On This Day In Music 31st March

1934 John D Loudermilk born in Durham, North Carolina. US Singer/Songwriter. He had a hit with The Language Of Love in 1961. He wrote the sue Thompson hits ‘Sad Movies’ 61, ‘Norman’ ’62, ‘James Hold The Lady Steady’ ’62 as well as ‘Ebony Eyes’ & ‘Midnight Bus’. Loudermilk had suffered from prostate cancer and respiratory ailments. He died on September 21, 2016, at his home in Christiana, Tennessee. The cause of death was a heart attack, according to his son Michael. He was 82.
1934 Shirley Jones born in Smithton, Pennsylvania. US Actress/Singer. She played the mother in The Partridge Family, (1970 US No.1 single ‘I Think I Love You’, 1972 UK No.3 single ‘Breaking Up Is Hard To Do’). 
1935 Richard Chamberlain born in Beverly Hills, Califonira. US Actor/Singer. 
1937 Herb Alpert born in Los Angeles, California. US Musician/Trumpet/Vocals & co-founder of A&M records. (1968 US No.1 & UK No.3 single ‘This Guy’s In Love With You’). Formed A&M Records with Jerry Moss, at first operating from his garage at home. 
1937 Mouth (Willem Duyn) Dutch Singer. In 1971 he formed the duo Mouth & MacNeal with Maggie Macneal. He died December 4, 2004, after suffering a cardiac arrest. He was survived by his second wife and six children.
1944 Rod Allen (Rodney Bainbridge) born in Leicester, Leicestershire, England. UK Bass Guitarist/Vocals with the Fortunes. (1965 UK No.2 & US No.7 single ‘You’ve Got Your Troubles’). He died 12 July 2011.
1944 Michael Geoffrey “Mick” Ralphs born in Stoke Lacy, Herefordshire, England. UK Guitarist/Pianist/Songwriter. In 1968 he was co-founder of Mott the Hoople and then of Bad Company in 1973.(1972 UK No.3 & US No.37 single ‘All The Young Dudes’), Bad Company, (1974 UK No.15 & US No.5 single ‘Can’t Get Enough’). 
1946 Al Nichol born in Winston-Salem, N.C. US Lead Guitarist with The Turtles, (1967 US No.1 single ‘Happy Together’, 1967 UK No.4 single ‘She’d Rather Be With Me’).
1947 Al Goodman – US Singer/Songwriter, The Moments, (1970 US No.3 single ‘Love On A Two- Way Street’, 1975 UK No.3 single ‘Girls’). Ray Goodman & Brown ‘Special Lady’ in 1980. Goodman died at age 67 on July 26, 2010, of heart failure after undergoing surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, New Jersey.
1947 Jon-Jon Poulos born in Chicago, IIIinois. Drummer with The Buckinghams, (1967 US No.1 single ‘Kind Of A Drag’). 
1948 Thiis Van Leer born in Amsterdam, Holland. Vocalist/Organ/Flute with Dutch band Focus, (1973 US No 9 single ‘Hocus Pocus’, 1973 UK No.4 single ‘Sylvia’) 
1949 RCA Victor introduced the 45rpm single record, which had been in development since 1940. The 7-inch disc was designed to compete with the Long Playing record introduced by Columbia a year earlier. Both formats offered better fidelity and longer playing time than the 78rpm record that was currently in use. Advertisements for new record players boasted that with 45rpm records, the listener could hear up to ten records with speedy, silent, hardly noticeable changes. 
1949 The first 45 rpm disc, ‘Texarkana Baby’ by country & western singer Eddy Arnold, was issued by RCA in the US. It was made of green vinyl, as part of an early attempt to colour-code singles according to the genre of music they featured. Others included red for classical music and yellow for children’s songs. 
1953 Sean Hooper born in San Francisco, California. Keyboard Player with Huey Lewis and the News, (1985 US No.1 & UK No.11 single ‘The Power Of Love’). 
1954 Tony Brock born in Bournemouth, England. Drummer/Vocalist with The Babys, (1977 US No.13 & UK No.45 single ‘Isn’t It Time’). 
