February 2 – Today in Music History

1927 Stan Getz (Stan Gayetsky) born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. US Tenor Saxophonist. Getz died of liver cancer on June 6, 1991.
1934 Skip Battin born in Salem, Oregon. Bass/Vocals with The Byrds from 1969-72. (1965 US & UK No.1 single’ Mr Tambourine Man’). Member of New Riders Of The Purple Sage and The Flying Burrito Brothers. Battin died on July 6th 2003.
1937 Clarnece E. Quick born in Brooklyn, New York. Bass Vocalist with The Del Vikings. He died May 5, 1983.
1940 Alan Caddy born in London, England. UK Lead Guitarist with the The Tornados, who had a 1962 UK & US No.1 single with ‘Telstar’. This was the first major hit from a UK act on the American chart. Caddy died on August 16th 2000.
1942 Graham Nash born in Blackpool, Lancashire. Guitar,/Vocalist with The Hollies, (left in 1968), Crosby Stills Nash & Young, (1969 UK No.17 single ‘Marrakesh Express’, 1970 US No.1 album ‘Deja Vu’).
1943 Peter Macbeth born in Marylebone, North London. UK Bass Player with The Foundations, (1967 UK No.1 single ‘Baby Now That I’ve Found You’, 1969 US No.3 single ‘Build Me Up A Buttercup’).
1945 Ronnie Goodson born in Miami, Florida. Trumpet player with John Fred and His Playboy Band, (1968 US No.1 & UK No.3 single ‘Judy In Disguise’).
1946 Howard Bellamy born in Darby, Florida. US Country singer/guitarist/ with the Bellamy Brothers, (1976 US No.1 single ‘Let Your Love Flow’, 1979 UK No.3 single ‘If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me’).
1947 Peter Lucia born in Morriston, New Jersey. He joined Tommy James and the Shondells in 1965 as their drummer. (1966 US No.1 single ‘Hanky Panky’, 1968 UK No.1 single ‘Mony Mony’).
1948 Alan Mckay born in New Orleans, Louisiana. UK Guitarist with Earth Wind and Fire, (1975 US No.1 single ‘Shining Star’, 1981 UK No.3 single ‘Let’s Groove’).
1949 Ross Valory b. San Francisco, California. Bass Player with Journey.
1956 The Coasters sign with Atlantic Records.
1957 Fats Domino appears on TV’s “Perry Como Show” to sing his hit singles “Blueberry Hill” and “Blue Monday.”
1959 Dave Graney was born in Mt Gambier, South Australia.Australian rock musician, singer-songwriter and author from Melbourne. Since 1978, Graney has been accompanied by drummer Clare Moore. The pair have fronted numerous bands including The Moodists (1980 to 1987), Dave Graney and The White Buffaloes (1989 to 1990), Dave Graney and Coral Snakes (1987 to 1989, 1991 to 1997), The Dave Graney Show (1998 to 2003).
1959 Buddy Holly, Richard Valens and The Big Bopper all appeared at the Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake, Iowa. This was all three acts last ever gig before being killed in a plane crash the following day.
1962 Elvis Presley went to No.1 in the Australian Singles Chart with ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’. Staying at the top spot for 4wks.
1962 The Beatles played their first professionally organised gig outside of Liverpool at The Oasis Club, Manchester. The groups set started with their version of ‘Hippy Hippy Shake’.
1963 Eva Cassidy born in Oxon Hill, Maryland. US singer. She is the only artist to score three posthumous UK No.1 albums: 2001’s ‘Songbird’; 2002’s ‘Imagine’ and 2003’s ‘American Tune’. In 2001 she also had a UK No.42 single with ‘Over The Rainbow’. Eva died of cancer on November 1st 1996, aged 33.
1963 Cliff Richard and The Shadows started a 14-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Summer Holiday’.
1963 The Beatles played at the Gaumont Cinema, Bradford on the opening night of the nationwide Helen Shapiro UK tour. The Beatles were at the bottom of the six-act bill playing just four songs, ‘Please Please Me’, ‘Chains’, ‘Keep Your Hands Off My Baby’ and ‘A Taste of Honey.’
1964 Charlie Heather, drummer with The Levellers who had the 1995 UK No.12 single ‘Just The One’.
1966 Steve Firth, bassist with Embrace who had the 2006 UK No. 2 single ‘Natures Law’, and the 2006 UK No.1 album ‘This New Day’.
1966 Montclair, New Jersey, was Robert DeLeo, bassist with Stone Temple Pilots, Talk Show and Army of Anyone. His elder brother, guitarist Dean DeLeo, was also a member of the band.
