March 26

Births

1944: Diana Ross (R&B Singer)

1948: Steven Tyler (Singer for Aerosmith)

1949: Fran Sheehan (Bass for Boston)

1950: Teddy Pendergrass (R&B Singer)

1955: Martin Price (Keyboards for 808 State)

1957: Paul Morley (Art Of Noise)

1968: James Jonas Iha (Guitar for Smashing Pumpkins)

1968: Kenny Chesney (Country Singer / Songwriter)

1981: Jay Sean (R&B Singer & Rapper)

Events

1827: Composer Ludwig van Beethoven died at age 56.

1963: Funny Girl, a musical about Ziegfeld Follies star Fanny Brice, opens on Broadway, starring Barbra Streisand. It features the hits "Don't Rain On My Parade" and the song that would become her trademark, "People."

1964: Tonight's guest on CBS-TV's "panel show" I've Got A Secret is former Beatles drummer Pete Best, whose "secret" occupation is guessed almost immediately. When host Gary Moore asks Best why he "left" the group (Best was fired), he replied: "I thought I'd like to start a group of my own."

1965: Mick Jagger, Brian Jones and Bill Wyman all received electric shocks from a faulty microphone on stage during a Rolling Stones show in Denmark. Bill Wyman was knocked unconscious for several minutes.

1965: It was announced that Jeff Beck would take Eric Clapton's place in the Yardbird

1968: Little Willie John Dies. The official cause of death was listed in his death certificate as a heart attack.

1969: Pat Boone guest-stars as himself on tonight's "Collard Greens An' Fatback" episode of CBS-TV's Beverly Hillbillies.

1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono began their "bed-in" for peace in Amsterdam.

1970: Mere days after winning a Grammy for Best Recording for Children with their album Peter, Paul and Mommy, Peter Paul and Mary are scandalized when group leader Peter Yarrow is arrested in Washington, DC for "taking immoral liberties" with a 14-year-old girl. He would spend three months in prison and would later be given clemency by President Jimmy Carter.

1972: Mott The Hoople are about to call it quits when friend of the band David Bowie offers to produce their next album, even offering them two new songs he's written: "Suffragette City," which the band turns down, and "All The Young Dudes."

1975: The movie musical Tommy, directed by Ken Russell and based on the Who album of the same name, premieres in London, starring Who lead singer Roger Daltrey in the title role, as well as Ann-Margret and Jack Nicholson. Guest stars include Elton John and Tina Turner.

1976: Keith Richards and model girlfriend Anita Pallenberg become the proud parents of a son, Tara. Sadly, he would die ten weeks later from pneumonia.

1976: Riding near the scene of a multi-car pileup in Memphis, Elvis Presley jumps out of his limo, displays his honorary police captain's badge from the city, and attempts to help the victims before police and rescue teams arrive.

1977: Hall and Oates started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Rich Girl', the duo's first US No.1

1980: Pink Floyd's landmark 1973 LP Dark Side Of The Moon surpasses Carole King's Tapestry as the album with the longest consecutive stay on the Billboard 200 album chart. It would remain on the chart until 1988.

1983: Duran Duran went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Is There Something I Should Know'. Their first No.1 and there eighth single release. The group was on a US promotional trip on this day, where they were greeted by 5,000 screaming fans at an in-store appearance in New York City.

1985: After Stevie Wonder's Oscar speech the previous night, at which he dedicated his Best Song Award to Nelson Mandela, South Africa bans all Wonder records from its nation's radio stations.

1986: Guns N' Roses was signed to Geffen Records.

1988: Morrissey went to No.1 on the UK album chart with his debut solo LP 'Viva Hate.'

1990: Digital Undergound released their debut album “Sex Packets” on Tommy Boy records.

1994: Soundgarden entered the US album chart at No.1 with 'Superunknown'.

1995: Rapper producer, and record executive Eazy-E (Eric Lynn Wright) died of AIDS in Los Angeles aged 31.

2001: The toy figure of Eminem was facing a ban from UK shops. Woolworth's and Hamleys were refusing to stock the dolls. Psychologists warned parents who buy the dolls for children will be inadvertently giving their approval to bad language.

2002: Randy Castillo drummer with the Ozzy Osbourne band died of cancer aged 51.

2004: Jan Berry of Jan and Dean, died at the age of 62 after being in poor health sustained in a 1966 car crash.

2005: Australian drummer Paul Hester died aged 46, after he "attempted suicide" and died from strangulation after being found hanged in a park in Melbourne. He had been a member of Crowded House, Split Enz and Largest Living Things.

2008: The Los Angeles Times apologised for claiming rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs was involved in a 1994 shooting of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur. The LA Times, which published the original story on its website, initially said its claims were based on FBI records, witness accounts and other unnamed sources. The apology followed a claim that the newspaper was conned by a prisoner who doctored the documents used.

March 24

Births

1937: Billy Stewart (R&B Singer)

1949: Nick Lowe (Singer / Songwriter)

1960: Nena (German Singer)

1970: Sharon Corr (Vocals & Violin for The Corrs)

1974: Chad Butler (Drummer for Switchfoot)

Events

1935: The godfather of all broadcast talent shows, Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour, moves from a New York show to national prominence with a new slot on the NBC radio network. In 1952, the show, now hosted by Ted Mack, made it to NBC-TV. It would run on various networks until 1970.

