August 23

Births

1912: Gene Kelly (Singer & Dancer)

1917: Tex Williams (Country Singer)

1936: Rudy Lewis (Singer with The Drifters)

1946: Keith Moon (Drummer for The Who)

1949: Rick Springfield (Guitar & Singer)

1951:Jimi Jamison (Singer for Survivor)

1960: Stephen Maynard Clark (Lead Guitar for Def Leppard)

1961: Dean Deleo (Guitar for Stone Temple Pilots)

1962: Shaun Ryder (Vocals for Happy Mondays)

1974: Shifty Shellshock (Seth Brooks Binzer)(Singer for Crazy Town)

1978: Julian Casablancas (Guitar & Vocals for The Strokes)

Events

1947: Margaret Truman,  President Truman's daughter, gave her first public performance as a singer. The event was at the Hollywood Bowl and had an audience of 15,000.

1962: John Lennon marries Cynthia Powell, already two months pregnant with their son Julian, at Liverpool's Mount Pleasant Registry Office, with Paul McCartney and George Harrison as witnesses. Fans milling about the offices find out about the marriage immediately, spoiling plans to keep it a secret. Manager Brian Epstein, who had served as best man, then buys lunch for the wedding party at the local cafeteria Reece's and gives the new couple use of his apartment. The marriage would last six years. On the same day, local paper Mersey Beat officially announces the replacement of Pete Best with Ringo Starr.

1963: The Rolling Stones appeared on UK TV show Ready, Steady, Go! for the first time, performing their debut single ‘Come On.’ The group made a total of 20 appearances on the show between 1963 and 1966.

1965: The Beatles' second film, Help! has its US premiere in New York City.

1970: Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground performed together for the last time at the New York Club 'Max's Kansas City'. Reed worked as a typist for his father for the next two years, at $40 per week.

1974: The local papers report that John Lennon, while staying in mistress' May Pang's New York apartment during his infamous "lost weekend," has spotted a UFO. John's next album, Walls and Bridges, contains this notation in the inner booklet: "On 23 August 1974, I saw a UFO J.L."

1975: Joy Division singer Ian Curtis married Deborah Woodruff, whom he met while still at school, when he was 19 and she was 18. They remained married until his death when he hanged himself in the kitchen of his house in Macclesfield, England at the age of 23.

1987: A 20th anniversary "Summer Of Love" concert headlined by the Grateful Dead at Calaveras County Fairgrounds in Angel Camp, CA goes horribly wrong when an escaped felon, wandering in the crowd, shoots a pursuing police officer while trying to escape.

1993: News of Michael Jackson's child molestation investigation is finally made public by the Los Angeles police.

1993: Duran Duran received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

1998: "Scary Spice" Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls announced that she was pregnant.

1999: Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers marries his third wife, Patti Arnold, at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

2000: Kenny Loggins is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2003: Trace Adkins joins the Grand Ole Opry, officially inducted by Ronnie Milsap and Lorrie Morgan. On his big night, he performs "Chrome," "Hot Mama" and "Then They Do".

2004: Queen becomes the first band officially sanctioned by the Iranian government since the 1979 cultural revolution that outlawed rock groups. Lead singer Freddie Mercury, born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar of Indian parents, had remained quite popular in the country.

2004: The Pocahontas Village Board in Illinois votes to rename the town's Pocahontas Community Park as Gretchen Wilson Park.

2005: Bay City Rollers' lead singer Les McKeown is arraigned on cocaine possession and distribution charges in London. He is eventually acquitted of the intent to distribute.

2007: Queen guitarist Brian May is finally awarded his doctorate in astrophysics by London's Imperial College -- the very Ph. D. title he was seeking when he left the college during the band's first flush of success.

August 22

Births

1862: Claude Debussy (Composer)

1917: John Lee Hooker (Legendary Blues Guitarist)

1926: Bob Flanagan (Singer in The Four Freshmen)

1938: Dale Hawkins (Guitarist & Singer)

1945: Ron Dante (Lead Singer for The Archies)

1946: Gary "Mutha" Withem (Keyboards for Gary Puckett and the Union Gap)

1948: David Marks (Rhythm Guitar & Vocals for The Beach Boys)

1957: Holly Dunn (Country Singer)

1958: Vernon Reid (Guitar for Living Colour)

1959: Juan Croucier (Bass for Ratt)

1960: Collin Ray (Country Singer)

1961: Debbie Peterson (Drums for The Bangles)

1961: Roland Orzabal (Singer & Guitarist for Tears For Fears)

1963: Tori Amos (Singer / Songwriter)

1967: Layne Staley (Singer for Alice In Chains)

1972: Paul Doucette (Rhythm Guitar for Matchbox 20)

1973: Howie D (Howard Dwaine Dorough) (Backstreet Boys)

Events

1906: The Victor Talking Machine Company, headquartered in Camden, NJ, begins manufacturing the world's first mass-market home record player, the Victrola. Price: $200.