1955 Angus Young born in Glasgow, Scotland. Scottish-born Australian guitarist with AC/DC, known for his energetic performances and schoolboy-uniform stage outfits. 1980 UK No.36 single ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ and 1980 UK No.1 & US No.14 album ‘Back in Black.’ AC/DC are the fifth-best-selling band in US history with over 70 million albums sold. 
1957 Billed as the nation’s only atomic powered singer, Elvis Presley played two shows (2pm and 6pm), at the Olympia in Detroit, Michigan in front of 24,000 fans. 
1958 Pat McGlynn born in Edinburgh, Scotland. UK Guitarist. In November 1977 he replaced Ian Mitchell in the Bay City Rollers when they were on their last legs at that time. 
1958 Paul Ferguson – Drummer with UK group Killing Joke, (1985 UK No.16 single ‘Love Like Blood’). 
1958 Chuck Berry’s rock ‘n’ roll classic ‘Johnny B. Goode’ single was released. It entered the US charts six weeks later and peaked at No.8 on the chart. The song’s original lyrics referred to Johnny as a “colored boy”, but Berry later acknowledged that he changed it to “country boy” to ensure radio play. 
1959 Angus Young born in Glasgow, Scotland. Lead Guitarist with AC/DC, (the one with the short pants, 1980 UK No.36 single ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ and 1980 UK No.1 & US No.14 album ‘Back in Black’ sold over 10 million copies). 
1960 Lonnie Donegan was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘My Old Man’s A Dustman’, his third No.1. Donegan became the first British artist to enter the UK chart at No.1, the only other artist to achieve this feat at this time was Elvis Presley. The song which was recorded live at the Bristol Hippodrome was a music hall novelty song. 
1961 Paul Norton is born. Australian Singer & former Channel 9 soundman. 
1962 Connie Francis went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Don’t Break The Heart That Loves You’, it made No.33 in the UK. 
1962 The Beatles played their first gig in the South of England when they appeared at The Subscription Rooms, Stroud, on the same bill as The Rebel Rousers, tickets cost 5 shillings, ($0.70). 
1964 The Beatles held the top five positions on the US Billboard singles chart. In order they were – Can’t buy Me Love, Twist & Shout, She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand & Please, Please Me. 
1964 Filming for A Hard Day’s Night, The Beatles played a “live television performance” in front of a studio of screaming fans (one of those fans was Phil Collins). The four songs used in the film were ‘Tell Me Why’, ‘I Should Have Known Better’, ‘And I Love Her’, and ‘She Loves You’. 
1967 Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitar live on stage for the first time when he was appearing at The Astoria in London, England. It was the first night of a 24-date tour with The Walker Brothers, Cat Stevens and Engelbert Humperdink. The Fender Stratocaster burned on stage by Hendrix sold for £280,000 at a 2008 London auction of rock memorabilia. 
1971 Julian Deane – Guitarist with Toploader, (2000 UK No.7 single ‘Dancing In The Moonlight’). 
1972 The Beatles Official Fan Club closed. The Beatles Monthly magazine had ceased three years previously. 
1973 Donny Osmond was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with his version of ‘The Twelfth Of Never’ a hit single for Johnny Mathis in 1957. 
1974 Stefan Olsdal born in Gothenburg, Sweden. Bassist/Guitarist of the alternative rock band Placebo and is part of the electronic dance/DJ and remix act Hotel Persona. bass, Placebo, (1997 UK No. 6 single ‘Nancy Boy’).
1976 The Brotherhood Of Man were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1976, ‘Save Your Kisses For Me.’ The group’s first of three UK No.1’s. 
1976 Led Zeppelin released Presence, their seventh studio album, on their own Swan Song Records in the UK. Presence has now been certified 3 times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for US sales in excess of 3 million copies. 
1978 Tony Yayo, (Marvin Bernard), rapper with G-Unit and solo, (2005 single ‘So Seductive’ feat. 50 Cent’). 
1979 Greatest Hits Vol 2′ by Barbra Streisand started a four week run at No.1 on the UK album chart, the singers first UK No.1 LP. 
1984 Kenny Loggins started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Footloose’, the theme from the film with the same name, a No.6 hit in the UK. 
1984 American guitarist Jack Antonoff from Fun. Fun’s second album, ‘Some Nights’ saw the band score their first No.1 hit single, ‘We Are Young’. 
