September 29

Births

1907: Gene Autry (America's singing cowboy)

1935: Jerry Lee Lewis (Pianist & Singer)

1942: Jean-Luc Ponty (Jazz Violinist)

1944: Mike Post (TV Theme Composer)

1948: Mark Farner (Lead Singer & Lead Guitar for Grand Funk Railroad)

1948: Mike Pinera (Guitar for Iron Butterfly)

1957: Andrew Dice Clay (Comedian)

1958: Mick Harvey (Guitar for The Birthday Party & Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds)

1963: Les Claypool (Singer & Bassist for Primus & Solo)

1987: Josh Farro (Lead Guita for Paramore)

Events

1930: Bing Crosby marries Dixie Lee.

1947: Dizzy Gillespie makes his Carnegie Hall debut.

1954: The original musical version of A Star Is Born, featuring Judy Garland, opens in Hollywood.

1963: The Rolling Stones begin their first British tour, opening for Bo Diddley, Little Richard, and the Everly Brothers at London's New Victoria Theatre.

1966: Jimi Hendrix meets the final member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, bassist Noel Redding, when Redding unsuccessfully auditions for Eric Burdon's new Animals lineup at the Birdland club in London.

1967: Mickey Hart joins the Grateful Dead as its new drummer.

1976: At his 41st birthday party, a drunk Jerry Lee Lewis attempts to shoot a soda bottle with his .357 Magnum and instead hits his bass player, Norman Owens, twice in the chest. Owens makes a full recovery but sued his boss.

1977: David Bowie sets up a trust fund for Rolan Bolan, son of recently deceased T. Rex leader (and close Bowie friend) Marc Bolan.

1977: James Brown's backup band walks out on him before a gig in Hallendale, FL, complaining of being underpaid. Brown responds by hiring another band.

1984: Prince's single "Let's Go Crazy" hit No. 1. He then held the No. 1 single, album and film simultaneously. Only the Beatles had accomplished the feat previously.

1989: Bruce Springsteen leaps onstage in Prescott, AZ, to jam with a local bar band called The Mile High Band, playing his own "I'm On Fire" and his favorite Sixties covers. A week later, a waitress who'd been complaining about her hospital bills receives a check from Springsteen for $100,000.

1994: The Pointer Sisters are awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6363 Hollywood Blvd.

1997: Don Henley of the Eagles is awarded a National Medal of Humanities from the Clinton White House.

1997: Bobby Sheehan (Bass for Blues Traveler) was arrested for cocaine possession in Winnipeg. He was later released on $5,000 bond.  He died in 1999 from a drug overdose.

1998: Frank Sinatra's estate sues Ross clothing stores of California for selling an unauthorized collection of the legend's songs called The Sinatra Collection.

2001: Jennifer Lopez married dancer Cris Judd in Calabasa California. The couple separated nine months later.

2004: Keith Moon's five-piece drum kit, custom-made for The Who drummer in 1968, sold for $215,772 in London to an American collector, setting a world auction record for a set of drums.

2004: Randy Travis receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2007: US rapper 50 Cent was beaten by rival rap star Kanye West in the stand-off to claim the best-selling album in the US. West's Graduation shifted 957,000 copies in its first week of sales while 50 Cent's album, Curtis, only sold 691,000. Before the albums went on sale 50 Cent vowed he would retire from making solo albums if he was outsold by West. 50 Cent axed his forthcoming European tour and a performance at London Mobo Awards the Vodafone Live Music Awards in London, as well as at an MTV show in Germany. 

September 28

Births

1901: Ed Sullivan (Television Host)

1928: Koko Taylor (Blues Singer)

1938: Ben E. King (R&B Singer)

1954: George Lynch (Guitarist for Dokken & Lynch Mob)

1966: Ginger Fish (Kenny Wilson) (Drums for Marilyn Manson)

1979: Bam Margera (Jackass)

1984: Melody Thornton (Singer for The Pussycat Dolls)

1987: Hilary Duff (Singer)

Events

1953: Country singer Johnny Horton marries Billie Jean Jones Eshliman, widow of Hank Williams Sr.

1963: A full two months before "I Want To Hold Your Hand" finally breaks Beatlemania in the US, New York disc jockey Murray The K obtains a copy of the Beatles' last single, "She Loves You," and plays it on his radio show for two solid weeks, becoming the first American DJ to play a Beatles record. The response is tepid.

1968: Janis Joplin manager Albert Grossman announces that his client is leaving her band Big Brother and the Holding Company, feeling that they weren't "growing together."

1968: The Beatles started a nine week run at No.1 on the singles chart with 'Hey Jude'. The Paul McCartney song written about Lennon's son Julian gave the group their 16th US No.1 and the biggest selling single of 1968.

1972: David Bowie catapults into US superstardom overnight when he sells out tonight's gig at Carnegie Hall.

1973: The Rolling Stones appear on the premiere of Don Kirshner's Rock Concert on ABC, performing "It's Only Rock N' Roll (But I Like It)," marking their first appearance on US television in six years.

1974: Bad Company went to No.1 on the US album chart with their self-titled debut album. Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke had come out of Free, while Mick Ralphs had played guitar with Mott the Hoople and Boz Burrell was bass player for King Crimson before the group formed in 1973.

1976: George Harrison, currently ill with hepatitis, is sued by his American label, A&M, for $6 million for failing to deliver his latest album, 33 1/3, on time.

1987: The British tabloid The Sun reports erroneously that Elton John keeps several guard dogs with their larynxes removed so that he can't hear them bark, sparking a successful libel lawsuit from John that revolutionizes the way the tabloids in England deal with celebrities.