1966 The Rolling Stones released ’19th Nervous Breakdown’ it peaked at No.2 on the UK singles chart.
1967 The Jimi Hendrix Experience played live on UK TV show Top Of The Pops performing ‘Purple Haze.’
1968 “Hello Goodbye” by The Beatles peaked at #1 on the U.K. pop singles chart and stayed there for six weeks.
1969 Yoko Ono divorced her husband Tony Cox, Yoko was granted custody of their daughter Kyoko. John Lennon and married Yoko the following month on 30th March.
1969 John Spence, singer, and original member of No Doubt in the late 1980’s. Committed suicide on December 21st 1987 by shooting himself.
1971 Ben Mize born in Durham, North Carolina. Drummer with Counting Crows from 1994–2002. (1994 UK No.28 single ‘Mr Jones’, 1996 US No.1 album, ‘Recovering The Satellites’).
1972 Appearing live at the Manchester Odeon, England, Stevie Wonder.
1973 Keith Emerson of Emerson Lake and Palmer injured his hands when his piano rigged to explode as a stunt, detonated prematurely during a concert in San Francisco.
1973 Elvis Presley meets Muhammed Ali in Las Vegas. The two exchange gifts, and Ali later says, “I felt sorry for him because he didn’t enjoy life the way he should. He stayed indoors all the time. I told him he should go out and see people.”
1974 Barbra Streisand started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with the theme from the film ‘The Way We Were’. The single won an Oscar and a Grammy for ‘Song of the year.’
1974 The Carpenters started a four week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘The Singles 1969-73’, featuring 12 hits and the US No.1 ‘Top Of The World’ it went back to the top of the charts on three other occasions.
1975 Col Hatchman was born in Brisbane, Queensland. Australian rock musician who joined The Screaming Jets as their drummer during 2001–2004.[1] In 2004 he joined Nathan Cavaleri in Dirty Skanks, Hatchman broke the Guinness Book of World Records as ‘Loudest Drummer in the World’ on 4 August 2006, the sound was measured at 137.2 dBA.
1976 Genesis released ‘A Trick Of The Tail’, their seventh studio album and the first to feature drummer Phil Collins as full-time lead vocalist following the departure of original vocalist Peter Gabriel. After auditioning over 400 vocalists, which saw Collins teaching the potential lead singers the songs, the band decided that Collins should be the new vocalist.
1977 Shakira (Shakira Mebarak Ripoll) born in Barranquilla, Atlántico, Columbia. Singer/Actress. (2002 UK No.2 single ‘Whenever Wherever’).
1979 Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious died of a heroin overdose in New York City. There had been a party to celebrate Vicious’ release on $50,000 (£29,412) bail pending his trial for the murder of his former girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, the previous October. Party guests, said that Vicious had taken heroin at midnight. An autopsy confirmed that Vicious died from an accumulation of fluid in the lungs that was consistent with heroin overdose. A syringe, spoon and heroin residue were discovered near the body.
1980 The Specials were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘The Special A.K.A. Live E.P’. The lead track ‘Too Much Too Young’ was the shortest song to reach No.1 on the UK singles chart in the 1980s at 2’04”.
1981 Duran Duran’s first single Planet Earth was released in the UK.
1985 Foreigner started a two-week run at No.1 on the US singles charts with ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’, also a UK No.1. London-born Mick Jones wrote the song and sang lead vocals with the British-American rock band.
1989 George Michael received undisclosed damages in excess of £100,000 ($170,000) from The Sun newspaper over articles printed that stated Michael had gatecrashed a party given by Andrew Lloyd Weber and was drunk and abusive.
1991 KLF featuring The Children Of The Revolution were at No.1 on the UK single chart with ‘3am Eternal’. Also a No.5 hit in the US.
1991 Sting scored his second UK No.1 album with ‘The Soul Cages’. Including ‘All This Time’ & ‘Mad About You’.
1992 Musician Todd Rundgren and his wife, singer Michele Gray, have a son in San Francisco. They name the child Rebop.
1993 Willie Nelson settles his $17 million tax debt with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service by paying them nine million dollars in cash and assets already seized.
1998 Celine Dion went to No.1 in the Australian Singles Chart with ‘My Heart Will Go On’. Staying at the stop spot for four weeks.
1999 David McComb, former leader of the Triffids and Black-Eyed Susans, dies in Melbourne. He is 37. McComb had been involved in a car accident three days earlier but was not thought to have been badly injured; he dies while recovering at home.
