Today we listen to Hot Cross Buns. “Hot Cross Buns” is an English language nursery rhyme, Easter song, and street cry referring to the spiced English bun known as a hot cross bun, which is associated with the end of Lent and is eaten on Good Friday in various countries.
This is from Keyboard Kickoff:
Theme and Variations
This version gets harder and harder as it goes
In case that made you hungry
Be sure your student reads and listens to Today’s Daily Listening Assignment
1782 ~ John Field, Composer, whose nocturnes for piano were among models used by Chopin.
More information about Field
• 1791 ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Franz Xavier Mozart, Mozart’s son. He didn’t give his first concert until he was 13 and never achieved his father’s fame
• 1874 ~ Serge Koussevitzky, Russian-born American conductor, double-bass player and music publisher, He was conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and founder of the Tanglewood Music Festival.
• 1882 ~ Richard Wagner’s opera “Parsifal” was first performed, at Bayreuth, western Germany.
• 1914 ~ Erskine Hawkins, ’20th Century Gabriel’ Trumpeter bandleader, composer of Tuxedo Junction (with Julian Dash and Bill Johnson)
• 1919 ~ Eva (Evita) Peron
• 1924 ~ Louie Bellson (Balassoni), Drummer with the Duke Ellington Band, drum solo on Skin Deep, composer, music director for wife Pearl Bailey, played with Dorsey Brothers and Count Basie bands
• 1929 ~ Alexis Weissenberg, Bulgarian-born French pianist
• 1939 ~ Sixteen-year-old singer Kay Starr got a big break. She recorded Baby Me with Glenn Miller and his orchestra on Victor Records. Starr was filling in for Marion Hutton who, at the last minute, was unable to attend the recording session.
• 1941 ~ Bobby Hebb, Grammy Award-winning songwriter, singer, Grand Ole Opry at age 12
• 1943 ~ Dobie Gray (Leonard Ainsworth), Singer, songwriter
• 1943 ~ Mick Jagger, British rock singer and songwriter. 41 hits [1964 to 1989], 5 gold records, 8 number one hit, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. In 2003 he was knighted for his services to popular music and in early 2009 he joined the electric supergroup SuperHeavy.
• 1945 ~ Rick White, Singer
• 1949 ~ Roger Taylor (Meadows-Taylor), Drummer with Queen
• 1992 ~ Mary Wells passed away
• 2001 ~ Cleveland Johnson, a crusader for equality through his Tampa Bay-area newspaper, the Weekly Challenger, died of lung cancer. He was 73. Johnson wrote over the years about the need for social change, warning of the devastating effects of drugs on the black community and preaching the virtues of black economic power. Johnson, whose first love was music, studied at the Juilliard School and the Boston Conservatory. He operated a jewelry and dress store in Miami before moving to St. Petersburg in the mid-1960s and taking a job at the new Weekly Challenger, where he discovered that he had a talent for selling advertising. When founder M.C. Fountain died, Johnson kept the paper. Starting in the 1980s, he urged blacks to spend their money in black-owned businesses.
• 2002 ~ Buddy Baker, musical director for nearly 200 Disney movies and TV shows including “The Mickey Mouse Club,” died. He was 84. The composer penned incidental music and special songs sung by for “The Mickey Mouse Club” child stars and was responsible for music in the 1981 cartoon feature “The Fox and the Hound.” He was nominated for an Academy Award for the score to the 1972 children’s drama “Napoleon and Samantha.” He also scored incidental music for the Disney theme park attractions “Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln,” “It’s a Small World,” and “The Haunted Mansion.” Disney Studios hired him in 1954. He worked on arrangements for the TV show “Davy Crockett” and three “Winnie the Pooh” cartoons and composed original music for the 1975 film “The Apple Dumpling Gang” and 1976’s “The Shaggy D.A.”
• 2002 ~ Kenny Gardner, a tenor who sang with Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, died. He was 89. Gardner, the featured crooner, was remembered for such songs as Enjoy Yourself, It’s Later Than You Think and Frankie and Johnny. The band, one of the most popular orchestras in American dance music, sold more than 100 million recordings and became known for its New Year’s Eve broadcasts of Auld Lang Syne. Gardner started singing for radio shows in Los Angeles. He joined the band after Elaine Lombardo heard him on the air in 1940. Gardner left the group to serve in the military, where he was wounded and received a Purple Heart. He returned to perform with the band until his retirement in 1978.
