• 1799 ~ Pierre Beaumarchais, French playwright, died. Famed for his two comedies “The Marriage of Figaro” (Mozart used this for an opera) and “The Barber of Seville” Rossini used this for an opera).
• 1830 ~ Karl Goldmark, composer
• 1876 ~ The first issue of the first music magazine in America, Musical America, was published
• 1892 ~ Ezio Pinza, Italian bass and actor
• 1902 ~ Meredith Willson, American composer, flutist, arranger and orchestrator
More information about Willson
• 1909 ~ Isaac Albéniz, Spanish pianist and composer (Suite española, Tango in D), died from nephritis at the age of 48
• 1911 ~ Gustav Mahler, Czech-born Austrian composer, died. His last word was “Mozart”. He completed nine symphonies and several song-cycles notably “Das Lied von der Erde.”
More information about Gustav Mahler
• 1911 ~ Big Joe (Joseph Vernon) Turner, Rhythm & blues singer
• 1913 ~ Perry (Pierino Roland) Como, Grammy Award-winning American singer of popular music, 15 gold records
More information about Como
• 1919 ~ Dame Margot Fonteyne, British prima ballerina. She started her career with the London Sadler’s Wells company in 1934 and in 1962 began a legendary partnership with Rudolph Nureyev.
• 1948 ~ Joe Bonsall, Singer with The Oak Ridge Boys
• 1968 ~ Tiny Tim’s warbly Tiptoe Through the Tulips was released. An eventual top twenty hit, Tiptoe was a remake of a number one hit for Nick Lucas in 1929.
• 1970 ~ Opening this night in New York City was The Me Nobody Knows at the Orpheum Theatre. The musical had a run of 586 performances.
• 2002 ~ Wolfgang Schneiderhan, a violinist who began performing as a child, became a concertmaster at 17 and played with orchestras across Europe, died. He was 86. A child prodigy, Schneiderhan quickly rose to international fame, performing with leading ensembles, including the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra and the Philharmonic. A regular at Europe’s most important music festivals, Schneiderhan played with Wilhelm Backhaus and other well-known pianists and gave violin concerts under such legendary conductors as Bruno Walter and Wilhelm Furtwängler. Later, Schneiderhan was a teacher at the Salzburg Mozarteum and at the Vienna Academy of Music. At age 11, Schneiderhan played in Copenhagen, Denmark – his first major concert abroad. Already a distinguished interpreter of the music of Mozart and Beethoven, Schneiderhan became concertmaster of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra at age 17, a job he also held with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1937.
• 2003 ~ Broadway’s ‘Les Miserables’ Ended After 16 Years. The pop opera based on Victor Hugo’s 1832 novel closed after 16 years, making it the second longest-running show ever on the Great White Way. The show played 6,680 performances since opening at the Broadway Theater in 1987. Only “Cats” has played more performances on Broadway with 7,485. The last performance at the Imperial Theater included a finale featuring 300 alumni of the Broadway run. Although it is now gone from the New York stage, the show is performed around the world by touring companies and is a fixture in London’s West End.
• 2012 ~ Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German baritone, died at the age of 86
• 2014 ~ Jerry Vale, American singer, died at the age of 83
. 1897 Milton J. Cross, American TV announcer. He was best known as the voice of the Metropolitan Opera, hosting its Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts for 43 years, from the time of their inception on December 25, 1931 until his death in 1975.
. 1919 ~ Merce Cunningham, Dancer, choreographer
. 1923 ~ Bennie Green, Trombonist, lyricist
1924 ~ Henry Mancini, American arranger, composer, conductor and pianist
More information about Mancini
. 1939 ~ Dusty Springfield (Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien), Singer, inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 1999
. 1944 ~ Dennis Russell Davies, American conductor
. 1947 ~ Gerry Rafferty, Singer, songwriter
. 1949 ~ Bill Spooner, Musician, guitarist with The Tubes
. 1963 ~ Jimmy Osmond, Singer with The Osmonds, he is the youngest Osmond
. 1973 ~ Former Beatle, Paul McCartney, leading the group, Wings, starred in his first TV special titled, James Paul McCartney. The show featured the new group, including Paul’s wife, Linda on keyboards and backing vocals.
