June 22

Births

1936: Kris Kristofferson (Country Singer / Songwriter & Guitarist)

1939: Bobby Harrison (Drums for Procol Harum)

1944: Peter Asher (Vocals for Peter and Gordon)

1947: Howard Kaylan (Lead Singer for The Turtles)

1948: Todd Rundgren (Singer, Keyboards & Guitar)

1949: Larry Junstrom (Bass for .38 Special & Lynyrd Skynyrd)

1953: Cyndi Lauper (Pop Singer)

1955: Green Gartside (Singer for Scritti Politti)

1957: Gary Beers (Bass for INXS)

1961: Jimmy Somerville (Singer for Bronski Beat)

1962: Bobby Gillespie (Guitar & Vocals for Primal Scream & Drums for The Jesus & Mary Chain)

1964: Mike Edwards (Lead Vocals, Guitar & Keyboards for Jesus Jones)

1970: Steven Page (Guitar & Vocals for Barenaked Ladies)

1973: Carson Daly (Late Night Host & TRL Host)

1976: Gordon Moakes (Multi-instrumentalist with Bloc Party)

1981: Chris Urbanowicz (Lead Guitar for Editors)

Events

1846: Adolphe Sax patents his new musical instrument in Paris, a new style of woodwind called the Saxophone that would function more as a member of the brass family. Although his patent would be challenged by other craftsmen, his instrument became an integral part of jazz, rock and roll, and ska.

1956: Elvis Presley started a three-day run playing 10 shows at the Paramount Theater in Atlanta, Georgia. The stage manager was told; "Pull all white lights. Presley works all in color, Presley act has no encore. When he leaves the stage, immediately close curtains.”

1957: Liverpool skiffle group The Quarrymen, later to morph into the Beatles, play their first major gig at a local gig by performing on the back of a coal truck. Four years later to the day, the Beatles (with Pete Best on drums) would have their first formal recording session, performing "My Bonnie," "When The Saints Go Marching In," "Why Can't You Love Me Again," "Nobody's Child," and "Take Out Some Insurance On Me Baby" while backing singer Tony Sheridan. The sessions, produced by Bert Kaempfert in Hamburg, Germany, also feature "Ain't She Sweet" and the instrumental "Cry For A Shadow," which are both performed by the group alone.

1963: The Surfaris released the single "Wipe Out".

1963: 13-year old Stevie Wonder first entered the US singles chart as Little Stevie Wonder with 'Fingertips Parts One and Two.'

1964: Barbra Streisand signs a $200,000 ten-year contract with CBS for a series of television specials.

1967: The drug possession trial of Rolling Stone members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards opened in London.

1968: The Jeff Beck Group makes its US stage debut in New York at the Fillmore East ballroom.

1968: Rolling Stone first reports on the existence of an unissued Bob Dylan album recorded with The Band during his extended convalescence at Woodstock, NY; it would finally see the light of day in 1975 as The Basement Tapes.

1969: Blind Faith's first and only LP was released.  The band consisted of Eric Clapton on guitar & vocals, Steve Winwood on keyboards and Ginger Baker on drums.

1969: Judy Garland was found dead in the bathroom of a rented Chelsea, London house. The coroner, Gavin Thursdon, stated at the inquest that the cause of death was "an incautious self-overdosage" of barbiturates at age 47.

1975: Eric Clapton joins the Rolling Stones for a version of "Sympathy For The Devil" during the band's Madison Square Garden concert.

1981: John Lennon's murderer pleads guilty to his crime and is sentenced to 20 Years to Life in New York's Attica State prison. He has since been up for parole five times, and has been denied every time.

1985: Bryan Adams started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Heaven', his first No.1 single. The song had been featured in the film 'Night In Heaven'.

1987: Singer & Dancer Fred Astaire died from pneumonia ay 88 years old.

1988: Peter Tosh's murderer, Dennis Lobban, is sentenced to hanging by a court in his native Jamaica. Lobban, who was known to Tosh, and two others had murdered the reggae star in his home the previous year after a failed robbery.

1988: American session guitarist Jesse Ed Davis died of a heroin overdose after collapsing in a laundry room in Venice, California, aged 43. Worked with Conway Twitty, The Monkees, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Leonard Cohen, Keith Moon, Jackson Browne, Steve Miller, Harry Nilsson and Taj Mahal.

1990: Billy Joel performs a concert at Yankee Stadium, the first rocker ever to do so.

1992: Nirvana's Kurt Cobain was rushed to hospital after a gig in Belfast, Northern Ireland suffering from acute stomach pains brought on by ulcers.

1992: Three members of M.C. Hammer's tour crew were wounded in a drive in shooting incident, three days later Joseph Mack, a dancer in Hammer's entourage was shot on stage during a concert in Nevada.

1996: The brother of singer Diana Ross, Arthur Ross and his wife were murdered by suffocation in the basement of their rented Detroit home. The badly decomposed bodies were discovered after neighbors complained of a foul odor coming from the house. Two men were later charged with murder and robbery. Arthur Ross had written songs for Marvin Gaye, The Miracles and Madonna.

