19 SEPTEMBER
In Music History
1943 "Mama" Cass Elliot is born Ellen Naomi Cohen in Baltimore, Maryland. The name Cass comes from her father, who calls her "the mad Cassandra." She becomes Mama Cass when she joins The Mamas & The Papas in 1965. After landing a string of hits with the group, she launches a solo career in 1968 and becomes a regular on TV talk and variety shows as both a guest and host. She has her own nightclub act when she dies from a heart attack in 1974 at 32.
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.
1921 R&B singer Billy Ward (of The Dominoes) is born Robert L. Williams in Savannah, Georgia.
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. His sophisticated disco group transforms the genre in the '70s with hits like "Le Freak," "Good Times" and "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)." Rodgers becomes a legendary producer for the likes of Diana Ross (Diana), David Bowie (Let's Dance), Daft Punk (Random Access Memories), and Madonna (Like A Virgin).
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