• 1961 ~ Roy Hay, Musician, guitar with Culture Club
• 1966 ~ The last tour for The Beatles began at the International Amphitheater in Chicago, and John Lennon apologized for boasting that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ. London’s Catholic Herald said Lennon’s comment was “arrogant … but probably true.”
• 1967 ~ Fleetwood Mac made their stage debut at the National Blues and Jazz Festival in Great Britain.
• 1992 ~ John Cage, American composer (Imaginary Landscape No 1/O’O), died of a stroke at the age of 79
• 1925 ~ Mike Douglas (Dowd), TV host of The Mike Douglas Show; singer, The Music Show, Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge
• 1927 ~ Raymond Leppard, British conductor and harpsichordist
• 1941 ~ Glenn Miller and his Orchestra recorded Elmer’s Tune on Bluebird Records.
• 1942 ~ Mike Hugg, Musician, drums with Chapter Three, Manfred Mann
• 1943 ~ Jim Kale, Musician, bass with The Guess Who
• 1943 ~ Guy Vallari, Singer with Regents
• 1949 ~ Eric Carmen, Musician, bass, keyboards, songwriter, singer with The Raspberries
• 1950 ~ Erik Braunn, Musician, guitar, singer with Iron Butterfly
• 1954 ~ David Ian “Joe” Jackson, English singer, pianist, composer
• 1955 ~ Joe Jackson, Singer
• 1958 ~ Elvis Presley received a gold record for the hit, Hard Headed Woman. The song was featured in the movie King Creole.
• 1987 ~ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles was called “the best album made during the last 20 years” by the respected music publication, Rolling Stone magazine.
• 1996 ~ Rafael Kubelik, Czech conductor, died aged 82. He made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1934 and went into exile in 1948 and made an emotional return when he conducted the opening concert of the 1990 Prague Spring music festival.
• 2020 ~ Trini Lopez died at the age of 83, and suffered from complications of COVID-19.
• 1818 ~ Henry Charles Litolff, French pianist, composer and music publisher
• 1921 ~ Karel Husa, Czech-born American composer and conductor
• 1921 ~ Warren Covington, Bandleader, trombone, played with Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights
• 1925 ~ Felice Bryant, Songwriter with husband Boudleaux
• 1931 ~ Bix Beiderbecke, U.S. Jazz musician and composer, died. The first white musician to make an impact on jazz, he died from pneumonia aged 28.
• 1936 ~ Rahsaan Roland Kirk, American jazz musician
• 1937 ~ Bunny Berigan and his orchestra recorded I Can’t Get Started for Victor Records. The song became Berigan’s longtime theme song.
• 1939 ~ Ron Holden, Singer
• 1942 ~ B.J. (Billy Joe) Thomas, Singer
• 1943 ~ Lana Cantrell, Entertainer and singer
• 1952 ~ Andy Fraser, Musician: bass with Free
• 1958 ~ Bruce Dickenson, Singer with Iron Maiden
• 1970 ~ Christine McVie joined Fleetwood Mac as the group’s first female member. McVie was married to bass player John McVie. She quit touring with the group in 1991.
• 1971 ~ Homer (Henry D. Haynes) passed away
• 1975 ~ The Rolling Stones received a gold album for Made in the Shade.
• 1987 ~ Back to the Beach opened at theatres around the country. The film reunited Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, who played middle-aged parents with rebellious kids — kids like Frankie and Annette had played in their Bikini Beach movies in the 1960s.
• 2001 ~ Larry Adler, acknowledged as the king of the harmonica, died at the age of 87 at a London hospital after a long illness. Adler, born in Baltimore in February 1914, was a musical prodigy whose career covered seven decades during which he worked with a veritable who’s who of the 20th century’s entertainment industry.
From George Gershwin to Elton John, the classically trained Adler had worked with and inspired generations of musicians, touring as late as 1994 and even planning an update of his 1985 biography “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”
“He was without doubt one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century,” said musical agent Jonathan Shalit.
