Pick a Day

Music History Events: Births

September 6, 1889 "April Showers" composer Louis Silvers is born in New York City.

April 11, 1889 Jazz musician Nick LaRocca, composer of the jazz classic "Tiger Rag," is born Dominic James LaRocca in New Orleans, Louisiana.

February 15, 1888 Frederick Lawrence Wright, founder of Melody Maker, is born at 23 Upper Conduit Street, Leicester.

January 31, 1882 Peter Dawson, famed Australian bass-baritone who made popular recordings of "Advance Australia Fair," "Waltzing Matilda," and "Song Of Australia," is born in Adelaide, South Australia, to Scottish parents Thomas and Alison Dawson.

October 7, 1879 Songwriter Joe Hill (Joseph Hillström) is born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund at Gävle, Sweden. His labor activism during the early 20th century in America influenced his most famous songs, including "The Preacher and the Slave" in 1911.

January 28, 1878 Hymn composer William Matthew Golden is born William M. Golding in Mississippi to James Golding and Camella Hood Golding.

December 30, 1865 The author, journalist and poet Rudyard Kipling is born in Bombay, Imperial India. The Joni Mitchell song "If" is based on his poem of the same name.

December 3, 1863 Gussie Davis, the first popular black Tin Pan Alley composer, is born in Dayton, Ohio.

April 15, 1861 Poet William Bliss Carman ("Soft Was The Wind") is born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.

June 25, 1860 The composer Gustave Charpentier is born at Dieuze, France.

November 9, 1845 Elizabeth Reed Napier is born. She provides the title for the The Allman Brothers Band song "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed" when Dickey Betts sees her headstone at Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia.

January 21, 1834 Peter Dodds McCormick, the man who is best known for the patriotic tune, "Advance Australia Fair", is born in Glasgow, Scotland. Though his date of birth is usually given as being on an unknown date in 1834, this is a little off. Twenty-two years later, he would emigrate to Sydney, Australia, where in 1878, he would compose his famous tune, as well as many other patriotic songs, most of which were Scottish tunes. A little side note, one of Peter's siblings, most likely a brother, was credited as having invented the life jacket.

December 8, 1828 Martha Ella Blocksom, subject of the song "Lorena," is born in Zanesville, Ohio.

February 1, 1825 Francis Child, publisher of The Child Ballads, is born in Boston.

February 22, 1819 Composer Joseph Philbrick Webster, who wrote the song "Lorena," is born in Manchester, New Hampshire.

April 2, 1805 Hans Christian Andersen is born in Odense, Denmark. The author is later the subject of a song by Danny Kaye.

March 31, 1732 Joseph Haydn is born in Rohrau, Austria.

February 23, 1685 German-English baroque composer George Frideric Handel is born in Halle, Duchy of Magdeburg, in modern day Germany.

May 4, 1655 Florentine harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Cristofori is born. He invents the piano in 1709.

April 23, 1564 William Shakespeare, whose works inspire centuries of song lyrics, is born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. (The date is a best estimate; it's known that he was baptized on April 26.)