July 31

Births

1918: Hank Jones (Jazz Painist)

1946: Gary Lewis (Vocals & Drums for Gary Lewis and the Playboys)

1957: Daniel Ash (Guitar for Bauhaus, Tones On Tail & Love & Rockets)

1958: Bill Berry (Drums for R.E.M)

1971: John 5 (John Lowery) (Guitar for Marilyn Manson)

1978: Will Champion (Drums for Coldplay)

1978: Zac Brown (Country Singer / Songwriter)

1981: Matthew Sanders (Singer for Avenged Sevenfold)

Events

1845: France's army gives legitimacy to Belgian Adolphe Sax's latest invention, the saxophone, by including it in their marching band.

1951: Ray Charles marries his first wife, Eileen Williams, a beautician from Chicago, in Fulton County, GA. The marriage lasts only one year.

1964: Country singer Jim Reeves was killed in a plane crash when the single engine aircraft flying from Arkansas to Nashville crashed in thick fog. 41 year- old Reeves was the first country singer to cross- over into the pop market.

1967: The drug conviction appeals of the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, stemming from an earlier marijuana bust in February, are heard in London, with Richards' conviction overturned and Jagger's sentence reduced to probation.

1969: After two hours of opening acts (during which time he grapples with a severe case of stage fright), Elvis Presley debuts his new Vegas show at the International Hotel, his first stage appearance anywhere since 1961. The show goes on at 10:15 pm with a fiery rendition of "Blue Suede Shoes" and is an instant sensation, with the audience, filled with members of the press corps, A-list celebrities, and former Presley associates like Sam Phillips, rapturous in its appraisal. Later that evening manager Colonel Tom Parker renegotiates Elvis' contract on a pink tablecloth in the hotel coffee shop, a contract which will guarantee the singer one million dollars per year through 1974 (minus expenses). Presley's contract holds him to only two months a year, which will allow him to get back out on the road, as well.

1971: After being denied entrance to a Who concert in New York City's Forest Hills Stadium, an ex-convict stabs and kills the security guard.

1976: Blue Oyster Cult release the single "Don't Fear The Reaper".

1980: Mamas and the Papas founder and vocalist "Papa" John Phillips is arrested for possession of cocaine and running a phony prescription scam with a local pharmacy and eventually sentenced to eight years in prison (though this sentence would later be reduced to 30 days in jail and community service).

1980: During An Eagles concert at Long Beach, California, tempers boiled over between Glen Frey and Don Henley, who spent the entire show describing to each other the beating each planned to administer backstage. "Only three more songs until I kick your ass, pal," Frey told Henley. The group’s next album was mixed by Frey and Henley on opposite coasts after the two decided they couldn't bear to be in the same state, let alone the same studio.

1992: Michael Jackson made an unscheduled appearance on his hotel balcony in London after a man had threatened to jump from an apartment building across the street. 28 year-old Eric Herminie told police he would leap to his death if he didn't see Jackson, who was in Britain for a series of concerts. Jackson spent a couple of minutes waving to Herminie, who then climbed back into the building.

1994: Aaliyah and R. Kelly secretly married at the Sheraton Gateway Suites, Rosemont, IL. Aaliyah never admitted being married, though Vibe published a copy of the marriage certificate. Unfortunately, she was only 15 at the time, so thus the marriage was later annulled.

1995: Selena's "Dreaming of You" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart. It was her first English album. Selena became the first Latin artist to debut at No. 1.

1995: Jamaica issues a commemorative series of postage stamps honoring local native and reggae legend Bob Marley.

1999: Christina Aguilera scored her first US No.1 single with 'Genie In A Bottle', also No.1 in the UK. The song spent 5 weeks at No.1 on the US chart and won Aguilera the Best New Artist Grammy for the year.

1999: Wu-Tang Clan member Ol Dirty Bastard, (real name Russell Jones) was arrested for crack and marijuana possession in New York after being stopped by police during a routine traffic offence.

2004: The city of Lubbock, TX, declares today "Mac Davis Day" after its hometown singer-songwriter. Mayor Marc McDougal also dedicates a section of Avenue O as "Mac Davis Lane."

2004:  R&B Singer Mark Morrison was arrested after a fight at Leicester's After Dark night-club in which his platinum and diamond medallion was stolen. Morrison said he was the victim and complained of wrongful arrest, unlawful imprisonment and police assault. A $40,000 reward for the return of the pendant was offered by the singer's record label.