Be sure your student reads and listens to Today’s Daily Listening Assignment
• 1579 ~ Valerius Otto, Composer
• 1654 ~ Agostino Steffani, Composer
• 1657 ~ Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, Composer
• 1675 ~ Nicolas Saboly, Composer, died at the age of 61
• 1772 ~ Gottlob Benedikt Bierey, Composer
• 1759 ~ Johann C Altnikol, German organist, claveciniste and composer, died at the age of 39
• 1778 ~ Heinrich Gebhard, Composer
• 1780 ~ Christian Theodor Weinlig, Composer
• 1786 ~ Giacomo Cordella, Composer
• 1814 ~ Charles Dibdin, Composer, died at the age of 69
• 1832 ~ Simon Hassler, Composer
• 1855 ~ Edward Solomon, Composer
• 1857 ~ Joseph Napoleon Ney Moskova, Composer, died at the age of 54
• 1866 ~ Aloys Schmitt, German music theory, composer and royal pianist, died
• 1883 ~ Alfredo Casella, Italian composer, pianist, conductor and writer
• 1906 ~ Johnny Hodges, American jazz alto and soprano saxophonist
• 1911 ~ Filippo Capocci, Composer, died at the age of 71
• 1922 ~ Jarolslaw Zielinski, Composer, died at the age of 75
• 1930 ~ Maureen Forrester, Canadian contralto
• 1933 ~ Wayne Shorter, Jazz Musician
• 1934 ~ Don Ellis, Grammy Award-winning jazz musician, trumpet, composer
• 1939 ~ W2XBS TV in New York City presented the first musical comedy seen on TV. The show was Topsy and Eva.
• 1941 ~ Manuel Charlton, Musician, guitar, singer with Nazareth
• 1942 ~ Capitol Records first number one hit made it to the top this day. It was one of their first six records released on July 1. The new company’s hit was Cow Cow Boogie, by Ella Mae Morse and Freddy Slack.
• 1943 ~ Jim McCarty, Drummer with the Yardbirds and songwriter
• 1945 ~ Donna Theodore, Singer on Art Linkletter’s Hollywood Talent Scouts
• 1951 ~ Verdine White, Rock Musician, bass, singer with Earth, Wind and Fire
• 1952 ~ Herbert Murrill, Composer, died at the age of 43
• 1955 ~ Ilmari Hannikainen, Composer, died at the age of 62
• 1955 ~ Isaak Iosifovich Dunayevsky, Composer, died at the age of 55
• 1964 ~ “Here’s Love” closed at Shubert Theater New York City after 338 performances
• 1964 ~ The Beatles’ “Hard Day’s Night” album went #1 and stayed #1 for 14 weeks
• 1965 ~ Bob Dylan appeared on stage at the Newport Folk Festival with an electric guitar. He was not well received, even with the classic folk song, Blowin’ in the Wind. The electrified “poet laureate of a generation” was booed and hissed by the audience for being amplified. He was, in fact, booed right off the stage. Here’s the original, with acoustic guitar:
• 1966 ~ Eric Clapton recorded guitar tracks for Harrison’s “While My Guitar…”
• 1966 ~ Supremes released “You Can’t Hurry Love”
• 1969 ~ Douglas Stuart Moore, Composer, died at the age of 75
• 1969 ~ First performance of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young at Fillmore East, New York ~ 70,000 attended Seattle Pop Festival
• 1970 ~ “(They Long to Be) Close to You” reached #1
• 1971 ~ Leroy Robertson, Composer, died at the age of 74
• 1975 ~ “A Chorus Line,” longest-running Broadway show (6,137 performances), premiered
• 1983 ~ Jerome Moross, American composer of Frankie & Johnny, died at the age of 69
• 1990 ~ “Les Miserables,” opened at Princess Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver
• 1994 ~ John M Dengler, Jazz Bass Sax/Trumpet/Trombone, died at the age of 67
• 1995 ~ Charlie Rich, Country singer, died at the age of 62. Rich began as a Rockabilly artist for Sun Records in Memphis in 1958. He scored the 1974 US No.1 & UK No.2 single ‘The Most Beautiful Girl’ and ‘Behind Closed Doors’, was a No.1 country hit.