1938: America's most famous dancing partners, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, appear together on the cover of Life magazine.

1956: Elvis begins shooting his first movie, Love Me Tender, a Civil War drama that has been renamed from The Reno Brothers in order to capitalize on his new single. Elvis is billed third, but his role, originally offered to Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter, is beefed up to match his new popularity.

1956: The Frank Tashlin-directed film The Girl Can't Help It has its Hollywood premiere. Featuring performances by Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, The Platters, Fats Domino, and Julie London, this comedy is usually considered the best of the Fifties' rock and roll movies.

1962: Granada Television films the Beatles during a lunchtime gig at Liverpool's Cavern Club for the show Know The North, representing what was then thought to be their very first filmed performance. It was not aired at the time. At the end of one song, fans can be heard shouting "We want Pete!" in reference to drummer Pete Best, who'd just been kicked out of the group.

1963: EMI announces a half-million advance orders in Britain for the Beatles' upcoming single, "She Loves You."

1964: Alvin and the Chipmunks' label, Liberty, reports that their cover album of Beatles songs is moving 25,000 copies a day.

1965: Awaiting their favorite group at Granada Television's Manchester, England studios, over 200 screaming Rolling Stones fans break through security barriers, causing the security guards on duty to turn the fire hoses on them.

1966: New York City teenagers Carol Hopkins and Susan Richmond climbed out onto the ledge on the second floor of a city hotel and threatened to jump unless they could get to meet The Beatles. Police talked then down.

1968: Having come home from vacation to find her husband in bed with Yoko Ono, John Lennon's first wife Cynthia files for divorce -- one day before their sixth anniversary.

1968: Ringo Starr quit The Beatles during the White Album sessions when the constant bickering and tension became too much for him. The news of Ringo's departure was kept secret, and he rejoined the sessions on September 3. After Ringo walked out, the remaining Beatles recorded ‘Back In the USSR’, with Paul on drums and John playing bass.

1968: Country singers George Jones and Tammy Wynette announce their marriage, although it doesn't actually take place for another six months.

1969: The Beatles hold their very last photographic shoot as a group, occurring on the lawn of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's home in Tittenhurst in Ascot, England.

1970: Songwriter Elton John signs with Uni, a division of MCA, as a solo act.

1970: Bread went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Make It With You', the group's only No.1 hit, it made No.5 in the UK.

1970: Eric Clapton's loose assemblage of musician friends, dubbed Derek and the Dominoes back in June, begin recording their only album, Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs.

1978: Sex Pistol Sid Vicious made his last live stage appearance when he appeared with Rat Scabies from The Damned, former Sex Pistol Glen Matlock and Nancy Spungen at London's Electric Ballroom. In the audience: Elvis Costello, Blondie, Joan Jett , The Slits and Captain Sensible.

1979: Led Zeppelin released In Through the Out Door, their last album of original material, ‘Fool in the Rain’ was released as a single in the US.

1983: Country singer Crystal Gayle and husband-manager Bill Gatzimos have their first baby, Katherine Claire.

1985: Rick Nelson and Fats Domino begin filming the PBS-TV special Rockin' With Rick And Fats, which will turn out to be Nelson's last television appearance before his untimely death in a plane crash.

1998: During his show at the Arrowhead Pond (now Honda Center) in Anaheim, CA, Elton John is joined onstage by fan Jim Carrey, who duets with him on a perfectly serious version of "Rocket Man." Carrey then sits at the piano and plays it by bashing his head onto the keys.

2001: An attack of severe bronchitis causes Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks to cancel two upcoming shows.

2003: Norwegian Elvis impersonator Kjell Bjornestad set a new world record by performing the King's repetoire for 26 straight hours.

2003: The IRS confiscated personal belongings of R&B Singer Peabo Bryson to pay back taxes.

2004: Al Dvorin, the announcer who coined the phrase "Elvis has left the building" while working the King's Seventies concerts, dies in a car crash en route home from a Californian Elvis convention.

