April 27

Births

1904: Syd Nathan (Country Singer)

1932: Casey Kasem (Radio DJ)

1933: Calvin Newborn (Jazz Guitarist)

1944: Cuba Gooding, Sr. (Singer in The Main Ingredient)

1947: Pete Ham (Vocals & Guitar in Badfinger)

1947: Ann Peebles (R&B Singer)

1947: Gordon Haskell (Singer King Crimson)

1947: Herbie Murrell (The Stylistics)

1947: Gordon Haskell (Blues Singer and Bassist)

1948: Kate Pierson (Vocals for The B-52's)

1949: Herb Murrell (Vocals for The Stylistics)

1951: Ace Frehley (Guitar in KISS)

1959: Marco Pirroni (Guitar for Adam And The Ant)

1959: Sheena Easton (Singer)

1972: Bob Coombes (Keyboards for Supergrass)

1979: Will Boyd (Bass for Evanescence)

1984: Patrick Stump (Lead singer & Rhythm Guitarist for Fall Out Boy)

Events

1956: Capitol Records signs Gene Vincent, intending to market him as the next Elvis.

1957: Elvis makes his second and last appearance outside of the US, wearing his classic gold lame suit for the last time as he plays Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens.

1959: Lloyd Price, released the single "Personality".

1964: The Beatles release the single  "Love Me Do" b/w "P.S. I Love You".

1968: Simon and Garfunkel release the single  "Mrs. Robinson".

1969: Joe Cocker makes his television debut, singing "Feelin' Alright" on tonight's episode of CBS' Ed Sullivan Show.

1969: Jose Feliciano's TV special Very Special, guest starring Glen Campbell and Dionne Warwick, airs on NBC.

1970: John Lennon's explicit "Bag One" lithographs are returned to the London Arts Gallery exhibition after a High Court judge rules them "unlikely to deprave or corrupt."

1971: The Grateful Dead appeared at the Fillmore East in New York City. The Beach Boys also appeared on stage with the Dead, who together performed a short set of Beach Boys songs.

1975: 511 audience members are in custody in Los Angeles for smoking marijuana during Pink Floyd's recent five nights at the Los Angeles Arena.

1976: David Bowie is detained at the Poland-Russian border after Nazi memorabilia (mostly books) are found in his luggage. The singer, who claims they're research for an upcoming film about Joseph Goebbels, is released.

1979: At a Duke Ellington tribute concert held at UCLA, Stevie Wonder makes a surprise appearance to sing his hit tribute "Sir Duke" and also Ellington's own "C-Jam Blues."

1980: The legendary New York disco of discos, Studio 54, closes its doors after exactly three years and a day due to violations of city liquor licenses.

1981: Ringo Starr marries his second wife, actress Barbara Bach, a former "Bond girl" and model he met while filming the flop comedy Caveman. The two are married at the Marylebone Registrar's Office in London with the other two surviving Beatles attending.

1984: Blues Singer Z.Z. Hill died in Dallas at the age of 48 from a heart attack after a road accident.

1987:  R.E.M.'s first single, "Dead Letter Office", was released.

1988:  Poison released the album "Open Up and Say...Ahh!"

1988: Queensryche released the album "Operation: Mindcrime."

1990:  Axl Rose (Guns N' Roses) married Erin Everly. The marriage lasted for 27 days.

1990: David Bowie plays his Seventies hits for the last time as he begins his latest American tour, "Sound + Vision."

1993: Prince issued a statement saying he was retiring from studio recordings to concentrate on film and other ventures.

1994: San Francisco's legendary rock venue the Fillmore Auditorium reopens, with performances by Smashing Pumpkins and American Music Club.

1994: A man was arrested after breaking into Ace Of Base singer Jenny Berggren's home. Jenny was asleep at the time and woke up to find the man above her holding a hunting knife.

1999: Jazz trumpeter Al Hirt died, aged 76, in New Orleans of liver failure, after spending the previous year in a wheelchair due to edema in his leg.

1999: UK band The Verve announced that they had split.

2000: Vicki Sue Robinson died eleven days after the release of Red Lipstick.  Robinson died of cancer at her home in Wilton, Connecticut. She was thirty-five days short of reaching the age of 46. 

