife, singer-songwriter Edie Brickell, in New York, raising some eyebrows due to the couple's 25-year age difference.

1993: Jazz Bandleader & Composer Sun Ra died from pneumonia.

1997: Neil Young canceled his European tour because he had cut his finger while slicing a ham sandwich.

1999: In London, a bomb threat at a Kenny Rogers concert being held at Royal Albert Hall caused the evacuation of more than 3,000. No bomb was found and no injuries were reported.

1999: In New Jersey, Lenny Kravitz walked off stage after 40 minutes and collapsed from heat exhaustion. He had been performing in a fur coat.

2002: On the eve of her latest tour, Diana Ross voluntarily enters rehab in Malibu in order to "clear up some personal issues."

2003: Singer Finley Quaye was threatened with jail after his mobile phone rang when he was in the dock waiting to be sentenced on charges of assault. After being found guilty of assaulting his former girlfriend he was ordered to attend a six-month domestic violence program by a district Judge.

2004: Madonna was forced to pay out $400,000 in a lawsuit after copying ideas by the late French erotic photographer Guy Burton. Madonna had admitted that the video for her song ‘Hollywood’ was inspired by Burton.

2009: Six audience members are stabbed during gang violence at a War concert in Mountain View, CA.

2009: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and B.B. King gather for a benefit concert to raise money for New Orleans public schools struggling to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. Though too ill to perform, Katrina survivor Fats Domino attends as a special guest.

May 29

Births

1903: Bob Hope

1953: Danny Elfman (Singer for Oingo Boingo & Composer)

1956: Larry Blackmon (Singer in Cameo)

1956: La Toya Jackson (Singer)

1960: Jesse Johnson (Lead Guitar for The Time)

1961: Melissa Etheridge (Singer / Songwriter)

1963: Blaze Bayley (Lead vocalist for Iron Maiden from 1994 to 1999)

1967: Noel Gallagher (Guitarist & singer for Oasis)

1975: Mel B (Melanie Brown) (Scary Spice for The Spice Girls)

1978: Pelle Almqvist (Lead Singer for The Hives)

Events

1942: Bing Crosby recorded the song "White Christmas".  It went on to become the biggest-selling single of all time with sales of over 30 million. (It was overtaken by the 1997 Elton John version of ‘Candle In The Wind’.)

1952: Hank Williams and his wife, Audrey, were divorced.

1959: Herndon Stadium in Atlanta holds one of the first outdoor rock concerts, featuring Ray Charles, Jimmy Reed, and B.B. King. Nine thousand people attend.

1969: The debut album "Crosby, Stills and Nash" was released.

1971: Three dozen audience members attending today's Grateful Dead show at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom are treated for hallucinations after drinking apple juice purposefully spiked with LSD (some say by the band themselves).

1973: The Byrds officially disband for good (or so it seems) when founder and leader Roger McGuinn performs his first solo concert at New York's Academy of Music.

1973: Mike Oldfield released the Album ‘Tubular Bells’.

1977: Manchester band Warsaw (later to become Joy Division) made their live debut supporting The Buzzcocks at The Electric Circus, Manchester, England.

1977: Elvis leaves his show in Baltimore, MD for a full half-hour, angering and bewildering fans.

1982: The Clash's "Combat Rock" LP was released.

1983: KISS play their last concert in their traditional makeup (although, reformed with all original members, they would return to the painted faces in 1996).

1989: Elvis Presley's first grandchild, Danielle Riley Keough, is born to Lisa Marie Presley.

1989: John Cipollina (Lead Guitar for Quicksilver Messenger Service) died from chronic emphysema at the age of 45.

1991: After just completing the recording of the 'Nevermind' album, Nirvana played a last-minute show at the Jabberjaw in Los Angeles. In the audience was Iggy Pop, Dave Grohl’s girlfriend and L7 bassist Jennifer Finch who brought along her best friend Courtney Love.

1992: After the recent AIDS-related death of lead singer Freddie Mercury, the Queen song "We Are The Champions" is banned from the graduation ceremony at Sacred Heart private school in Clifton, NJ.

1997: Singer songwriter Jeff Buckley disappeared after talking a swim in the Mississippi River, his body was found on 4th June 1997 after being spotted by a passenger on a tourist riverboat.

1999: Photographers taking shots of old cars wrecked at the bottom of Malibu's Decker Canyon discover the body of Iron Butterfly bassist Philip Kramer, who had gone missing on February 12, 1995. His death is ruled a suicide.

2007: A piano used by John Lennon on the night he died was put up for sale for $375,000 on The Moments in Time memorabilia website. The upright grand piano was part of the Record Plant Recording Studios in New York where the former Beatle recorded his 1971 Imagine album. Lennon was said to be so fond of the instrument that he had it moved to whichever studio he was working in and had used the piano hours before being shot on 8 December 1980.

2009: Phil Spector was jailed for at least 19 years for murdering an actress in 2003. The producer, 69, famed for his Wall of Sound recording technique, was last month found guilty of shooting Lana Clarkson at his California home. Spector had pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder during the five-month retrial in Los Angeles. His lawyers said he would appeal. Spector was given a sentence of 15 years to life for second-degree murder and an additional four years for personal use of a gun.

2011: Sean Kingston was in the trauma ward of a Miami hospital following an injury reportedly suffered in a jet ski accident.