December 4, 1951 Gary Rossington is born in Jacksonville, Florida. He becomes a founding member and guitarist of both Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Rossington-Collins Band. Rossington is inducted into the Rock and Hall of Fame in 2006 as a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
October 7, 1951 John Mellencamp is born in Seymour, Indiana. He has Spina bifida, but survives thanks to an experimental surgery performed at Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis.More
October 2, 1951 Sting is born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner in Wallsend, Northumberland, England. He earns his nickname when a fellow musician says he looks like a bee in his yellow-and-black striped sweater. He is working as a schoolteacher when his band The Police hit the big time.More
September 19, 1951 Record producer/musician Daniel Lanois is born in Hull, Quebec. Produced albums for an array of artists, including Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, Neil Young, and Emmylou Harris, and for bands like U2 (notably The Joshua Tree).
August 23, 1951 Mark Hudson of The Hudson Brothers is born in Portland, Oregon. He also co-writes several Aerosmith songs, including the 1993 hit "Livin' On The Edge."
July 1, 1951 Victor Willis, original lead singer for The Village People, is born in Dallas, Texas. He leaves the group in the mid-'80s but returns in 2017 when he gains control of the name, replacing the existing members with a new lineup. Willis, who plays the policeman, is the only group member with co-writing credits on their songs, including "Y.M.C.A." and "Macho Man."
January 31, 1951 Harry Wayne Casey, founder of KC and the Sunshine Band, is born in Opa-locka, Florida. He leads the way into the disco era, first by writing and producing the 1974 George McCrae hit "Rock Your Baby," and then with a string of KC hits, including "Get Down Tonight" and "I'm Your Boogie Man."
December 8, 1950 Dan Hartman is born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. The "I Can Dream About You" singer also pens hits for other artists, including "Free Ride" for Edgar Winter Group and "Living In America" for James Brown.
May 13, 1950 Stevie Wonder is born Stevland Morris in Saginaw, Michigan.More
March 21, 1950 Roger Hodgson of Supertramp is born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. He writes and sings many of their hits, including "The Logical Song" and "Dreamer," but in 1983 he leaves the group after a falling out with Rick Davies and never returns.
January 2, 1950 Sam Phillips opens the Memphis Recording Service, which he later renames Sun Studio. Among the artists to record there is Elvis Presley, who gets his start recording with Phillips.
October 9, 1949 Rod Temperton is born in Lincolnshire, England. He writes a number of hit songs, including Michael Jackson's "Off The Wall" and "Thriller."
August 22, 1949 Country musician Sam Neely is born in Cuero, Texas. Known for a string of minor hits in the '70s, including the cover "I Fought the Law."
July 14, 1949 Music executive Tommy Mottola is born in The Bronx, New York City. Before landing a 15-year gig as head of Sony Music, Mottola starts out as a talent manager helping acts like Hall & Oates and Carly Simon secure record deals. He's also known for marrying - and divorcing - Mariah Carey.
December 6, 1948 The CBS television show Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts debuts. Plenty of up-and-coming talents appear on the variety program, including Patsy Cline and Tony Bennett.
October 8, 1948 John Cummings is born in Long Island, New York. A founding member of the Ramones, he becomes "Johnny Ramone."
May 15, 1948 Ambient composer Brian Eno is born in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England.More
March 22, 1948 Andrew Lloyd Webber is born in Kensington, London, England.More
October 18, 1947 Celebrated songwriter Laura Nyro, whose compositions include "Wedding Bell Blues" and "And When I Die," is born in New York City. She dies of cancer in 1997 at age 49; in 2012 she is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
October 16, 1947 Grateful Dead rhythm guitarist and co-founder Bob Weir is born in San Francisco, California. The youngest member of the band (just 17 when they form), he anchors them musically and often contributes to vocals and songwriting, including on "One More Saturday Night" and "Truckin'."
July 15, 1947 Guitarist Peter Banks, a founding member of Yes who is with the band until 1970, is born Peter William Brockbanks in Chipping Barnet, North London, England.
July 8, 1947 New Mexico's Roswell Daily Record reports an alien aircraft has crashed near a local ranch with the headline "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer In Roswell Region." In the coming decades, extraterrestrials and flying saucers invade several songs, including David Bowie's "Starman," Megadeth's "Hangar 18," and Radiohead's "Subterranean Homesick Alien."More
June 17, 1947 Keyboard player Gregg Rolie, a founding member of both Santana and Journey, is born in Seattle, Washington. He handles a lot of the vocals for Santana and is also Journey's lead singer for their first three albums until Steve Perry joins for their fourth.
December 30, 1946 Punk rock icon Patti Smith is born in Chicago. Never all that popular (her big hit is a reworking of "Because The Night," written by Bruce Springsteen), she's one of the most influential singer-songwriter-poets of her time.More
December 25, 1946 Jimmy Buffett is born in Pascagoula, Mississippi. He's raised in Mobile, Alabama, but his true home will always be in "Margaritaville."More
December 12, 1946 Denny Dias, founding guitarist of Steely Dan, is born in Philadelphia. In the summer of 1970, Dias is playing in a band called Demian, whose manager places an ad in the New York City arts paper The Village Voice that reads: "Looking for keyboardist and bassist. Must have jazz chops! No hangups." Donald Fagen and Walter Becker answer the ad, leading to the formation of Steely Dan.
November 18, 1946 "Wonderful Summer" singer Robin Ward is born Jacqueline McDonnell in Hawaii but will be raised in Nebraska. Using the name Jackie Ward, she works as a session singer for commercials, TV shows, movies, and recording studios. She sings on the theme to The Partridge Family, dubs over Natalie Wood's vocals in The Great Race, and provides backup to Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, and Barbra Streisand.
September 5, 1946 Queen frontman Freddie Mercury is born as Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar (a set of islands off the coast of Africa).More
September 2, 1946 Billy Preston is born in Houston, Texas. He is raised in Los Angeles, California. Aside from being a sought-after session musician for acts like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, the affable performer with the gap-toothed grin becomes a star in his own right with a number of funky hits throughout the '70s.More
May 10, 1946 Guitarist Dave Mason, a founding member of Traffic, is born in Worcester, England. He writes their song "Feelin' Alright," which isn't really about feelin' alright - Mason tells Songfacts it's about "another relationship gone bad."
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