• 1995 ~ Osvaldo Pugliese, Musician and composer, died at the age of 89
Be sure your student reads and listens to Today’s Daily Listening Assignment
1803 ~ Adolphe Adam, Opera Composer, composer of Oh, Holy Night
More information about Adam
• 1849 ~ Georgetown University in Washington, DC, became the first college to offer a doctor of music degree. It was presented to Professor Henry Dielman.
• 1880 ~ Ernest Bloch, Swiss-born American composer, and conductor
More information about Bloch
• 1908 ~ Cootie (Charles) Williams, Trumpeter with Echoes of Harlem born. He performed with Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman; band leader for Cootie Williams Sextet and Orchestra
• 1915 ~ Bob Eberly (Robert Eberle), Singer born. He performed with Kitty Kallen, sang with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra & on TV’s Top Tunes; brother of singer Ray Eberle
• 1921 ~ Billy Taylor, Jazz Piano. He was also the leader of the Billy Taylor Trio, Orchestra; co-founder of Jazzmobile ’65; the music director of The David Frost Show; and performed jazz segments on Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt
• 1934 ~ Rudy Collins, Drummer with Dizzy Gillespie Quintet
• 1938 ~ Clarinet virtuoso and big band leader Artie Shaw recorded his now-classic, Begin the Beguine, for Bluebird Records in New York City. Shaw was married to Ava Gardner at the time.
• 1941 ~ Barbara Jean Love, Singer with Friends of Distinction
• 1942 ~ Heinz Burt, Musician, bass with The Tornados
• 1947 ~ Mick Fleetwood, British rock drummer
• 1947 ~ Peter Serkin, American pianist
• 1951 ~ Lynval Golding, Musician, guitarist with The Specials
• 1956 – After a decade together as the country’s most popular comedy team, Dean Martin, and Jerry Lewis called it quits this night. They did their last show at the Copacabana nightclub in New York City. The duo ended their relationship exactly 10 years after they had started it.
• 1958 ~ Pam Tillis, Country Singer
• 1982 ~ “Eye Of The Tiger” from “Rocky III” topped the U.S. pop charts
• 2000 ~ Violinist Oscar Shumsky, a brilliant performer who trained generations of successful younger artists, died at the age of 83 from heart disease. Shumsky displayed his musical talent at an early age, first picking up a violin when he was 3 years old. His father, an amateur player who recognized his son’s brilliance, took him to the Curtis Institute of Music, where he was accepted as a student by violinist Leopold Auer and was later taught by Efrem Zimbalist. At the age of 9, Shumsky performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and after graduating from Curtis in 1936, he began playing around the world to widespread critical acclaim. He later branched into conducting. Shumsky was featured at Lincoln Center’s “Great Performer Series.” He trained generations of violinists at some of the nation’s most prestigious music schools, including the Curtis Institute, the Peabody Conservatory, Yale University and, for 25 years, at the Juilliard School.
• 2001 ~ Charles Henderson, editor of The American Organist, died at the age of 84. Henderson, who edited the journal for more than a decade, starting in 1973, conducted a production of Britten’s “Noye’s Fludde” broadcast nationally on CBS television in 1964. He was on the faculty of the Union Theological Seminary’s School of Sacred Music, and from 1976 to 1983 was the organist at the First Presbyterian Church in Milford, N.J. Born in West Chester, Pa., Henderson studied music at Bucknell University, the Juilliard School, Syracuse University and the Fontainebleau School in France.
• 2008 ~ Norman Dello Joio, American composer died
• 2016 ~ Marni Nixon, American singer (for Audrey Hepburn, Natalie Wood & Deborah Kerr), died at the age of 86. She is now well-known as the real singing voices of the leading actresses in films, including The King and I, West Side Story, and My Fair Lady, although this was concealed at the time from audiences.
• 1757 ~ Domenico Scarlatti, Italian composer and harpsichordist, died. He composed over 500 keyboard sonatas, using new techniques and achieving brilliant effects.
