April 12

Births

1932: Tiny Tim (Singer?)

1940: Herbie Hancock (Jazz Pianist)

1944: John Kay (Guitar & Vocals for Steppenwolf)

1947: Alex Briley (G.I. in The Village People)

1947: David Letterman

1950: David Cassidy (Singer)

1953: Tony James (Bass for Generation X & Sigue Sigue Sputnik)

1954: Pat Travers (Guitarist)

1957: Vince Gill (Country Singer)

1958: Will Sergeant (Guitarist for Echo And The Bunnymen)

1961: D.D. Verni (Bass for Overkill)

1962: Art Alexakis (Guitar & Vocals for Everclear)

1964: Amy Ray (Guitar & vocals for The Indigo Girls)

1967: Sarah Cracknell (Singer for Saint Etienne)

1967: Mellow Man Ace (Rapper)

1970: Nicholas Lofton Hexum (Vocalist & guitarist for 311)

1978: Guy Berryman (Bass for Coldplay)

1987: Brendon Urie (Singer for Panic! at the Disco)

Events

1939: Woody Herman recorded "Woodchopper’s Ball".

1954, Bill Haley recorded 'Rock Around The Clock' at Pythian Temple studios in New York City. Considered by many to be the song that put rock and roll on the map around the world. The song was used over the opening titles for the film 'Blackboard Jungle', and went on to be a world-wide No.1 and the biggest selling pop single with sales over 25 million. Written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers, 'Rock Around The Clock' was first recorded by Italian-American band Sonny Dae and His Knights.

1961: At tonight's Grammy ceremonies, Ray Charles takes home four awards, including a Best Male Vocal for "Georgia On My Mind."

1963: Bob Dylan performs a spectacular concert at Town Hall in New York, which is recorded for a never-released live album on Columbia.

1964: Chubby Checker marries Miss World 1962, Catharina Johanna Lodders of the Netherlands.

1966: Tom Jones enters a hospital to have his tonsils removed, though some who claim to have seen his tonsils since claim his real visit was for a nose job.

1966: In an eerie recreation of the duo's single from the year before, Jan Berry of Jan and Dean crashes his Corvette into a parked truck on Beverly Hills' Whittier Drive, near a stretch of road in Los Angeles known as "Dead Man's Curve." Berry will require four years of rehabilitation to be able to talk and a full decade in order to perform live again.

1967: Mick Jagger was punched in the face by an airport official during a fight at Le Bourget Airport in France. Jagger lost his temper after The Stones were being searched for drugs resulting in them missing their flight.

1968: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention perform at a New York dinner for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences dinner in New York. Zappa calls the event "a load of pompous hokum" and yells from the stage: "All year long you people have manufactured this crap, now for one night you're gonna have to listen to it!"

1973: Stevie Wonder becomes one of the first rock stars to appear on PBS-TV's Sesame Street.

1973: The movie musical That'll Be The Day, starring Ringo Starr and David Essex, premieres in London.

1975: David Bowie announced his second career retirement, saying, 'I've rocked my roll. It's a boring dead end, there will be no more rock 'n' roll records from me.'

1975: Josephine Baker was found lying peacefully in her bed surrounded by newspapers with glowing reviews of her performance at  the Bobino in Paris—Joséphine à Bobino 1975, celebrating her 50 years in show business. She was in a coma after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. She was taken to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, where she died.

1979: Mickey Thomas, vocalist on the Elvin Bishop Band's 1975 hit "Fooled Around And Fell In Love," becomes the new lead vocalist for Jefferson Starship.

1985: USA for Africa's "We Are The World" album was released.

1986:  Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Go’s married Morgan Mason.

1988: Sonny Bono succeeds in his bid to become mayor of his hometown, Palm Springs, CA.

1989:  Garth Brooks' self-titled debut album was released.

1990: The Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, located at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ, announces that four newly discovered asteroids, 4147-4150, will be named Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr.

1990:  James Brown was released from a South Carolina jail on work furlough after serving 15 months of a six-year sentence for aggravated assault.

1992: The Eagles' Don Henley leads 6,000 fans through Walden Woods in Massachusetts as part of a benefit walk to save the literally significant woods popularized by Henry Thoreau's work.

1992: Actress Lisa Bonet (The Cosby Show) files for divorce from singer Lenny Kravitz.

1995: Two weeks after her death, George W. Bush, (then the governor of Texas), declared "Selena Day" in Texas. The Mexican American singer Selena was murdered aged 23 by the president of her fan club Yolanda Saldívar on 31st March 1995.

1997: While on tour in the UK, Fun Lovin' Criminals drummer Stephen Borovini received a police caution after he was arrested on suspicion of making obscene phone calls to women working in gyms in the Leeds area.

1997: Travis Tritt marries model Theresa Nelson at his home in Paulding County, Georgia, with Marty Stuart serving as best man.