2006: Former Culture Club singer Boy George (O'Dowd) was ordered to do community service by picking up trash on New York City streets after pleading guilty last March to false reporting of an incident. He called police with a bogus report of a burglary at his lower Manhattan apartment in October and the responding officers found cocaine inside.

July 30

Births

1936: Buddy Guy (Blues Guitarist & Singer)

1941: Paul Anka (Pop Singer)

1945: David Sanborn (Jazz Sax Player)

1946: Jeffrey Hammond (Bass for Jethro Tull)

1957: Rat Scabies (Chris Miller) (Drums for The Damned)

1958: Kate Bush (Singer / Songwriter)

1958: Neal McCoy (Country Artist)

1971: Brad Hargraves (Drums for Third Eye Blind)

1977: Ian Watkins (Singer for Lostprophets)

Events

1942: Frank Sinatra ends his association with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra, recording the last two of over 90 songs before moving on to great acclaim as a solo star at Columbia.

1954: Elvis Presley makes his first official concert appearance as a solo act, opening for Slim Whitman at Memphis' Overton Park Shell outdoor auditorium, billed third as "Ellis Presley" and performing "That's All Right, Mama," "Blue Moon Of Kentucky," and "I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')." In the middle of the first song, a badly stage-frightened Elvis unconsciously begins to duplicate a move he usually made in the studio, shaking his leg in time with the music. The crowd of (mostly) girls goes absolutely wild, confusing Elvis and his band.

1968: The Beatles' Apple Boutique, a psychedelic clothing store located at 94 Baker Street in London, closes for business after seven months of bad business practices and rampant theft. With the group and its intimates having had the pick of the remaining inventory the night before, Apple Boutique employees are instructed to simply let people in off the street to take whatever merchandise they like. The store was closed that evening for good.

1978: Glen Goine, singer and guitarist with Parliament / Funkadelic died from Hodgkin's Lymphoma aged 24. Had the 1978 US No.16 album 'One Nation Under A Groove'.

1986: Boy George was fined $500 by a London court for possession of heroin.

1986: Variety reports that RCA has fired John Denver after learning of his new single, entitled "What Are We Making Weapons For?" General Electric, which had just bought out RCA, was one of the country's largest defense contractors.

1991: A police officer was forced to tear up a traffic ticket given to the limousine that Axl Rose was travelling in after it made an illegal turn. Rose threatened to pull that nights Guns N' Roses gig if the ticket was issued.

1993: Founder member and original bassist for The Wonder Stuff, Rob Jones died in New York aged 29.

2003: In order to prove that the city is still safe to visit after a recent SARS outbreak, Toronto, Canada puts on the largest concert in the country's history, a massive open-air extravagaza featuring The Rolling Stones, The Guess Who, Rush, The Isley Brothers, The Flaming Lips and Justin Timberlake, among others. Total attendance is somewhere around 450,000.

2003: Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Records and studio, died of respiratory failure at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. In the 1940s, Phillips worked as a DJ for Muscle Shoals, Alabama radio station WLAY. Phillips recorded what some consider to be the first rock and roll record, ‘Rocket 88’ by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats in 1951. He discovered Elvis Presley, worked with Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Ike Turner, B.B. King and Jerry Lee Lewis.

2004: While walking around London, the Isley Brothers' Ronald Isley suffers a minor stroke and is admitted to a local hospital. He recovers in a matter of just a few weeks.

2006: Shakira feat Wyclef Jean started a four week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Hips Don't Lie.’ A remake of Wyclef Jean's 2004 song 'Dance Like This', the song went on to top the charts in over 50 countries. The song is the biggest selling single of the 21st century by a female artist worldwide. 

July 29

Births

1946: Neal Doughty (Keyboards for REO Speedwagon)

1953: Geddy Lee (Bass & Vocals for Rush)

1953: Patti Scialfa (Background Singer for Bruce Springsteen (Also his wife)

1959: John Sykes (Guitar for Thin Lizzy, Audioslave & Whitesnake)

1962: Martin McCarrick (Guitar for Therapy?)

1966: Martina McBride (Country Singer)

1973: Wanya Morris (Vocals for Boyz II Men)

1973: James Otto (Country Artist)

1977: Danger Mouse (Brian Joseph Burton ) (Producer)

Events

1959: The Isley Brothers recorded the hit single "Shout".

1961: Dick Clark presents his very first Caravan of Stars revue at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, NJ, featuring The Jive Five, the Shirelles, and Clarence "Frogman" Henry.