“Larry was a man who believed the show must always go on, even to the point of playing from his wheelchair,” he added.
Adler learned to play the piano and mouth organ by ear from listening to records and could not actually read music until 1941.
He won the Maryland Harmonica Championship in 1927 after being expelled from a music conservatory and promptly ran away to New York and got a job playing in film theaters between features.
In 1936 he played harmonica on George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, prompting the composer to exclaim that it sounded as though he had written the haunting melody especially for Adler.
During World War Two Adler toured extensively in Africa and the Middle East, entertaining troops, and insisting on a non-segregation policy between whites and blacks at concerts.
He also entertained in the South Pacific with artists including comedian Jack Benny, and worked consistently for the war effort and the Allied forces.
In 1945 he went to Berlin where he played The Battle Hymn of the Republic on harmonica on the balcony of Adolf Hitler’s ruined chancellery after Germany capitulated.
He left the U.S. for Britain in the early 1950s after being blacklisted during the McCarthy communist witch hunt.
Adler’s most familiar composition is the music for the film comedy “Genevieve,” but he composed the music for other films.
In 1967 and 1973, gave his services to Israel in aid of those affected by the Six Day and Yom Kippur wars.
After Adler guested on Sting’s 1993 album “Ten Summoner’s Tales,” the rock singer returned the compliment and appeared on Adler’s 80th birthday celebration, The Glory Of Gershwin.
They were joined by other stars from the rock world such as Meat Loaf, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel and Sinead O’Connor.
A tennis fanatic, Adler once played in a doubles match with Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo and Salvador Dali.
• 2001 ~ Billy Byrd, who once played lead guitar for Ernest Tubb’s Texas Troubadours, died at the age of 81.
William Lewis Byrd was born in Nashville, and taught himself guitar by copying the records of Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt.
In the 1940s, Byrd backed the Oak Ridge Quartet (predecessor of the Oak Ridge Boys), Little Jimmy Dickens, George Morgan and others.
In 1949, Byrd succeeded Tommy “Butterball” Paige as lead guitarist in Ernest Tubb’s Texas Troubadours.
On many of Tubb’s hit records, Tubb would introduce Byrd’s tight melodic solos by exclaiming, “Aw, Billy Byrd now,” or “Play it pretty, Billy Byrd.” Byrd played on scores of Tubb hits, including Jealous Loving Heart,Two Glasses Joe and Answer the Phone.
Byrd also drove Tubb’s bus during his first tenure with the Texas Troubadours, which lasted a decade. He returned twice to the band, from 1969-70 and 1973-74.
Byrd released three solo instrumental albums, and during a brief stint in California backed Tab Hunter and Tex Ritter. In 1950,
Byrd and guitarist Hank Garland designed the popular Byrdland guitar for Gibson Guitars.
• 2017 ~ David Henry Maslanka, American composer, died at the age of 73
• 1397? ~ Guillaume Du Fay, French composer. Considered the leading composer of the early Renaissance.
More information about Du Fay
• 1694 ~ Leonardo Leo, Italian composer and organist
• 1811 ~ Ambrose Thomas, French composer, primarily of operas
• 1890 ~ Erich Kleiber, Austrian conductor
• 1891 ~ Henry Charles Litolff, French pianist/composer, died at the age of 73
• 1924 ~ The comic strip Little Orphan Annie debuted in the New York Daily News. Annie and her little dog, Sandy, were creations of cartoonist Harold Gray. His work would come to life in the Broadway and film adaptations of Annie a half-century later, with great success.