2000: After giving himself various new identities' during the 90's, The Artist Formally Known As Prince announced he wanted to be known as Prince again.

2002: U2 guitarist 'The Edge' married his girlfriend of ten years Morleigh Steinberg in Eze in the south of France. The couple first met when she was a belly dancer on the bands Zoo TV tour. Guest's included Bono, Eurythmics Dave Stewart and Lenny Kravitz.

2005: Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill opens in Oklahoma City. The singer is on hand for an opening-day ribbon-cutting ceremony.

2008: Coldplay went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Viva La Vida', their first UK No.1. History was made by this single, as it had no physical CD-single release in the UK, being available by internet download only. The song won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 2009.

June 21

Births

1932: O.C. Smith (R&B Singer)

1944: Ray Davies (Guitarist & Lead Singer of The Kinks)

1947: Joey Molland (Guitar for Badfinger)

1950: Joey Kramer (Drummer for Aerosmith)

1951: Nils Lofgren (Guitarist for Bruce Springsteen)

1952: Marcella Detroit (Singer for Shakespears Sister)

1957: Mark Brzezicki (Drums for Big Country)

1959: Kathy Mattea (Country Singer)

1961: Kip Winger (Singer for Winger)

1969: Pat Sansone (multi-instrumentalist for Wilco)

1970: Pete Rock (Peter Phillips) (DJ and Rapper)

1976: Michael Einziger (Guitar for Incubus)

1981: Brandon Flowers (Vocals & Keyboards for The Killers)

1985: Kris Allen (American Idol Winner 2009)

Events

1962: As part of manager Brian Epstein's plan to get the band wider exposure by having them open for established acts, the Beatles open for Bruce Chanel of "Hey! Baby!" fame at the Tower Ballroom, in New Brighton, England. Backstage, Channel's harmonica player, who will go on to fame as Delbert McClinton, offers John Lennon some tips on playing harmonica, which Lennon will later put to use on the band's first single, "Love Me Do."

1966: The Rolling Stones sue fourteen New York City hotels who have refused to admit the band during their North American tour, disingenuously accusing them of "discrimination on account of national origin."

1966: Jimmy Page made his live debut with The Yardbirds at the Marquee Club, London.

1966: Tom Jones needed 14 stitches in his forehead after his Jaguar was involved in a car crash in Marble Arch, London.

1967: San Francisco's Golden Gate Park celebrates the Summer Solstice with a free concert with entertainment by The Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Quicksilver Messenger Service.

1968: Influenced by the recent assassination of Robert Kennedy, Steve Binder, director of Elvis Presley's upcoming NBC-TV special, asks musical director Bones Howe to write a "socially conscious" song for Elvis' big closing number, which had been slated to be the standard "I'll Be Home For Christmas." Howe writes the replacement song, "If I Can Dream," that afternoon; after hearing it a half-dozen times, Elvis agrees to end with it.

1970: Who guitarist Pete Townshend, while waiting for his flight at the airport in Memphis, likens the band's latest album, Tommy, to the atomic bomb, causing officials who misheard the remark to search the facilities for a real bomb.

1973: The band Bread, already having decided to break up, play their last live gig ever in Salt Lake City after one of its tour trucks flips over and destroys most of its gear.

1975: Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore leaves the band to form Rainbow.

1975: James Taylor's "How Sweet It Is" was released.

1976: Reba McEntire marries Charlie Battles at the First Baptist Church in Stringtown, Oklahoma. They honeymoon in Texas, where they promote her latest single to radio stations.

1979: Angus MacLise, Velvet Underground's first drummer died of tuberculosis aged 34. He quit the band in 1965.

1980: French police arrested all members of The Stranglers after a concert at Nice University for allegedly starting a riot.

1981: After a number of lawsuits, deaths, and accidents, Steely Dan break up, not to fully reform onstage until 2000.

1988: The Rascals reunite onstage for the first time in eighteen years.

1990: Little Richard is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6840 Hollywood Blvd.

1994: George Michael lost his lawsuit against Sony Records. Michael claimed that his 15-year contract with Sony was unfair because the company could refuse to release albums it thought wouldn't be commercially successful. Michael vowed he would never record for Sony again. He re-signed with the company in 2003.

1999: Pantera rode a float in the Dallas Stars Stanley Cup victory parade in downtown Dallas. Pantera is responsible for the Stars' theme song.

2000: 39 year-old Karen McNeil who claimed she was the wife of Axl Rose and that she communicated with him telepathically was jailed for one year for stalking the singer.

2001: John Lee Hooker, American blues singer and guitarist, died in his sleep aged 83. He appeared and sang in the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers.

2003: Johnny Cash makes a surprise appearance live on stage in Hiltons, VA, near the birthplace of his recently-deceased wife June Carter Cash, saying "I don't hardly know what to say tonight about being up here without her... the pain is so severe, there's no way of describing it."

