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December 27, 1951 Folk rocker Karla Bonoff is born in Santa Monica, California. Linda Ronstadt covered several of her songs for the 1976 album Hasten Down The Wind, including "All My Life, a popular duet with Aaron Neville.
December 10, 1951 Country singer Johnny Rodriguez is born Juan Raul Davis Rodriguez in Sabinal, Texas. Among other hits, reached #5 on the country charts with a cover of the Eagles' "Desperado."
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.
December 3, 1951 Mike Stock of the British songwriting/production team Stock, Aitken & Waterman is born.
December 1, 1951 Jaco Pastorius (bassist for Weather Report) is born in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
November 14, 1951 Alec John Such, Bon Jovi's bass player from their founding in 1983 until his departure in 1994, is born in Yonkers, New York.
November 13, 1951 Bill Gibson (drummer for Huey Lewis & the News) is born in Sacramento, California.
November 12, 1951 The musical Paint Your Wagon opens at the Shubert Theater, New York City. In 1969, it's turned into a movie musical starring Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin.
November 7, 1951 Frank Sinatra marries his second wife, actress Ava Gardner. The marriage, her third, lasts six years and is credited for moving Sinatra into his "mature" phase as a singer, with Nelson Riddle stating: "It was Ava who did that, who taught him how to sing a torch song. That's how he learned. She was the greatest love of his life and he lost her."
November 1, 1951 Ronald Bell, the musical director for Kool & the Gang who plays a variety of instruments in the group, is born in Youngstown, Ohio. He forms the band with his older brother, Robert "Kool" Bell.
October 26, 1951 Bass player Bootsy Collins is born William Earl Collins in Cincinnati, Ohio. He rises to prominence as a member of James Brown's backing band from 1969-1971, then joins Parliament-Funkadelic, where he writes songs with George Clinton and comes up with otherworldly bass grooves that forge the sound of funk.
October 16, 1951 Little Richard records for the first time, laying down tracks at the Atlanta radio station WGST. Four singles from the session are released the next year.
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 5, 1951 Sir Bob Geldof (lead singer for The Boomtown Rats) is born in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland.
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 22, 1951 David Coverdale is born in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Redcar and Cleveland, England. After fronting Deep Purple from 1973-1976, he forms his own band, Whitesnake, in 1978.
September 20, 1951 Frank Capra's musical comedy Here Comes the Groom, starring Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman, debuts in theaters. It features the comedic number "In The Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening," which goes on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
September 10, 1951 Pete Tolson (guitarist for The Pretty Things) is born in Bishops Stortford, Herts, England. David Bowie covered the group's "Don't Bring Me Down" for his 1973 album, Pin Ups.
September 4, 1951 Frank Sinatra plays Vegas for the first time, performing at the Desert Inn hotel and casino. In 1959, with his "rat pack," he becomes a top draw in the city.
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."
August 23, 1951 Rock vocalist Jimi Jamison (of Survivor) is born in rural Mississippi. Also known for singing and co-writing the theme for the action series Baywatch.
August 1, 1951 Guitarist Tommy Bolin (of Deep Purple and the James Gang) is born in Sioux City, Iowa.
July 31, 1951 Ray Charles gets married for the first time. His bride is Eileen Williams, a beautician from Chicago. Their union lasts just one year.
July 28, 1951 Rosemary Clooney's "Come-On-A My House" hits #1 in the US for the first of eight weeks.
July 11, 1951 On WJW in Cleveland, Alan Freed broadcasts his first "Moondog House Rock and Roll Party," marking the first radio show with the phrase "Rock and Roll" and giving Freed a claim on the origin of the term. More importantly, Freed plays R&B music, which introducing the sound to a new (and mostly white) audience.
July 3, 1951 Mike Corby (keyboardist/lead guitarist of The Babys, which he founded) is born in Windsor, Berkshire, England.
July 1, 1951 Fred Schneider of The B-52s is born in Newark, New Jersey. His spoken-wordish vocals ("Love shack baby!") combine with full-throated singers Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson to give the band a very distinctive sound.
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."
June 29, 1951 Billy Hinsche of Dino, Desi & Billy is born in Manila, Philippines. After moving to Beverly Hills, he meets future bandmates Desi Arnaz Jr. and Dean Paul Martin.
June 21, 1951 Multi-instrumentalist Nils Lofgren is born in Chicago. In 1984 he joins Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, where he mostly plays guitar.
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