May 14

Births

1936: Bobby Darin (Singer)

1943: Jack Bruce (John Symon Asher) (Bass for Cream)

1943: Derek Leckenby (Lead Guitar in Herman's Hermits)

1945: Gene Cornish (Guitar in The Rascals)

1952: David Byrne (Guitar & Vocals for The Talking Heads)

1953: Tom Cochrane (Singer in Red Rider & Solo)

1956: Steve Hogarth (Lead Singer for Marillion)

1962: C.C. Deville (Bruce Anthony Johannesson) (Guitar for Poison)

1962: Ian Astbury (Singer & Guitarist for Southern Death Cult & The Cult)

1964: Eric Peterson (Guitar for Testament)

1966: Fabrice Morvan (Vocals for Milli Vanilli) .. or was he??

1966: Mike Inez (Bass for Alice In Chains)

1966: Raphael Saadiq (Raphael Wiggins) (Singer in Tony! Toni! Tone! & Solo)

1969: Danny Wood (New Kids On The Block)

1973: Shanice (R&B Singer)

1976: Hunter Burgan (Bass for AFI)

1979: Dan Auerbach (Vocals & Guitar for The Black Keys)

1993: Miranda Cosgrove (Pop Singer)

Events

1938: Duke Ellington recorded the song "Caravan".

1956: Buddy Holly visits his optometrist's office to correct his horrible 20/800 vision with primitive contact lenses, but Buddy hates them, and decides to keep his signature glasses.

1957: Elvis Presley was rushed to a Los Angles hospital after swallowing a porcelain cap from one of his front teeth, which then lodged its-self in one of his lungs.

1959: Jazz Saxophonist Sidney Bechet died from lung cancer on his sixty-second birthday.

1964: Jan and Dean began recording "Little Old Lady From Pasadena."

1966: For the record ninth time in three years, the Kingsmen's hit version of "Louie Louie" enters the Billboard singles charts.

1968: Elvis Presley meets with NBC-TV producer Bob Finkel, helming his upcoming Christmas special and tells him he wants to use this event to reintroduce and prove himself once again to the rock audience.

1968: On a publicity tour to promote their new venture, Apple, John Lennon and Paul McCartney agree to appear on NBC-TV's Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Unfortunately, Carson is on vacation that week, and his replacement, sportscaster Joe Garagiola, has almost no idea what to talk about with the pair (at one point, he actually asks which one of the two is Ringo). Guest Tallulah Bankhead, for her part, seems to look upon the duo's appearance as an affront to her Golden Age of Hollywood stardom. The interview is a disaster, cut short so as to give the appearance that the two lead Beatles have somewhere to go. The only existing video copy is a three-minute excerpt a fan films by pointing a video camera at his TV set; fan audio of the entire interview has been widely bootlegged.

1969: During a UK tour, Fairport Conventions van crashed on the M1 motorway on the way home from a gig in Birmingham killing the group's 19 year-old drummer Martin Lamble and Richard Thompson's girlfriend Jeannie Franklyn.

1970: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young release the single "Ohio"

1976: 33 year-old Keith Relf, former lead singer for The Yardbirds, was electrocuted while tuning a guitar which was not properly grounded. The accident happened in his West London home where he was found by his eight year old son, still holding the plugged-in electric guitar.

1985: Ronald Reagan presents Michael Jackson with a special Presidential Humanitarian Award at the White House for his work against drunk driving.

1987: Frank Sinatra, who had played South Africa in the past, suddenly condemns the apartheid regime publicly, referring to president P.W. Botha as "a bum."

1988: Atlantic Records' 40th Anniversary celebration takes place at New York's Madison Square Garden, featuring appearances from many famous artists on the label's roster: The Bee Gees, Wilson Pickett, The Rascals, The Coasters, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Crosby Stills and Nash, Foreigner, Yes, Genesis, and the event's main attraction, a rare reunion of Led Zeppelin, featuring John Bonham's son Jason taking over drums for his late father.

1992: The album "Revenge" was released by KISS. The album featured a new drummer, Eric Singer.