• 1796 ~ Franz Adolf Berwald, Swedish composer and violinst
• 1916 ~ Ben Weber, American composer and winner of the Thorne Music Award in 1965
• 1925 ~ Gloria DeHaven, Singer
• 1928 ~ Leon Fleisher, American pianist and conductor
• 1934 ~ Steve Lacy (Lackritz), Jazz musician, soprano sax
• 1941 ~ Sonny Dunham and his orchestra recorded the tune that was to become Mr. Dunham’s theme song. Memories of You was Bluebird record #11239.
• 1940 ~ Gary Stites, Singer
• 1943 ~ Tony Joe White, Country Singer
• 1945 ~ Dino Danelli, Musician, drummer with The (Young) Rascals
• 1946 ~ Andy Mackay, Musician, saxophone, woodwinds with Roxy Music
• 1947 ~ David Essex (Cook), Rock Singer
• 1940 ~ (John Donald) Don Imus, Radio DJ & talk-show host
• 1950 ~ Blair Thornton, Musician, guitar with Bachman-Turner Overdrive
• 1961 ~ Martin Gore, Musician with DePeche Mode
• 1966 ~ Frank Sinatra hit the top of the pop album chart with his Strangers in the Night. It was the first #1 Sinatra LP since 1960. The album’s title song had made it to number one on the pop singles chart on July 2nd.
• 1969 ~ Three Dog Night received a gold record for the single, One. It was the first of seven million-sellers for the pop-rock group.
• 1985 ~ Kaye Kyser, Bandleader, passed away.
• 2000 ~ Yoshimi Takeda, a former director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, died at the age of 67 of complications from cancer. He had been music director and resident conductor of the NMSO from 1974 to 1984, holding the post concurrently with that of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. Takeda made his debut with the Tokyo Symphony in 1958. He began his U.S. career in 1962 as a Kulas Fellow with the Cleveland Orchestra in a conductor advanced training program. He came to the NMSO in 1970 after six years as the Honolulu Symphony’s associate director.
• 2002 ~ Clark Gesner, who created the musical “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown,” died of a heart attack while visiting the Princeton Club in Manhattan. He was 64. Gesner’s well-known musical, based on Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip, opened in March 1967 in a New York theater and went on to tour nationally. The 14-song show featured Gary Burghoff as Charlie Brown and Bob Balaban as Linus. It made a month-long leap to Broadway in the early 1970s, and was revived on Broadway in 1999. Gesner, who was born in Maine, attended Princeton and was active in the Triangle Club, the university’s theater troupe.
Be sure your student reads and listens to Today’s Daily Listening Assignment
• 1748 ~ Louis-Henry Paisible, Composer
• 1779 ~ Gottlob Wiedebein, Composer
• 1782 ~ Placidus Cajetan von Camerloher, Composer, died at the age of 63
• 1797 ~ Franz Schoberlechner, Composer
• 1865 ~ Robert Kahn, Composer
• 1870 ~ Josef Strauss, Austrian composer, died at the age of 42
• 1896 ~ Jean Rivier-Villemomble France, Composer
• 1898 ~ Ernest Willem Mulder, Composer
• 1898 ~ Sara Carter, Vocalist/guitarist with the Carter Family
• 1903 ~ Theodore Karyotakis, Composer
• 1906 ~ Daniel Ayala Perez, Composer
• 1915 ~ Floyd McDaniel ~ blues singer/guitarist
• 1920 ~ Isaac Stern, American concert violinist
Read quotes by and about Stern
More information about Stern
• 1920 ~ Manuel Valls Gorina, Composer
• 1921 ~ Billy Taylor, Orchestra leader on the David Frost Show
• 1922 ~ Kay Starr (Katherine Starks), Pop Singer
• 1925 ~ Lovro Zupanovic, Composer
• 1926 ~ Albert Fuller, American harpsichordist
• 1926 ~ Norman Jewison, Director of Jesus Christ, Superstar, Fiddler on the Roof
• 1927 ~ Stefan Niculescu, Composer
• 1931 ~ Leon Schidlowsky, Composer
• 1931 ~ Ted Husing was master of ceremonies for the very first CBS-TV program. The gala show featured singer Kate Smith, composer George Gershwin and New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker.
