31 MARCH
In Music History
1958 Pat McGlynn (rhythm guitarist for Bay City Rollers) is born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
1957 Sun Records stars Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins begin a tour of the South in Little Rock, Arkansas, with Jerry Lee Lewis as a support act.
1956 Brenda Lee makes her US television debut, singing an unrehearsed version of Hank Williams' "Jambalaya (On The Bayou)" on ABC's Ozark Jubilee.
1954 Tony Brock (drummer for The Tubes, The Babys) is born in Poole, Dorset, England.
1953 Sean Hopper (keyboardist for Huey Lewis & the News) is born in San Francisco, California.
1949 RCA introduces the 45 rpm record, which eventually becomes the format of choice for "singles," becoming more popular than the 78 rpm format by 1958.
1948 Thijs Van Leer (vocalist, organist for Focus) is born in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1946 Al Nichol (guitarist for The Turtles) is born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
1945 "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time" by the Les Brown Orchestra with vocals by Doris Day, goes to #1 in America.
1944 Guitarist Mick Ralphs of Mott the Hoople and Bad Company is born in Herefordshire, England.
1944 Rod Allen (original lead vocalist for The Fortunes) is born Rodney Bainbridge in Leicester, England.
1943 Al Goodman (of Ray, Goodman & Brown) is born in Jackson, Mississippi.
1935 Herb Alpert is born in Los Angeles, California.
1934 An article in Melody Maker declares: "Expel All Jewish Musicians: A Little Hitler Invades Archer Street. Fascists Launch Fierce New Campaign." This refers to an Imperial Fascist League member Jackson Phillips as the "Little Hitler" of Archer Street. The article contains the memorable quote: "...he saw the light of Fascism, and this apparently so dazzled him that he has been unable to see anything else very clearly since."
1934 Richard Chamberlain is born in Beverly Hills, California. He finds fame as the star of TV's Dr. Kildare and also has string of '60s hits in the UK.
Jimi Hendrix Sets Guitar On Fire
1967At the Astoria Theatre in London, Jimi Hendrix sets fire to his guitar for the first time, and goes to the hospital after the show with minor burns. During the rest of the tour, Hendrix makes a habit of playing his guitar with his teeth, and he ignites his axe a few more times.
Read more31 MARCH
Featured Events
2016 Michael Stipe, Cyndi Lauper, Ann Wilson and Perry Farrell are among the performers at a Carnegie Hall concert honoring David Bowie.More
2000 The movie High Fidelity, starring John Cusack and Jack Black as record store clerks, and featuring a cameo by Bruce Springsteen, opens in theaters.More
1995 23-year-old Tejano singer Selena dies after being shot by her former personal assistant and former fan club president, Yolanda Saldivar, in Corpus Christi, Texas. Jennifer Lopez stars in a movie about her life that is released in 1997.
1992 Bruce Springsteen releases two albums on the same day, Human Touch and Lucky Town. They're his first since Tunnel Of Love in 1987, and first since Nebraska (1982) without the E Street Band.More
1984 Kenny Loggins' "Footloose" hits #1 in America. It's the title song to the soon-to-be-famous film where Kevin Bacon brings dancing to a small town in the South.
1958 Chuck Berry releases "Johnny B. Goode." The song is named after his piano player (Johnnie Johnson) and the street where he grew up (Goode Avenue).
1955 Angus Young is born in Glasgow, Scotland. He later moves to Australia and forms AC/DC with his brother Malcolm.
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