1941: Glenn Miller begins filming his first motion picture, Sun Valley Serenade.

1945: Billboard begins publishing its first album chart. The first Number One: A Collection Of Favorites by Nat King Cole.

1956: Elvis Presley visits friend and fellow Sun labelmate Carl Perkins in a Dover, DE hospital, where he is recovering from his near-fatal car crash.

1958: At 6:35 in the morning, Elvis Presley reports to the offices of Memphis' Local Draft Board 86, accompanied by his parents and longtime friend Lamar Fike, then is bused with twelve other new recruits to Kennedy Veterans Memorial Hospital. There, he is inducted into the US Army, a Private with serial number 53 310 761. Dozens of photographers and reporters attend. He will serve two years, and get paid $78 a month.

1962: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards take the stage for the first time in Ealing, England with their first band, unfortunately named Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys.

1965: While playing in Odense, Denmark, Rolling Stone bassist Bill Wyman is shocked by a poorly grounded mic stand, and is instantly knocked unconscious.

1966: The first major US bootleg law is passed in New York State, a bill that makes the processing of unlicensed recordings a misdemeanor. A dozen years later to the day, England grants their record companies the right to seize bootleg recordings.

1973: An overzealous male fan climbs onstage during Lou Reed's show in Buffalo, NY, and bites him on the butt. The audience member is, not surprisingly, thrown out.

1991: The Black Crowes were dropped as the support act on ZZ Top's tour after repeatedly criticising the tour sponsor Miller Beer.

1992: A Chicago court settled the Milli Vanilli class action suit by approving cash rebates of up to $3 to anyone proving they bought the group’s music before November 27, 1990, the date the lip synching scandal broke.

1992: Arrested Development release their classic debut album “3 Years, 5 Months, 2 Days In The Life Of…

1997: Harold Melvin (Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes) dies of a stroke ate age of 57.

1998: R&B singer Mark Morrison was jailed for a year after trying to con his way out of doing community service in the UK.

2001: The segment of Hwy 19 that runs through Macon, GA, is renamed Duane Allman Boulevard, in remembrance of the famed Allman Brothers guitarist who died in a motorcycle crash near there three decades earlier.

2002: After a record fifteen nominations, Randy Newman wins his first Oscar award for Best Song: the Monsters Inc. composition "If I Didn't Have You.”

2006: After a chicken-fried steak dinner, Buck Owens performs for the last time at his Crystal Palace theater in Bakersfield. He dies in his sleep the following morning. His last song: "Big In Vegas".

2009: Motown drummer Uriel Jones of The Funk Brothers, died at age 74 after suffering complications from a heart attack.

March 23

Births

1949: Ric Ocasek (Lead Vocals & Guitar for The Cars)

1953: Chaka Khan (R&B Singer)

1967: John Stohm (Guitar for The Lemonheads & Blake Babies)

1968: Damon Albarn (Vocals for Blur)

Events

1743:  Handel's Messiah was performed for the first time in London.

1891:  1st jazz concert was held at Carnegie Hall.

1955: Elvis Presley, along with bandmates Scotty Moore and Bill Black, audition for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts show in New York with a surprisingly tepid version of "Milkcow Blues Boogie." They are subsequently rejected.

1956: At a Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers concert in Hartford, CT, eleven audience members are arrested for allegedly inciting a riot.

1960: Songwriter and future superstar Carole King gives birth to her first child, a daughter named Louise, with husband and writing partner Gerry Goffin.

1961: Elvis Presley recorded "Can't Help Falling In Love".

1964: John Lennon's first book, "In His Own Write" was published.

1969: In response to the Doors' infamous recent concert there (at which lead singer Jim Morrison allegedly exposed himself), a "Rally For Decency" is held in Miami featuring Jackie Gleason, The Lettermen, Kate Smith, and Anita Bryant and promising that the crowd of 30,000 will contain no "longhairs and weird dressers."

1970: Phil Spector takes the tapes for the aborted Beatles project "Get Back" into Abbey Road Studios to begin reshaping them into the album that would eventually be called Let It Be. Meanwhile, in the next room over, Paul McCartney works on his first solo album.

1973: John Lennon was ordered to leave the US within 60 days by the immigration authorities; he began a long fight to win his 'Green Card' which he was given on 27th July 1976.

1973: Yoko Ono was granted permission to live in the U.S. permanently.

1977: Elvis Presley begins what will be his last tour with a concert at Arizona State University.  This was the first date of 49 date US tour over three months and Presley’s last ever tour. (His last ever show was on 26th June 1977 at the Indianapolis Indiana Market Square Arena).

1983: The Smiths played at The Rock Garden, London, England, the group's first ever London show.

1985: John Fogerty engineers an amazing comeback when his LP Centerfield becomes a Number 1 hit 15 years after the breakup of Creedence Clearwater Revival.

1985: Billy Joel marries supermodel Christie Brinkley on a boat in New York Harbor, near the Statue of Liberty. They divorced in 1993.

1987:  The Soul Train Music Awards debuted. It was the first televised awards ceremony to pay exclusive homage to black producers, songwriters and recording artists in the music industry.

1988:  Mick Jagger made his first solo appearance on stage in Japan.

1992: Janet Jackson signed with Virgin Records for $16,000,000.

1999:  In Gibraltar, a set of postage stamps was released commemorating what would have been the 30th wedding anniversary of Yoko Ono and John Lennon.