April 5

Birthdays

1925: Stan Levey (Jazz Drummer)

1928: Tony Williams (The Platters)

1932: Billy Bland (R&B Singer)

1934: Stanley Turrentine (Jazz Saxophonist)

1935: Peter Grant (manager of Led Zeppelin)

1939: Ronnie White (The Miracles)

1941: Dave Swarbick (Fairport Convention)

1942: Alan Clarke (Singer for The Hollies)

1944: Nicholas Caldwell (The Whispers)

1948: Dave Holland (Drummer for Judas Priest)

1950: Agnetha Faltskog (ABBA)

1951: Everton Morton (The Beat)

1954: Stan Ridgeway (Singer for Wall Of Voodoo)

1961: Jacob Slichter (Drummer for Semisonic)

1965: Mike McCready (Guitar for Pearl Jam)

1968: Paula Cole (Singer)

1973: Pharrell Williams (Neptunes)

Events

1936: The fourth deadliest tornado in US history rips through Tupelo, MS, killing 235 but sparing Elvis Presley, still an infant, who is held in his Great Uncle Noah's house by his mother Gladys until the storm passes.

1955: Ray Charles marries his second wife, Della Beatrice Howard, in Houston, TX.

1958: Johnny Mathis' compilation album Johnny's Greatest Hits, the first "greatest hits" LP, enters the Billboard charts, where it will stay for almost nine and a half years. It's a record that would only be broken in 1982 by Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon.

1964: The Beatles film the famous opening scene from their first movie, A Hard Day's Night, running away from several rabid female fans at London's Marylebone train station.

1964: The Searchers make their US television debut, singing "Needles and Pins" and "Ain't That Just Like Me" on CBS' Ed Sullivan Show.  They were the 1^st British band to play on the show after The Beatles.  It was The Searchers US debut.

1967: Monkees fans march in London in protest of band member Davy Jones' announced induction into the Army. The teen heartthrob is eventually exempted from duty for being his family's main provider.

1967: Elvis Presley's 24th movie, Double Trouble, premieres in Hollywood.

1975: Minnie Riperton went to No.1 on the US singles chart with the Stevie Wonder produced song 'Loving You'.  It was the singers only US chart hit. Riperton died of cancer on 12th July 1979.

1977: David Bowie appeared on Dinah Shore's TV special.

1978: Duran Duran made their live debut at The Lecture Theatre, Birmingham Polytechnic.

1980: R.E.M. played their first ever gig when they appeared at St Mary's Episcopal Church, Athens, Georgia.

1981: Bob "The Bear" Hite (Canned Heat) was found dead in his van of a heart attack in 1981, at the age of 38.

1982: The record industry trade magazine Record World folds after 36 years.

1983: The Beach Boys were banned from the Fourth of July concert at the White House. U.S. President Ronald Reagan overturned the ban two days later.

1984: Marvin Gaye's funeral takes place at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles, drawing some very notable mourners, including Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, and Berry Gordy.

1987: Buddy Rich's funeral in Los Angeles draws some very notable mourners, including Frank Sinatra, Artie Shaw, and Johnny Carson.

1990: After serving months of his sentence for drug possession, resisting arrest, and other charges, James Brown is put on a work-release program, moving from his jail to South Carolina's Lower Savannah Work Center, where he provides counseling for drug addicts. He is paid four dollars an hour.

1993: Construction began on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

1993: In Beverly Hills, CA, Marky Mark Wahlberg had assault charges against him dropped. He had reached an out-of-court settlement with the man he allegedly beat in 1992.

1994: Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at his home in Seattle. Cobain’s body wasn’t discovered until April 8, by an electrician who had arrived to install a security system, who initially believed that Cobain was asleep, until he saw the shotgun pointing at his chin. A suicide note was found that said, "I haven't felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music, along with really writing . . . for too many years now". A high concentration of heroin and traces of Valium were found in Cobain’s body. His death was officially ruled as suicide by a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.

1995: Jimi Hendrix's one-time girlfriend Monika Dannerman committed suicide, two days after losing a court battle with another of the guitarist's ex-lovers.

1998: Cozy Powell (ELP, Black Sabbath, Rainbow) died following a car crash while driving his Saab 9000 at 104 mph in bad weather on the M4 motorway near Bristol, England. According to the BBC report, at the time of the crash, Powell's blood-alcohol reading was over the legal limit, he was not wearing a seatbelt, and he was talking to his girlfriend on his mobile phone. The official investigation also found evidence of a slow puncture in a rear tire. It was suggested that this could well have caused a sudden collapse of the tire with a consequent loss of control of the car.

1998: The Spice Girls performed their first ever-live UK concert when they appeared in front of a 9,000 strong audience in Glasgow, Scotland.

1999:  Three of Tammy Wynette's daughters filed a $50 million lawsuit that blamed Wynette's death on negligence by her husband and her doctor.

2000: Ziggy Marley became the official spokesman for the Hemp Bar.

2003: On stage in Melbourne, Australia on the eve of the Iraq War, Carlos Santana declares, "We are the architects of the world and our agenda is different to Saddam Hussein and George Bush. Dignity and grace are our weapons - unity, salvation and elegance."

2006: Gene Pitney died at the age of 66. His tour manager found him dead in the Hilton Hotel, in Cardiff, Wales, in the middle of a UK tour. His final show at Cardiff's St. David's Hall earned him a standing ovation; he ended with "Town Without Pity". An autopsy confirmed heart disease, caused by atherosclerosis.

2006: Marion "Suge" Knight staved off receivership by seeking bankruptcy protection for himself and his music label, Death Row Records. The record producer had been ordered to pay more than $100m to a former associate who said she had helped start the record label in 1989. Lawyers for Mr. Knight said he did not have the money to pay the judgement, and was forced to seek federal protection. The label helped launch the careers of rappers such as Snoop Doggy Dogg.

2007: Former Kiss guitarist Mark St. John died from an apparent brain hemorrhage at the age of 51. St. John was Kiss' third official guitarist, having replaced Vinnie Vincent in 1984 and appeared on the album ‘Animalize’.

2008: Toto breaks up after performing its final concert in Seoul.

2008: Lady GaGa started a four week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘The Fame’ the American singers debut album.