• 1926 ~ Jeri Southern (Genevieve Hering), Singer
• 1940 ~ Damita Jo (DuBlanc), Singer
• 1942 ~ Rick Huxley, Bass with Dave Clark Five
• 1943 ~ Sammi Smith, Singer
• 1947 ~ Rick Derringer (Zehringer), Singer, songwriter with The McCoys, record producer
• 1953 ~ Samantha Sang, Singer
• 1957 ~ Dick Clark’s American Bandstand caught the attention of network executives at ABC-TV in New York, who decided to put the show on its afternoon schedule. Many artists, acts and groups of the rock ’n’ roll era debuted on American Bandstand – Simon and Garfunkel, Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Bobby Rydell, Chubby Checker – catapulting Clark into the spotlight as one of TV’s most prolific producers and hosts.
• 1958 ~ Joseph Holbrooke, English pianist, conductor and composer (3 Blind Mice), died at the age of 80
• 1975 ~ Singer Stevie Wonder signed the recording industry’s largest contract: $13 million over a seven-year period. Wonder stayed with his original label, Tamla/Motown, while other major Motown artists, including Diana Ross, Gladys Knight and The Four Tops had left the label over creative differences and financial accounting disputes.
• 2018 ~ Charlotte Rae, American character actress, comedian, singer and dancer (Edna-Facts of Life), died at the age of 92
• 1921 ~ Herb (Mitchell) Ellis, Guitarist, singer with Soft Winds
• 1927 ~ Radio station 2XAG, later named WGY, the General Electric station in Schenectady, NY, began experimental operations from a 100,000-watt transmitter. Later, the FCC regulated the power of AM radio stations to not exceed 50,000 watts on ‘clear channels’ (where few, if any, stations would cause interference with each other).
• 1927 ~ Singer Jimmie Rodgers recorded his first sides for Victor Records in Bristol, TN. He sang Sleep Baby Sleep and Soldier’s Sweetheart.
• 1929 ~ Gabriella Tucci, Italian soprano
• 1938 ~ Simon Preston, British organist
• 1939 ~ Frankie Ford (Guzzo), Singer
• 1940 ~ Timi (Rosemarie) Yuro, Singer
• 1943 ~ David Carr, Keyboards with The Fortunes
• 1978 ~ Frank Fontaine passed away. He was an American stage, radio, film and television comedian and singer.
• 2000 ~ Jerome Smith, founding guitarist of KC & The Sunshine Band, died after being crushed in a construction accident. He was 47. KC & The Sunshine Band reached the top of Billboard Magazine’s charts in 1975 with Get Down Tonight. Before Smith left the group, it had five No. 1 songs, including Boogie Shoes and That’s the Way (I Like It), and three Grammys.
• 1778 ~ La Scala, one of the world’s great opera houses, opened on this day. They premiered William Tell by Gioachino Rossini
• 1823 ~ Francisco Asenjo Babieri, Spanish composer
• 1884 ~ Louis Gruenberg, Polish-born American composer
• 1902 ~ Ray Bloch, Conductor and orchestra leader
• 1917 ~ Charlie Shavers, Trumpeter with the John Kirby Sextet and composer of Undecided
• 1918 ~ Les Elgart, Lead trumpet, bandleader for Les and (brother) Larry Elgart
• 1921 ~ Richard Adler, Broadway Composer, lyricist
• 1926 ~ Tony Bennett (Benedetto), Grammy Award-winning American singer of popular music
• 1941 ~ Beverly Lee, Singer with The Shirelles
• 1949 ~ B.B. (Morris) Dickerson, Bass and singer with War
• 1951 ~ Johnny Graham, Guitarist with Earth, Wind and Fire
• 1963 ~ The Beatles made their final appearance at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, England. The group was about to leave its hometown behind for unprecedented worldwide fame and fortune.
• 1963 ~ The Beach Boys’ Surfer Girl, was released on Capitol Records. It became one of their biggest hits. Surfer Girl made it to number seven on the hit music charts on September 14, 1963
• 1963 ~ Comedian Allan Sherman’s summer camp parody, Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh! (A Letter from Camp) was released on Warner Brothers Records. The melody was based on the Dance of the Hours from Ponchielli’s opera La Giaconda. This dance was also performed in the original Disney movie Fantasia.