2007: Former Savage Garden singer Darren Hayes was arrested on suspicion of racially abusing a member of staff at a Thai restaurant in Soho, London. Hayes was released on bail pending further inquiries.

August 21

Births

1904: Count Basie (Band Leader & Pianist)

1928: Art Farmer (Jazz Trumpeter)

1938: Kenny Rogers (Country Singer)

1941: Tom Coster (Keyboards for Santana)

1944: Jackie DeShannon (Singer / Songwriter)

1947: Carl Giammarese (Lead Guitar & Vocals for The Buckinghams)

1951: Glenn Hughes (Bass for Trapeze, Deep Purple & Black Country Communion)

1952: Joe Strummer (Singer & Guitarist for The Clash)

1954: Steve Smith (Drums for Journey)

1957: Budgie (Peter Edward Clarke) (Drummer for Siouxsie and the Banshees &The Creatures)

1961: David Morales (DJ & Producer)

1967: Serj Tankian (Singer for System of a Down)

1971: Liam Howlett (Keyboards for The Prodigy)

1979: Kelis Rogers (R&B Singer) Married to rapper Nas

Events

1920: Elvis Presley makes his first public stage appearance outside of his home state when he appears at the Mint Club in Gladewater, TX.

1961: Patsy Cline recorded the classic Willie Nelson song, ‘Crazy’. She was still on crutches after going through a car windshield in a head-on collision two months earlier.

1965: The Rolling Stones started a three week run at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Out Of Our Heads' the group's first US No.1 album.

1966: In an incident that cements the group's desire never to tour again, the Beatles are forced to play under a tarp at the Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, MI, due to heavy rains. (In addition, they'd already played an afternoon show and traveled some 400 miles to make this one.)

1968: Jerry Lee Lewis agrees to play Iago in a controversial (and ultimately disastrous) rock-opera version of Shakespeare's Othello entitled Catch My Soul, debuting in London.

1972: At a Jefferson Airplane show in Akron, OH, a fight breaks out on stage between the band and the local police -- present because of an earlier bomb threat -- after guitarist Paul Kantner refers to them as "pigs." During the brawl, lead singer Grace Slick is maced in the eyes, Kantner is injured after being thrown to the floor, and bassist Jack Casady is arrested. Spectators throw rocks at the police, who respond with tear gas.

1976: Worldwide sales of Elvis Presley records pass the four hundred million mark.

1979: "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" brings The Charlie Daniels Band the only gold single of its career

1980: Linda Ronstadt makes her Broadway debut in Joseph Papp's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, also starring Rex Smith and Kevin Kline.

1982: U2 singer Bono married Alison Stewart, his girlfriend from 1975 at All Saints Church, Raheny in Ireland. U2 bassist Adam Clayton acted as Bono's best man.

1983: Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone had a four-hour brain surgery operation, after being found unconscious in a New York Street where he had been involved in a fight.

1993: Following up the claims made by a child who'd recently spent time there, Los Angeles police conduct a raid on Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch, searching for evidence of child pornography.

1993: Elton John's longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin marries his third wife, Stephanie Haymes.

1994: After he crashes his Porsche into a tree near his home in Aspen, CO, John Denver is charged with driving under the influence. It is his second such offense in two years.

1996: Having served two years of his original five year sentence for kidnapping and torturing a guest, Rick James is released from Folsom State Penitentiary in California.

1996: Former Talking Heads lead singer David Byrne sued to prevent the rest of the group from touring as "The Heads." The suit was settled out of court.

1997: Former Stone Roses drummer Alan Wren was jailed for seven days after being rude to a top Manchester Magistrate. He was before the court due to having no car insurance and lost his temper after being quizzed about his earnings.

1997: Oasis' third album 'Be Here Now', became one of the fastest selling albums ever in the UK, selling over a million copies on the first day of release.

2003: Johnny Cash holds his final session, recording "Engine One-Forty-Three" at the Cash Cabin Studio in Hendersonville, Tennessee

2005: Robert Moog was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor on April 28, 2005. Nearly four months later, he died at the age of 71 in Asheville, North Carolina on this day.

2008: Paedophile and ex-pop star Gary Glitter returned to Thailand after being refused entry to Hong Kong. Chinese authorities informed the UK Foreign Office they had barred Glitter from entry. He was earlier deported from Vietnam after spending almost three years in jail for sexually abusing two girls. He flew to Hong Kong from Bangkok after refusing to fly to the UK, and had made a plea for medical treatment after saying he was suffering a heart attack.

