Musician Birthdays: Jeff Ament (bassist of Pearl Jam. Born in 1963.)

– In 1956: RCA Records placed a half page ad in Billboard Magazine claiming that Elvis Presley was ‘the new singing rage.’

– In 1964: Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel record ‘The Sounds Of Silence’ as an acoustic duo. It wasn’t until record company producers added electric guitar, bass and drums, without the knowledge of Paul and Art, that the song would become a hit in late 1965.

– In 1967: The Monkees held the No.1 position on the US album chart with ‘More Of The Monkees.’

– In 1973: Pink Floyd released their eighth studio album ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ in the US. It remained in the US charts for 741 discontinuous weeks from 1973 to 1988, longer than any other album in history. After moving to the Billboard Top Pop Catalog Chart, the album notched up a further 759 weeks, and had reached a total of over 1,500 weeks on the combined charts by May 2006. With an estimated 45 million copies sold, it is Pink Floyd’s most commercially successful album and one of the best-selling albums worldwide.

– In 1977: At 7am in the morning on a trestle table set up out-side Buckingham Palace, London, The Sex Pistols signed to A&M Records. The contract lasted for six days.

– In 1979: Gloria Gaynor started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘I Will Survive’, also a No.1 in the UK. The song was originally released as the B-side to a song first recorded by The Righteous Brothers called ‘Substitute.’

– In 1984:  Van Halen held the No.1 position on the US singles chart with ‘Jump’.

– In 1988: Younger brother of The Bee Gees Andy Gibb died in hospital. His death from myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) followed a long battle with cocaine addiction, which had weakened his heart.

– In 1996: Alanis Morissette won Best Album for ‘Jagged Little Pill’, Best Female singer, Best Rock Album, Best songwriter and best single at the 25th Juno Awards held in Hamilton, Canada.

– In 2000: Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde was arrested for leading an animal rights protest against the clothing firm Gap, who were accused of using leather from cows slaughtered ‘illegally and cruelly’. The protest took place in a store in Manhattan.

– In 2002: Alanis Morissette went to No.1 on the US album chart and No.2 on the UK chart with ‘Under Rug Swept.’

– In 2003: Johnny Cash was admitted to Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee to undergo treatment for pneumonia.

– In 2005: Michael Jackson arrived in court an hour late dressed in his pyjamas after being treated for a back injury. Jackson was attending the Santa Moria court for his child abuse trial.

– In 2009: Tickets for a one-off gig by Sir Paul McCartney in Las Vegas sold out seven seconds after going on sale. The former Beatle was booked to perform at the opening of the New Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on 19 April 2009 in-front of 4,000 fans. Tickets cost $750 each.

– In 2010: Pink Floyd won a court battle with EMI that prevented the record company from selling single downloads and ringtones on the Internet from the group’s albums. Pink Floyd’s back catalogue was second in sales to only the Beatles.

Musician Birthdays: Robin Trower (guitarist of Procol Harum, famous for hit, “A Whiter Shade of Pale”. Born in 1945)

– In 1964: The Beatles filmed the last day of train scenes for the movie A Hard Days Night. During their six days of filming aboard a moving train, The Beatles traveled a total of 2,500 miles on the rails.

– In 1964: Capitol Records releases a song called ‘Letter To The Beatles’ by The Four Preps. The lyrics describe a boy lamenting the fact that he’s lost his girlfriend to The Fab Four. On its first day, the record shot to No.85 on the charts and it looked like The Preps were going to have another hit on their hands. Unfortunately they had included a few bars from ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ without permission and Capitol was forced to withdraw the single to avoid a lawsuit.

– In 1967: Pink Floyd and The Thoughts appeared at the Marquee, London, England. The Marquee club has often been defined as ‘the most important venue in the history of pop music’, not only for having been the scene of the development of modern music culture in London, but also for having been an essential meeting point for some of the most important artists in rock music.

– In 1968: Bob Dylan started a ten week run at No.1 on the UK chart with John Wesley Harding. The album marked Dylan’s return to acoustic music after three albums of electric rock music and was exceptionally well received by critics, also reaching No.2 on the US charts. The commercial performance was considered remarkable, considering that Dylan had made Columbia Records release the album without much publicity.

– In 1970: Having recently changed their name from Earth to Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward made their concert debut at The Roundhouse, London.

– In 1971: Led Zeppelin appeared at Leeds University, Leeds, England, during their ‘Back To The Clubs’ tour. This was the first tour which saw Zeppelin performing ‘Stairway To Heaven’, ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Going To California.’

– In 1977: The Jacksons CBS show was aired for the last time on US TV finishing at the bottom of the ratings.

– In 1981: Robert Plant played a secret gig at Keele University, England with his new band The Honey Drippers.

– In 1985: Mick Jagger released his solo single ‘Just Another Night’ a No. 12 hit in the US and No. 32 on the UK charts.

– In 1985: REO Speedwagon started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Can’t Fight This Feeling’, it made No.16 in the UK.

– In 1991: Mariah Carey started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Someday’, her third US No.1 & No.38 hit in the UK.

– In 1991: ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ gave The Clash their only UK No.1 single after the track was used for a Levi’s TV advertisement. The track was first released in 1982 from their album Combat Rock album.

– In 1996: Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher walked off stage during a gig at the Vernon Valley Gorge ski resort in New Jersey because his hands were too cold to play.

– In 1997: Notorious BIG was gunned down and killed as he left a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Born Christopher Wallace the rapper was pronounced dead on arrival at Cedars Sinai Hospital. He was 24 years old.

– In 2004: Tom Jones was banned from wearing tight leather pants by his own son and manager Mark Jones. His son said it was time to ‘dress his age’ as he was in danger of becoming a laughing stock at 63.

– In 2010: Lil Wayne was sentenced to a year in prison at New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex after pleading guilty to gun possession. The charges were linked to his arrest in 2007 when a gun was found on his tour bus. His sentencing came after several delays; the first date was postponed to allow the rapper to have dental work and the second had to be rearranged after a fire broke out in the New York court complex.

I see everyone in facebook using this new music software called, “Spotify” for Facebook Timeline. I finally installed it earlier tonight. It’s actually pretty cool software. Sound quality is good too, and the site is safe to use with no virus’s/spyware. I like it.

It’s nice software ’cause you get to see what other peoples taste in music is like. Which is why I signed up for it. So people can get an idea of what I like to listen to. I guess that’s what the site is for and why they call it “Spotify”.

I had to get the Timeline in order for people to see it. Pretty cool. I’ll listen to tunes through that while browsing the net.

Kev