• 1971 ~ Paul McCartney formed a new band called Wings. Joining McCartney in the group were Denny Laine, formerly of The Moody Blues, Denny Seilwell and McCartney’s wife, Linda.
• 1998 ~ Alfred Schnittke, one of the most original and influential composers to emerge from the Soviet Union, died. He was 63.
• 2001 ~ Jeanne Loriod, the leading performer of an electronic instrument used in film scores and symphonic works to produce mysterious glassy tones, died in southern France. She was 73. Loriod, who played the ondes martenot – invented by the French musician Maurice Martenot – died of a stroke in Juan-les-Pins, Le Monde newspaper reported.
She was the younger sister of pianist Yvonne Loriod, who was married to composer Olivier Messiaen. The three musicians often collaborated.
The ondes martenot – which translates as “Martenot waves” – produces electronic waves from a system of transistors, a keyboard and a ribbon attached to a ring on the performer’s forefinger.
Loriod’s career took her all over the world. She performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic, among others.
Composers such as Tristan Murail, Jacques Charpentier and Michael Levinas wrote works for her, according to Le Monde. Loriod had also been planning to collaborate with the pop group Radiohead, the paper wrote.
• 2008 ~ Louis Teicher died at 83. He was half of the piano duo Ferrante & Teicher, which toured for four decades and released 150 albums, some as suitable for elevators as for concert halls.
• 2016 ~ Ricci Martin, an entertainer/musician son of Dean Martin, died at the age of 62.
• 1925 ~ John Dexter, Opera director, Mid-America Chorale
• 1921 ~ Enrico Caruso, Italian operatic tenor, died in Naples.
• 1926 ~ The first demonstration of the Vitaphone system, that combined picture and sound for movies, was held at the Warner Theatre in New York City. John Barrymore and Mary Astor starred in the demonstration film for the new moving picture projector.
• 1935 ~ Hank Cochran, Pop Singer and songwriter
• 1937 ~ Garth Hudson, Musician, keyboard with The Band
• 1937 ~ Benny Goodman and his quartet recorded Smiles for Victor Records. Playing with Goodman’s clarinet on the famous song were Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa.
• 1939 ~ Edwin Patten, Singer with Gladys Knight & The Pips
• 1941 ~ Doris Kenner-Jackson (Coley), Singer with The Shirelles
• 1943 ~ Kathy Lennon, Singer with The Lennon Sisters
• 1951 ~ Andrew Gold, Singer, son of composer Ernest Gold
• 1991 ~ Jeri Southern passed away
• 1997 – Nigeria’s musician Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, who popularized the Afro-music beat globally, died of AIDS aged 58.
• 2000 ~ Helen Quinn, who for more than 30 years presided over the Metropolitan Opera patrons who lined up to buy standing-room tickets, died at the age of 76. Often called the Queen of Standees by those who allowed her to take charge of the ticket queue, Quinn was herself a veteran of standing-room lines at the Met, and attended five or six performances a week, almost always as a standee. In 1966, on her own initiative, she imposed a system on the standee process that the throng of regulars was apparently happy to abide by, and to which the Met gave tacit approval.
• 2001 ~ Ron Townson, the portly centerpiece singer for the Grammy-winning pop group The 5th Dimension, died of renal failure after a four-year battle with kidney disease. He was 68. Other members of the reconstituted group – known for such 1960s hits as Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In, Wedding Bell Blues and Stoned Soul Picnic – performed at the Capitol Fourth music and fireworks show on July 4 in Washington, D.C. Declining health had forced Townson to retire from The 5th Dimension in 1997, bringing to an end a career that saw him tour with such music legends as Nat King’ Cole and Dorothy Dandridge, appear in operas and direct choirs. He helped front The 5th Dimension when the group’s smooth mixture of pop, jazz, gospel, and rhythm and blues won it four Grammys in 1968 for the Jimmy Webb song Up Up and Away. Other hits included One Less Bell to Answer and Sweet Blindness. As various members left The 5th Dimension in the 1970s to pursue solo projects, Townson formed the group Ron Townson and Wild Honey. Later, he reunited with McLemore and LaRue in a new version of The 5th Dimension that included Phyllis Battle and Greg Walker. He also appeared on television and in films, including the 1992 movie The Mambo Kings.