2003: Iggy Pop reuintes with the Stooges for the first time in three decades at the close of this year's Coachella festival.

2004: Elton John publicly responds to American Idol's snub of Jennifer Hudson by declaring the call-in voters "incredibly racist."

2006: 63-year-old Keith Richards falls from a palm tree while vacationing in Fiji, landing on his head and causing a hemorrhage that required doctors to drain his skull. He makes a full recovery.

2009: Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament was the victim of a robbery outside Southern Tracks Recording studios in Atlanta, where the band were recording. Ament and a band employee had arrived at the rear of the studio when three assailants brandishing knives emerged from the woods wearing black masks and smashed the windows of a rented Jeep. The robbers grabbed a BlackBerry and Ament’s passport and stole $3,000 in cash and $4,320 worth of goods.

2009: Aerosmith were to hold a free concert in Hawaii to placate angry fans who brought a legal case against them. Fans filed a class action case, which claimed the band had cancelled a sold-out show in Maui two years ago, leaving hundreds of fans out of pocket in favour of a bigger gig in Chicago. Lawyers for the would-be concert-goers said Aerosmith had now agreed to put on a new show, and would pay all expenses. ‘Everyone who bought a ticket to the original concert will receive a free ticket.

April 26

Births

1925: Jorgen Ingmann (Violinist)

1938: Maurice Williams (Doo-Wop Singer)

1938: Duane Eddy (Guitarist)

1940: Giorgio Moroder (Electronic Music producer)

1941: Claudine Clark (R&B Singer)

1942: Bobby Rydell (Pop Singer)

1943: Gary Wright (Piano Player & Singer)

1944 - Bruce Johnston (Beach Boys)

1945: Tony Murray (Bassist for The Troggs)

1946: Ronny Dayton (Ronny and the Daytonas)

1948 - Stevie Nicks (Singer in Fleetwood Mac and Solo)

1952: Neol Davies (Selecter)

1960: Roger Taylor (Drums for Duran Duran)

1961: Chris Mars (Drums for The Replacements)

1970: Tionne Watkins, T- Boz (Vocals for TLC)

1971:  Jay DeMarcus, (Stanley Wayne DeMarcus Jr.) (Bassist for Rascal Flatts)

1975: Joey Jordison (Drums for Slipknot)

1976: Jose Antonio Pasillas II (Drummer for Incubus)

Events

1957: Calypso star Harry Belafonte resigns to his record label, RCA Victor, for an unprecedented million dollars.

1962: Jerry Lee Lewis, still stricken from the tragedy of losing his three-year-old son Steve Allen Lewis in a swimming pool drowning, arrives in the UK to tour for the first time since he was forced out in 1958 for marrying his 13-year-old cousin.

1963: Teen idol Frankie Avalon agrees to star in Beach Party, the first of what would become known as the "Beach Movies" starring himself and Annette Funicello.

1964: The Beatles attend a birthday party for Roy Orbison in London (Orbison had actually turned 28 three days earlier). That night, the group headlines the poll winner's concert for the magazine New Musical Express, which also features fan favorites The Rolling Stones and the Dave Clark Five.

1965: Bob Dylan makes his first trip to England to promote his new album, called Bringing It All Back Home. The tour is chronicled by filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker for a film that will eventually become the iconic Don't Look Back.

1966: According to the New York Times, Ray Charles is being forced to undergo tests in Boston to confirm that he has kicked the heroin habit, as ordered by a court after a drug-possession rap the previous year.

1967: Janis Ian, then only sixteen, appears on Leonard Bernstein's CBS special Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution, singing her single from a year earlier, "Society's Child." Though the song, which details a forbidden interracial relationship, was banned from airwaves in its initial run, this exposure turns it into a Top 20 hit.

1967: The Mamas and the Papas' "Mama Cass" Elliot gives birth to her one and only child, daughter Owen Vanessa. She would take the father's name to the grave.

1969: The Original Cast of 'Hair' started a 13-week run at No.1 on the US album chart.

1977: The disco boom gets rolling in earnest with the opening of Steve Rubell's new glitzy and ultra-exclusive club, Studio 54, in New York. Among the guests invited opening night: Cher, Mick Jagger and wife Bianca, Debbie Harry, Donald and Ivana Trump, Liza Minnelli, Jerry Hall, Halston, Margaux Hemingway, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Salvador Dali, Brooke Shields, Martha Graham, and Robin Leach.