1963: Capitol Records sends disc jockeys around the US a list of hot rod terms to assist DJs when talking about the latest music trend to help promote The Beach Boys latest release ‘Little Deuce Coupe’.

1965: The Beatles' second movie, Help!, premieres in London at the Pavilion Theatre, with none other than the Queen attending. (Though reviews are mixed, the movie is a financial success.) Later, manager Brian Epstein and the group attend a post-premiere reception at the Dorchester Hotel.

1966: While out riding his Triumph 500 motorbike near Woodstock, NY, Bob Dylan's brakes lock up, causing him to fly off the bike, seriously injuring his neck vertebrae. Dylan was absent from the public spotlight for a full nine months, with rumors circulating that he'd actually broken his neck. Decades later, there's still some doubt as to how exaggerated his condition was; some claim he privately sought to use the injury as an excuse to disappear from the spotlight (or that there was no accident at all). The hiatus gives him a chance to record what would become known as the "Basement Tapes" in a big pink house in Woodstock with a band called The Hawks, who would later record their first album, Music From Big Pink.

1966: Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker made their live debut as Cream at The Twisted Wheel, Manchester, England.

1966: The Grateful Dead played their first ever show outside the US when they appeared in Vancouver.

1966: The US teen magazine Datebook reprints a John Lennon quote from an interview, conducted by Maureen Cleave, which had been published in the London Evening Standard newspaper: "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first - rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."  The resulting uproar causes the Beatles' records to be burned in America, especially the South, and death threats to be issued against the band on their upcoming US tour -- despite a hastily assembled press conference in Chicago, at which John explains, "If I had said television is more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it, but I just happened to be talking to a friend and I used the words "Beatles" as a remote thing, not as what I think - as Beatles, as those other Beatles like other people see us... I'm not saying that we're better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it's all this... I never meant it to be a lousy anti-religious thing. I apologize if that will make you happy. I still don't know quite what I've done. I've tried to tell you what I did do but if you want me to apologize, if that will make you happy, then OK, I'm sorry."

1967: The Doors started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Light My Fire'. The group's first US No.1.

1968: Refusing to play in front of the country's segregated audiences, Gram Parsons leaves the Byrds on the eve of a South African tour.

1968: The Beatles recorded the single "Hey Jude".

1970: The Rolling Stones' contract with Decca expires, and the group takes the opportunity to split with notorious manager Allen Klein. Delivering one more song to the label to fulfill its obligation, the famously unreleasable "C********* Blues," they also begin the process of forming their own label, Rolling Stones Records (which will feature the debut of the band's new "lips" logo).

1973: While performing on stage at Madison Square Garden, Led Zeppelin has $180,000 of their gate receipts from the previous night's show stolen from their safe at the Drake Hotel. This incident, one of the largest such crimes in the history of NYC, will be immortalized in the band's 1976 concert documentary The Song Remains The Same. The crooks are never found.

1974: Mamas And The Papas singer Cass Elliot died in her sleep from a heart attack after playing a sold out show in London, England. She was staying at Harry Nilson's London flat when she died. Her only solo hit was 'Dream a Little Dream of Me,' which also featured the rest of The Mamas and The Papas.

1978: Prince appeared on the US charts for the first time with 'Soft and Wet'.

1978: The film soundtrack to Grease featuring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John went to No.1 on the US album chart.

1982: Andy Taylor of Duran Duran weds Tracie Wilson.

1986: Seventies soft-rocker Paul Davis ("I Go Crazy") is shot during an attempted robbery at a Nashville hotel. He eventually recovers.

1987: Michigan governor James Blanchard declares today "Four Tops Day" in honor of the Motown legends.

1990: Elton John checks into a hospital in Chicago, IL, for bulimia and substance abuse.

1998: Miramax studios announces their purchase of the rights to the Beatles' 1964 film A Hard Day's Night, intending to remaster it in time for the film's 35th anniversary.

2005: An anonymous bidder pays one million dollars for the original handwritten lyrics to the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" at the Hippodrome nightclub in London.

2006: Pamela Anderson gets married for the second time. This time to Kid Rock on a yacht off the French resort of St Tropez. The 39-year-old former Baywatch star divorced from rock star Tommy Lee in 1998, had recently got back together with Kid Rock, after a brief engagement ended in 2003. Anderson and Rock split after four months of marriage.

2007: Heart problems forced Kiss singer and guitarist Paul Stanley to abandon a show in California. Paramedics stopped and restarted his heart to give it a regular rhythm after his heart spontaneously jumped to 190 plus beats per minute.