1993: Christie's auction house in London sells the acoustic guitar on which Elvis Presley recorded his first Sun single, "That's All Right, Mama" b/w "Blue Moon Of Kentucky," to an unnamed bidder for $152,000. On the same day, the US tabloid Weekly World News claims that Elvis Presley has only recently died.

1997: Mark Morrison was jailed for three months after threatening a police officer with an electric stun gun, he was also ordered to pay $600 costs.

1998: Frank Sinatra died of a heart attack at age 82.

1998: George Michael pled no contest in the Beverly Hills Municipal Court to committing a lewd act in a park restroom. He was fined $810, given 80 hours of community service, and ordered to undergo counseling.

2003: Lawyers for Britney Spears and the Skechers footwear company settled a dispute over a deal for the pop star to market a line of roller skates and accessories. Spears had filed a $1.5 million breach of agreement lawsuit against Skechers in December, claiming the company failed to pay her adequately. Skechers had responded with a $10 million lawsuit, accusing Spears of fraud and breach of the three-year licensing agreement she signed in January 2002.

2004: Phil Spector was arrested after getting into a scuffle with his chauffeur at his California mansion. The 64 year old record producer was taken into custody and later released after a court date was set.

2005: A judge in Springfield, Massachusetts, ordered rapper 50 Cent to stay clean of drugs and take an anger management course to avoid spending time in jail. The rapper appeared in court charged with assaulting three women at a concert in 2004 after leaping into the crowd.

2005: Jimmy Martin (Bluegrass Musician) died of bladder cancer.

2006: Ashton "Family Man" Barrett, former bassist with Bob Marley's Wailers, loses a lawsuit alleging that Island Records and Marley's estate have failed to pay him millions in royalties.

2006: Six weeks after breaking his wrist in a cross-country motorbike race, country singer Craig Morgan breaks his right leg in another competition in Vanleer, Tennessee. He finishes the race, but will have to perform from a wheelchair or crutches for at least six weeks.

2011: Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton are married at the Don Strange Ranch near Boerne, Texas, in front of Reba McEntire, Dierks Bentley, Martina McBride and The Bellamy Brothers.

May 13

Births

1912: Gil Evans (Jazz Pianist)

1933: Mike Stoller (Composer)

1941: Ritchie Valens (Guitarist & Singer)

1943: Mary Wells (R&B Singer)

1945: Magic Dick (Harmonica for J. Geils Band)

1947: Overend Watts (Bass for Mott The Hoople)

1950: Danny Kirwan (Guitarist & Vocals for Fleetwood Mac)

1950: Stevie Wonder (R&B Singer & Piano Player)

1951: Paul Thompson (Drummer for Roxy Music)

1966: Darius Rucker (Singer & Guitar for Hootie & The Blowfish & Solo)

1966: Goldfrapp (Alison Goldfrapp) (Singer)

1969: Buckethead (Brian Carroll) (Guitarist)

1979: Michael Madden (Bass for Maroon 5)

Events

1938: Louis Armstrong recorded "When The Saints Go Marching In".

1955: At tonight's show in Jacksonville, FL, Elvis Presley tells the girls who make up the majority of the 14,000-plus crowd that he'll "see (them) backstage." The crowd proceeds to do just that, ripping the King's clothes, causing Elvis' first-ever riot and, reportedly, convincing Tom Parker about Elvis' popularity once and for all.

1957: Elvis begins filming his third movie, Jailhouse Rock, in Hollywood.

1966: The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band gives its first performance at The Paradox in Orange, California.

1967: The Supremes scored their 10th US No.1 single with 'The Happening'.  It was the last single to be released as the Supremes, from now on they were known as Diana Ross and the Supremes.

1969: The Beatles meet at EMI House in London to replicate the cover of their first LP, Please Please Me, now with beards and long hair, for the cover of their next project, Get Back. When that project morphs into Let It Be, the photo is eventually used for the cover of their "blue album," The Beatles 1967-1970.

1970: The Beatles' last film, the misbegotten documentary Let It Be, premieres in New York.

1970: Badfinger recorded "No Matter What".

1971: Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick accidentally wrecks her Mercedes on a wall near the Golden Gate Bridge, forcing the band to put off recording its new album until the singer recovers from her injuries.

