On This Day In Music 5th June
1941 Floyd Butler, vocalist with The Friends Of Distinction, who had a 1969 US No.3 single with ‘Grazing In The Grass’. Died of a heart attack on 29 April 1990.
1943 American bass guitarist, singer, songwriter and music producer, Michael Davis, best known as a member of the MC5. Davis died of liver failure at the age of 68 on Feb 17th 2012.
1945 Don Reid born in Staunton, Virginia. US Country Leadsinger with the Statler Brothers.
1946 Freddie Stone (Fred Stewart) born in Vallejo. US Guitarist. He formed the nucleus of Sly & The Family Stone with brother Sly. (1971 US No.1 & 1972 UK No.15 single ‘Family Affair’).
1947 Laurie Anderson, US singer, Songwriter, Violinist. (1981 UK No.2 single ‘O Superman’).
1947 Tom Evans born in Liverpol, England. Bass Player/Songwriter with UK band Badfinger, (1970 UK No.4 and US No.7 single ‘Come And Get It’, committed suicide 23/11/83).
1947 Kenny G (Kenneth Gorelick) born in Seattle. US Saxophonist.
1948 Frank Eslersmith born in London, England. keyboards, Air Supply, died 1/3/91, (1980 UK No.11 single ‘All Out Of Love’, 1981 US No.1 single ‘The One That You Love’).
1952 Nicko McBrain, drums, Iron Maiden, (1991 UK No.1 single ‘Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter’).
1956 Keith Marshall -Singer/lead guitarist for UK band Hello. He had a solo hit in 1981 with ‘Only Crying’.
1956 Richard Butler – UK Singer & Songwriter with the Psychedelic Furs, (1986 UK No.18 single ‘Pretty In Pink’).
1956 Elvis Presley appeared on ABC-TV’s ‘Milton Berle Show’. During the performance, Presley abruptly halted an uptempo rendition of ‘Hound Dog’ with a wave of his arm and launched into a slow, grinding version accentuated with energetic, exaggerated body movements. Presley’s gyrations created a storm of controversy.
1956 Kenny G (Kenneth Gorelick) born in Seattle. US Saxophonist.
1959 Bob Zimmerman graduated from high school in Hibbing, Minnesota. Zimmerman was known as a greaser to classmates in the remote rural community, because of his long sideburns and leather jacket.
1961 Roy Orbison went to No.1 on the US chart with ‘Running Scared’, it made No.9 in the UK. The B-side ‘Love Hurts’ also picked up significant airplay, making Orbison’s recording the first version to be a hit.
1964 The Rolling Stones played their first-ever live date in the US when they appeared at the Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino, California. The Stones were supporting their first album release The Rolling Stones, in North America.
1964 Maggie Dunne, vocals, guitar, We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It, (1989 UK No.11 single ‘International Rescue’).
1965 Stefan Schnfeldt, bass, The Wannadies, (1996 UK No. 18 single, ‘You And Me Song’).
1965 The soundtrack album to ‘The Sound of Music’ started a 10-week run at No.1 on the UK chart. It returned to the top of the charts on no less than 11 other occasions spending over 380 weeks on the chart.
1966 The Bowie Showboat’ a lunchtime performance from David Bowie, ‘three hours of music and mime’, at the Marquee Club, London, plus a top ten disco, admission 3 shillings.
1966 At the Marquee Club, London ‘The Bowie Showboat’, a lunchtime performance from David Bowie, ‘three hours of music and mime’, plus a Top Ten disco. Admission was 3 shillings, ($0.42).
1968 The Jimi Hendrix Experience appeared on the Dusty Springfield TV show ‘It Music Be Dusty’, filmed on ATV, in London, England. Hendrix performed ‘Stone Free’ and ‘Voodoo Chile’ and then played a version of ‘Mockingbird’ with Dusty Springfield.
1969 Brian McKnight born in Buffalo, New York. US singer, He head a hit in 2000 with ‘Back At One’.
1970 Claus Norreen, Aqua, (1997 UK No.1 single ‘Barbie Girl’).
1971 Grand Funk Railroad smashed the record held by The Beatles when they sold out New York’s Shea Stadium in 72 hours.
1971 Paul McCartney’s second solo album ‘Ram’ started a two-week run at No.1 on the UK chart. Featuring the US No.1 single ‘Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey’.
1974 Dominic Chad, Mansun, (1996 UK No.15 single ‘Wide Open Space’).
1975 During recording sessions for Wish You Were Here at Abbey Road Studios, London, England, Syd Barrett turned up out of the blue as Pink Floyd were listening to playbacks of Shine On You Crazy Diamond — a song that happened to be about Barrett. By that time, the 29-year-old Barrett had shaved off all of his hair (including his eyebrows), become overweight, and his ex-bandmates did not at first recognise him. Barrett eventually left without saying goodbye, and none of the band members ever saw him again.
1976 Canadian singer J.J. Barrie was at No.1 in the UK with the single ‘No Charge’. It made J.J. a One hit wonder.
1976 Paul McCartney’s second solo album ‘Ram’ started a two-week run at No.1 on the UK chart. Featuring the US No.1 single ‘Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey’
1977 Alice Cooper’s boa constrictor, a co-star of his live act suffered a fatal bite from a rat it was being fed for breakfast. Cooper held auditions for a replacement and a snake named ‘Angel’ got the gig.
