25 DECEMBER
In Music History
1972 Pop singer Dido is born Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong in Kensington, London, England.
1971 Noel Hogan (guitarist for The Cranberries) is born in Moyross, Limerick, England. He writes most of the music for their songs, with Dolores O'Riordan adding the lyrics.
1971 Melanie's "Brand New Key" hits #1 in America for the first of three weeks.
1969 16-year-old Robbie Bachman of Winnipeg, Canada, receives his first drum kit for Christmas and begins to play along with his older brother, guitarist Randy. Just three years later, Randy asks him to join his new band, named Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
1967 Paul McCartney announces his engagement to Jane Asher (they break up eight months later without ever getting married).
1965 The Dave Clark Five's "Over And Over" hits #1.
1964 The Zombies headline Murray the K's Big Holiday Show in New York City.
1960 Twelve-year-old James Taylor gets his first guitar as a Christmas present.
1957 Shane MacGowan (lead singer-songwriter for The Pogues) is born in Pembury, Kent, England, to Irish parents.
1954 Robin Campbell (lead guitarist for UB40) is born in Birmingham, England.
1954 Up-and-coming R&B star Johnny Ace, age 25, is killed when he shoots himself backstage at a concert in Houston, possibly while playing Russian Roulette. His song "Pledging My Love" becomes a hit after his death.
1948 Country singer Barbara Mandrell is born in Houston, Texas. She would have her first #1 country hit with "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed" in 1978.
1948 Merry Clayton (named for Christmas) is born in New Orleans. A backup singer by trade, she is most famous for her incendiary vocal alongside Mick Jagger on "Gimme Shelter." She would later appear on the Coldplay song "Up & Up."
1945 Soul singer Steve Mancha, of 100 Proof (Aged in Soul), is born Clyde Darnell Wilson in Walhalla, South Carolina.
1945 Noel Redding (bassist for The Jimi Hendrix Experience) is born David Noel Redding in Folkestone, Kent, England.
Michael Jackson Rings Paul McCartney With Suggestion
1980Michael Jackson calls Paul McCartney to wish him Merry Christmas and suggest they write some songs together. They end up recording three duets together (including the lead single to Thriller), but their friendship ends when Jackson buys the publishing rights to McCartney's songs.
Read more25 DECEMBER
Featured Events
2016 George Michael dies of heart failure aged just 53 in bed at his riverside home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. He is found by his boyfriend, Australian hair stylist Fadi Fawaz.More
2006 Alongside stars like Beyoncé, Eddie Murphy, and Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Hudson makes her acting debut in the movie Dreamgirls, based on the Supremes-inspired Broadway musical.More
1995 Eminem's daughter, Hailie Jade, is born. He mentions her in many of his songs, and in 1999 her cooing appears on his track "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" (where Em imagines killing Hailie's mother, Kim). Eminem gets her name tattooed on his arm.
1994 Green Day play Madison Square Garden in New York City. It's quite a leap for the band, which had been playing small clubs at the beginning of the year. During the show, lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong performs wearing only socks and a strategically placed guitar.
1984 The twins Lisa and Jess Origliasso are born in Albany Creek, Queensland, Australia. They form The Veronicas.
1982 David Bowie and Bing Crosby's "The Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth," an unlikely duet broadcast five years earlier on Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas TV special, becomes an even more unlikely hit, reaching #1 in the UK.
1973 The Sting, a crime caper starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford as con men in 1930s Chicago, debuts in theaters. With Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" as its theme, the film's soundtrack goes to #1 and revives the ragtime genre.More
1954 Annie Lennox is born in Aberdeen, Scotland.
1946 Jimmy Buffett is born in Pascagoula, Mississippi. He's raised in Mobile, Alabama, but his true home will always be in "Margaritaville."More
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