1999: Country singer Boxcar Willie Died of leukemia.

1999: Shania Twain became the only female artist in music history to sell at least 10 million units with back to back releases.

2000: Metallica filed a suit against Napster, Yale University, The University of Southern California and Indiana University for copyright infringement.

2000: Bo Diddley filed suit against Nike for using his name and image without permission. Nike is accused of continuing to use his image after a contract expired in 1991.

2001: Gladys Knight marries her fourth husband, longtime friend William McDowell.

2002: Ozzy Osbourne received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2005: Mariah Carey released ‘The Emancipation of Mimi’, the album entered the US chart at number one, going six times platinum in less than a year, and subsequently became the most successful album of 2005.

2008: With her latest single, "4 Minutes," Madonna beats Elvis as the artist with the most all-time Top Ten Hits on the Billboard charts (37).

2008: Lou Reed marries his second wife, conceptual artist Laurie Anderson.

2010: In San Antonio, TX, Bret Michaels, of Poison, had an emergency appendectomy. He had gone to the hospital while preparing for a show the previous night.

April 11

Births

1918: Jimmy Lewis (R&B Singer)

1955: Neville Staples (Singer for The Specials)

1957: Jim Lauderdale (Country Singer / Songwriter)

1958: Stuart Adamson (Guitar & Vocals for Big Country)

1961: Doug Hopkins (Guitar for Gin Blossoms)

1963: Nigel Pulsford (Guitar for Bush)

1966: Lisa Stansfield (Pop Singer)

1971: Oliver "Ollie” Riedel (Bass for Rammstein)

1977: Tom Thacker (Guitar for Sum 41)

1979: Chris Gaylor (Drummer for All-American Rejects)

1987: Joss Stone (Pop Singer)

Events

1956: Elvis Presley's tour plane develops engine trouble while flying the singer from Amarillo, TX to Nashville, forcing an emergency landing in Arkansas. When he calls his mother Gladys to tell her, she begs him to never fly again, instilling a fear of flying in Elvis which will take him years to get over.

1956: James Brown debuts on the R&B charts with "Please, Please, Please."

1966: Frank Sinatra recorded "Strangers In The Night".

1966: Buffalo Springfield (Feat. Stephen Stills & Neil Young) made their live debut at The Troubadour in Hollywood, California.

1967: Flying back to England after participating in the Beach Boys' aborted Smile sessions, Paul McCartney comes up with the idea for the Beatles film and album Magical Mystery Tour.

1968: Janis Joplin makes her television debut when Big Brother and the Holding Company perform on ABC-TV's variety show Hollywood Palace.

1976: Relaxing in his hotel after a record-breaking 40,000 person Sydney show, Alice Cooper is placed under house arrest for alleged breach of contract after refusing to pay another promoter $59,000 for an Australian tour the year before. When it is discovered that the promoter's fallen short on his end of the deal as well, Cooper is released to fly back to the States.

1983: R.E.M.'s first album, "Murmur", was released.

1988: Cher wins Best Actress for the romantic comedy Moonstruck at tonight's Oscar Awards in New York.

1990: Elton John performs at the Indianapolis, IN funeral of Ryan White, the hemophiliac 18-year-old who'd contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion and been shunned for it. Michael Jackson also attends the service.

1991: Ringo Starr was a guest on Fox TV's "The Simpsons."

1997: Grand Funk Railroad reforms for their first tour in years to benefit the Bosnian-American Relief Fund, which helps victims of the recent genocide in Bosnia.

2002: Aretha Franklin and seven other Motown stars are honored with street names in Detroit's new low-income housing project.

2002: Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson got engaged.

2006: Paul Anka guest-stars as himself in tonight's "The Real Paul Anka" episode of WB-TV's Gilmore Girls.

2006: June Pointer (The Pointer Sisters) died.  She had a troubled history of drug and alcohol abuse, and suffered a stroke on February 27, 2006. While in the hospital, June was also diagnosed with cancer which had metastasized in her breast, colon, liver and bone.

2006: A member of Eminem's rap collective D12 was killed in a nightclub shooting in Detroit after an argument broke out at the CCC nightclub. Proof (real name Deshaun Holton) was shot at a club on Eight Mile Road, made famous in Eminem's autobiographical film 8 Mile. Holton was a longtime friend of Eminem and was the rappers best man at his wedding in January of this year.

April 9

Births

1926: Hugh Hefner

1932: Carl Perkins (Singer & Guitarist)

1953: Hal Ketchum (Country Artist)

1961: Mark Kelly (Keyboards for Marillion)

1969: Kevin Martin (Singer for Candlebox)

1977: Gerard Way (Vocals for My Chemical Romance)

1980: Albert Hammond Jr (Guitar for The Strokes)

1987: Jesse McCartney (Singer)

2000: Jackie Evancho (Singer)

Events

1956: Gene Vincent recorded the classic rock 'n roll song 'Be Bop-A-Lula', which went on to be a US & UK Top 20 hit in this year.