• 2002 ~ Freidann Parker, co-founder of the Colorado Ballet, died at the age of 77. Colorado Ballet co-founder Lillian Covillo met Parker in the late 1940s in a dance class taught by Martha Wilcox. The two began the Covillo-Parker School of Dance, and then a fledgling ballet company. After an ambitious double bill in 1961, they created Colorado Concert Ballet, which presented Denver’s first Nutcracker the following season. Every performance sold out. By 1978, the board of directors more than doubled its budget to $100,000, and Colorado Ballet was born. Today its budget has grown to $7 million with a roster of 40 dancers. Parker’s first dance lessons were with Iris Potter. She later trained with modern-dance pioneer Hanya Holm.
• 2020 ~ Leon Fleisher, American pianist and conductor, died at the age of 92. He was one of the most renowned pianists and pedagogues in the world. Music correspondent Elijah Ho has called him “one of the most refined and transcendent musicians the United States has ever produced”.
In 1964, Fleisher lost the use of his right hand, due to a condition that was eventually diagnosed as focal dystonia. Fleisher commenced performing and recording the left-handed repertoire while searching for a cure for his condition. In addition, he undertook conducting during this time, serving at one time as Music Director of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra in Maryland. In the 1990s, Fleisher was able to ameliorate his focal dystonia symptoms after experimental botox injections to the point where he could play with both hands again.
• 1877 ~ Angela Diller, American pianist and educator
• 1919 ~ Oscar Hammerstein I passed away
• 1930 ~ Lionel Bart, Broadway Composer
• 1930 ~ Geoffrey Holder, Dancer
• 1939 – American bandleader Glenn Miller recorded In the Mood which later became his theme tune.
• 1942 ~ Jerry Garcia, American rock guitarist, banjo, lyricist and singer with The Grateful Dead
• 1942 ~ Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra recorded Charleston Alley, on Decca Records.
• 1942 ~ The American Federation of Musicians went on strike. Union president James C. Petrillo told musicians that phonograph records were “a threat to members’ jobs.” As a result, musicians refused to perform in recording sessions over the next several months. Live, musical radio broadcasts continued, however.
• 1947 ~ Rick Anderson, Musician, bass with The Tubes
• 1947 ~ Rick Coonce, Singer, drummer with The Grassroots
• 1953 ~ Robert Cray, Guitar
• 1960 ~ Chubby Checker’s The Twist was released. The song inspired the dance craze of the 1960s.
• 1971 ~ The Concert for Bangladesh was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Ravi Shankar and Billy Preston performed. A multi-record set commemorating the event was a super sales success. Together, the concert and the album raised over $11 million to help the starving minions of Bangladesh.
• 1981 ~ MTV (Music Television) made its debut at 12:01 a.m.
• 1984 ~ Singer Jermaine Jackson made a guest appearance on the TV soap opera, As the World Turns.
• 1997 ~ Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter died of a heart attack in a Moscow hospital. He was 82.
• 2007 ~ Tommy Makem, Irish folk singer died
• 2017 ~ Goldy McJohn, Canadian musician (Steppenwolf), died at the age of 72
• 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.