• 1935 ~ Kaye Stevens, Singer and comedienne on the Jerry Lewis Show
• 1938 ~ Anton Emil Kuerti, Composer
• 1938 ~ Paul Hindemith and Leonide Massines ballet premiered in London
• 1947 ~ Cat Stevens (Steven Demitri Georgiou) (Muslim name: Yusuf Islam), British folk-rock singer and songwriter
• 1948 ~ Donald Nichols Tweedy, Composer, died at the age of 58
• 1950 ~ Albert Riemenschneider, Composer, died at the age of 71
• 1958 ~ The last of Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts programs aired on CBS-TV. Many artists got their start on Talent Scouts, including Tony Bennett, Pat Boone, The McGuire Sisters and a singer named Connie Francis, who not only sang but played the accordion, as well.
• 1962 ~ Dmitri Shostakovitch completed his 13th Symphony
• !963 ~ Jan and Dean’s “Surf City” hit #1
• 1964 ~ Dmitri Shostakovitch completed his 10th String quartet
• 1969 ~ Just one day after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Duke Ellington and a portion of his band performed a 10-minute composition on ABC-TV titled Moon Maiden. The work featured piano, drums, bass and vocals.
• 1973 ~ Bad, Bad Leroy Brown reached the top spot on the Billboard pop singles chart, becoming Jim Croce’s first big hit. Croce died in a plane crash two months later (September 20, 1973).
• 1976 ~ “Guys & Dolls” opened at Broadway Theater New York City for 239 performances
• 1994 ~ Dorothy Collins, Singer on Your Hit Parade, died at the age of 67
• 1995 ~ Edwin “Russell” House, Saxophonist, died at the age of 65
• 2000 ~ Iain Hamilton, the Scottish composer who turned Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” into an opera at the age of 78. Hamilton wrote four symphonies and dozens of orchestral and chamber works but is known best for his vocal music, which includes a cantata based on the poems of Robert Burns. “Anna Karenina” premiered at the English National Opera in 1981 to critical acclaim. His other operas include “Agamemnon”, “The Catiline Conspiracy”, based on a Ben Jonson play, and an adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s play “The Royal Hunt of the Sun”. From 1961 to 1978 he was a professor of music at Duke University in North Carolina.
• 2000 ~ Barbra Streisand announced final concerts
• 2001 ~ Norman Hall Wright, the last surviving writer who worked on the Disney film Fantasia 2000, died at the age of 91. Wright studied at the University of Southern California before being hired by Walt Disney Productions. He started as an animator but later became a writer, producer and director. Wright developed the story of The Nutcracker Suite sequence for Fantasia 2000. He also was responsible for a sequence in Bambi. He wrote several cartoon shorts for Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy and also produced several Wonderful World of Disney television programs.
• 2002 ~ Gus Dudgeon, a respected music producer who worked on many of Elton John’s hit recordings, died in a car crash in western England. He was 59. Dudgeon produced Rocket Man, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Your Song, Daniel and Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me. Dudgeon also produced David Bowie’s Space Oddity and worked with other stars, including Chris Rea and Joan Armatrading. But it was his partnership with Sir Elton in the 1970s for which he will be best remembered. Dudgeon began his career in the early 1960s as a tea boy, running errands at Olympic Studios in London before joining Decca Records. He engineered the Zombies’ classic She’s Not There and the groundbreaking Blues Breakers album by John Mayall with Eric Clapton, before moving into producing.
• 2015 ~ Theodore Meir Bikel, Austrian-American actor, folk singer, musician, composer, and activist, died at the age of 91.
• 2023 ~ Tony Bennett died at the age of 96. In 1962, Bennett recorded his signature song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”.