2008: Drummer Buddy Harman died of congestive heart failure, aged 79. Worked with Elvis Presley (‘Little Sister’), Patsy Cline (‘Crazy’), Roy Orbison (‘Pretty Woman’), Johnny Cash (‘Ring Of Fire’), Tammy Wynette (‘Stand By Your Man’). Was the first house drummer for The Grand Ole Opry. He can be heard on over 18,000 recordings.

2010: Brad Paisley headlines a stadium for the first time, playing for 51,000 fans at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, with Jason Aldean, Sara Evans, Darius Rucker and Easton Corbin.

August 20

Births

1923: Jim Reeves (Country Singer)

1927: Joya Sherrill (Jazz Singer)

1931: Paul Robi (The Platters)

1934: "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow (Steel Guitar for The Flying Burrito Brothers)

1935: Justin Tubb (Country Singer)

1941: Dave Brock (Guitar for Hawkwind)

1942: Isaac Hayes (R&B Singer)

1946: Ralf Hutter (Keyboards & Lead Singer for Kraftwerk)

1947: James Pankow (Trombone for Chicago)

1948: Robert Plant (Vocals for Led Zeppelin)

1949: Phil Lynott (Bass & Lead Vocals for Thin Lizzy)

1952: John Hiatt (Guitarist and Singer)

1966: “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott (Guitarist for Pantera)

1971: Fred Durst (Vocals for Limp Bizkit)

1979: Jamie Cullum (Jazz Singer / Songwriter)

1992: Demi Lovato (Pop Singer)

Events

1920: Detroit, MI's 8MK (today known as WWJ 950 AM) goes on the air as America's first radio station, eventually offering the first news broadcast, sports play-by-play, and religious broadcast.

1960: Connie Francis begins filming her first movie, Where The Boys Are, in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The first college teen comedy to really explore the sex lives of its characters, it served as the inspiration for countless "spring break" movies, as well as the homage/parody Grease.

1967: Today's New York Times reports on a new method of noise reduction developed by Ray Dolby of Dolby Labs, a modified version of the original "Dolby" process already at use in studios. This one, named "Dolby B," would be for home recording and lead directly to the revolution in blank audio cassette tapes.

1968: Dr. David Lipscomb of the University of Tennessee reports his recent findings that guinea pigs suffered damage to the cells in their cochlea (inner ear) when exposed to 120 decibels of rock music over three months. Lipscomb would later recant his findings after noticing that very few rock musicians seemed to suffer similar damage.

1968: Bobby Darin, still traumatized by the recent assassination of his good friend, Senator Robert Kennedy, sells off his music publishing and production company, TM Music, for one million dollars.

1969: The four members of the Beatles gather in the Abbey Road studios in London for the last time as they complete work on "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and ostensibly finalize the track order and mastering of their last recorded album, Abbey Road. (Three of the Beatles would later be present in the studio to overdub salvaged tracks from the Let It Be sessions.)

1969: Frank Zappa disbanded the Mothers of Invention right after an eight-day tour in Canada. Zappa said that he was "tired of playing for people who clap for all the wrong reasons."

1974: David Allan Coe records "the perfect country & western song," "You Never Even Called Me By My Name," at Nashville's Columbia Studio A, namechecking Waylon Jennings, Charley Pride, Merle Haggard and songwriter Steve Goodman in the process.

1979: Rod Stewart and his first wife, Alana Hamilton, become the proud parents of their first child, Kimberly.

1987: Lindsey Buckingham, who had helped turn Fleetwood Mac into one of the biggest-selling groups of the Seventies, leaves the group after refusing to tour behind its latest album, Tango In The Night.

1987: Alabama dedicates a section of its Interstate 65 highway as the Hank Williams Memorial Lost Highway, a reference to one of his best-known songs. The fifty-mile stretch begins near his hometown of Georgiana and runs north to Montgomery, where he is buried.

1992: A US Doctor filed a $35m lawsuit against the Southwest Bell phone company. He alleged that his wife died because he could not reach 911 due to all lines being jammed by demand of Garth Brooks concert tickets.

1992: Singer Sting weds Trudie Styler.

1996: Snoop Doggy Dogg settled out of court with the Woldemariam family in a wrongful death suit that the family brought against the rapper three years earlier. Twenty-year-old Phillip Woldemariam was shot and killed by Snoop Doggy Dogg's body guard from the back of a moving car which the rapper himself drove. The two claimed the shooting occurred in self-defense.