• 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
• 1738 ~ Antonio Maria Pacchioni, Composer, died at the age of 84
• 1779 ~ Clement Moore, Lyricist, author of ’Twas the Night before Christmas (A Visit from St. Nicholas) born
• 1782 ~ Farinelli, Italian singer, died at the age of 77
• 1782 ~ Richard Wainwright, Composer, died at the age of 33
• 1789 ~ Jacques Duphly, Composer, died at the age of 74
• 1795 ~ Marseillaise became the French national anthem
• 1798 ~ Gaetano Pugnani, Composer, died at the age of 66
• 1810 ~ Jean-Baptiste Rey, Composer, died at the age of 75
• 1854 ~ Wincenty Studzinski, Composer, died at the age of 39
• 1857 ~ Carl Czerny, Austrian pianist and Composer, died at the age of 66
More information on Czerny
• 1905 ~ Dorothy Fields born, Composer, lyricist with Cy Coleman of Sweet Charity and Seesaw; with Jimmy McHugh – I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, I’m in the Mood for Love and On the Sunny Side of the Street. She was the daughter of comedian Lew Fields
• 1913 ~ Cowboy (Lloyd) Copas born. He was a country singer who was killed in a plane crash with singer, Patsy Cline
• 1915 ~ Ludwik Grossman, Composer, died at the age of 80
• 1929 ~ Hugo von Hofmannstahl, Austrian author and librettist, died. He was best known for his collaboration with composer Richard Strauss for whom he wrote the libretto to the opera “Der Rosenkavelier.”
• 1930 ~ Leopold von Auer, Hungarian-American violinist, died
• 1933 ~ Julian Bream, British guitarist and lutenist
• 1934 ~ Harrison Birtwistle, British composer
• 1940 ~ Tommy Dee (Thomas Donaldson) Singer and record company executive
• 1942 ~ Glenn Miller and his band recorded the classic Jukebox Saturday Night for Victor Records.
• 1945 ~ Peter Lewis, Guitarist, singer with Moby Grape
• 1946 ~ Linda Ronstadt, American singer of rock and popular music
• 1949 ~ “Miss Liberty” opened at Imperial Theater New York City for 308 performances
• 1952 ~ Singer Patti Page made her TV debut in a summer replacement series for Perry Como. The 15-minute program spotlighted Patti three times each week on CBS.
• 1959 ~ Ernest Bloch, Swiss-American Composer, died at the age of 78
More information about Bloch
• 1960 ~ Lawrence Mervil Tibbett, baritone, died after surgery at 63
• 1966 ~ Singer Percy Sledge earned a gold record for When a Man Loves A Woman. It was his only song to make it to number one (5/28/66) and the only one of five to break into the top ten.
• 1967 ~ “Sweet Charity” closed at Palace Theater New York City after 608 performances
• 1972 ~ Elton John landed at the top spot on the Billboard album chart for the first time as Honky Chateau made it to the top for a five-week stay.
• 1978 ~ Bob Dylan performed before the largest open-air concert audience (for a single artist). Some 200,000 fans turned out to hear Dylan at Blackbushe Airport in England.
• 1980 ~ Henri Martelli, Composer, died at the age of 85
• 1982 ~ Bill (William E.) Justis (Jr.) passed away
• 1983 ~ Linda Ronstadt debuted as Mabel “Pirates of Penzance”
• 2000 ~ Canadian baritone Louis Quilico, who sang many of the most famous opera roles, died after complications from surgery. He was 75.
• 2000 ~ Singer Paul Young, who found fame with the band Mike and the Mechanics, died from what might have been a heart attack at the age of 53. The band just finished recording their fifth album and had planned to tour Europe this month.
• 2001 ~ Denes Koromzay, a violist who helped found the Hungarian String Quartet, died at the age of 88. Koromzay studied at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest when composer Béla Bartók was on the faculty. Though trained as a violinist, Koromzay was the violist in the group that founded the Hungarian String Quartet in 1935. He remained with the famed ensemble until it disbanded in 1972. For the next seven years, he performed with the New Hungarian Quartet, an ensemble at Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. Koromzay moved to Boulder in 1962, when the Hungarian String Quartet was named resident ensemble at the University of Colorado. He returned to the university to teach viola and coach chamber music in 1980. He retired from the school in 1996.
Be sure your student reads and listens to Today’s Daily Listening Assignment
1859 ~ Katharine Lee Bates