Be sure your student reads and listens to Today’s Daily Listening Assignment
• 1592 ~ Erhard Buttner, Composer
• 1735 ~ Garret Wesley Mornington, Composer
• 1742 ~ Jean-Baptiste Davaux, Composer
• 1750 ~ Alessio Prati, Composer
• 1782 ~ Jonathan Blewitt, Composer
• 1789 ~ John Martin, English painter
• 1797 ~ Johann Gottlieb Schneider, Composer
• 1811 ~ Vincenz Lachner, German organist, conductor and composer
• 1906 ~ Klauss Egge, Norwegian composer
• 1913 ~ Charles Teagarden, trumpeter, bandleader, brother of Jack
• 1926 ~ Sue Thompson (Eva McKee), singer of Norman and Sad Movies (Make Me Cry)
• 1937 ~ George Hamilton IV, Singer
• 1939 ~ Jack Teagarden and his orchestra recorded Aunt Hagar’s Blues for Columbia Records. Teagarden provided the vocal on the session recorded in Chicago, IL.
• 1941 ~ Natalya Besamertnova, Ballet Dancer with the Bolshoi ballet
• 1942 ~ The Seventh Symphony, by Dmitri Shostakovitch, was performed for the first time in the United States by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra.
• 1942 ~ Vikki Carr (Florencia Bisenta deCasilla Martinez Cardona), Pop Singer
• 1946 ~ Alan Gorrie, Rock Singer with the Average White Band
• 1947 ~ Bernie Leadon, Musician, guitar with The Eagles
• 1947 ~ Brian Harold May, Musician, guitarist, singer and songwriter with Queen, who had the 1975 UK No.1 single Bohemian Rhapsody, which returned to No.1 in 1991. Queen scored over 40 other UK Top 40 singles, and also scored the 1980 US No.1 single Crazy Little Thing Called Love. May had the solo 1992 UK No.5 single Too Much Love Will Kill You. May was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005 for ‘services to the music industry and his charity work’. May earned a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College, London, in 2007.
• 1949 ~ Singer Harry Belafonte began recording for Capitol Records on this day. The first sessions included They Didn’t Believe Me and Close Your Eyes. A short time later, Capitol said Belafonte wasn’t “commercial enough,” so he signed with RCA Victor (for a very productive and commercial career).
• 1952 ~ Allen Collins, Musician, guitar with Lynyrd Skynyrd
• 1952 ~ “Paint Your Wagon” closed at Shubert Theater New York City after 289 performances
• 1966 ~ Frank Sinatra married actress Mia Farrow this day.
• 1963 ~ Kelly Shiver, Country Singer
• 1980 ~ Billy Joel, pianist, singer-songwriter, and composer, earned his first gold record with It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me, which reached the top of the Billboard pop music chart. He would score additional million-sellers with Just the Way You Are, My Life, Uptown Girl (for girlfriend and later, wife and supermodel Christie Brinkley) and We Didn’t Start the Fire. Joel reached the top only one other time, with Tell Her About It in 1983.
• 2000 ~ H. LeBaron Taylor, a Sony executive who pioneered the mass marketing of music rooted in black culture and fostered minority development in the corporate world, died at the age of 65 of a heart attack. He was recognized by Ebony magazine as one of the top 50 black executives in corporate America. In the 1970s, Taylor was at CBS Records, leading its Black Music Marketing department, which sold music originating in black culture and styles that sprang from it, such as blues, soul, rap and hip-hop.
• 2015 ~ Van Alexander, American composer and bandleader (A-Tisket, A-Tasket), died at the age of 100
Be sure your student reads and listens to Today’s Daily Listening Assignment
• 0064 ~ Rome burned on this day – while Nero fiddled, literally.
• 1670 ~ Giovanni Battista Bononcini, Italian composer
• 1909 ~ Harriet Nelson (Hilliard) (Peggy Lou Snyder). Singer in Ozzie Nelson’s orchestra; actress in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Follow the Fleet and Rick & Dave’s mother
• 1910 ~ Lou Busch (Joe ‘Fingers’ Carr), Musician: piano, arranger, composer
• 1913 ~ Red (Richard) Skelton, Emmy Award-winning comedian: The Red Skelton Show ATAS Governor’s Award, recording artist
• 1927 ~ Kurt Masur, German conductor
• 1929 ~ Screamin’ Jay (Jalacy) Hawkins Rhythm and Blues singer, pianist. I Put a Spell on You was voted one of 50 greatest songs of the 1950s by Rolling Stone magazine
• 1931 ~ ‘Papa Dee’ (Thomas) Allen, Musician, keyboards
• 1939 ~ Dion DiMucci born, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer with Dion and the Belmonts
• 1939 ~ Brian Auger born, Musician, keyboards with the Mahavishnu Players
• 1941 ~ Lonnie Mack (McIntosh) born, Musician: guitar: Memphis
• 1941 ~ Martha Reeves, American Rhythm and Blues singer with Martha and the Vandellas
• 1964 ~ The 4 Seasons reached the top spot on the record charts with Rag Doll, the group’s fourth hit to climb to the #1 position. The song stayed on top for two weeks. Other #1 hits by Frankie Valli and company include, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Walk Like a Man, and December 1963 (Oh, What a Night).
