Musician Birthdays: Phil Lesh (former bassist of the Grateful Dead.  Born in 1940), Sly Stone (singer/guitarist of Sly & the Family Stone, famous for hit, “Everyday People”. Born in 1944), Dee Snider (longtime singer of Twisted Sister, famous for hits “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, “I Wanna Rock”, etc. Born in 1955), Mark McGrath (Singer of Sugar Ray, famous for hit, “Every Morning”. Born in 1968), Will.I.Am. (singer/rapper of Black Eyed Peas. Born in 1977)

– In 1955: Elvis Presley signed a management contract with Colonel Tom Parker. Parker had previously managed the ‘Great Parker Pony Circus’ with one of the acts being a troupe of dancing chickens.

– In 1967: The first session recording George Harrison’s new song ‘Within You Without You’ took place at Abbey Road studios, London. George was the only Beatle to perform on this song, which was still called ‘Untitled’. Harrison played the swordmandel and tamboura, Natver Soni played tabla, Amrat Gajjar played dilruba, PD Joshi played swordmandel, and an undocumented musician played a droning tamboura.

– In 1969: Janis Joplin was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, on sale for 35 Cents, (2/6).

– In 1969: Tyrannosaurus Rex singer Marc Bolan’s first book of poetry ‘The Warlock Of Love’ was published, priced at 12 and 6.

– In 1969: During a Scandinavian tour Led Zeppelin played at the Brondby Pop Club in Norregard. Also on the bill, The Keef Hartley Band, Ham and Swedish band Made In Sweden.

– In 1973: Roberta Flack was at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’ and Elton John had the No.1 album with ‘Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player’.

– In 1975: Led Zeppelin went to No.1 on the UK chart with the double album ‘Physical Graffiti’, the first on their own ‘Swan Song’ label, the album spent six weeks at No.1 on the US chart.

– In 1975: The Doobie Brothers went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Black Water’, the group’s first of two US No.1’s.

– In 1977: Pink Floyd played the first of six sold-out nights at Empire Pool, Wembley, London, England.

– In 1986: The Bangles were at No.2 on the UK singles chart with ‘Manic Monday’, a song written by Prince under the pseudonym Christopher, it also made No.2 in the US, held of No.1 by Prince with ‘Kiss’.

– In 1989: The Rolling Stones signed a $70 million (£40 million) contract to play 50 North American dates. It was the largest contract in rock history.

– In 1999: Bruce Springsteen was inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame by U2’s Bono.

– In 2000: Sir Paul McCartney confirmed that him and former model Heather Mills had become ‘an item’. The couple had met after working on the same charity project.

– In 2002: Yoko Ono unveiled a seven foot bronze statue of John Lennon overlooking the check- in hall of Liverpool John Lennon airport. The re-branding of the airport featured a sketch of Lennon’s face with the words ‘Above Us Only Skies.’

– In 2004: George Harrison, Prince, Bob Seger, The Dells, Traffic and ZZ Top were all inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York City.

– In 2008: Six people were charged with conspiracy to defraud the Isle of Wight Festival by trying to sell fake tickets and wristbands. A police investigation was launched after alleged counterfeit tickets were discovered at last year’s event, which was headlined by the Rolling Stones.

– In 2010: Sony Music announced the biggest recording deal in history with the estate of Michael Jackson worth more than $200m (£133m). The deal involved 10 album projects over seven years including one of previously unreleased material. Sony had sold about 31 million copies of Jackson’s albums worldwide since his death on 25 June, 2009.

– In 2011: Disney Studios scrapped plans for a 3D remake of The Beatles’ 1968 film Yellow Submarine. The new film which was being developed by Forrest Gump Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis was going to incorporate the 16 Beatles songs and recordings from the original animated film. Budget issues and a cancelled meeting with surviving Beatles’ members were cited as reasons for the film’s demise.