1985 Jeanine Deckers, The Singing Nun, died after taking a overdose of sleeping pills in a suicide pact with a friend. (1963 US No.1 & UK No.7 single ‘Dominique’). 
1986 O’Kelly Isley of The Isley Brothers died of a heart attack, aged 48. Had a hit in 1962 original version of ‘Twist and Shout’, (later covered by the Beatles) and the 1968 UK No.3 single ‘This Old Heart Of Mine’ and 1969 US No.2 single ‘It’s Your Thing’. 
1990 David Bowie scored his seventh UK No.1 album with ‘Changes Bowie.’ 
1990 Snap! had their first UK No.1 single with ‘The Power.’ 
1992 Bruce Springsteen’s album Human Touch & Lucky Town were borth released on this day. 
1992 Def Leppard released their fifth studio album ‘Adrenalize’, the first by the band following the 1991 death of guitarist Steve Clark. Former Dio and Whitesnake guitarist Vivian Campbell, was brought in as the newest member in April 1992. He appears in all promotional videos for the album’s singles (except ‘Let’s Get Rocked’), despite not playing on the album. 
1994 Madonna appeared on The Late Show With David Letterman from New York City. The network had to delete 13 offending words from the interview before the show aired. Madonna also handed Letterman a pair of her panties and told him to sniff them. He declined and stuffed them into his desk drawer. 
1995 Jimmy Page escaped being knifed when a fan rushed the stage at a Page and Plant gig at Auburn Hills, Michigan. The fan was stopped by two security guards, who he knifes instead. After his arrest, he told police that he wanted to kill Jimmy Page because of the Satanic music he was playing. 
1995 Mexican American singer Selena was murdered aged 23 by the president of her fan club Yolanda Sald’var. Warner Brothers made a film based on her life starring Jennifer Lopez in 1997. 
1996 Jeffrey Lee Pierce founder member and guitarist with The Gun Club died from a blood clot on his brain. 
2001 Whitney Houston and husband Bobby Brown were banned for life from Hollywood’s Bel Air hotel after wrecking their room. Hotel workers said a TV was smashed, two doors were ripped of their hinges and the walls and carpets were stained by alcohol. It was reported that Whitney called in her lawyers to plead with the hotel management not to call the police. The suite was so badly damaged it had to be shut for five days for repairs. 
2002 Celine Dion started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘A New Day Has Come’, the singers fifth No.1 album. 
2005 Rap record company boss Marion “Suge” Knight was ordered to pay $107m (£57m) to a woman who claimed she helped found Death Row label in 1989, one of hip-hop’s top labels with artists including Tupac Shakur, Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg. Lydia Harris said she invested in Death Row but was pushed out by Mr Knight. 
2007 A new world record for the longest non-stop concert was set by hundreds of musicians in Japan. The performance began on the evening of 23 March in the city of Omi, with musicians aged between six and 96 taking turns with over 2,000 tunes being performed over 182 hours. Organisers praised the musicians, one of whom carried on despite a major earthquake during her piano piece. The previous world record was set in Canada in 2001 with 181 hours. 
2010 Cher’s first child, Chaz Bono, asked a judge to formally change his name and gender following the sex change surgery he had last year. The 41-year-old, who was born Chastity Sun Bono, now wanted to be known as Chaz Salvatore according to a petition filed in Los Angeles. Salvatore was his father Sonny Bono’s real first name. 
2011 Australian band Men at Work lost an appeal against a ruling which found their 1983 hit single ‘Down Under’ was partly copied from a folk song. Australia’s Federal Court upheld the decision which stated part of the song’s melody came from the tune Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree. Record label EMI argued the writers did not plagiarise because the inclusion of two bars from the tune was a tribute. 
2013 TV hosts Ant and Dec scored their first British No.1 single, with their 1994 hit ‘Let’s Get Ready to Rhumble’. The song made it to No.1 after the duo performed the track on their ITV1 show Saturday Night Takeaway the previous weekend, prompting fans to download it. The duo were also giving all the money they made from sales to the ChildLine charity. 
2015 Joni Mitchell was rushed to hospital after being found unconscious at her Los Angeles home. The singer songwriter was admitted to intensive care where she underwent tests. Los Angeles fire officials said paramedics had answered a 911 call in Bel Air, where Mitchell lives, and had taken a patient whom they did not identify to hospital.