. 1996 ~ Lucille Bremer, American actress and dancer (Meet Me in St. Louis, Ziegfeld Follies), died at the age of 79
. 2001 ~ Walter Stanton, who invented an easily replaceable phonograph stylus that helped create a consumer market for audio equipment, died at the age of 86. Stanton invented the slide-in stylus in the 1940s. The design enabled users to replace a needle assembly by themselves instead of having to send it back to the factory when it wore out. The invention became one of the basics in phonograph cartridge design. He also prodded major manufacturers to arrive at a standard mounting system for cartridges and the type of recording on records, that enabled record players and styluses to be sold separately. He also helped found the Institute of High Fidelity, whose annual trade shows in New York attracted thousands of gadget lovers.
. 1884 ~ Joseph Bonnet, French organist and composer. He founded the organ department at the Eastman School of Music during his time in the U.S.
. 1901 ~ Alfred Newman, Conductor
More information about Newman
. 1917 ~ Nat “King” Cole, American jazz singer and pianist
More information about Cole
. 1930 ~ Paul Horn, American jazz flutist, saxophonist, clarinetist and composer
More information about Horn
. 1938 ~ Rudolf Nureyev, Dancer
More information about Nureyev
. 1944 ~ John Lill CBE, English classical pianist
. 1944 ~ John Sebastian, American pop-rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, His group, The Lovin’ Spoonful performed Do You BelieveIn Magic, Summer In The City, Daydream, You Didn’t Have to be SoNice, Nashville Cats His solos include Darling Be Home Soon and Welcome Back
. 1566 ~ Alessandro Piccinini born. He was an Italian lutenist and composer who died sometime in 1638
. 1697 ~ Johann Joachim Quantz, German flutist, flute maker and composer
. 1861 ~ Charles Martin Tornow Loeffler, Alsatian-born American composer
. 1862 ~ Walter Johannes Damrosch, German conductor and composer
. 1911 ~ (David) Roy ‘Little Jazz’ Eldridge, Trumpeter and soloist with Gene Krupa’s Band, U.S. President Carter’s White House jazz party in 1978
. 1917 ~ The Original DixielandJazzBand recorded a classic for Columbia Records titled, The Darktown Strutters’ Ball. It was one of the first jazz compositions recorded.
. 1921 ~ Bernie Leighton, Jazz pianist
. 1928 ~ Ruth Brown, R&B and jazz singer
. 1928 ~ Harold Prince, Broadway producer and director of A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
. 1936 ~ Horst Jankowski, Pianist, most famous work was A Walk In The Black Forest
. 1938 ~ Norma Jean (Beasler), Country singer
. 1941 ~ Joe Terranova, Singer with Danny and the Juniors
. 1943 ~ Marty Balin (Buchwald), Singer with Jefferson Airplane/Starship
. 1943 ~ The Nat King Cole Trio reached the top of the charts with the song “That Ain’t Right.” It stayed there for one week before dropping off the top spot.
. 1944 ~ Lynn Harrell, American cellist
. 1947 ~ Steve Marriott, Singer, songwriter, guitarist
. 1949 ~ William King, Trumpeter, keyboard with The Commodores
. 1951 ~ Phil Collins, English singer-songwriter, drummer, keyboard player with Genesis. As a solo performer he had a number of world wide singles to his credit including “You Can’t Hurry Love”, “Take a Look at Me Now)” “One More Night”, “A Groovy Kind of Love” and “Another Day in Paradise”. He is also remembered for his role in Live Aid 1985 when he performed at Wembley Stadium, England and JFK Stadium Philadelphia using the Concorde to fly from England to the US.
. 1969 ~ The Beatles made their last public appearance. It was at a free concert at their Apple corporate headquarters in London. The group recorded Get Back and also filmed the movie “Let It Be”.
. 2004 ~ Jazz bassist Malachi Favors, who played with such bandleaders as Dizzy Gillespie and Freddy Hubbard before beginning a 35-year association with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, died. After service in the Army during the Korean War, he studied with the bassists Wilbur Ware and Israel Crosby, and worked with the pianists Andrew Hill and King Fleming. After playing with Gillespie, Hubbard, and other members of the bebop revolution, Favors joined the band of Chicago saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and played a major part on Mitchell’s influential free-jazz album, “Sound”, in 1966. Mitchell’s band soon evolved into the Art Ensemble of Chicago, which combined traditional elements of jazz and blues, West African music, chanting, ritual, abstract sound and silence. Although founded in Chicago, the group was based in Europe until 1971. In addition to his distinctive bass sound, Favors also added vocals and such folk instruments as banjo, zither and harmonica to group’s compositions. He also recorded a solo bass album, “Natural and the Spiritual”.