1978: Ringo Starr plays two roles in a musical version of Prince and the Pauper entitled simply Ringo, also starring Art Carney, John Ritter, Carrie Fisher, Vincent Price, Angie Dickinson, Mike Douglas, and featuring George Harrison's narration. Airing on NBC, the show is a dismal flop.

1980: Blondie were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Call Me', the group's fourth UK No.1, featured in the Richard Gere movie 'American Gigolo', the track was also a No.1 in the US where it became the band's biggest selling single. Producer Giorgio Moroder originally asked Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac to help compose and perform a song for the soundtrack, but she declined.

1980: The Carpenters' fifth TV variety special, entitled Music, Music, Music and also starring John Davidson and Ella Fitzgerald, airs on ABC.

1982: While shopping for clothes on Hollywood Boulevard in the middle of the day, Rod Stewart is robbed at gunpoint of, among other things, his $50,000 Porsche.

1984: Count Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida.

1988: A jury in White Plains, New York ruled that Mick Jagger did not pirate an unknown reggae musician's song and turn it into his 1985 hit, 'Just Another Night'. Patrick Alley of New York City had accused Jagger of copyright infringement.

1990: New Kids On The Block's Danny Wood injured his ankle while on stage in Manchester when he tripped over a toy animal thrown on stage by a fan; he was forced to fly back home to the US for treatment.

1994: The Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick pleads guilty to assault after turning a shotgun on police who visited her California home the previous month. Although she claims she was edgy due to a recent fire, the judge nonetheless sentences her to a short stint in Alcoholics Anonymous.

1995: Courtney Love reportedly turned down an offer of $1m from Playboy to pose nude for the magazine.

1997: Ernest Stewart, keyboard player with KC and the Sunshine Band, died of an asthma attack.

2003: The Morgan Creek Bridge in Chapel Hill, NC, is renamed the James Taylor Bridge in honor of the city's native son.

2004: June Pointer of the Pointer Sisters is arrested in Los Angeles for possession of cocaine.

2008: Amy Winehouse spent the night in custody after being arrested on suspicion of assault. Police said Winehouse had been "in no fit state" to be questioned when she arrived at the London station and she was kept in the cells. The 24-year-old was to be questioned about an incident said to have occurred 3 days earlier after a 38-year-old man claimed he was assaulted.

April 25

Births

1925: Prentiss Barnes (The Moonglows)

1932: Willis "Gator" Jackson (Sax Player)

1933: Jerry Leiber (Standards Composer)

1946: Ronnie Gilbert (Bass player for Blues Magoos)

1949: Michael Brown (Kayboards for The Left Banke)

1980: Jacob Underwood (Singer in O-Town)

Events

1955: The UN's commission on narcotics releases a report stating "definite connection between increased marijuana smoking and that form of entertainment known as bebop and rebop."

1960: Eddie Cochran is laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, CA.

1967: Just days after the completion of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles embark upon their next project, recording the theme to 'Magical Mystery Tour' at Abbey Road studios in London.

1967: The Beatles recorded "All You Need Is Love" during a British TV broadcast. Marianne Faithfull sang in the chorus.

1968: The Beatles refused to perform for the Queen of England at a British Olympic Appeal Fund show because "Our decision would be the same no matter what the cause. We don't do benefits."

1970: At today's concert in Raleigh, North Carolina, the interracial band Pacific Gas and Electric is subject to verbal abuse on stage. Later, when they leave the club, four bullets are fired at their van. No one is injured.

1974: According to the new issue of Rolling Stone, "streaking" has become so popular that Yes and Gregg Allman concerts have been interrupted by the fad. At a recent Beach Boys concert, the magazine says, the band was streaked by its own crew.

1977: Elvis Presley performs at the Civic Center in Saginaw, MI, with a mobile unit capturing what would be his very last recording (released on the album Moody Blue).

1977: The musical variety television special Paul Anka -- Music My Way, featuring Natalie Cole, Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, and a host of famous cameos, airs on ABC.

1979: The film "Rock & Roll High School" starring the Ramones premiered.