1965: Bruce Johnston joined the Beach Boys as the permanent replacement for Brian Wilson.

1966: Jeff Beck collapsed on stage during a Yardbirds gig in Marseilles, France.

1966: Percy Sledge's "When A Man Loves A Woman" was released.

1967: The Doors and The Jefferson Airplane appeared at Cheetah, Santa Monica Pier, Venice, California. This was the largest show The Doors had played to date with a crowd of over 3,000.

1970: Paul McCartney announces official split of Beatles.

1973: Newly signed to EMI Records, Queen played a showcase gig for their new record label at the Marquee Club, London.

1976: American folk singer songwriter Phil Ochs, hung himself at his sisters home in Queens, New York.

1981: The Sam Goody record chain and a top company executive were convicted of trafficking pirated tapes.

1983: David Bowie was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the title track from his latest album 'Let's Dance', his fourth UK No.1 and featuring blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. A US No.1 hit, it was Bowie’s first single to reach number one on both sides of the Atlantic.

1988: Dave Prater of soul duo Sam & Dave was killed when his car left the road and hit a tree in Syracuse, Georgia, on his way to his mother's house in Ocilla. He was 50.

1988: American singer and songwriter Brook Benton died of pneumonia at age 56. Scored over 20 US top 40 singles, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he scored hits such as ‘It's Just A Matter Of Time’ and ‘Endlessly’, and made a comeback in 1974 when he had the No.4 hit 'Rainy Night In Georgia.'

1989: Rolling Stone Bill Wyman announced his forthcoming marriage to 19-year old Mandy Smith. He revealed the couple had been dating for six years.

1990: World's largest bunny hop at Radio City Music Hall.

1991: Record producer Martin Hannett died. He worked with many Manchester acts including The Smiths, New Order, Joy Division, Happy Mondays, Magazine as well as U2 and The Psychedelic Furs.

1994: Pantera entered the US album chart at No.1 with 'Far Beyond Driven'.

1994: R. Kelly started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Bump N' Grind', his first US No.1.

1994: Singer Wayne Newton (52) weds attorney Kathleen McCrone (30).

1997: Songwriter Mae Boren Axton died aged 82 after drowning in her bath at her home in Hendersonville, Tennessee after an apparent heart attack. Known as the 'Queen Mother of Nashville' she wrote over 200 songs including a co-writing credit on the Elvis Presley hit 'Heartbreak Hotel'. She was also the Mother of country singer / songwriter Hoyt Axton.

1997: A&M Records issued a press release stating that the members of Soundgarden have mutually and amicably decided to disband.

2000: Craig David went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Fill Me In'. At 18 years 11 months he became the youngest UK male solo artist to write and sing a UK No.1.

2000: NSYNC started a seven week run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘No Strings Attached’ the Boybands first US No.1.

2002: Eminem agreed to pay $100,000 minus attorney's fees to a man who had filed a civil lawsuit against him for allegedly hitting him in the head and face with an unloaded handgun. The man, John Guerra, had kissed Eminem's wife Kim.

2003: Paul McCartney played his first Manchester show in 24 years when he appeared at the MEN Arena as part of the UK leg on the 'Back In The World Tour 2003.'

2004: A man was arrested for allegedly stalking Avril Lavigne. James Speedy, 30, from Seattle, Washington, was arrested after police searched his home, he was later released on $5,000 bail. Mr. Speedy had been under investigation since last summer for allegedly sending harassing letters and e-mails to the 19-year-old singer. He was later charged with stalking the singer.

2007: Country and western singer Tanya Tucker was sued by her manicurist for $300,000 over claims the star's dog attacked and injured her. Danielle Hobbs stated in court papers that she was bitten by Bella at the singer's Nashville home and also claimed that the alleged attack had left her with painful and disfiguring scars on her leg. She stated that Tucker's assistant told her the dogs were "just babies" and said "they will not hurt you".

2008: Elton John's benefit concert at Radio City Music Hall raises two and a half million dollars for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

2009: Randy Cain, a founding member of US soul group The Delfonics died at his home in Maple Shade, New Jersey at the age of 63.

2009: Bay City Rollers manager Tam Paton died in the bath at his Edinburgh home of a suspected heart attack. The 70-year-old, who had suffered two previous heart attacks and a stroke in recent years, was found dead in his luxury mansion. Paton had made millions through the success of the band in the 1970s, but was a far more controversial figure in recent years. He was convicted of sex offences against two boys aged 16 and 17 in 1982, and was convicted of drug dealing in 2004 after $40,000 worth of cannabis was found at his home, but was cleared on appeal.