Pick a Day

Music History Events: Births

September 17, 1923 Country musician Hank Williams is born Hiram King Williams in Mount Olive, Butler County, Alabama.

August 20, 1923 Country singer Jim Reeves is born in Galloway, Texas. Known for the 1957 hit "Four Walls."

August 8, 1923 Blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon is born in Gurdon, Arkansas.

July 31, 1923 Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder and president of Atlantic Records, is born in Istanbul, Turkey. Also a songwriter, he writes songs such as "Chains of Love" and "Sweet Sixteen" under the pseudonym A. Nugetre.

May 28, 1923 Gyorgy Ligeti, a contemporary classical music composer, is born in Transylvania, Romania.

May 4, 1923 Ed Cassidy (drummer for Spirit) is born in Harvey, Illinois.

April 30, 1923 Jazz bassist Percy Heath is born in Wilmington, North Carolina.

April 25, 1923 Blues guitarist Albert King is born on a cotton plantation in Indianola, Mississippi.

April 25, 1923 Lyricist Jerry Leiber, who will go on to pen several Elvis Presley hits with composing partner Mike Stoller, is born in Baltimore, Maryland.

April 20, 1923 Tito Puente, mambo musician and Latin jazz composer, is born Ernesto Antonio Puente in New York City.

March 28, 1923 Jazz trumpeter Thad Jones is born in Pontiac, Michigan.

March 25, 1923 Bonnie Guitar, known for the 1957 country-pop hit "Dark Moon," is born Bonnie Buckingham in Seattle, Washington.

March 21, 1923 Composer Mort Lindsey, longtime bandleader for The Merv Griffin Show, is born Morton Lippman in Newark, New Jersey.

March 7, 1923 Mahlon Clark (clarinetist with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra) is born in Portsmouth, Virginia.

February 22, 1923 Hurricane Smith, an engineer and producer for The Beatles and Pink Floyd, is born in Edmonton, London, England.

February 13, 1923 Gene Ames (of The Ames Brothers) is born in Malden, Massachusetts.

February 12, 1923 Mel Powell, founding dean of the school of music at the California Institute of the Arts and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer of the 1990 concerto Duplicates, is born Melvin Epstein in The Bronx, New York City.

February 5, 1923 Country singer-songwriter Claude King, known for the 1962 hit "Wolverton Mountain," is born in Keithville, Louisiana.

January 31, 1923 Broadway and film star Carol Channing is born in Seattle, Washington. Her breakout role comes in 1949 when she plays Lorelei Lee in the Broadway production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and introduces the popular tune "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend."

January 28, 1923 Ivo Robic is born in Garešnica, Croatia.

January 26, 1923 Broadway and film star Anne Jeffreys is born Anne Carmichael in Goldsboro, North Carolina.

January 21, 1923 Frank Virtue, of the rock and roll band The Virtues, is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

January 20, 1923 Country signer Slim Whitman is born in Tampa, Florida.

January 5, 1923 Record producer Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records (which launched careers for Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash), is born in Florence, Alabama.

January 1, 1923 Jazz vibraphonist Milt "Bags" Jackson is born in Detroit, Michigan. He is discovered by famous jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.

December 5, 1922 Songwriter Don Robertson is born in Beijing, China. Aside from his own 1956 hit, "The Happy Whistler," he penned songs for several artists, including Elvis Presley ("Anything That's Part of You," "Love Me Tonight," among others), The Chordettes ("Born to Be with You") and Les Paul and Mary Ford ("Hummingbird").

November 7, 1922 Jazz trumpeter Al Hirt is born Alois Maxwell Hirt in New Orleans, Louisiana.

October 29, 1922 Neal Hefti is born in Toluca Lake, California. A jazz trumpeter and arranger for Woody Herman, he also composed classic TV themes of the '60s, notably for Batman and The Odd Couple.

October 7, 1922 Actress Martha Stewart (not to be confused with the TV personality Martha Stewart) is born Martha Haworth in Bardwell, Kentucky, but would be raised in Brooklyn, New York.

September 30, 1922 Oscar Pettiford, jazz double bassist and cellist, is born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma.