March 29

Births

1918: Pearl Bailey (Singer)

1940: Raymond Davis (Bass Singer in Parliament & Funkadelic)

1940: Astrud Gilberto (Brazilian Singer)

1943: Chad Allan (Original Singer for The Guess Who)

1943: Vangelis (Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou) (Composer)

1947: Bobby Kimball (Singer for Toto)

1956: Patty Donahue (Singer for The Waitresses)

1959: Perry Farrell (DJ Peretz) (Singer for Jane's Addiction & Porno For Pyros & DJ)

1967: John Popper (Singer & Harmonica for Blues Traveler)

Events

1958: New Army recruit Elvis Presley arrives for boot camp at Ft. Hood, TX. He is stationed there for six months, and insists on performing KP and guard duty like any other soldier. With a bank account larger than most soldiers, he is able to afford his own housing. His family arrives and moves into an off-base trailer.

1966: During a show in Marseilles, France, a rabid Rolling Stones fan throws a chair at singer Mick Jagger, opening a gash in his forehead that would require eight stitches to close.

1967: The Beatles record "With A Little Help From My Friends" (originally titled ‘Bad Finger Boogie’).

1970: Tonight's Ed Sullivan Show on CBS-TV features performances by Bobbie Gentry and Gladys Knight and the Pips, broadcast live from VA hospitals caring for Vietnam wounded.

1972: Elvis Presley records "Always On My Mind".

1972: Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant and Jimmy Page travel to Bombay (Mumbai) India to record versions of the band's songs "Friends" and "Four Sticks" with the city's symphony orchestra. Musical and cultural barriers prevent the experiment from being a success, but the duo would return two decades later triumphant, recording those songs and many more for the MTV special Unledded.

1973: In a move that was destined to happen, the group Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show get their picture (an illustration) on the cover of Rolling Stone after their recent novelty hit, in which they daydreamed about doing just that. The cover puckishly refers to the group as "What's-Their-Names," but the band does indeed "buy five copies for (their) mother(s)."

1975: This week's Billboard shows Led Zeppelin with all six of their studio albums currently present on the "Billboard 200" album chart, including a Number One with their latest, Physical Graffiti.

1976: In Memphis, Bruce Springsteen jumped a fence at Graceland in an attempt to see his idol, Elvis Presley.

1978: Tina Turner is officially divorced from husband Ike.

1980: Mantovani Died at the age of 74.

1980: A Chicago antiques dealer named Ronald Selle sues the Bee Gees, claiming that their 1978 hit "How Deep Is Your Love" borrows heavily from his own composition "Let It End." Although the Bee Gees deny the charge and claim to have never heard the track, a court would rule in Selle's favor. The group would win an appeal three years later.

1980: Pink Floyd's 1973 album Dark Side Of The Moon marks its 303rd week on the Billboard album charts, passing Carole King's Tapestry for longest stay on the "Billboard 200."  It remained on the charts for 741 weeks (from 1973 to 1988), longer than any other album in history, with an estimated 45 million copies sold.

1985: Michael Jackson is honored with a wax statue at London's famous Madame Tussaud's museum.

1985: Jeanine Deckers, The Singing Nun, died at age 52 after taking an overdose of sleeping pills in a suicide pact with a friend.

1986: Beatle records officially go on sale in Russia.

1986: Austrian singer Falco started a three-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Rock Me Amadeus'. Falco became the first German speaking artist to achieve a No.1 on the US charts.

1988: Madonna debuted on Broadway in "Speed The Plow."

2000: Phil Collins took out a high court action against two former members of Earth, Wind And Fire. Collins claimed his company had overpaid the musicians by $85,000 in royalties on tracks including ‘Sussudio’ and ‘Easy Lover’.

2001: A three-hour musical tribute is held at New York City's Radio City Music Hall in honor of the Beach Boys' guiding genius Brian Wilson, with vocal tributes in the form of covers by Paul Simon ("Surfer Girl"), Elton John ("God Only Knows"), and Billy Joel ("Don't Worry Baby"), as well as Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson, the Go-Go's, Carly Simon, David Crosby, Wilson Phillips, Aimee Mann, and songwriter Jimmy Webb. Wilson himself performs "Barbara Ann," "Fun, Fun, Fun," and "Surfin' U.S.A."

2005: After experiencing blurred vision at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony the month before, Neil Young enters a New York hospital to have a brain aneurysm removed.

2006: Tom Jones is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

2007: U2 singer Bono accepted an honorary knighthood at a ceremony in Dublin. Bono, 46, was not entitled to be called "Sir" because he is not a British citizen. His new title is Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE).

