March 22

Births

1936: Roger Whittaker (Singer / Songwriter)

1943: Keith Relf (Lead Singer & Harmonica for Yardbirds)

1943: George Benson (Jazz Singer & Guitarist)

1944: Jeremy Clyde (Chad and Jeremy)

1948: Andrew Lloyd Webber (Composer)

1952: Jay Dee Daugherty (Drummer for Patti Smith Group & The Church)

1957: Stephanie Mills (R&B Singer)

1963: Susanne Sulley (Singer The Human League)

1968: Mickey Dale (Keyboards for Embrace)

1968: Euronymous (Guitarist for Mayhem)

1977: John Otto (Drummer in Limp Bizkit)

1979: Aaron Wright North (Guitarist for Nine Inch Nails)

1980: Shannon Bex (Singer in Danity Kane)

1981: Mims (Shawn Mims) (Rapper)

Events

1958: Hank Williams Jr. makes his stage debut, at the age of eight, singing on stage in Swainsboro, GA.

1962: 19-year-old Barbra Streisand becomes an instant celebrity when she stars in the Broadway play I Can Get It For You Wholesale.

1963:  Beatles release 1st album, "Please Please Me" in the U.K.

1965:  Bob Dylan's first electric album "Bring it All Back Home" was released.

1967: The Who make their US stage debut, performing at the Paramount Theater in New York City.

1971: The Allman Brothers are arrested at a truck stop in Jackson, AL, and charged with possession of marijuana and heroin.

1975: Barry Manilow makes his first US television appearance, performing "Mandy" and "It's A Miracle" on ABC-TV's American Bandstand.

1975: Frankie Valli went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'My Eyes Adored You', his first solo No.1.

1976: While campaigning for US President, Jimmy Carter tells NARM (The National Association of Record Merchandisers) that he listened to Dylan, the Grateful Dead, and Led Zeppelin while Governor of Georgia.

1977: ABC-TV airs the John Denver special Thank God I'm A Country Boy.

1978: The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, a Beatles parody special that grew out of sketches on ex-Monty Python member Eric Idle's show Rutland Weekend Television, gets its first US airing on ABC-TV.

1978: The Police signed to A&M Records.

1979: Chaka Khan gives birth to her second child, Damien Milton Patrick Holland.

1980: Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick In The Wall', started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart. The track, which was the group’s only US chart topper, was also a No.1 in the UK, Germany, Australia, Italy and in many other countries around the world. Pink Floyd received a Grammy nomination for Best Performance by a Rock Duo or Group for the song, but lost to Bob Seger's Against The Wind.

1991: Dave Guard (The Kingston Trio) dies of cancer at the age of 56.

1992: Polygram Records officially announced that Tears For Fears had split up, Roland Orzabal continued using the name Tears For Fears.

1994: Dan Hartman, singer of the 80’s hit “I Can Dream About You” and member of The Edgar Winter Group and wrote their hit “Free Ride”, dies of a brain tumor resulting from AIDS at the age of 43.

1994: Ted Nugent, always a straight arrow, makes a PSA warning kids of the dangers of abusing inhalants.

1996: Don Murray, drummer for The Turtles, dies after an ulcer surgery.

1997: Paul McCartney's original birth certificate is sold to a private Beatles collector for $84,146.

1997: Marilyn Manson stopped a show in Honolulu, Hawaii, short after falling onstage and severing an artery in his hand.

1997: Puff Daddy featuring Mase started a six week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Can't Nobody Hold Me Down', his first US No.1.

2000: An audience member falls 90 feet off of an electrical tower at a KISS concert in at California's Oakland Arena.

2005: Rod Price of Foghat died after falling down a stairway at his home after suffering a heart attack.

2006: Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler's upcoming throat surgery forces the band to cancel their latest tour.

March 21

Births

1685: Johann Sebastian Bach (Composer)

1902: Son House (Blues Singer & Guitarist)

1940: Solomon Burke (R&B Singer)

1945: Rosemary Stone (Singer & Keyboards for Sly and the Family Stone)

1949: Eddie Money (Singer)

1950: Roger Hodgson (Singer for Supertramp)

1961: Slim Jim Phantom (Drums for The Stray Cats)

1966: DJ Preimer (Christopher Edward Martin) (DJ for Gang Starr)

1967: Maxim (Keith Palmer) (MC for The Prodigy)

1968: Andrew Copeland (Singer & Guitarist for Sister Hazel)

1980: Deryck 'Bizzy D' Whibley (Guitar & vocals for Sum 41)

Events

1939: "God Bless America" was recorded by Kate Smith.

