Calendar Search Results: i he w
August 16, 1931 Traditional Pop/Swing singer Eydie Gorme is born in The Bronx, New York.
July 11, 1931 Tab Hunter is born in New York City. He's best known as an actor, but has a huge hit in 1957 with "Young Love."
June 1, 1931 Noël Coward's classic "Mad Dogs And Englishmen" is performed for the first time in public by Beatrice Lillie in The Third Little Show at the Music Box Theatre, New York.
May 28, 1931 Sonny Burgess, rockabilly guitarist of the Pacers and later The Sun Rhythm Section, made up of former Sun Records' session musicians, is born Albert Austin Burgess of Newport, Arkansas.
May 1, 1931 Kate Smith makes her radio show debut with the twice-weekly Kate Smith Sings show on NBC.
April 29, 1931 Lonnie Donegan, known as the King of Skiffle, is born Anthony James Donegan in Glasgow, Scotland.
April 20, 1931 Louis Armstrong records "When It's Sleepy Time Down South" from the play Under A Virginia Moon. He adds the song to his live repertoire, and it becomes a jazz standard, later recorded by Billie Holiday, Louis Prima, Harry Connick, Jr. and many others.
March 25, 1931 Nine young black males are arrested in Paint Rock, Alabama, and accused of raping two white women. The ensuing years' long legal case inspires a song by Leadbelly and a musical, The Scottsboro Boys.
March 3, 1931 Cab Calloway records "Minnie The Moocher" on the Brunswick label in New York City. It would become the first jazz recording to sell a million copies.
February 16, 1931 Otis Blackwell, composer of the seminal rock 'n roll tunes "Great Balls of Fire" and "All Shook Up," and the R&B sizzler "Fever," is born in Brooklyn, New York.
February 14, 1931 Phyllis McGuire of The McGuire Sisters is born in Middletown, Ohio.
January 27, 1931 Rudi Maugeri (of The Crew-Cuts) is born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
January 22, 1931 Sam Cooke is born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He grows up in Chicago, where at six years old he forms the group the Singing Children with his siblings.
December 31, 1930 Blues and folk singer Odetta is born Odetta Holmes in Birmingham, Alabama. Named the "Queen of American folk music" by Martin Luther King Jr., Odetta sings "O Freedom" at the 1963 March on Washington.
December 22, 1930 American songwriter Charles K. Harris, known for "After The Ball," dies in New York City, at age 63.
December 10, 1930 Duke Ellington and His Orchestra record "Mood Indigo."
November 12, 1930 Songwriter and music executive Bob Crewe is born Stanley Robert Crewe in Newark, New Jersey. Co-wrote many Four Seasons hits with Bob Gaudio, including "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Walk Like a Man."
November 7, 1930 Wayne King records "The Waltz You Save For Me."
November 3, 1930 Mable John is born in Bastrop, Louisiana. She becomes the first female singer to be signed to Berry Gordy's Tamla label, releasing the single "Who Wouldn't Love a Man Like That?" in 1960.
October 14, 1930 Ethel Merman becomes a star overnight with her rendition of "I Got Rhythm," featured in the new Broadway hit Girl Crazy.
September 28, 1930 Country singer Tommy Collins is born in Bethany, Oklahoma. A forerunner of the Bakersfield sound, he penned "If You Ain't Lovin' (You Ain't Livin')," later a #1 hit for George Strait.
September 23, 1930 Ray Charles is born Ray Charles Robinson in Albany, Georgia. Blinded by glaucoma by age 7, he becomes a transgressive musician, adding gospel elements to new forms of music that become known as soul and rock.
September 22, 1930 Traditional pop singer Joni James is born Giovanna Carmella Babbo in Chicago, Illinois. Among other hits, she's known for her 1953 cover of "Your Cheatin' Heart."
July 8, 1930 Italian American singer Jerry Vale is born Genaro Louis Vitaliano in the Bronx, New York City.
June 4, 1930 Jazz singer Morgana King is born Maria Grazia Morgana Messina in Pleasantville, New York. As an actress, she plays Carmela Corleone, wife of Don Vito Corleone, in the first two Godfather films.
June 3, 1930 Jazz singer Dakota Staton is born in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Known for the 1957 hit "The Late, Late Show."
May 31, 1930 Clint Eastwood is born in San Francisco, California. The actor/director also dabbles in music, releasing an album of Cowboy Favorites in 1959 and composing scores for several of his films, including Mystic River, Gran Torino, and Grace is Gone.
May 24, 1930 After taking off from Croydon, London, on May 5, the British aviator Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Australia, inspiring the songs "Amy" (by Horatio Nicholls) and "Flying Sorcery" (by Al Stewart).
May 1, 1930 Blues musician Little Walter, known for the 1952 harmonica standard "Juke," is born Marion Walter Jacobs in Marksville, Louisiana.
April 30, 1930 Blind Willie Johnson, best known for "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground," records for the very last time.
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