19 SEPTEMBER
In Music History
1964 Country singer Trisha Yearwood is born Patricia Lynn Yearwood in Monticello, Georgia.
1963 Ann-Margret lends her voice to an episode of The Flintstones, where she appears as "Ann-Margrock."
1958 Lita Ford is born in London. She joins the all-female rock group The Runaways as a teenager and has a hit with "Kiss Me Deadly" in 1988.
1958 Elvis Presley sails for West Germany with the US Army.
1956 Singer/actor Rex Smith is born in Jacksonville, Florida. He makes his Broadway debut in 1978 playing Danny Zuko in Grease, a role John Travolta makes famous in the movie.
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).
1947 Percussionist Ray Cooper is born Raymond Cooper in Watford, England.
1947 Rocker Lol Creme (of 10cc) is born Laurence Neil Creme in Prestwich, England.
1945 Musician/songwriter David Bromberg is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but would be raised in Tarrytown, New York. Co-wrote "The Holdup" with George Harrison in 1972.
1945 R&B singer Freda Payne is born in Detroit, Michigan.
1943 Cass Elliot (of The Mamas & The Papas) is born Ellen Naomi Cohen in Baltimore, Maryland.
1940 Blue-eyed soul singer Bill Medley (of The Righteous Brothers) is born in Los Angeles, California.
1940 Singer/songwriter Paul Williams is born in Omaha, Nebraska. A TV fixture in the '70s and '80s, he also writes many popular songs, including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song," the Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun," and David Bowie's "Fill Your Heart."
1934 Brian Epstein (Beatles manager) is born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England.
1931 Pop/R&B singer Brook Benton is born Benjamin Franklin Peay in Lugoff, South Carolina.
Rockers Protest Nuclear Power
1979James Taylor, Jackson Browne, The Doobie Brothers, Graham Nash and Bonnie Raitt perform at Madison Square Garden for the first of five "no nukes" concerts.
Read more19 SEPTEMBER
Featured Events
1999 The Dixie Chicks become the first country group to top the Billboard albums chart when Fly debuts at #1. More
1997 The pitch-correction software Auto-Tune hits the market and soon becomes ubiquitous in recording studios, especially after Cher hits #1 with her Auto-Tuned "Believe."More
1991 Michael Jackson is a guest voice on The Simpsons, where he plays a mental patient Homer befriends named Leon Kompowsky.
1990 Eddie Vedder is selected as lead vocalist of what will become Pearl Jam after Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard and Mike McCready hear his demo tape where he added vocals to three instrumental tracks the band had recorded.
1987 The Grateful Dead hit #10 on the US Hot 100 with "Touch Of Grey," the only hit song for the band.More
1984 At a whistle-stop in Hammonton, New Jersey, campaigning president Ronald Reagan praises singer Bruce Springsteen, saying: "America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about." This leads to widespread criticism in the press because Springsteen's recent hit, "Born In The U.S.A.," is in fact a bitter cry of outrage at how poorly the United States treats its veterans, which Reagan had apparently mistaken for a straight-forward patriotic anthem - an easy mistake to make if you listen to the chorus only and not the lyrics.
1981 Thanks to MTV airplay for the lead single "Start Me Up," the Rolling Stones album Tattoo You goes to #1 in America, where it stays for nine weeks. It's their last #1 album in the US.
1973 Gram Parsons of The Byrds dies at age 26 after taking a shot of liquid morphine in his room at Joshua Tree Inn. Parsons had been recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, but relapsed during his trip to Joshua Tree National Park. "He was clean and took a strong shot," his friend Keith Richards says. "It's the one mistake you don't want to make."
1960 Chubby Checker's version of "The Twist" goes to #1 in America, while the original version by Hank Ballard & The Midnighters reaches its peak chart position of #28. Checker's version tops the chart again in 1962.
1952 Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers is born in New York City.
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