• 1968 ~ Hugh Masekela struck gold with the breezy, latin-soul instrumental Grazing in the Grass, while Gary Puckett and The Union Gap received a similar honor for the hit, Lady Willpower. Masekela, a trumpeter since age 14, saw Grazing in the Grass go to number one for two weeks (July 20/27). Grazing was his only entry on the pop music charts. The Union Gap scored three more million-sellers in the late 1960s: Woman, Woman, Young Girl and Over You. The Union Gap was formed in 1967 and named after the town of Union Gap, Washington.
• 1983 ~ Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel took to the road to begin a 19-city tour beginning in Akron, OH. It was the first tour by the popular singing duo since their success in the 1960s.
• 2001 ~ Mimi Farina, sister of folk singer Joan Baez and founder of an organization that brought free live music performances to the sick and imprisoned, died of complications related to cancer. She was 56. She founded Bread & Roses in 1974. The organization produced 500 shows annually for audiences in senior centers, psychiatric, rehabilitation and correctional facilities as well as centers for abused and neglected children. Long part of the San Francisco Bay area’s folk music elite as a singer herself, Farina drew many fellow musical luminaries to take part in performances. Her sister, Jackson Browne, Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt and Peter, Paul and Mary all volunteered their services to make Bread & Roses and long-running success. Farina was the youngest of three daughters and was raised a Quaker alongside siblings Joan Baez and Pauline Bryan. She learned the guitar with her sister Joan during the folk music revival of the late 1950s and frequently played the folk scene around Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass.
• 2002 ~ Seymour Solomon, co-founder of Vanguard Records, a label that dominated American folk music with stars such as Joan Baez, died. He was 80. Solomon founded Vanguard in 1950 with his brother, Maynard. The label recorded famed artists like Odetta, Baez and Buffy Sainte-Marie. It also signed such jazz and blues legends as Mississippi John Hurt and Buddy Guy and maintained a strong classical list. From its earliest days, the Solomons took risks, signing performers like the Weavers and Paul Robeson who had been blacklisted during the McCarthy era. Starting in 1959, Vanguard recorded the Newport Folk Festival, and later recorded the Newport Jazz festival as well. Solomon and his brother sold Vanguard in 1985 to the Welk Record Group, and three years later opened Omega Classics. He later bought back Vanguard’s old classical catalog and reissued it on compact disc. Solomon had studied violin at the Juilliard School and played in the Air Corps Orchestra during World War II. After the war, he studied musicology and worked as a critic and commentator for music magazines and radio stations.
“In the Hall of the Mountain King” is a piece of orchestral music composed for the sixth scene of act 2 in Henrik Ibsen’s 1867 play Peer Gynt. It was originally part of Opus 23 but was later extracted as the final piece of Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1, Op. 46. Its easily recognizable theme has helped it attain iconic status in popular culture, where it has been arranged by many artists, including for the piano.
Borrow a copy of the sheet music from the O’Connor Music Studio. I have this arranged for piano, duet, 2-piano, simplified…
8 part vocal orchestra (plus a tiny pair of cymbals)
Pianist Paul Barton
Solo piano sheet music – Video Score
Orchestral version
More about World Emoji Day
Be sure your student reads and listens to Today’s Daily Listening Assignment
• 1682 ~ Johann Heinrich Kittel, Composer, died at the age of 29
• 1702 ~ Johann Schneider, Composer
• 1775 ~ August Harder, Composer
• 1817 ~ Ignace Xavier Joseph Leybach, Composer
• 1832 ~ Johan August Soderman, Composer
• 1839 ~ Friedrich Gernsheim, Composer
• 1853 ~ Francesco Fanciulli, Composer
• 1871 ~ Karl Tausig, Polish pianist, died at the age of 29
• 1873 ~ Antonina Neshdanova, Russian soprano
• 1875 ~ Donald Francis Tovey, English, musicologist and composer
• 1876 ~ Vittorio Gnecchi, Composer
• 1878 ~ Henri Zagwijn, Composer
• 1885 ~ Benjamin James Dale, Composer
• 1904 ~ Jef Alpaerts, Flemish pianist and conductor
• 1908 ~ Rudolf Petzold, Composer
• 1913 ~ Everett Helm, Composer
• 1915 ~ Esther Williamson Ballou, Composer
• 1916 ~ Eleanor Steber, American soprano. She was an internationally acclaimed Metropolitan Opera diva, appeared in 50 different leading operatic roles, heard in more premieres at the Met than any other artist.
• 1928 ~ Vince Guaraldi, Pianist on the Charlie Brown TV specials
• 1933 ~ Mimi Hines, Pop singer in Ford & Hines (with husband, Phil Ford) and Broadway singer
• 1935 ~ Peter Schickele, American composer, creator of P.D.Q. Bach. Recommended Books and CDs by Schickele and P.D.Q. Bach, 
Grammy winner
And Part 2
• 1935 ~ Diahann Carroll, Pop Singer
• 1939 ~ Spencer Davis, Musician with Spencer Davis Group
• 1939 ~ Charlie Barnet and his orchestra recorded Cherokee for Bluebird Records. Listen carefully and you’ll hear the horn of Billy May on the piece.
• 1952 ~ Phoebe Snow, American singer of popular music
• 1952 ~ Nicolette Larson, Singer
• 1954 ~ The first Newport Jazz Festival was held on the grass tennis courts of the Newport Casino in Newport RI. Eddie Condon and his band played Muskrat Ramble as the opening number of the world’s first jazz fest.
• 1959 ~ Billie Holiday (Eleanora Fagan) passed away
• 1961 ~ Rocker Bobby Lewis was starting week #2 of a seven-week stay at number one (one, one, one) on the pop-music charts with his smash, Tossin’ and Turnin’. Lewis, who grew up in an orphanage, learned to play the piano at age 5. He became popular in the Detroit, MI area before moving on to fame and fortune with Beltone Records.
• 1967 ~ John (William) Coltrane passed away
• 1967 ~ Monkees performed at Forest Hills NY as Jimi Hendrix’s opening act
• 1968 ~ The Beatles’ feature-length cartoon, Yellow Submarine, premiered at the London Pavilion. The song, Yellow Submarine, had been a #2 hit for the supergroup (9/17/66) and was the inspiration for the movie.
• 1987 ~ “Les Miserables” opened at Imperial Theatre in Tokyo
• 1989 ~ Paul McCartney released “This One”
• 1993 ~ Scott Salmon, American choreographer, died at the age of 51
• 1994 ~ Sebastian Piana, Argentine pianist and tango composer, died at the age of 91
• 2000 ~ Thea Dispeker, who molded operatic talent from Lauritz Melchior to Richard Leech, died at the age of 97.
• 2002 ~ Lee Maye, a singer who played in the Milwaukee Braves outfield with Hank Aaron in the 1960s, died. He was 67. Maye began his 13-year major league career in 1959 and played with the Braves from 1959 to 1965. He later played for the Houston Astros, Cleveland Indians, Washington Senators and Chicago White Sox before retiring in 1971. Maye had a lifetime average of .274 and was admired for his ability to juggle his baseball and music careers. He performed with two doo-wop groups – Arthur Lee Maye and the Crowns, and Country Boys & City Girls – and sometimes sang with The Platters. He produced several popular singles during his 1960s recording career, including Gloria, Cool Loving and I Wanna Love.
• 2014 ~ Elaine Stritch, American actress (30 Rock, Two’s Company), singer and member of the American Theater Hall of Fame, died in her sleep at the age of 89
• 2016 ~ Gary S. Paxton [Larry Wayne Stevens], American musician and songwriter (Monster Mash, Alley Oop), died at the age of 77
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