2007: After dating her for a full eighteen years, Tony Bennett marries teacher Susan Crow.

June 20

Births

1924: Chet Atkins (Country Singer & Guitarist)

1942: Brian Wilson (Singer in The Beach Boys)

1945: Anne Murray (Pop Singer)

1949: Lionel Richie (R&B Singer)

1954: Michael Anthony (Bass for Van Halen)

1960: John Taylor (Bass for Duran Duran)

1966: Stone Gossard (Lead Guitar for Pearl Jam)

1967: Murphy Karges (Bass for Sugar Ray)

1967: Jerome Fontamillas (Guitar & Keyboards for Switchfoot)

1967: Dan Tyminski (Bluegrass Singer / Songwriter in Alison Krauss & Union Station and Soggy Bottom Boys)

1971: Twiggy Ramirez (Jeordie Osborne White) (Bass for Marilyn Manson)

1973: Chino Moreno (Vocals for The Deftones)

1979: Chuck Wicks (Country Singer / Songwriter)

1983: Grace Potter (Singer for Grace Potter & The Nocturnals)

Events

1948: CBS-TV debuts its new variety show, entitled Toast Of The Town, featuring performances by Martin & Lewis and Rodgers & Hammerstein, and hosted by a New York Daily News entertainment columnist and critic named Ed Sullivan. It would go on to become The Ed Sullivan Show and become the longest-running variety show in US history at 23 years.

1959: In Paris, The management of the Lido Club calls Elvis Presley's hotel and demands that his entire female chorus line be returned in time for tonight's show.

1965: Ira Louvin (Singer & Mandolin Player in The Louvin Brothers) was hit and killed by a drunk driver at 41 years old.

1966: Capitol executives, reeling from the Beatles' latest scandal, replace the original "Butcher Cover" of the US album Yesterday and Today -- which featured the band posing with decapitated dolls and raw meat, to the horror of fans and record retailers -- with a more sedate, traditional band pose. The label decides to glue the new cover over the old one, resulting in one of the band's most prized collectibles. An unpeeled original "Butcher" fetches about $800.

1969: Northridge, CA hosts the Newport Rock festival, featuring Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Rascals, Ike and Tina Turner, Steppenwolf, Joe Cocker, Jethro Tull, and Jimi Hendrix, whose $125,000 fee is the highest ever paid to a rock act for one show.  A three day ticket cost $15.

1972: The Tallahatchie bridge in Sidon, MS, made famous by Bobbie Gentry's hit "Ode To Billie Joe," collapses. Today motorists use the newer bridge on County Road 512 to cross the river.

1973: American Bandstand airs its 20th anniversary special on ABC-TV, featuring Little Richard, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Three Dog Night, Johnny Mathis, Annette Funicello, and Cheech and Chong. It also features the first appearance of his many huge "all-star" rock jams.

1980: "It's Still Rock & Roll To Me" became Billy Joel's first #1 hit.

1981: A disco medley of oldies hits called "Stars On 45" hits #1 in the US, becoming a national phenomenon. The medley, which originated in Dutch dance clubs, begins with re-creations of Shocking Blue's "Venus" and The Archies' "Sugar Sugar" before segueing into an expert mimic of early Beatles hits.

1983: Twang king and guitar god Duane Eddy performs his first concert in fifteen years with a show in San Francisco.

1985: Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr married Angela Brown in San Francisco, California.

1987: Teddy Pendergrass marries his first and only wife, Karen Still.

1995: A Los Angeles judge rules that the Kingsmen and not their label, Scepter, are owners of the 1963 smash "Louie, Louie" and are entitled to back royalties.

1996: Westinghouse Electric becomes the first entity to cash in on the new 1996 Telecommunications Act by purchasing Infinity Broadcasting for 3.9 billion dollars. The act relaxed restrictions on how many radio and TV stations one company could own in a single market.

1997: Lawrence Payton of The Four Tops died from liver cancer aged 59.

2000: The Ronettes were awarded $2.6 million in “back earnings” from Phil Spector. New York judge Paula Omansky ruled that the legendary producer had cheated them out of royalties.

2004: Organisers at a Paul McCartney gig hired three jets to spray dry ice into the clouds so it wouldn’t rain during the concert. The gig in Petersburg, Russia, was McCartney’s 3,000 concert appearance. He had performed 2,535 gigs with the Quarrymen and the Beatles, 140 gigs with Wings and 325 solo shows.

2006: The BBC cancels its landmark weekly pop music show Top Of The Pops after a record 42 years on the air.

2008: Surrey University in England awarded Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page an honorary Doctorate in Music.

2008: American singer songwriter Jimmy Buffett announced that his Margaritaville Holdings has partnered with New York gambling company Coastal Marina to buy the Trump Marina Hotel Casino for $316 million. His vast business empire also included tequila, beer, frozen food, footwear, restaurants, a resort, a record label and a recording studio. In 2006, Rolling Stone magazine estimated Buffett's earnings at $44 million.