1980: Stranglers singer, guitarist Hugh Cornwell was released from a London prison after serving six weeks for possession of drugs.

1981: Denny Laine leaves the trio Wings, essentially leaving Paul McCartney a solo act once more.

1987,:Madonna went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'La Isla Bonita.' The fifth and final single from her third studio album, True Blue, made her the only female artist to score four UK No.1 singles. The song had been offered to Michael Jackson for his Bad album.

1993: Legendary album artist Stanley "Mouse" Miller, designer of the Grateful Dead's "skull and roses" logo, has his upcoming liver transplant financed by the band.

1994: After fourteen years, The Eagles reform at Warner's Burbank Studios for the first of what will be two reunion concerts chronicled on the live/studio album Hell Freezes Over.

1994: A judge finds Michael Bolton's 1991 hit "Love Is A Wonderful Thing" plagiarizes the Isley Brothers' 1966 song of the same name, despite Bolton's protests that he's never heard the song.

1994: Yankee Stadium in New York holds their first "Joe DiMaggio Day," featuring Paul Simon singing "Mrs. Robinson" (and cheers when he gets to the "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?" part).

1999: Roger Troutman (Zapp) died at the age of 47. He had been shot several times. His brother, Larry, was found near the crime scene with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

2003: The parents of the late Doors frontman Jim Morrison sue the remaining members for touring with a new singer as "The Doors 21st Century" using the band's image and logo.

2003: Sinead O'Connor announced on her Web site that she was going to retire.

2003: Nina Simone is laid to rest in Carry-Le-Rouet, France, with attendees including Miriam Makeba and gifts from luminaries like Elton John.

2004: For the third time in two years, Billy Joel is involved in a minor traffic accident, driving his car into a home in Bayville, Long Island, New York. No one is injured.

April 24

Births

1918: Ella Fitzgerald (Jazz Singer)

1923: Albert King (Blues Guitarist)

1928: Johnny Griffin (Jazz Saxophonist)

1942: Barbra Streisand (Singer)

1943: Richard Sterban (Bass Singer in The Oak Ridge Boys)

1945: Doug Clifford (Drums in Creedence Clearwater Revival)

1945: Bjorn Ulvaeus (Guitar & Vocals for Abba)

1947: Ann Kelly (The Hues Corporation)

1948: Steve York (Manfred Mann)

1950: Steve Ferrone (Drummer for Average White Band)

1958: Fish (Derek Dick) (Vocals for Marillion and Solo Artist)

1964: Andy Bell (Erasure)

1965: Eric Avery (Jane's Addiction)

1965: Simon Fowler (Vocals for Ocean Colour Scene)

1982: Kelly Clarkson (Pop Singer)

Events

1954: Keeping an eye on the new trends, an article in this week's Billboard is entitled "Teenagers Demand Music With A Beat - Spur Rhythm And Blues."

1959: After running on Saturday nights on radio for 24 years and TV for the last nine, the final installment of the musical countdown show Your Hit Parade airs on NBC. The final Top Five: Elvis Presley, "I Need Your Love Tonight" (#5), Brook Benton, "It's Just A Matter Of Time" (#4), Ricky Nelson, "Never Be Anyone Else But You" (#3), Dodie Stevens, "Pink Shoe Laces" (#2), and the Fleetwoods at #1 with "Come Softly To Me."

1961: Bob Dylan makes his first recording -- playing harmonica on Harry Belafonte's song "Calypso King." He's paid fifty dollars.

1963: An 18-year-old Brenda Lee marries Ronnie Shacklett, one year her senior, in Nashville a mere six months after meeting him at a Jackie Wilson concert. 48 years later, the two are still together.

1968: The newly-formed Apple Records decides not to sign a young talent named David Bowie.

1969: Paul McCartney says their is no truth to rumors he is dead

1970: Having been invited to a White House dinner by Tricia Nixon, daughter of US President Richard Nixon, the Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick brings radical Abbie Hoffman with her, in an attempt to secretly dose Tricia with LSD during the meal. Hoffman is turned away at the door by Secret Service agents, causing Slick to leave as well.

1974: Pamela Courson the long-term companion of the late Jim Morrison died of a drugs overdose. It was Courson who found the Doors singer dead on July 3, 1971 in the bathtub of their apartment in Paris, France.