March 28

Births

1948: John Evans (Keyboardist for Jethro Tull)

1948: Milan Williams (Keyboardist for The Commodores)

1955: Reba McEntire (Country Singer)

1965: Steve Turner (Guitar for Mudhoney)

1966: Cheryl James (Salt from Salt-n-Pepa)

1969: James Atkin (Vocals for EMF)

1969: Rodney Atkins (Country Artist)

1976: Dave Keuning (Guitarist for The Killers)

1986: Lady Gaga (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) (Singer)

Events

1958: Blues musician and composer W.C. Handy died of bronchial pneumonia at Sydenham Hospital in New York City.

1958: Alan Freed's Big Beat Show tour kicks off the first of its 43 shows at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Danny and the Juniors, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, The Chantels, The Diamonds, Screaming Jay Hawkins, and more.

1964: Madame Tussaud's famous Wax Museum in London unveils its four new statues of the Beatles -- the first of any rock star to be created and displayed there. The figures will eventually become even more famous when the Beatles decide to use them on the cover of their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

1967: Van Morrison’s song "Brown Eyed Girl" is recorded.

1969: Joe Cocker played his first American concert.

1973: Pink Floyd's LP Dark Side Of The Moon hits #1.

1974: Delta-Blues artist Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup died of a heart attack in the Nassawadox hospital in Northampton County, Virginia.

1974: Rock group The Raspberries break up.

1975: Barbra Streisand attends tonight's Elvis Presley show in Vegas and meets the King backstage to discuss offering him the lead role in her latest film project: a remake of the classic A Star Is Born. Despite the fact that Streisand's boyfriend, stylist Jon Peters, is slated to produce and direct, Presley is said to be ecstatic about the project.

1976: Genesis began their first North American tour since Peter Gabriel left the band, appearing in Buffalo, New York, with Phil Collins taking over as lead singer.

1982: After driving erratically due to a toxic shock from drug abuse, David Crosby is arrested in San Diego for driving under the influence and possession of Quaaludes, cocaine, drug paraphernalia, and an unlicensed .45 pistol. When cops ask why Crosby is carrying the gun, he says two words: "John Lennon."

1984: Mick Fleetwood, whose band, Fleetwood Mac, had the biggest-selling album of all time just seven years earlier, files for bankruptcy.

1985: At 10:15 am EST, 6,000 North American radio stations begin playing the all-star benefit single, "We Are The World," written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and performed by a cast of 45 of music's biggest stars, including Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Diana Ross, Billy Joel, Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, and Daryl Hall. Proceeds from the sale of the single and related items -- some $38 million -- go to benefit victims of the recent Ethiopian famine.

1987: After hearing that Arizona Governor Evan Mecham would not honor the new national holiday Martin Luther King Day, the racially integrated Doobie Brothers move their upcoming show from Phoenix to Las Vegas.

1991: Eric Clapton quietly lays his son Conor, 4, to rest in England. The child, who had fallen from an apartment window a few days earlier, would later be the subject of Clapton's song "Tears In Heaven."

1992: over a $100,000 worth of damage was caused at The Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, California, when Ozzy Osbourne invited the first two rows of the audience on stage. Several others took up the offer and the band was forced to exit the stage.

1995: Country singer Lyle Lovett and actress Julia Roberts announced they were separating after 21 months of marriage.

1996: Twenty years to the day after first appearing with them on stage as their new lead singer, Genesis front man Phil Collins announces he is leaving the group.

1999: Freaky Tah (Lost Boyz) was killed by a ski-masked gunman who came up behind him and fired a single gunshot into his head. Freaky Tah was 27 years old.

2001: The artist formerly known as both Puffy and Puff Daddy said in an interview on MTV he now wanted to be known as P. Diddy. In August 2005, he changed his stage name to simply "Diddy."

2005: On Rev. Jesse Jackson's internet radio show, Michael Jackson claims that his recent child-molestation charges are a racist conspiracy.

2005: After playing a warm-up date the night before at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, U2 kicked off their Vertigo tour at the iPay One Center in San Diego, California. The 131 date world tour would see the band playing in North America, Europe, South America and Japan. By the time it finished, the Vertigo Tour had sold 4,619,021 tickets, grossing $389 million; the second-highest figure ever for a world tour.

2006: Tina Brown the sister-in-law of Whitney Houston sold pictures taken in her bathroom to the National Enquirer claiming Whitney Houston had been taking crack cocaine. The pictures showed drug paraphernalia including a crack-smoking pipe, rolling papers, cocaine-caked spoons and cigarette ends strewn across the surface tops of the bathroom.

2011: Rapper Rick Ross was arrested after police responded to a complaint about the smell of marijuana at a Hilton Hotel.

Upon checking, police confiscated 1 gram of what investigators believed to be marijuana.  He was issued a misdemeanor summons and released after the arrest.