. 2011 ~ John Barry, English film score composer died at the age of 77
. 2013 ~ Patty Andrews, American singer (Andrews Sisters), died at the age of 94
. 1762 ~ The first public concert by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, age 6 and his sister Nannerl, age 12 was on this day.
. 1857 ~ First performance of Franz Liszt‘s Piano Concerto No. 2 in A, in Weimar. Liszt conducted and the soloist was his pupil, Hans von Bronsart.
. 1876 ~ William Yeates Hurlstone, composer
. 1899 ~ Francis Poulenc, French composer
More information about Poulenc
. 1922 ~ Jean-Pierre Rampal, French flutist
More information about Rampal
. 1924 ~ George Gershwin completed the incomparable score of Rhapsody in Blue. Incidentally, George was only 26 years old at the time. George didn’t even have an interest in music until his family got him a piano when he was twelve. Nine years later he had his first hit, Swanee, with lyrics written by Irving Caesar. Rhapsody in Blue was commissioned in 1924 by Paul Whiteman and then orchestrated by Ferde Grofe of Grand Canyon Suite fame. This first orchestration of Gershwin’s score was never quite right. Grofe’s style didn’t gel with Gershwin’s. Several other artists attempted to do justice to Rhapsody in Blue, never quite making the grade. Some thirty years later, orchestra leader Hugo Winterhalter with Byron Janis at the piano did a jazzed up version; pretty close to the way Gershwin had described his piece. However, it wasn’t until Gershwin’s original solo piano was accompanied by a jazz band led by Michael Tilson Thomas, that the true arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue was heard. No matter how you hear it, Rhapsody in Blue will remain the signature of one of the most influential of composers, songwriters and pianists in American music history.
. 1926 ~ A famous marriage that endured for many years is remembered this day. It’s the wedding anniversary of George Burns and Gracie Allen who were married by a Justice of the Peace in Cleveland, Ohio.
. 1930 ~ Jack Greene, The Green Giant, CMA Male Vocalist, Album, Single and Song of the Year
. 1940 ~ The gate to Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch opened. The ‘singing cowboy’ would entertain on CBS radio for the next 16 years.
. 1941 ~ Good-for-Nothin’-Joe was recorded by the sultry Lena Horne. She sang the classic song with Charlie Barnet and his orchestra on Bluebird Records.
. 1942 ~ Paul Revere, Singer, keyboards with Paul Revere and The Raiders
. 1946 ~ Jann Wenner, Publisher of Rolling Stone Magazine
. 1948 ~ Kenny Loggins, American pop-rock singer, Grammy Award-winning songwriter and guitarist
. 1950 ~ Ernest Tubb made his first appearance at The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN. Ernest also did a 15-minute radio program each day that became very popular in West Texas. So popular, in fact, that he bought the radio station that had aired the program for years and years: KGKL in San Angelo, Texas.
. 1955 ~ The first black singer at the Metropolitan Opera was Marian Anderson, who appeared as Ulrica in Verdi’s“The Masked Ball”.
. 1958 ~ The Flying V guitar, which is a favorite of rock musicians, was patented this day by the Gibson Guitar Company.
. 1985 ~ Yul Brynner returned to the Broadway stage this night as “The King and I” returned to where Yul first began his reign, 33 years before. Through his career to that date, Brynner appeared in 4,434 shows without missing a single performance.
. 2002 ~ Jon Lee, drummer for the Welsh rock band Feeder, died at the age of 33. The trio’s biggest hit single was the 2001 single Buck Rogers, which reached No. 5 on the British charts. Feeder released its first full-length album, “Polythene,” in England in 1997; it was released in the United States in early 1998. The band released its third album, “Echo Park,” last year, which debuted at No. 5 in Britain and swiftly sold more than 100,000 copies.
. 2002 ~ Nauman Steele Scott III, co-owner of Black Top Records which gained an international reputation for its blues, rhythm-and-blues and zydeco recordings, died. Scott suffered from heart disease. He was 56. Scott owned Black Top Records with his brother, Hammond. The label featured such artists as Earl King, Snooks Eaglin and the Neville Brothers. Black Top releases picked up two Grammy nominations and have won more than 30 W.C. Handy Blues Awards.
. 1483 ~ Martin Luther, German religious reformer, composer of hymns and flutist
1668 ~ François Couperin, French composer and organist
Read more about Couperin
.1888 ~ Fritz Kreisler, a 13-year-old violinist from Vienna, made his American debut in New York City.
.1900 ~ “Floradora” opened in New York City this day. The play was received by cheering audiences.