1976: In a parody of recent public offers, Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels goes on air and offers the Beatles the whopping sum of $3,000 if they agree to reunite on the hits NBC-TV show. And it almost happens: Paul, visiting John in his New York apartment for what would turn out to be the last time, is watching the skit with John, and both consider going across town to the studio live. However, the duo decide they're too tired.

1977: Elvis Presley made the last recordings of his life during a concert at the Saginaw, Michigan Civic Centre. Three songs from the show appeared on the posthumously released Presley album, 'Moody Blue'.

1977: Talking Heads began its first European tour, supporting the Ramones.

1979: The Police made their debut on BBC TV's 'Top Of The Pops' performing 'Roxanne'.

1979: Governor George Busbee of Georgia issues a proclamation declaring Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia On My Mind" the new official state song. Ray Charles sings his famous version at the ceremony.

1982: Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Ebony And Ivory.' This was McCartney's 24th No.1 hit single as a songwriter. The title was inspired by McCartney hearing Spike Milligan say "black notes, white notes, and you need to play the two to make harmony folks!". It was later named as the tenth worst song of all time by Blender magazine and in 2007 was named the worst duet in history by BBC 6 Music listeners.

1984: With questions still lingering about the death of his fifth wife, Shawn Stephens, Jerry Lee Lewis marries his sixth, Kerrie McCarver, the 22-year-old president of his fan club.

1987: U2 started a five-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with 'The Joshua Tree.'

1988: Bon Jovi's manager Doc Mcgee was convicted on drug offences arising from the 1982 seizure of 40,000lb of marijuana smuggled into north Carolina from Colombia. McGee was sentenced to a five year suspended prison term and a $15,000 fine.

1990: The Fender Stratocaster that Jimi Hendrix played at the Woodstock festival was auctioned off for a record $295,000.

1990: The road crew for Roger Waters discovered an unexploded World War II era bomb while constructing the set for "The Wall" concert in Potsdamer Platz, Germany.

1992: The Cleveland Orchestra sues Michael Jackson for $7 million after it discovers the singer used part of their recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on his hit album Dangerous.

1992: Kris Kross started an eight week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Jump', a No.2 hit in the UK. The duo of Chris Smith and Chris Kelly were 12 and 13 when they recorded the song.

1992: David Bowie marries his second wife, model Iman, in Switzerland.

1992: In his hometown of Inglewood, NJ, Wilson Pickett drives his car through the mayor's front yard, yelling death threats at the house and accidentally running over an 86-year-old man. He is later arrested and found with open containers of alcohol in his car.

1994: Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys was sentenced to 200 hours of community service for attacking a TV cameraman during the memorial services for actor River Phoenix the previous November.

1996: It was announced that Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots) was in a drug rehab and could not perform causing the cancellation of several shows.

2002: Jewel was thrown from a horse and suffered a broken collarbone and a rib

2002: TLC member Lisa Lopes was killed in a car accident in La Ceiba, Honduras, aged 30. Seven other people, including Lopes' brother and sister, who were in the Mitsubishi Montero sports utility vehicle when the crash happened, were taken to a hospital. Lopes who was driving the car when it crashed had spent the past month in Honduras working on various projects including a clothing line, a new solo project and a book.

2005: After 94 performances, the Broadway musical and Beach Boys tribute Good Vibrations closes.

2007: US President George W. Bush is denied a luxury suite at the Imperial Hotel in Vienna when Mick Jagger, in town with the Stones on a tour, books it first.

2007: American singer Bobby "Boris" Pickett died of leukemia at the age of 69. Scored the Halloween anthem ‘The Monster Mash’ in 1962. The song had been banned by The BBC in the UK, deemed offensive and wasn’t a hit until 1973. It was a spoof on the dance crazes popular at the time, including the Twist and the Mashed Potato.

2009: A man suing rapper Snoop Dogg told a court he received a ‘brutal’ beating from the star's security. Richard Monroe Jr also claimed that the rapper, hit him with a microphone after he climb on stage. Mr Monroe was asking for $22m in damages from the rapper and others. Jurors were told that as the performer started his hit ‘Gin and Juice’, at the White River Amphitheatre in Seattle, Mr Monroe thought there was an open invitation to jump on stage.