2001 Bad Manners singer Buster Bloodvessel was told he was ‘too fat’ to survive an urgently needed operation. Buster collapsed on stage during a show in Italy but Doctors felt that his huge 30 stone frame might not make it through surgery.
2002 The P.P.L. (Phonographic Performance Ltd), launched performersmoney.com for artists to check if they were owed any of the £10 million ($17 million) in unclaimed money. It showed that Michael Jackson was owed over £100,000 ($170,000) for ‘Say, Say, Say’,
2002 The Phonographic Performance Ltd launched performersmoney.com for artists to check if they were owed any of the £10 million ($17 million) in unclaimed money. It showed that Michael Jackson was owed over £100,000 ($170,000) for ‘Say, Say, Say’, Stevie Wonder had money owing for ‘Ebony And Ivory’ and Ray Davies of The Kinks was owed a six-figure fee for ‘You Really Got Me’. Director Dominic McGonigal said “If anyone has seen Rick Astley please let him know, he is still earning money for his hits.”
2003 : Phil Spector is charged with murder after police are called to his home in Alhambra, California and discover Lana Clarkson dead from a gunshot wound. He was convicted of the crime in 2009.
2003 Russian girl duo Tatu started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘All The Things She Said’. The song had been a hit on the Russian charts three years earlier. Tatu were the first Russian act to score a UK No 1.
2003 Jennifer Lopez started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘All I Have’.
2004 Australian Singer Shannon Noll went to No.1 on the Australian Singles chart with his version of “What About Me”. Staying at No.1 for
2004 TV network CBS apologised for its broadcast of the American Super Bowl after Janet Jackson was left exposed when Justin Timberlake ripped her top. The pair had been performing a raunchy half-time duet when one of Jackson’s breasts was exposed as Timberlake pulled at her top. CBS quickly cut away from the scene but was still flooded with calls from angry viewers about the half-time entertainment, produced by MTV. Timberlake insisted it had been an accident saying “I am sorry that anyone was offended by the wardrobe malfunction during the half-time performance of the Super Bowl.”
2005 Former Libertines frontman Pete Doherty was arrested on suspicion of theft and assault. He was held in custody at a north London police station after an alleged incident at a hotel in Clerkenwell, central London.
2007 Billy Henderson, one of the founders of US soul group The Spinners, died aged 67 after complications from diabetes. Had the 1980 UK No.1 & US No.2 single ‘Working My Way Back To You.’
2007 US keyboardist Joe Hunter, a veteran session musician as one of the Funk Brothers who helped craft the distinctive Motown sound, died in Detroit, Michigan, at the age of 79. Hunter performed with such legendary Motown acts as Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and Martha and the Vandellas.
2008 The Spice Girls cut short their reunion world tour, blaming “family and personal commitments”. The band said they would end their tour in Toronto on 26 February, with planned shows in Beijing, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires being axed. A spokesman for the group said: “Sadly, the tour needs to come to an end by the end of February due to family and personal commitments.”
2009 The Ian Carey Project went to No.1 on the Australian Singles Chart with “Get Shaky”. Staying at No.1 for one week.
2011 The White Stripes break up. In a statement on the group’s website, frontman Jack White and drummer Meg White write, “The reason is not due to artistic differences or lack of wanting to continue, nor any health issues as both Meg and Jack are feeling fine and in good health. It’s for a myriad of reasons, but mostly to preserve what is beautiful and special about the band and have it stay that way.”
2013 A 1960’s Beatles Record Player, produced for fans as a commercial Beatles memorabilia item, fetched $12,100 in an online auction. The Record Player, which was highly-sought by Beatles collectors worldwide, was manufactured in a limited quantity. Because of this, some believed there was still a strong possibility a few remaining players to be discovered.
2014 Skinny Puppy sent the US government an invoice after finding out their music was used as torture device in Guantanamo Bay. Despite the band’s aggressive sound, they said they had never envisioned their music being used in such a way. Asked how they felt about their songs allegedly being used in the detention camp, singer cEvin Key replied: “Not too good. We never supported those types of scenarios. … Because we make unsettling music, we can see it being used in a weird way. But it doesn’t sit right with us.”
2020 Czech-born American musician, filmmaker, record producer and singer-songwriter Ivan Král died age 71. He played bass with Blondie, Patti Smith and Iggy Pop. His songs have been recorded by such artists as U2, Pearl Jam, David Bowie, Simple Minds and John Waite, among others.