.1928 ~ Ennio Morricone, Italian composer/musician
.1939 ~ Muggsy Spanier and his band recorded Dipper Mouth Blues on Bluebird Records.
1944 ~ Tim Rice, British author and librettist
Read more about Rice
.1956 ~ Billie Holiday returned to the New York City stage at Carnegie Hall after a three-year absence. The concert was called a high point in jazz history.
.1969 ~ “Can you tell me how to get … how to get to Sesame Street?” The classic, “Sesame Street” debuted on 170 Public Broadcasting stations and 20 commercial outlets. Created by the Children’s Television Workshop, the show starred endearing characters including Gordon, Susan, Bob, Bert, Ernie, the Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch and, of course, Big Bird!
.1986 ~ “Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Live/1975-85”, the long-anticipated album by ‘The Boss’, hit record stores this day. Fans made the LP a one~day sellout, buying over a million copies and generating more first-day dollars than any record in 30 years. It’s a five-disc, 40-song set.
.1993 ~ “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” opened at Minskoff Theater in New York for 223 performances
.1994 ~ Carmen McRae passed away
.2014 ~ “Uptown Funk” single released by Bruno Mars (Billboard Song of the Year 2015, Grammy Record Of The Year, Grammy Song of the Year 2016)
.2015 ~ Allen Toussaint passed away. He was a New Orleans-based pianist, songwriter and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer.
.2015 ~ Robert Lawson Craft died. He was an American orchestral conductor, scholar and writer. Mr. Craft spent nearly a quarter-century as Stravinsky’s amanuensis, rehearsal conductor, musical adviser, globe-trotting traveling companion and surrogate son. After Stravinsky’s death in 1971, at 88, he was a writer, lecturer, conductor, public intellectual and keeper of the Stravinskian flame.
• 1895 ~ The Berliner Gramophone Company was founded in Philadelphia. Record players were not too far off in the future.
• 1904 ~ “Little Johnny Jones” opened in Hartford, CT. The show became a hit several times, due in part to a little ditty which became quite popular. Give MyRegards to Broadway was penned, as was the entire musical, by the ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ himself, George M. Cohan.
• 1935 ~ Wedding bells pealed for a singer and a bandleader who tied the knot, making radio history together. The bandleader was Ozzie Nelson and the singer was Harriet Hilliard. They would make the history pages again on this very day in 1944.
• 1941 ~ The Benny Goodman Orchestra recorded Buckle Down Winsocki, with Tom Dix as featured vocalist, on the Columbia label.
• 1941 ~ George Bellamy, Guitarist with The Tornados
• 1942 ~ Buzz (Reese) Clifford, Singer
• 1944 ~ Susan Raye, Singer
• 1944 ~ The first broadcast of The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet was heard on the CBS radio network. The show would continue on radio until 1953 and on ABC~TV from 1952 to 1966. “Hi Mom, Hi Dad, Hi Dave, Hi Ricky.”
• 1947 ~ Tony Wilson, Bass, singer with Hot Chocolate
• 1948 ~ Johnny Ramone (Cummings), Guitarist with The Ramones
• 1949 ~ Hamish Stuart, Guitarist, singer with Average White Band
• 1950 ~ Robert ‘Kool’ Bell, Bass guitar, singer with Kool and the Gang
• 1956 ~ Lawrence “a-one and a-two” Welk was doing so well with “da boys inta bant” on ABC-TV, that, after being on the tube for just one year with The Lawrence Welk Show, Welk originated another popular show called Lawrence Welk’s Top Tunes and New Talent.
• 1957 ~ Jerry Lee Lewis recorded “Great Balls Of Fire” in Memphis, Tennessee
• 1961 ~ Ted Kooshian, American jazz pianist
• 1974 ~ Then Came You, by Dionne Warwicke and The Spinners, went solid gold this day. While the editors are poring over the proper spelling of her name, might we add that due to some superstitious feeling having to do with astrology, the former Ms. Warwick changed her name for good luck to Warwicke. It apparently worked. That is, until she went solo again upon meeting Barry Manilow in the early 1980s. Tunes likeI’ll Never Love This Way Again, Deja Vu and hits with Johnny Mathis, Luther Vandross and some friends made it OK to be just Dionne Warwick again.
• 1979 ~ “Sugar Babies”, opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway. The star of the hit show was also making his debut on the Great White Way. Mickey Rooney, who had been acting since the 1930s, once again delighted one and all with his performance.
• 1984 ~ Anne Murray won the Country Music Association’s Album of the Year Award this day for A Little Good News. Murray was the first woman to win this award.