2001: The remaining dates of Foo Fighters European tour was cancelled when drummer Taylor Hawkins was admitted to a hospital.

2003: In Rhode Island, OSHA fined Derco LLC, which operated The Station club, $85,200 for one "willful" violation and six serious violations related to the February 20 fire that killed 100 and injured almost 200. Great White was fined $7,000 for failing to protect employees from fire hazards.

August 19

Births

1939: Ginger Baker (Drums for Cream & Blind Faith)

1940: Johnny Nash (Pop Singer)

1945: Ian Gillian (Lead Singer for Deep Purple)

1951: John Deacon (Bass for Queen)

1963: Joey Tempest (Lead Singer of Europe)

1966: LeAnn Womack (Country Singer)

1967: Tabitha Soren (MTV reporter)

1970: MC Eric (Eric martin) (Technotronic)

1972: Elizabeth Wolfgramm (Singer in The Jets)

1989: Lil’ Romeo (Percy Romeo Miller Jr) (Rapper)

Events

1957: Pat Boone appears on the cover of Newsweek with the tag "His Refreshing Song Fills The Air." The article inside claims that "the teen-agers are finally revolting against the musical delinquents."

1966: Just before their first show at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, TN (which is picketed by local KKK members), the Beatles receive an anonymous phone call warning them that at least one of them will be assassinated on stage as a result of John Lennon's "bigger than Jesus" remarks. Midway through their second show of the evening, a lit firecracker is thrown on stage, frightening the band and making them look around to see which of them had been shot. This incident is one of the main reasons the Beatles make this tour their last.

1967: Ringo Starr and his wife, the former Maureen Cox, give birth to their second son, Jason.

1968: The final episode of The Monkees, directed by Micky Dolenz, airs for the last time on NBC-TV. The last song performed in this, the 58th episode, is "Zor And Zam."

1969: Crosby, Stills, and Nash appear on ABC-TV's Dick Cavett Show, the first band to report on the just-concluded Woodstock festival. Joni Mitchell appears, too, to debut her new song about the concert.

1972: The musical variety show The Midnight Special, featuring DJ Wolfman Jack as announcer and John Denver as host, debuts on NBC. The first song performed is War's "Slippin' Into Darkness."

1973: Kris Kristofferson marries Rita Coolidge at his Malibu home in a ceremony officiated by his father, an ordained minister. The marriage would last seven years.

1979: American Rockabilly singer Dorsey Burnette died from a heart attack at his home in Canoga Park, California. He wrote 'It's Late', a hit for Ricky Nelson and Shakin' Stevens.

1980: An asthma attack forces Alice Cooper to cancel tonight's show in Toronto, sparking a riot in the crowd of 1,400.

1988: Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" is named the most played song in the first hundred years of the jukebox's existence.

1997 - Fleetwood Mac's reunion album "The Dance" was released. It was their first album since 1987 and went on to sell over 5M copies.

1999: Lauryn Hill won New Artist Of The Year and Album Of The Year at the US 'Source Hip Hop Music Awards' in Los Angeles. R. Kelly won R&B Artist of The Year; DMX won Artist Of The Year and solo and live performer Of The Year.

2001: American soul singer Betty Everett died aged 61. She had the 1964 US No.6 single 'The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss'), later covered by Cher.

2001: Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted made his first live appearance with EchoBrain.

2003: A man from Nottinghamshire who sent threatening emails to S Club singer Tina Barrett was jailed for six months. 41 year-old Steven Hindley, showered the singer with roses, chocolates and teddy-bears. But when the messages were ignored, he began to mention threats to the band, including a potential sniper attack. One email begged Miss Barrett to visit him at his home, claiming he was the victim of an incurable brain-tumour and had just three weeks to live.

2005: A life-size bronze statue designed by Paul Daly of Phil Lynott (Lead Singer of thin Lizzy) was unveiled on Harry Street in Dublin. The ceremony was attended by his former Thin Lizzy band members Gary Moore, Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham.

2008: Saxophonist LeRoi Moore, a founding member of the Dave Matthews Band, died aged 46. Publicist Ambrosia Healy said he died from injuries sustained in a vehicle accident in June on his Virginia farm.

2008: Lady Gaga's debut album "The Fame" was released.  The album has sold over 12M copies.