1952: At the Cleveland Arena, influential DJ Alan Freed holds what is today considered the first true "rock and roll concert," as his Moondog Coronation Ball features Billy Ward and the Dominoes, Tiny Grimes, and Paul Williams and the Hucklebuckers. With ten thousand attendees (and twice that many outside, waiting to get in), the local police shut the concert down prematurely for fire code violations, causing a near-riot.

1956: After performing in Norfolk, VA (with Gene Vincent opening), and en route to New York to appear on The Perry Como Show, Carl Perkins is badly injured in a Dover, DE car crash that also kills his manager and his brother Jay. The crash derails Perkins career, almost for good, as he is forced to spend months in the hospital nursing a fractured neck, broken collarbone, and a severe concussion, while Elvis Presley has an ever bigger hit with Carl's hit "Blue Suede Shoes."

1961: The Beatles, still featuring Pete Best on drums, play their first evening gig at Liverpool's Cavern Club, opening for an act called The Bluegenes (later the Swinging Blue Jeans of "Hippy Hippy Shake" fame).

1963: Barbra Streisand marries her first husband, actor Elliott Gould, whom she'd met while both were performing in the Broadway hit ‘I Can Get It for You Wholesale’.

1964: Dean Martin immortalizes his handprints in the cement of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

1967: John Lennon takes his first major LSD trip and freaks out while recording backing vocals on the track "Getting Better." Producer George Martin, not realizing the effects of the drug, takes Lennon to the roof of Abbey Road Studios to get some fresh air. Paul and George, upon learning where John was, rush up to get him down. The group works on a piano track for "Lovely Rita" instead.

1970:  Faces, with new lead singer Rod Stewart, released their first LP, "First Step."

1973: After screaming teenage David Cassidy fangirls cause a riot on the set of the BBC TV show Top Of The Pops, the program bans all future teen idols from performing.

1976: David Bowie and Iggy Pop are arrested in New York and charged with marijuana possession, charges which are later dropped.

1976: Singer Claudine Longet, formerly the wife of Andy Williams, shot her boyfriend, world skiing champion Spider Sabich Sabich had tried to throw her and her three children out of his house. Longet was arrested for manslaughter.

1984: John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, dedicates a section of New York City's Central Park as a place of meditation called Strawberry Fields. Every December 9, thousands of fans converge on the spot to remember her last husband, who was murdered by a deranged fan on that day in 1980.

1991: Leo Fender, the inventor of The Telecaster and Stratocaster guitars died from Parkinson's disease. He started mass producing solid body electric guitars in the late 40s and when he sold his guitar company in 1965, sales were in excess of $40 million a year.

1994: Bruce Springsteen wins an Oscar for penning the song "Streets Of Philadelphia" for the Tom Hanks movie Philadelphia.

1996: Guitarist for The Stone Roses John Squire quit the band. He broke the news to the other three members over the phone.

1997: Snoop Doggy Dog was sentenced to three years probation and fined $1,000 for a firearms violation after a handgun was found in his car when he was stopped for a traffic violation.

2001: Eminem was ordered to pay $476,000 as part of his divorce agreement with his ex-wife Kim. Also, as part of the agreement, Eminem would keep the “US mansion” and they would share custody of their five-year-old daughter, Hailie Jade.

2001, Michael Jackson's interior decorator told The Times newspaper that the singer kept 17 life size dolls, adult and child sizes, all fully dressed in his bedroom for 'company.'

2003: Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry divorces his first wife, model Lucy Helmore, after 21 years, on grounds of adultery.

2004, Ozzy Osbourne was named the nation's favorite ambassador to welcome aliens to planet earth by a Yahoo poll.

2008: Five years of legal wrangling comes to a close after the Beach Boys' Mike Love and Brian Wilson sued former member Al Jardine in an attempt to stop him from using the name while touring with his own band. Jardine's lawyer, while not disclosing the terms of the agreement, said his client "feels very happy and feels that this is a friendly settlement that allows them to focus on the talent and future of this American iconic band," words that have Beach Boys fans hopeful for the possibility of a full-scale group reunion.

