Pick a Day

12 APRIL

In Music History

1970 Alt rock singer-songwriter Nicholas Lofton Hexum (of 311) is born in Madison, Wisconsin.

1969 5th Dimension's "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In," from the musical Hair, hits #1 in America, where it stays on top for six weeks.

1968 The outspoken Frank Zappa performs at a dinner for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, who are the people who give us the Grammys. Zappa says the event is "a load of pompous hokum" and tells the audience, "All year long you people have manufactured this crap, now for one night you're gonna have to listen to it!"

1967 Greyhound begins offering tours of the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, billing it as "Hippyland."

1966 Tom Jones enters a hospital to have his tonsils removed, though some who claim to have seen his tonsils since claim his real visit was for a nose job.

1965 The Byrds release their cover of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man." It's their first single and a huge hit, going to #1 in June.

1964 Chubby Checker marries Miss World 1962, Catharina Johanna Lodders, of the Netherlands.

1964 Folk singer-songwriter Amy Ray (of Indigo Girls) is born in Decatur, Georgia.

1962 Alt rocker Art Alexakis (frontman of Everclear) is born in Los Angeles, California.

1961 Ray Charles is the big winner at the third annual Grammy Awards, winning four trophies, including the award for Best Male Vocal for "Georgia On My Mind."

1958 Rock guitarist Will Sergeant (of Echo & the Bunnymen) is born in Liverpool, England.

1957 Country singer Vince Gill is born in Norman, Oklahoma.

1956 German musician Herbert Grönemeyer, who also starred in the 1981 war film Das Boot, is born in Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany.

1955 The film Strange Lady In Town, with a title song by Frankie Laine, is released in the US.

1954 At his first session for Decca Records, Bill Haley records "Rock Around The Clock" and "Thirteen Women" (a post-nuclear song that was originally the A-side of the single).