Musician Birthdays: Billy Joe Armstrong (guitarist, singer of Green Day, born in 1972), Paris Hilton (business woman, heiress, socialite, singer, actress, etc. She made it in the music business with her hit, “The Stars Are Blind”, born in 1981)

– In 1960: Elvis Presley won his first Gold record for the album ‘Elvis’.

– In 1967: The Beatles started recording a new John Lennon song ‘Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite’ at Abbey Road studios, London. John’s lyrics for the song came almost entirely from an antique poster advertising a circus performance scheduled to take place in Rochdale, Lancashire, in February 1843. John had purchased the poster in Sevenoaks on January 31 while The Beatles were on location for the filming of the ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ promotional film.

– In 1969: Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash recorded ‘Girl From The North Country’ together in Nashville at CBS Studios. The track appeared on Dylan’s ‘Nashville Skyline’ album.

– In 1970: Joni Mitchell announced she was retiring from live performances during a concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Joni was on stage again by the end of the year.

– In 1971: James Taylor made his TV debut on The Johnny Cash Show. Other guests included Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt and Tony Joe White.

– In 1972: Los Angeles radio station KDAY played two new Rolling Stones tracks non-stop for a day after obtaining stolen tapes from a producer’s home.

– In 1975: AC/DC released their debut album ‘High Voltage’. The album featured a cover of ‘Baby, Please Don’t Go’ a blues song first recorded by Big Joe Williams and ‘She’s Got Balls’ which was written about singer Bon Scott’s ex-wife Irene – the first AC/DC song for which he wrote lyrics.

– In 1979: The Clash opened the US leg of their ‘Pearl Harbour ’79’, North American tour at New York’s Palladium.

– In 1996: A Platinum American Express card once belonging to Bruce Springsteen was sold for $4,500 (£2,650) at a New York memorabilia sale. The singer had given the expired card to a waiter in a LA restaurant by mistake and let them keep it as a souvenir.

– In 2000: John Lennon’s Steinway piano, on which he composed ‘Imagine’, went on display at the Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool, England. The piano was set to be auctioned on the Internet later in the year and was expected to fetch more than £1 million ($1.7 million).

– In 2004: Prosecutors in the murder case of producer Phil Spector demanded that a fingernail overlooked by police investigating Lana Clarkson’s shooting should be put forward as evidence. They claimed the fingernail, blackened with gunpowder, could indicate that the 40-year old actress killed herself at Spector’s Los Angeles mansion. Spector, had denied murdering Clarkson.

– In 2005: A 1965 Fender Stratocaster guitar belonging to Jimi Hendrix sold for £100,000 at an auction in London. Other Hendrix items sold included a poem written two weeks after his appearance at the Monterey Festival which went for £10,000 and the first Jimi Hendrix Experience’s single ‘Hey Joe’, signed by all the band sold for £2,000.