1971: Motown child prodigy Stevie Wonder turns 21, and is by law released from his recording contract and given $1 million of the $30 million he has earned while at the label. Nevertheless, after gaining complete artistic control, Wonder resigns to Tamla.

1974: An unlikely riot occurs at tonight's Jackson 5 concert at RFK Stadium in Washington DC when impatient fans begin smashing bottles in the parking lot. Fifty fans are injured; forty-three are brought to jail.

1975: Bob Wills (Country Artist) died of pneumonia.

1977: Linda Ronstadt indirectly declines an offer placed in Hustler magazine, promising a million dollars to any of ten female celebrities (including Ronstadt) willing to pose for a nude photo shoot.

1978: With Yvonne Elliman's version of "If I Can't Have You" reaching the top of Billboard's pop chart, the Bee Gees' Barry Gibb becomes the first songwriter in history to have written four consecutive Number One US singles.

1985: Bruce Springsteen marries his first wife, model and actress Julianne Phillips, in Lake Oswego, OR, with Little Richard officiating and Percy Sledge singing "When A Man Loves A Woman." The couple would divorce in 1989.

1988: Chet Baker was found dead on Prins Hendrikkade, near Zeedijk, on the street below his second-story room (Room 210) of Hotel Prins Hendrik in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with serious wounds to his head. Heroin and cocaine were found in his hotel room, and an autopsy also found these drugs in his body. There was no evidence of a struggle, and the death was ruled an accident.

1993: The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bette Midler and Barry White were guest voices on the season finale of the "The Simpsons." The episode was entitled "Krusty Gets Kancelled."

2000: Happy Monday’s singer Shaun Ryder's Volkswagen Corrado was found abandoned after being used as the getaway car. It was used in an armed robbery on Harry Ramsden's fish and chip restaurant in Manchester. $13,000 cash was taken in the robbery.

2003: Michael Jackson sues Motown records for alleged nonpayment of Jackson 5 royalties and unauthorized usage of the group's music in TV commercials.

2004: In an Australian radio interview, Gene Simmons of KISS states of Islam: "This is a vile culture, and if you think for a second that it's willing to just live in the sands of God's armpit you've got another thing coming... they want to come and live right where you live and they think that you're evil." After a flood of angry calls from Muslims, Simmons claims he was speaking only of extremists.

2007: Queen's Brian May is put on a round-the-clock watch after a schizophrenic leaves a letter at the guitarist's home blaming him for his mental illness, claiming himself as the real Brian May, and marking the guitarist for death.

2007: After complaining of not feeling well during a gig in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the day before, and after becoming notably disoriented at the airport the next day, Bo Diddley is found to have suffered a mild stroke and is hospitalized at Crieghton University Medical Center in nearby Omaha, NE.

2008: The Turtles' Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, better known as "Flo and Eddie," sue Capitol Records for allowing the Ice Cube to sample the group's 1972 song "Buzzsaw" for Cube's 1992 hit "Jackin' For Beats."

2008: The US Postal Service issued a 42-cent postage stamp in honor of Frank Sinatra. The design showed a 1950s-vintage image of Sinatra, wearing a hat.  It was also the first “Frank Sinatra Day” to celebrate the day before his death in 1998.

2011:  The surviving members of Pink Floyd reunited at London's O2 Arena for a rare collaboration, after swearing that they would never tour again upon breaking up in the mid-80s. David Gilmour joined Roger Waters and Nick Mason for renditions of "Comfortably Numb" and "Outside the Wall."

2011:  Lloyd Knibb, an influential Jamaican drummer who played with the Skatalites and helped develop the ska beat, died from liver cancer.

May 12

Births

1928: Burt Bacharach (Writer & Singer)

1937: George Carlin (Comedian)

1942: Ian Dury (Singer & songwriter)

1945: Ian McLagan (Keyboards for Small Faces)

1948: Steve Winwood (Vocals & Keyboards for Spencer Davis Group, Traffic & Solo)

1950: Billy Squier (Guitarist & Singer)

1955: Kix Brooks (Singer / Songwriter in Brooks & Dunn)

1958: Eric Singer (Drummer for Kiss)

1961: Billy Duffy (Guitar for The Cult)

1962: Brett Gurewitz (Guitar for Bad Religion)

1966: Bebel Gilberto (Brazilian Singer)

Events

1958: The Everly Brothers started a four-week run at No.1 in the US with 'All I Have To Do Is Dream', (the song was written in 15 minutes).