• 2015 ~ Jim Diamond, Scottish singer-songwriter (I Should Have Known Better), died at the age of 64
• 1666 ~ Adam Krieger, German Composer, died at the age of 32
• 1669 ~ Mauritius Vogt, Composer
• 1722 ~ Jiri Antonin Benda, Composer
• 1723 ~ Christian Ernst Graf, Composer
• 1743 ~ Niels Schiorring, Composer
• 1792 ~ Francesco Antonio Rosetti, Composer, died
• 1818 ~ Edward John Hopkins, English organist and composer
• 1819 ~ Ernst Ludwig Gerber, Composer, died at the age of 72
• 1846 ~ Ricardo Drigo, Composer
• 1889 ~ Eugenio Terziani, Composer, died at the age of 64
• 1890 ~ Samuel Parkman Tuckerman, Composer, died at the age of 71
• 1896 ~ Wilfred Pelletier, Canadian conductor for Voice of Firestone
• 1908 ~ Lucino Tinio Sacramento, Composer
• 1914 ~ Natko Devcic, Composer
• 1917 ~ Lena Horne, American singer of popular music
• 1917 ~ “Buddy” Rich, American jazz drummer and bandleader
• 1918 ~ Stuart Foster, American singer
• 1921 ~ Gordon Reynolds, Musician
• 1923 ~ Claude Antoine Terrasse, Composer, died at the age of 56
• 1925 ~ Will Gay Bottje, Composer
• 1929 ~ Alexander Kelly, Pianist and teacher
• 1930 ~ June Valli, American singer on Your Hit Parade
• 1931 ~ James Loughran, British conductor
• 1932 ~ Martin Mailman, American composer
• 1936 ~ Pauls Dambis, Composer
• 1939 ~ Chris Hinze, Dutch flutist
• 1939 ~ Lindembergue Cardoso, Composer
• 1939 ~ Frank Sinatra made his first appearance with Harry James’ band. Sinatra was center stage at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, MD, where he sang My Love for You
• 1941 ~ Micki Grant, Composer
• 1941 ~ Mike Leander Farr, Record producer
• 1943 ~ Florence Ballard, Singer with the Supremes
• 1944 ~ Glenn Shorrock, Australian singer with Little River Band
• 1946 ~ Billy Brown, singer with Ray, Goodman, Brown
• 1946 ~ Michael Zadora, Composer, died at the age of 64
• 1947 ~ Jasper van’t Hof, Dutch jazz pianist (Live in Montreux)
• 1951 ~ Andrew Scott, Welch rock guitarist
• 1951 ~ “Victor Borge Show,” last aired on NBC-TV
More information about Borge
• 1953 ~ Gote Carlid, Composer, died at the age of 32
• 1956 ~ “Pipe Dream” closed at Shubert Theater New York City after 245 performances
• 1956 ~ “Shangri-La” closed at Winter Garden Theater New York City after 21 performances
• 1959 ~ Lazare Saminsky, Composer, died at the age of 76
• 1960 ~ Clarence Cameron White, Composer, died at the age of 79
• 1969 ~ Jan Evangelista Zelinka, Composer, died at the age of 76
• 1982 ~ “Lena Horne: Lady, Music” closed at Nederlander New York City after 333 performances
• 1983 ~ Bo Gentry, Songwriter and producer, died
• 1985 ~ Yul Brynner left his role as the King of Siam after 4,600 performances in The King and I at the Broadway Theatre in New York City. The show had run, on and off, for over 34 years and 191 performances.
• 1987 ~ Federico Mompou, Composer, died at the age of 94
• 1993 ~ “Les Miserables” opened at Point Theatre, Dublin
• 1995 ~ Phyllis Hyman, Rhythm and Blues Jazz singer, died at 45
• 1996 ~ “State Fair,” closed at Music Box Theater New York City after 118 performances
• 2001 ~ Chet Atkins, whose guitar style influenced a generation of rock musicians even as he helped develop an easygoing country style to compete with it, died at the age of 77.
