August 12, 1949 Dire Straits leader Mark Knopfler is born in Glasgow, Scotland. The group earns a huge following in the '80s with hits like "Money For Nothing" and "Walk Of Life," but Knopfler puts them out to pasture in the '90s, preferring a less hectic lifestyle that includes scoring films like Wag The Dog and playing on albums for the likes of Nanci Griffith and Bryan Ferry.
May 9, 1949 Billy Joel is born in The Bronx, New York, raised in Hicksville on Long Island.More
June 1, 1948 The Chicago-based blues musician Sonny Boy Williamson is murdered during a robbery at age 34. A different musician based in the South who has been imiating him continues to use the name and becomes the best known Sonny Boy Williamson after writing songs like "One Way Out" and "Help Me" that are widely recorded.
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
February 1, 1948 Rick James is born James Ambrose Johnson Jr. in Buffalo, New York. After stints in a few different bands and a few different jails, he signs with Motown Records in 1977 and develops a funk sound that powers hits like "Super Freak" and "Give It To Me Baby."
January 10, 1948 Donald Fagen, co-founder, lead singer and keyboardist of Steely Dan, is born in Passaic, New Jersey. Along with main collaborator Walter Becker, Fagen helps create sophisticated rock music that features tasteful jazz and R&B influences, and sharp, witty, literate lyrics.
December 3, 1947 Patti Page records her first hit single, "Confess." Unable to find background singers due to a strike, Mercury Records sound engineer Bill Putnam overdubs Page's own vocals. It's the first-ever recording with overdubbed vocals.
August 22, 1947 Singer Donna Jean Godchaux, the only female member of the Grateful Dead, is born in Florence, Alabama. Born Donna Jean Thatcher, she marries keyboard player Keith Godchaux, who also joins the Dead, in 1970.
June 17, 1947 Paul Young, singer with Sad Café and Mike + the Mechanics, is born in Manchester, England. Not to be confused with the Paul Young who sang "Everytime You Go Away."
January 8, 1947 David Jones is born in London. At age 18, he changes his name to David Bowie (after the Bowie knife) to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of The Monkees.More
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
October 10, 1946 Singer-songwriter John Prine is born in Maywood, Illinois, near Chicago.More
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 5, 1946 Folk rocker Loudon Wainwright III is born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to Life magazine columnist/editor Loudon Wainwright Jr. and his yoga teacher wife, Martha.
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."
January 6, 1946 Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett is born Roger Keith Barrett in Cambridge, England. He's the band's leader in their early years but suffers from mental illness that leads to erratic behavior and his ouster in 1968. The band moves forward with Roger Waters and David Gilmour at the helm.
September 5, 1945 Boudleaux Bryant and Felice Scaduto get married. The couple become one of the most successful songwriting teams in pop music, with over 700 songs published, including "Wake Up Little Susie" and "Bye Bye Love."
December 11, 1944 Brenda Lee is born Brenda Mae Tarpley in Atlanta, Georgia. Her small stature and big voice inspire the nickname "Little Miss Dynamite," which she lives up to by blowing up the charts with rockabilly bops ("Sweet Nothin's"), pop ballads ("I'm Sorry"), and Christmas tunes ("Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree") throughout the '60s.
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November 10, 1944 Lyricist Tim Rice, known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, is born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England. He would also co-write the hit "A Whole New World" from Aladdin and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" from The Lion King, a partnership with Elton John.
September 12, 1944 R&B singer Barry White is born Barry Eugene Carter in Galveston, Texas. He is raised in South Central Los Angeles.More
April 16, 1944 On shore leave from the Merchant Marines, Woody Guthrie arrives at Folkway Records' studios in New York City, where he starts recording with the label's founder, Moses Asch, in what becomes known as the "Asch recordings." Among the songs recorded during these sessions is "This Land Is Your Land," which becomes an iconic populist protest anthem, covered by countless artists including Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen.More
January 10, 1944 Frank Sinatra Jr. is born Francis Wayne Emmanuel Sinatra to legendary crooner Frank Sinatra and first wife, Nancy Barbato Sinatra, in Jersey City, New Jersey. The name Emmanuel is an homage to Frank Sr.'s friend Manie Sacks, then head of Columbia Records.
December 31, 1943 Pete Quaife (original bass guitarist for The Kinks) is born Peter Alexander Greenlaw Quaife in Tavistock, Devon, England.
December 18, 1943 Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is born in Dartford, Kent, England.More
June 17, 1943 Barry Manilow is born Barry Alan Pincus in Brooklyn, New York. Despite never wanting to be an entertainer, he becomes one of the best-selling artists in the world as a famous soft-rock balladeer.More
December 7, 1942 Harry Chapin is born in New York City. The folk rocker debuts in 1972 with the album Heads & Tales, featuring his first hit, "Taxi."
November 26, 1942 Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, premieres at the Hollywood Theatre in New York City. The World War II-era romance revives an old love song - "As Time Goes By" - and inspires the Al Stewart hit "Year of the Cat."More
August 1, 1942 Fighting against phonograph records, which they fear will replace live music, the American Federation of Musicians goes on strike, forbidding their members from playing on recorded music. The strike lasts over two years, by which time it becomes clear that people will both listen to records and go to concerts.
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