April 10

Birthdays

1911: Martin Denny (Orchestra Leader)

1921: Sheb Wooley (Singer)

1932: Nate Nelson (The Flamingos)

1936: Bobbie Smith (The Spinners)

1947: Karl Russell (The Hues Corporation)

1947: Bunny Wailer (The Wailers)

1950: Eddie Hazel (Guitarist for Funkadelic)

1956: Neville Staples (The Specials)

1965: Nigel Pulsford (Bush)

1966: Lisa Stansfield (Singer)

1971: Oliver "Ollie" Riedel (Bassist for Rammstein)

1978: Tom Thacker (Guitar & Vocals for Sum 41)

1979: Shemekia Copeland (Blues Singer)

1984: Mandy Moore (Singer)

1987: Joss Stone (Singer)

Events

1953: Eddie Fisher is discharged from the US Army, having sold seven million records during his stint in the service.

1956: Leo Fender patents the successor to his popular "Telecaster" model of electric guitar, this time called the "Stratocaster."

1956: While performing at the Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham, AL, Nat King Cole is assaulted by five segregationists and tackled on stage, although local police quickly arrest the perpetrators, who had originally planned to kidnap the singer. Cole bravely performs a second show later that night.

1957: Ricky Nelson, then all of sixteen, performs his recently-recorded version of Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'" -- done to impress a date -- on his family's TV sitcom, ABC's The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet. The record sells half a million copies in the next week alone.

1958: Chuck Willis, who had suffered from stomach ulcers for many years, died during surgery in Chicago of peritonitis while at the peak of his career.

1958: Bobby Darin recorded "Splish Splash" & "Queen Of The Hop"

1961: Del Shannon is the guest on ABC-TV's American Bandstand, singing his recent breakthrough hit, "Runaway."

1961: Bob Dylan played his first live gig in New York City at Gerde's Folk City, opening for John Lee Hooker.

1962: Stuart Sutcliffe, The original Bass player for The Beatles, died of a brain hemorrhage.

1964: The Beatles set a new chart record when they had 14 songs on the Billboard Hot 100. The songs ranged from ‘Can't Buy Me Love’ at No.1 to ‘Love Me Do’ at No. 81.

1965: A public school in Wrexham, North Wales, asks parents to make sure children attend in school uniforms after Rolling Stones fans at the school begin showing up in "corduroy trousers" like their heroes.

1967: The song "Somethin' Stupid" became the first father-daughter song to hit No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart. The song was performed by Nancy and Frank Sinatra.

1968: Bill Kreutzmann invites Mickey Hart to join the Grateful Dead as its second drummer.

1970: Paul McCartney makes the Beatles' secret breakup public by issuing a press release to announce that he has left the group, done in the form of a fake interview: "Q: Is your break with the Beatles temporary or permanent, due to personal differences or musical ones? PAUL: Personal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family. Temporary or permanent? I don't really know." John Lennon is furious, especially since the breakup, already agreed upon by the group, was announced just one week prior to the British release of McCartney's first solo album. When a reporter tracks down Lennon for his thoughts, he replies, "Paul hasn't left. I sacked him."

1970: Keith Emerson of the Nice, Greg Lake of King Crimson, and Carl Palmer of Atomic Rooster join forces to form Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

1970: Peter Green quit Fleetwood Mac while on tour in Germany, to avoid breach of contract he agreed to finish the current tour.

1970: At one of the band's last concerts, in Boston, Doors frontman Jim Morrison asks the audience if they'd like to see something of his "that rhymes with 'sock,'" and then, more bluntly, screaming "Would you like to see my genitals?" The power in the stadium is switched off, and keyboardist Ray Manzarek pulls the singer, already facing similar charges from a Miami gig, off the stage.

1972: Isaac Hayes won an Oscar for the Best Music, Original Song award for the song "Shaft".

1973: The Beach Boys appeared at the Omni Coliseum in Atlanta, Georgia. The Beach Boys were at a very low ebb in popularity in America and this show proved a financial disaster for the promoter, with less than 3,000 tickets sold for the 16,000 capacity venue. Opening act was Mothers Finest and middle of the bill was Bruce Springsteen who played a 60-minute set.

1976: Peter Frampton's LP Frampton Comes Alive! hits #1.  It stayed on the charts for 97 weeks.

1976: Stevie Wonder is featured in an ad in today's edition of Down Beat Magazine, edorsing the Mu-Tron III effects pedal, which uses synthesizer envelopes to create a wah effect for guitar. Wonder had used the pedal on his 1973 smash "Higher Ground."

1978: Aretha Franklin marries her second husband, actor Glynn Turman, in New York City. The Four Tops sing Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" at the ceremony.

1981: Eddie Van Halen married actress Valerie Bertinelli, co-star of the 1980's television hit, One Day at a Time. The two had met eight months earlier when Bertinelli's brother took her to a Van Halen concert in Shreveport, Louisiana.

1991:  Donnie Wahlberg (New Kids on the Block) agreed to tape public service announcements warning against doing drugs, driving drunk, and starting fires. The deal was an exchange for having arson charges against him reduced by a Louisville, KY, judge.

1999: The all-star tribute concert Here There and Everywhere: A Concert For Linda is held at London's Royal Albert Hall, where Paul McCartney, George Michael, Chrissie Hynde, Elvis Costello and Sinead O'Connor raise money for animal charities while remembering Paul's wife Linda, who has recently succumbed to breast cancer.

2002: South Carolina Governor James Hodges makes it official by declaring James Brown the state's "Godfather Of Soul."

2003: Little Eva continued performing until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in October 2001. She died on this day in Kinston, North Carolina, aged 59, and is buried in a small cemetery in Belhaven, North Carolina.

2003: Three gunmen shot at a convoy of cars, one of which carried Snoop Dogg.

2006: A member of Eminem's rap collective D12 was killed in a nightclub shooting in Detroit after an argument broke out at the CCC nightclub. Proof, (real name Deshaun Holton), was shot at a club on Eight Mile Road, made famous in Eminem's autobiographical film 8 Mile. Holton was a longtime friend of Eminem and was the rappers best man at his wedding in January of this year.

2007: Johnny Cash's last residence, a 14,000-square-foot house in Hendersonville, TN, burns to the ground. It had been purchased after Cash's death by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, and planned for renovation.