April 19

Births

1942: Alan Price (Keyboards in The Animals)

1944: Bernie Worrell (Keyboards for Parliament & Funkadelic)

1946: Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show)

1947: Mark Volman (Vocals for The Turtles)

1966: Suge Knight (C.E.O. for Death Row Records)

Events

1924: The first national country radio show in the US, The Chicago Barn Dance, debuts on WLS radio. (Nashville's famed Grand Ole Opry wouldn't hit the airwaves for another year.)

1956: Drifters singer Clyde McPhatter receives his discharge from the US Army, leading him to immediately leave the group for a solo career.

1962: In another big step forward for soul, Jackie Wilson begins a headlining stint at New York's famous Copacabana Club.

1967: The Beatles sign a contract to stay together for 10 years.

1968: With Ringo having left much earlier due to the vegetarian diet, and Paul having left to supervise the launch of Apple, John and George are the last two Beatles to leave the Maharishi Maheshi Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh, India, where they had been studying his practices of meditation and yoga. Lennon in particular believes the stories of band associate Alex Mardas, who claims the Maharishi is only interested in the Beatles' money and, although claiming to be celibate, has been making sexual advances at the group's traveling companion, actress Mia Farrow. When the guru asks why everyone is leaving, John shoots back "You're the cosmic one, you should know." When back in London, he writes a song about the incident, entitled "Maharishi" but later changed to "Sexy Sadie."

1979 : David Lee Roth collapsed from exhaustion during a Van Halen show in Spokane, WA.

1980: 32 year old English singer Brian Johnson joined Australian group AC/DC, replacing Bon Scott who died after a drinking binge.

1980: R.E.M. played their first gig as R.E.M. at the 11:11 Koffee Club, Athens, Georgia to 150 people. The show ended at 2am when police closed it down due to the venue being unlicensed.

1982: Flush from the success of their recent Central Park concert, Simon and Garfunkel mount their first tour since their breakup, a swing through Europe that sadly falls apart before it can get to the US. The split is so dramatic this time around that Simon wipes all of Garfunkel's contributions to the pair's latest album, Hearts And Bones, and releases it as a solo album instead.

1986: Prince started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Kiss.' Prince also had the No.2 song 'Manic Monday', by The Bangles, which he wrote under the pseudonym 'Christopher.'

1988: Sonny Bono is inaugurated as mayor of Palm Springs, CA.

1995: The Stone Roses played their first gig in five years when the appeared at The Rockerfella Club, Oslo, Norway.

1998: Andrea Bocelli performed for Bill and Hillary Clinton with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

2002: Police were investigating how tracks from the forthcoming Oasis album 'Heathen Chemistry' had been illegally circulated on the Internet. They thought the person responsible had access to their private recording sessions.

2002: Layne Staley's accountants contacted Staley's mother Nancy McCallum and informed her that no money had been withdrawn from the singer's bank account in two weeks. McCallum then placed a call with 911 to say "she hadn't heard from Layne in about two weeks."  The police went with McCallum and her husband to Staley's home, where Staley was found dead.   As reported by Rick Anderson of the Seattle Weekly, his body was surrounded, needle in arm, by various drug possessions and paraphernalia:

2003: Alt-rock heroes The White Stripes join Loretta Lynn during a concert in New York to join her on her hits "Fist City," ""Rated X," and "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man."

2005: Elvis Presley Enterprises announces that for the first time it will air TV commercials to lure visitors to the refurbished Graceland mansion where he spent his days.

2010: Ringo Starr comments on the Vatican's recent "apology" for its part in the 1966 "Bigger Than Jesus" scandal, saying, "Didn't the Vatican say we were Satanic or possibly Satanic? And they've still forgiven us? I think the Vatican, they've got more to talk about than the Beatles."

2010:  Rapper Guru (Keith Elam) lost his battle with cancer at the age of 43.