Atkins recorded more than 75 albums of guitar instrumentals and sold more than 75 million albums. He played on hundreds of hit records, including those of Elvis Presley (Heartbreak Hotel), Hank Williams Sr. (Your Cheatin’ Heart, Jambalaya) and The Everly Brothers (Wake Up Little Susie). As an executive with RCA Records for nearly two decades beginning in 1957, Atkins played a part in the careers of Roy Orbison, Jim Reeves, Charley Pride, Dolly Parton Jerry Reed, Waylon Jennings, Eddy Arnold and many others. “It’s impossible to capsulize his life – due to the profound impact he’s had as a wonderful human being and incredible member of our industry,” said Joe Galante, chairman of the RCA Label Group in Nashville. “His artistry and his influence as an industry leader have impacted so many. “There is no way to replace him nor what he has meant to music and our Nashville community.” Atkins helped craft the lush Nashville Sound, using string sections and lots of echo to make records that appealed to older listeners not interested in rock music. Among his notable productions are The End of the World by Skeeter Davis and He’ll Have to Go by Reeves. “I realized that what I liked, the public would like, too,” Atkins said in a 1996 interview with The Associated Press. ‘”Cause I’m kind of square.”
Chester Burton Atkins was born June 20, 1924, on a farm near Luttrell, Tenn., about 20 miles northeast of Knoxville. His elder brother Jim Atkins also played guitar, and went on to perform with Les Paul. Chet Atkins’ first professional job was as a fiddler on WNOX in Knoxville, where his boss was singer Bill Carlisle. “He was horrible,” Carlisle said at a tribute concert to Atkins in 1997. “But I heard him during a break playing guitar and decided to feature him on that.” Atkins’ unusual fingerpicking style, a pseudoclassical variation influenced by such diverse talents as Merle Travis and Django Reinhardt, got him hired and fired from jobs at radio stations all over the country. Atkins sometimes joked that early on his playing sounded “like two guitarists playing badly.” During the 1940s he toured with many acts, including Red Foley, The Carter Family and Kitty Wells. RCA executive Steve Sholes took Atkins on as a protege in the 1950s, using him as the house guitarist on recording sessions. RCA began issuing instrumental albums by Atkins in 1953. George Harrison, whose guitar work on early Beatles records is heavily influenced by Atkins, wrote the liner notes for “Chet Atkins Picks on the Beatles.” Sholes put Atkins in charge of RCA Nashville when he was promoted in 1957. There, he helped Nashville survive the challenge of rock ‘n’ roll with the Nashville Sound. The lavish sound has been criticized by purists who prefer their country music raw and unadorned. Atkins was unrepentant, saying that at the time his goal was simply “to keep my job.” “And the way you do that is you make a hit record once in a while,” he said in 1993. “And the way you do that is you give the audience something different.” Atkins quit his job as an executive in the 1970s and concentrated on playing his guitar. He’s collaborated with a wide range of artists on solo albums, including Mark Knopfler, Paul McCartney, Eric Johnson, George Benson, Susie Bogguss and Earl Klugh. At the time he became ill, Atkins had just released a CD, “The Day Finger Pickers took over the World.” He also had begun regular Monday night performances at a Nashville club. “If I know I’ve got to go do a show, I practice quite a bit, because you can’t get out there and embarrass yourself.” Atkins said in 1996. “So I thought, if I play every week I won’t be so rusty and I’ll play a lot better.”
• 1666 ~ Adam Krieger, German Composer, died at the age of 32
• 1669 ~ Mauritius Vogt, Composer
• 1722 ~ Jiri Antonin Benda, Composer
• 1723 ~ Christian Ernst Graf, Composer
• 1743 ~ Niels Schiorring, Composer
• 1792 ~ Francesco Antonio Rosetti, Composer, died
• 1818 ~ Edward John Hopkins, English organist and composer
• 1819 ~ Ernst Ludwig Gerber, Composer, died at the age of 72
