January 25 – Today in Music History

1915 Ewan MacColl (James (Jimmie) Miller) born in Salford, Lancashire in England. British folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was the father of Kirsty MacColl & the composer of ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ a hit for Roberta Flack in 1971. MacColl died on 22nd October 1989. 
1931 Stig Anderson, producer, who worked with Abba, died of a heart attack 12th September 1997. 
1938 Etta James (Etta James Hawkins) US singer/Songwriter. 9 US Top 40 hits during the 60’s, (1996 UK No.5 single ‘I Just Want To Make Love To You’). She was diagnosed with leukemia in early 2011. The illness became terminal, and she died on January 20, 2012, five days before her 74th birthday,
1946 Ronnie Brandon – UK Keyboard Player with The McCoys. 
1950 Michael Cotton born in Kansas City, Missouri – US Synthesiser player with The Tubes, (1977 UK No.28 single ‘White Punks On Dope’, 1983 US No.10 single ‘She’s A Beauty’). 
1953 Malcolm Green born in Auckland, New Zealand. Drummer with Split Enz, He left in 1981. (1980 UK No.12 single ‘I Got You’. 
1954 Robert Finch – US Bass Player/Songwriter he fromed KC & The Sunshine Band with Harry Casey (K.C..) (1975 US No.1 single ‘That’s The Way’, ‘I Like It’, 1983 UK No.1 single ‘Give It Up’). 
1954 Leon Schneiderman born in Los Angeles. Baritone Saxophone Player with Oingo Boingo. 
1956 Andy Cox born in Birmingham, England. UK Guitarist/Songwriter. (1983 UK No.3 single ‘Can’t Get Used To Losing You’), Fine Young Cannibals, (1989 US No.1 & UK No.5 single ‘She Drives Me Crazy’). 
1957 Edmond Theodore Sylvers – US singer with The Sylvers. He died March 11th 2004 aged 47. 
1958 Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock became the first single to enter the British charts at No.1 
1958 Gary Tibbs bassist who has worked with Roxy Music and Adam And The Ants who had the 1981 UK No.1 single ‘Stand And Deliver’ plus 15 other Top 40 UK singles. 
1960 The original cast recording of ‘The Sound Of Music ‘started a 16-week run at No.1 on the US album chart. 
1962 Peter Coyle, vocals with Lotus Eaters who had the 1983 UK No.15 single ‘First Picture Of You’. 
1963 Carl Fysh – Vocalist with Brother Beyond, (1988 UK No. 2 single ‘The Harder I Try’). 
1963 The Rolling Stones played at the Ricky Tick Club at the Star and Garter Hotel, Windsor, Berkshirehire, UK. This was the first time The Rolling Stones, including Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman, played at this venue. All the walls in the club were painted black and the lighting was made out of old ice-cream tins. 
1964 Phil Spector appeared as a panellist on this week’s UK TV show Juke Box Jury. 
1964 The Beatles scored their first number one best seller in the US when “I Want To Hold Your Hand” reached the top of the Cash Box Magazine music chart. The Fab Four would eventually rack up 25 number ones in America. 
1967 Tom Jones went to No.1 in the Australian Singles Chart with ‘The Green, Green Grass Of Home’, staying at No.1 for 2wks. 
1967 The Beatles made a last-minute remix of ‘Penny Lane’ before the pressing of their next double A sided single ‘Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane’. Both songs were originally intended for the forthcoming Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. 
1969 The New Seekers were at No.1 on the UK album chart with their ‘The Best Of’ album. 
1969 US Band Creedence Clearwater Revival released the hit single ‘Proud Mary’ in America. 
1969 Pink Floyd appeared at the Sixty Nine Club, Royal York Hotel, Ryde, Isle of Wight, England. Support band was The Cherokees, who had had a minor hit single in 1964 with Seven Golden Daffodilsproduced by Mickie Most. They later changed their name to New York Public Library. 
1971 Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane gave birth to a daughter, naming her God, she was later re-named China. 
1973 Chris Wilkie, Dubstar, (1996 UK No.15 single ‘Stars’. 
1973 David Bowie finished a weeks of rehearsals at the Royal Ballroon, Tottenham, London, for his forthcoming Ziggy Stardust tour. 
1974 Led Zeppelin appeared at the Market Square Arena, Indianapolis, Indiana to over 17,000 fans. The set list included: ‘Rock And Roll’, ‘Over The Hills And Far Away’, ‘The Song Remains The Same’, ‘The Rain Song’, ‘Kashmir’, ‘The Wanton Song’, ‘No Quarter’, ‘Trampled Under Foot’, ‘Moby Dick’, ‘How Many More Times’, ‘Stairway To Heaven,’ ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and ‘Black Dog’. Tickets cost $8.50. 
1975 The Carpenters went to No.1 on the US singles chart with their version of The Marveletts 1961 hit ‘Please Mr. Postman’. 
1975 The Tymes were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Ms Grace’. 
1975 The last Sunbury Rock Festival in Victoria Australia was held. The promoters who had made heavy losses only paid Deep Purple. AC/DC were scheduled to play after Deep Purple but a fight started on stage between road crews after Purple’s set when they began packing up the lights and PA and denied AC/DC use of them, who then left the festival site without playing at all. 