2011: Blues legend Pinetop Perkins dies of cardiac arrest at 97 years old.

2011:  Disco singer Loleatta Holloway died at the age of 64.

March 20

Births

1928: Fred “Mr.” Rogers

1936: Lee "Scratch" Perry (Reggae Artist)

1937: Jerry Reed (Country Singer)

1949: Marcia Ball (Blues Singer & Pianist)

1950: Carl Palmer (Drummer for Emerson, Lake and Palmer & Asia)

1951: Jimmie Vaughan (Guitar & Vocals for Fabulous Thunderbirds)

1953: Poison Ivy (Kristy Wallace) (guitar for The Cramps)

1956: Fonso Martin (Percussion for Steel Pulse)

1957: Spike Lee

1972: Alex Kapranos (Vocals & Guitar for Franz Ferdinand)

1976: Chester Bennington (Vocals for Linkin Park)

1982: Nick Wheeler (Guitarist for All-American Rejects)

Events

1959: Dick Clark protege and teen idol Bobby Rydell makes his first television appearance, naturally enough, on ABC-TV's American Bandstand.

1960: Elvis Presley started his first recordings since being discharged from the US Army. A 12 hour session in a Nashville recording studio produced his next No.1 single, ‘Stuck On You’. Scotty Moore and Bill Black, who had quit Presley's touring band in 1957, were in the studio with him for the last time.

1964: The Beatles make their first appearance on the British television show Ready Steady Go!, miming along, as was the custom, to "Can't Buy Me Love," "It Won't Be Long," and "You Can't Do That." They were also presented with a special award from US magazine Billboard, in recognition of The Beatles having the top three singles on the chart simultaneously.

1965: After a celebratory formal street parade, Motown's first UK package tour begins at Finsbury Park Astoria, in London, featuring The Supremes, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and Martha & the Vandellas.

1968: In Los Angeles, Eric Clapton and three members of Buffalo Springfield -- Neil Young, Jim Messina, and Richie Furay -- are arrested for suspicion of marijuana use. The band members are eventually found guilty and fined, while Clapton beats the charges.

1969: After days of looking for a suitable and legal place, John Lennon finally gets to marry Yoko Ono at the Rock of Gibraltar in Spain, a piece of land still owned by the English and described by Lennon as being necessarily "quiet, friendly, and British." Later, in the Beatles song "The Ballad Of John And Yoko," he describes the site as "Gibraltar, near Spain," unintentionally setting off an international furor, as England and Spain were currently at odds over ownership of the area.

1971: Janis Joplin started a two week run at No.1 on the singles chart with the Kris Kristofferson's 'Me And Bobby McGee'. Joplin died the year before on 4th October aged 27.

1971:  At their own expense, The Rolling Stones placed full page advertisements in all the UK's music papers disclaiming any connection with the release of the Decca album 'Stone Age' saying 'in our opinion the content is below the standard we try to keep.'

1976: Alice Cooper marries his first and only wife, Sheryl Goddard, a 19-year-old dancer on his Welcome To My Nightmare tour.

1977: T. Rex plays what is to be their last concert before the untimely death of leader Marc Bolan in a car accident, a gig at Portsmouth, England club The Locarno.

1980: Joseph Riviera, 28, a truck driver from New York, breaks into the offices of record label Asylum, takes the office manager hostage, and demands to see label artists Jackson Browne and/or The Eagles so that they can help finance his trucking business. After he realizes the artists in question aren't actually in the building, he surrenders to police.

1982: Joan Jett And The Blackhearts started a seven week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll'.

1984: Slim Jim Phantom (Drummer for The Stray Cats) married actress Britt Ekland.

1989: After 37 years on the air, Dick Clark announces he will discontinue hosting his creation, ABC-TV's highly influential American Bandstand. The show continues with another host, but folds for good soon after.

1990: Gloria Estefan’s tour bus was rammed by a tractor-trailer on the way to a concert.  Emilio Estefan and their son Nayib were injured; Gloria suffered a serious back injury, which required an operation two days later.

1991: Eric Clapton's son Conor, all of four years old, dies after falling from the 53rd story window of his mother's apartment in New York. (The guitarist was staying at a hotel not far away, having taken Conor to the circus the night before.) A shaken Clapton later writes the hit song "Tears In Heaven" as a way to help him through the grief.

2004: The University of Washington presents Quincy Jones with an honorary doctorate in Music.