• 1846 ~ Ricardo Drigo, Composer
• 1889 ~ Eugenio Terziani, Composer, died at the age of 64
• 1890 ~ Samuel Parkman Tuckerman, Composer, died at the age of 71
• 1896 ~ Wilfred Pelletier, Canadian conductor for Voice of Firestone
• 1908 ~ Lucino Tinio Sacramento, Composer
• 1914 ~ Natko Devcic, Composer
• 1917 ~ Lena Horne, American singer of popular music
• 1917 ~ “Buddy” Rich, American jazz drummer and bandleader
• 1918 ~ Stuart Foster, American singer
• 1921 ~ Gordon Reynolds, Musician
• 1923 ~ Claude Antoine Terrasse, Composer, died at the age of 56
• 1925 ~ Will Gay Bottje, Composer
• 1929 ~ Alexander Kelly, Pianist and teacher
• 1930 ~ June Valli, American singer on Your Hit Parade
• 1931 ~ James Loughran, British conductor
• 1932 ~ Martin Mailman, American composer
• 1936 ~ Pauls Dambis, Composer
• 1939 ~ Chris Hinze, Dutch flutist
• 1939 ~ Lindembergue Cardoso, Composer
• 1939 ~ Frank Sinatra made his first appearance with Harry James’ band. Sinatra was center stage at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, MD, where he sang My Love for You
• 1941 ~ Micki Grant, Composer
• 1941 ~ Mike Leander Farr, Record producer
• 1943 ~ Florence Ballard, Singer with the Supremes
• 1944 ~ Glenn Shorrock, Australian singer with Little River Band
• 1946 ~ Billy Brown, singer with Ray, Goodman, Brown
• 1946 ~ Michael Zadora, Composer, died at the age of 64
• 1947 ~ Jasper van’t Hof, Dutch jazz pianist (Live in Montreux)
• 1951 ~ Andrew Scott, Welch rock guitarist
• 1951 ~ “Victor Borge Show,” last aired on NBC-TV
More information about Borge
• 1953 ~ Gote Carlid, Composer, died at the age of 32
• 1956 ~ “Pipe Dream” closed at Shubert Theater New York City after 245 performances
• 1956 ~ “Shangri-La” closed at Winter Garden Theater New York City after 21 performances
• 1959 ~ Lazare Saminsky, Composer, died at the age of 76
• 1960 ~ Clarence Cameron White, Composer, died at the age of 79
• 1969 ~ Jan Evangelista Zelinka, Composer, died at the age of 76
• 1982 ~ “Lena Horne: Lady, Music” closed at Nederlander New York City after 333 performances
• 1983 ~ Bo Gentry, Songwriter and producer, died
• 1985 ~ Yul Brynner left his role as the King of Siam after 4,600 performances in The King and I at the Broadway Theatre in New York City. The show had run, on and off, for over 34 years and 191 performances.
• 1987 ~ Federico Mompou, Composer, died at the age of 94
• 1993 ~ “Les Miserables” opened at Point Theatre, Dublin
• 1995 ~ Phyllis Hyman, Rhythm and Blues Jazz singer, died at 45
• 1996 ~ “State Fair,” closed at Music Box Theater New York City after 118 performances
• 2001 ~ Chet Atkins, whose guitar style influenced a generation of rock musicians even as he helped develop an easygoing country style to compete with it, died at the age of 77.
Atkins recorded more than 75 albums of guitar instrumentals and sold more than 75 million albums. He played on hundreds of hit records, including those of Elvis Presley (Heartbreak Hotel), Hank Williams Sr. (Your Cheatin’ Heart, Jambalaya) and The Everly Brothers (Wake Up Little Susie). As an executive with RCA Records for nearly two decades beginning in 1957, Atkins played a part in the careers of Roy Orbison, Jim Reeves, Charley Pride, Dolly Parton Jerry Reed, Waylon Jennings, Eddy Arnold and many others. “It’s impossible to capsulize his life – due to the profound impact he’s had as a wonderful human being and incredible member of our industry,” said Joe Galante, chairman of the RCA Label Group in Nashville. “His artistry and his influence as an industry leader have impacted so many. “There is no way to replace him nor what he has meant to music and our Nashville community.” Atkins helped craft the lush Nashville Sound, using string sections and lots of echo to make records that appealed to older listeners not interested in rock music. Among his notable productions are The End of the World by Skeeter Davis and He’ll Have to Go by Reeves. “I realized that what I liked, the public would like, too,” Atkins said in a 1996 interview with The Associated Press. ‘”Cause I’m kind of square.”