1976 Chris Kenner – US Singer/Songwiter, died after a heart attack. Born on 25th Dec, 1929. 
1977 Christian Ingebrigtsen, singer with pop group A1 who had the 2000 UK No.1 single, ‘Same Old Brand New You’. 
1978 Joy Division made their live debut when they played Pips in Manchester, England. 
1981 Alica Keys born in New York City, New York, US Singer/Songwriter & Classically trained Pianist. , (2001 US No.1 & UK No.3 single ‘Fallin’ and 2001 US No.1 & UK No.7 album ‘Songs In A Minor’). 
1983 The Allman Brothers bassist Lamar Williams died of lung cancer age 34. He joined the band in 1972 after the death of original bassist Berry Oakley. 
1984 Yoko Ono donated £250,000 ($425,000) to Liverpool old people’s home Strawberry Fields. 
1986 US manager Albert Grossman died of a heart attack while flying on Concorde from New York to London. He managed Bob Dylan, (between 1962 and 1970), Peter, Paul and Mary, The Band, Janis Joplin and Todd Rundgren. Grossman built the Bearsville Recording Studio near Woodstock in 1969 and in 1970 he founded Bearsville Records. 
1986 Norwegian group A-Ha were at No.1 in the UK with ‘The Sun Always Shines On TV.’ Becoming the first ever-Norwegian act to score a UK No.1. 
1986 Barbra Streisand started a three- week run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘The Broadway Album.’ 
1989 Bobby Brown was arrested for an overtly sexually suggestive performance after a show in Columbus; he was fined $652 under the anti-lewdness ordinance law. 
1989 Madonna started divorce proceedings for the second time from Sean Penn at Los Angeles County Court and moved into a new three-bedroom house in Hollywood Hills. 
1991 Daryl Braithwaite released the single ‘The Horses’ on this day. 
1992 Color Me Bad scored their second US No.1 single with ‘All 4 Love,’ a No.5 hit in the UK. 
1992 Wet Wet Wet Wet had their second UK No.1 single with ‘Goodnight Girl’, it’s four week stay at No.1 was helped by it’s airing in ITV’s Coronation Street’s Christmas disco broadcast. 
1992 The inaugural Big Day Out festival took place at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney. Acts appearing included, Nirvana, Beasts of Bourbon, Box The Jesuits, Celibate Rifles, Cosmic Psychos, The Clouds, Club Hoy, Died Pretty, Falling Joys, The Hard Ons with Henry Rollins Hellmen, Massappeal, The Meanies, Smudge, Sound Unlimited Posse, Ratcat, The Village Idiots, Violent Femmes and Yothu Yindi. 
1997 White Town went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Your Woman’. White Town was Jyoti Mishra, who created the hit in his bedroom. His only No.1. 
2001 Millionaire pop impresario Jonathan King was charged with a further ten offences of sexually abusing children. The charges dated back to the 1970’s, King was granted bail. 
2004 Katie Melua started a three week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with her debut release ‘Call Off The Search.’ 
2004 Bob Dylan was paid by ladies underwear company Victoria’s Secret to fly to Venice in Northern Italy, to film a TV advertisement in an ancient palazzo with a scantily dressed model. Some fans were upset while others empathized with Dylan. 
2005 Ray Peterson died of cancer in Smyrna, Tennessee and was interred in the Roselawn Memorial Gardens cemetery in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Born April 23rd 1939 in Denton, Texas. June 1960, US No.7 hit, ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’
2008 British Sea Power’s keyboard and cornet player Phil Sumner, ended up in hospital after being knocked unconscious when he attempted a stage dive. The crowd at Leeds Irish Centre failed to catch him when he jumped off a 12-foot PA system landing head first. A spokeswoman for the band said: “The impact knocked him out straight away. He was unconscious for three minutes and there was a lot of blood.” 
2011 A former Miss Canada finalist became the first person in the world to graduate with a Masters degree in The Beatles. Canadian singer Mary-Lu Zahalan-Kennedy, 53, was one of the first students to sign up for the course on the Fab Four when it launched at Liverpool Hope University in March 2009. The ground-breaking course looked at the studio sound and composition of The Beatles and how Liverpool helped to shape their music as well as examining the significance of the music of The Beatles and their impact on Western culture. 
2014 Susan Boyle applied for a minimum wage, £6-an-hour cashier’s job after spotting a job advert in the window of her local bookmakers, Ladbrokes, in Blackburn, west Lothian. Upon reading the advert the singer who is said to worth over £20m entered the premises and spent around five minutes talking to the shop’s deputy manager David Corr about the role. 
2014 A US jury decided that a tweet posted by Courtney Love about a lawyer she hired was not defamatory. The case against Love claimed she had committed libel by falsely suggesting in a 2010 tweet that Rhonda Holmes had been “bought off”. Jurors found that Love’s tweet included false information, but the singer did not know it was not true. 
2015 Greek singer Demis Roussos, who sold more than 60 million albums worldwide, died aged 68 in hospital in Athens. In the 1970s he was a member of Aphrodite’s Child, a progressive rock group that also included Vangelis. He was best known for his solo hits in the 1970s and 80s, including ‘Forever and Ever, Goodbye’ and ‘Quand je t’aime’.