1989: Jimmy Buffett publishes his first book, a collection of short fiction entitled Tales From Margaritaville.

1991: Miles Davis died from the combined effects of a stroke, pneumonia and respiratory failure in Santa Monica, California at the age of 65.

1991: Garth Brooks went to No.1 on the US album chart with 'Ropin' The Wind'. The album spent a total of eighteen weeks at the No.1 position and 70 weeks on the chart selling over 11m copies. It became the first country album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart.

1991: Guns N' Roses released 2 albums 'Use Your Illusion I' and 'Use Your Illusion II' which debut at number 1 and number 2 on the album chart.

1991: On the week of their album ‘Nevermind’ being released, Nirvana made an appearance at the Tower Records store in New York City and then played a show at The Marquee Club in New York. Their single ‘Smell’s Like Teen Spirit’ had also entered the US Top 20 this week.

1995: Bobby Brown's car was riddled with bullets in Boston's Roxbury section. The gun battle killed his sister's fiancé.

1996: Bob Dylan is nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature for his songwriting by Gordon Ball literature professor at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, VA.

2004: Producer Phil Spector was charged with the murder of actress Lana Clarkson in an unsealed indictment. Spector was in attendance at a Los Angeles court as the indictment about the slaying of 40-year-old Clarkson was read. He remained free on $1 million bail.

2009: Adam Goldstein (DJ AM.), American club DJ and musician died of an accidental drug overdose at home in New York City aged 36. Goldstein had survived a plane crash along with Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker in September 2008.

September 26

Births

1898: George Gershwin (Composer & Pianist)

1925: Marty Robbins (Country Artist)

1926: Julie London (Torchsong Singer)

1945: Bryan Ferry (Singer for Roxy Music & Solo)

1947: Lynn Anderson (Country Singer)

1948: Olivia Newton-John (Pop Singer)

1955: Carlene Carter (Country Artist)

1960: Doug Supernaw (Country Artist)

1962: Tracey Thorn (Vocals for Everything But The Girl)

1964: John Tempesta (Drummer for Exodus, White Zombie & Testament)

1964: Nicki French (Dance music Singer)

1965: Cindy Herron (Vocals for En Vogue)

1967: Shannon Hoon (Singer for Blind Melon)

1972: Shawn Stockman (Vocals for Boyz II Men)

1981: Christina Milian (Singer)

Events

1908: The first stereo advertisement, for an Edison Phonograph, appears in the Saturday Evening Post.

1937: Bessie Smith died at age 43 after being critically injured in a car accident outside of Memphis, Tenn.

1955: Debbie Reynolds marries Eddie Fisher in New York City, a marriage that will last just four tumultuous years before Fisher leaves America's Sweetheart for Elizabeth Taylor.

1956: The mayor of Tupelo, MS declares today Elvis Presley Day in honor of its favorite son; among others, a young Tammy Wynette is in the audience at the concert Elvis gives later.

1957: The musical West Side Story, a retelling of Romeo and Juliet with New York City gang members, debuts on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre. It would run for 732 performances.

1961: Folksinger Bob Dylan lands his first major gig, opening for the Greenbriar Boys for two weeks at Gerde's Folk City in New York. Critic Robert Shelton of the New York Times says of today's performance: "Bob Dylan is one of the most distinctive stylists to play in a Manhattan cabaret in months... there is no doubt that he is bursting at the seams with talent... Mr. Dylan's voice is anything but pretty... a searing intensity pervades his songs. Mr. Dylan's highly personalized approach toward folk song is still evolving." This review essentially launches Dylan's career.

1964 : The Kinks released the single "You Really Got Me” in the US.

1965: At the end of a European tour Roger Daltry knocked out Keith Moon and was fired from The Who. The band were playing two shows in one night in Denmark, when an argument broke out between all four band members. Daltry was reinstated the following day.

1965: Queen Elizabeth II presents the Beatles with the Order of the British Empire, recommended by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who said later: "I saw the Beatles as having a transforming effect on the minds of youth, mostly for the good. It kept a lot of kids off the streets." The Beatles, who reportedly get high in a bathroom before the event, are said to be delighted, though many older and more conservative honorees return their honors in protest.

1967: Pink Floyd played the first of three nights at the Fillmore in San Francisco, the groups first ever live dates in the US.

1969: Legendary promoter Bill Graham opens the Fillmore West, a West Coast version of his popular New York "rock ballroom," in San Francisco.

1970: Motown announces that its newest singing sensation, the Jackson 5, have sold ten million records worldwide in just nine months.

1975: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, starring Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and a young unknown singer who goes only by the name of Meat Loaf, opens in Westwood, CA. A film version of the popular off-Broadway musical hit, it is an instant flop nationwide, and is miraculously resuscitated some time later when audiences at the midnight showings in New York City begin to talk back to the screen, creating a cult phenomenon that lasts to this day.

1979: The Clash released their first U.S. single. It was their remake of Bobby Fuller Four's "I Fought The Law."

1981: Bruce Dickinson joined UK rock band Iron Maiden, (Dickinson had been the vocalist with Samson).

1984: Paul Anka is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6840 Hollywood Blvd.

1988: "Talk Is Cheap" was released by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. It was his first solo album.

2002: Country artist Doug Supernaw is arrested outside a bar in Brenham, Texas, after fighting with five police officers. He's charged with public intoxication, assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.

2003: Robert Palmer, a heavy smoker, died in Paris, France, from a heart attack at the age of 54.

2012: Singer Andy Williams died after a long battle with bladder cancer at age 84.