1979 Pete Wentz, bassist, Fall Out Boy, (2007 US No.1 album ‘Infinity on High’).
1979 Blues legend Muddy Waters (aged 64), married Marva Jean Brooks on her 25th birthday.
1982 Roxy Music scored their third UK No.1 album with ‘Avalon’. It also contained “More Than This”.
1983 During a 48-date North American tour U2 played at Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver. The show was recorded and released as ‘U2 Live At Red Rocks: Under A Blood Red Sky.’
1988 Eric Clapton’s wife Patti applied for a divorce, the couple had married in 1979.
1988 The Pet Shop Boys played their debut live show when they appeared at London’s Piccadilly Theatre as part of an Anti Section 28 Benefit concert.
1990 American drummer Jim Hodder drowned in his swimming pool aged 42. He was the original drummer with Steely Dan and also worked with Sammy Hagar and David Soul.
1990 Richard Sohl, keyboard player with the Patti Smith group died.
1993 Conway Twitty dies at age 59 of a ruptured stomach vessel after collapsing in his tour bus after a show in Branson, Mo. Until 2000, he held the record for the most Number One singles of any country act, with 45 No.1’s. He lived in Hendersonville, Tennessee, just north of Nashville, where he built a country music entertainment complex called Twitty City.
1993 Janet Jackson started a six -week run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Janet’.
1993 Mariah Carey married the President of Sony Music, Tommy Mottola in Manhattan, guest’s included Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand and Ozzy Osbourne. (The couple separated in 1997).
1997 Noel Gallagher married Meg Matthews at the Little Church Of The West in Las Vegas, (where Elvis married Priscilla). The Oasis guitarist divorced Matthews in 2001.
1997 Ex Small Faces, The Faces and leader of Slim Chance, Ronnie Lane died aged 51 after a 20-year battle with multiple sclerosis. Slim Chance had the 1974 UK No.5 single ‘How Come’.
1999 Jazz singer and songwriter Mel Torme died aged 73. His biggest hit was the 1956 UK No. 4 single ‘Mountain Greenery’ and his ‘Christmas Song’ (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) has been recorded more than 1,700 times.
2001 Officials in Singapore threw out an appeal against a ban on Janet Jackson’s latest album, ‘All For You’. They decided that the lyrics of the album, particularly one song, ‘Would You Mind’, were “not acceptable to our society”. The record was initially outlawed because of its “sexually explicit lyrics”, including “I just wanna touch you, tease you, lick you, please you, love you, make love to you.” EMI were attempting a compromise by trying to persuade Jackson’s management to delete ‘Would You Mind’ from the album.
2002 Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Glenn Colvin), bass guitarist with The Ramones died at his Hollywood, California apartment of a heroin overdose aged 49. He was the group’s primary songwriter, penning songs such as ‘Rockaway Beach’, ’53rd & 3rd’, and ‘Poison Heart’.
2003 A Grandfather who set up his own pirate radio station in Wakefield, Yorkshire was under investigation by local broadcasting authorities. The man known as Ricky Rock had erected a 32ft transmitter in his garden and had been playing hits by The Beach Boys, Beatles and Elvis Presley. Ricky said he set the station up because ‘talent-less boy bands and dance music’ featured on local stations did not cater to the tastes of his generation.
2003 R. Kelly was banned from travelling to LA for a video shoot. He wasn’t allowed to leave Chicago after being charged with 21 child porn offences last June over a video, which claimed to show him having sex with an underage girl.
2005 Oasis went to No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Don’t Believe The Truth’ the bands sixth UK No.1 album.
2007 Jurors in the murder trial of music producer Phil Spector were shown the bloody revolver that was found at the feet of Lana Clarkson, the actress he was accused of killing at his home in the early hours of February 3rd, 2003. She had accompanied Spector to his Alhambra, California mansion after meeting him at her job as a hostess at the House of Blues just hours earlier.
2007 Sir Paul McCartney released his 21st solo album, ‘Memory Almost Full’ on the new Hear Music Starbucks label. It was later announced that all copies sold through UK Starbucks would not be eligible for the UK charts as the 533 stores were not registered with the Official Chart Company. The album was being played non-stop in more than 10,000 Starbucks outlets across 29 countries.
2008 Ozzy Osbourne accepted undisclosed libel damages and an apology over a UK newspaper claim that he was ill at the Brit Awards. The 59-year-old rocker sued over a story in the Daily Star that alleged he had toppled over twice just before the televised ceremony and that he was moved around the awards in an electric buggy.
2010 Led Zeppelin were officially voted the nation’s favourite band by the BBC’s ‘I’m In A Rock ‘N` Roll Band’, Zeppelin coming ahead of both The Beatles and Queen in a phone-in vote. The show also featured Best Singer, Guitarist, and Drummer live phone-in votes which saw Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Bonham all nominated in their categories. John Bonham was crowned top drummer ahead of Dave Grohl and Keith Moon, whilst Jimmy and Robert were runners up to Jimi Hendrix and Freddie Mercury respectively.
2016 The four members of ABBA performed alongside one another for the first time since 1982 at a private gala to mark 50 years since songwriting duo Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson met for the first time in Stockholm. The impromptu performance reportedly began when Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstadon recited their 1980 hit ‘Me and I’ as a tribute to Andersson and Ulvaeus, before the two others joined in and made the reunion official.
2016 The final day of the sell-out Rock am Ring music festival in Germany was cancelled after lightning hurt at least 80 fans. At least eight people were seriously injured by the lightning strike. Red Hot Chili Peppers were among several bands, including Black Sabbath, Foals, Deftones and We Are Scientists, who were part of the line-up at the festival.