Chester Burton Atkins was born June 20, 1924, on a farm near Luttrell, Tenn., about 20 miles northeast of Knoxville. His elder brother Jim Atkins also played guitar, and went on to perform with Les Paul. Chet Atkins’ first professional job was as a fiddler on WNOX in Knoxville, where his boss was singer Bill Carlisle. “He was horrible,” Carlisle said at a tribute concert to Atkins in 1997. “But I heard him during a break playing guitar and decided to feature him on that.” Atkins’ unusual fingerpicking style, a pseudoclassical variation influenced by such diverse talents as Merle Travis and Django Reinhardt, got him hired and fired from jobs at radio stations all over the country. Atkins sometimes joked that early on his playing sounded “like two guitarists playing badly.” During the 1940s he toured with many acts, including Red Foley, The Carter Family and Kitty Wells. RCA executive Steve Sholes took Atkins on as a protege in the 1950s, using him as the house guitarist on recording sessions. RCA began issuing instrumental albums by Atkins in 1953. George Harrison, whose guitar work on early Beatles records is heavily influenced by Atkins, wrote the liner notes for “Chet Atkins Picks on the Beatles.” Sholes put Atkins in charge of RCA Nashville when he was promoted in 1957. There, he helped Nashville survive the challenge of rock ‘n’ roll with the Nashville Sound. The lavish sound has been criticized by purists who prefer their country music raw and unadorned. Atkins was unrepentant, saying that at the time his goal was simply “to keep my job.” “And the way you do that is you make a hit record once in a while,” he said in 1993. “And the way you do that is you give the audience something different.” Atkins quit his job as an executive in the 1970s and concentrated on playing his guitar. He’s collaborated with a wide range of artists on solo albums, including Mark Knopfler, Paul McCartney, Eric Johnson, George Benson, Susie Bogguss and Earl Klugh. At the time he became ill, Atkins had just released a CD, “The Day Finger Pickers took over the World.” He also had begun regular Monday night performances at a Nashville club. “If I know I’ve got to go do a show, I practice quite a bit, because you can’t get out there and embarrass yourself.” Atkins said in 1996. “So I thought, if I play every week I won’t be so rusty and I’ll play a lot better.”
• 1799 ~ Pierre Beaumarchais, French playwright, died. Famed for his two comedies “The Marriage of Figaro” (Mozart used this for an opera) and “The Barber of Seville” Rossini used this for an opera).
• 1830 ~ Karl Goldmark, composer
• 1876 ~ The first issue of the first music magazine in America, Musical America, was published
• 1892 ~ Ezio Pinza, Italian bass and actor
• 1902 ~ Meredith Willson, American composer, flutist, arranger and orchestrator
More information about Willson
• 1909 ~ Isaac Albéniz, Spanish pianist and composer (Suite española, Tango in D), died from nephritis at the age of 48
• 1911 ~ Gustav Mahler, Czech-born Austrian composer, died. His last word was “Mozart”. He completed nine symphonies and several song-cycles notably “Das Lied von der Erde.”
More information about Gustav Mahler
• 1911 ~ Big Joe (Joseph Vernon) Turner, Rhythm & blues singer
• 1913 ~ Perry (Pierino Roland) Como, Grammy Award-winning American singer of popular music, 15 gold records
More information about Como
• 1919 ~ Dame Margot Fonteyne, British prima ballerina. She started her career with the London Sadler’s Wells company in 1934 and in 1962 began a legendary partnership with Rudolph Nureyev.
• 1948 ~ Joe Bonsall, Singer with The Oak Ridge Boys
• 1968 ~ Tiny Tim’s warbly Tiptoe Through the Tulips was released. An eventual top twenty hit, Tiptoe was a remake of a number one hit for Nick Lucas in 1929.
• 1970 ~ Opening this night in New York City was The Me Nobody Knows at the Orpheum Theatre. The musical had a run of 586 performances.
• 2002 ~ Wolfgang Schneiderhan, a violinist who began performing as a child, became a concertmaster at 17 and played with orchestras across Europe, died. He was 86. A child prodigy, Schneiderhan quickly rose to international fame, performing with leading ensembles, including the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra and the Philharmonic. A regular at Europe’s most important music festivals, Schneiderhan played with Wilhelm Backhaus and other well-known pianists and gave violin concerts under such legendary conductors as Bruno Walter and Wilhelm Furtwängler. Later, Schneiderhan was a teacher at the Salzburg Mozarteum and at the Vienna Academy of Music. At age 11, Schneiderhan played in Copenhagen, Denmark – his first major concert abroad. Already a distinguished interpreter of the music of Mozart and Beethoven, Schneiderhan became concertmaster of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra at age 17, a job he also held with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1937.
• 2003 ~ Broadway’s ‘Les Miserables’ Ended After 16 Years. The pop opera based on Victor Hugo’s 1832 novel closed after 16 years, making it the second longest-running show ever on the Great White Way. The show played 6,680 performances since opening at the Broadway Theater in 1987. Only “Cats” has played more performances on Broadway with 7,485. The last performance at the Imperial Theater included a finale featuring 300 alumni of the Broadway run. Although it is now gone from the New York stage, the show is performed around the world by touring companies and is a fixture in London’s West End.
• 2012 ~ Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German baritone, died at the age of 86
• 2014 ~ Jerry Vale, American singer, died at the age of 83
1924 ~ Henry Mancini, American arranger, composer, conductor and pianist