1960: Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley appeared on the same TV special and performed the other's hit. Elvis sang "Witchcraft" and Sinatra sang "Love Me Tender."

1962: Billboard Magazine reported that last year's most-played jukebox record was ‘Big Bad John’ by Jimmy Dean. The second most-played was Chubby Checker's ‘The Twist’.

1963: Bob Dylan walked out of rehearsals for the US TV Ed Sullivan show after being told he couldn't perform 'Talking John Birch Society Blues' due to it mocking the US military.

1964: The Beach Boys started a four week run at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Beach Boys Concert', the group's first US No.1.

1965: "Satisfaction" was recorded by The Rolling Stones.

  

1967: 'Are You Experienced', the debut album by Jimi Hendrix was released in the UK. Hendrix also played a gig at the Bluesville Club, Manor House in London on this day.

1967: Archie Bell (Drells) was drafted into the U.S. military for a tour of Vietnam.

1968: Jimi Hendrix was arrested by police on his way to Toronto for possession of hashish and heroin. Hendrix claimed the drugs had been planted on him.

1968: Brian Jones (Guitar and was replaced by Mick Taylor) made his final live appearance with The Rolling Stones when they appeared at the New Musical Express Poll Winners Concert at the Empire Pool, Wembley, England.

1971: Rolling Stone Mick Jagger married Bianca Macias at St Tropez Town Hall. The guest list included the other members of the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and Stephen Stills. The couple separated in 1977.

1971: Jerry Lee Lewis was granted a divorce from his cousin Myra.

1975: Jefferson Starship gave a free concert in New York's Central Park in front of 60,000 fans. The band and concert sponsor, WNEW-FM, were forced to pay $14,000 for cleaning up and damage done to the park after the event.

1977: After being dropped by both EMI and A&M records in less than 6 months, Virgin records announced they had signed The Sex Pistols.

1977: Led Zeppelin received the outstanding contribution to British music at the second Ivor Novello Awards held at the Grosvenor Hotel, London.

1981: Meat Loaf filed for bankruptcy with debts of over $1 million.

1985: An honorary Doctor of Music degree was given to Lionel Richie from his alma mater Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

1986: Joe Strummer of The Clash was banned from driving after being convicted of drink driving.

1996: 17-year-old Bernadette O'Brien died the day after being injured 'body surfing' at a Smashing Pumpkins gig at The Point, Dublin.

1999: George Jones pled guilty to driving while impaired and violating the Tennessee's open-container law in Franklin. He was fined $550.

2000: Thieves stole the gates to Strawberry Fields the Merseyside landmark immortalized by The Beatles song. The 10' high iron gates were later found at local scrap metal dealers in Liverpool.

2001: American singer and TV presenter Perry Como died aged 88. He scored fourteen US No.1 singles, from 150 US chart hits and over 25 UK chart hits, including the single 'Magic Moments' and 'Catch A Falling Star.' Como was once the highest-paid performer in the history of television.

2002: At Miami International Airport, Dionne Warwick was arrested when baggage screeners found 11 marijuana cigarettes inside her lipstick container.

2002: Tom Hamilton's (Bass for Aerosmith) home in Cape Cod was destroyed by a fire. The house was under construction at the time.

2004: Barry and Robin Gibb were both presented with honorary degrees from Manchester University. They also picked up a posthumous award for their brother Barry. The brothers had once lived in Manchester, England.

2008: Singer-songwriter Neil Young had a spider named after him. US university biologist Jason Bond discovered a new species of trapdoor spider and decided to name it after his favorite musician. Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi was found in Jefferson County, Alabama, in 2007.

2011:  29-year-old Kings of Leon rocker Caleb Followill tied the knot with 25-year-old model Lily Aldridge in Montecito, Calif. "It was a perfect day," says Followill, who met the Victoria's Secret model at Coachella in 2007.