Musician Birthdays: Jim Croce (US Singer/songwriter, famous for hits “Time In a Bottle”, “Bad Bad Leroy Brown”, etc., born in 1943), Rod Stewart (singer for the Jeff Beck Group, the Faces, and solo career, also famous for solo hit, “Maggie May”, born in 1945) Pat Benatar (US Singer/songwriter, famous for hits, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” and “Love Is a Battlefield”, born in 1953), Michael Schenker (German guitarist who played for the Scorpions and UFO, born in 1955)

– In 1956: Elvis Presley made his first recordings for RCA Records at The Methodist television, radio & TV Studios in Nashville. ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ was one of the songs recorded during this session.

– In 1958: Jerry Lee Lewis was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Great Balls Of Fire’. Lewis was the only major white rock ‘n’ roll star to play piano rather than guitar.

– In 1964: The Rolling Stones recorded ‘Not Fade Away’ at Regent Sound Studios in London, England.

– In 1964: The first US Beatles album, ‘Introducing The Beatles’, was released on Vee-Jay records. The album cover showed John, Paul and George with their now famous “mop top” haircuts, but Ringo had yet to convert. Vee-Jay would be forced to stop selling the disc by the end of the year because of legal complications, but by then over 1.3 million copies had been sold.

– In 1976: Blues artist Howlin Wolf, (Chester Burnett), died in hospital of cancer aged 66. The guitarist, singer and harmonica player’s well known songs included ‘Smoke Stack Lightning’, ‘Little Red Rooster’ and ‘Spoonful.’

– In 1978: The Sex Pistols make their US TV debut on the show ‘Variety’.

– In 1981: John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart, 10 years after it was recorded. Lennon had two other songs in the Top 5 this week, ‘Happy Christmas, (War Is Over’) and ‘(Just Like) Starting Over.’ ‘Imagine’ was voted by the viewers of BBC TV as the best lyrics of all time in a poll broadcast in Oct 1999. Also on this day John and Yoko’s ‘Double Fantasy’ album started an eight-week run at No.1 on the US chart. ‘Just Like Starting Over’ was at No.1 on the US singles chart.

– In 1984: Motley Crue played their opening show on the first leg of Ozzy Osbourne’s Bark At The Moon tour in front of nine and a half thousand people in Portland, Maine.

– In 1984: Cyndi Lauper became the first female recording artist since Bobbie Gentry in 1967 to be nominated for five Grammy Awards: Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Performance (Female), Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

– In 1997: James Brown received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

– In 2003: Bee Gee Maurice Gibb was fighting for his life after a heart attack following major stomach surgery. The 53 year-old singer had been rushed to hospital after collapsing at his Florida home.

– In 2008: Radiohead topped the US album charts with the physical release of ‘In Rainbows’, originally sold via the internet for a price chosen by fans. The album sold 122,000 copies during its first week on release, giving the band a second US chart topper following 2000’s ‘Kid A’, which sold an initial 207,000 copies.

Musician Birthdays: Joan Baez (US folk singer/songwriter, born in 1941) Jimmy Page, (guitarist for Led Zeppelin, born in 1944), Dave Matthews (guitarist, singer/songwriter for the Dave Matthews Band, born in 1967)

– In 1963: Drummer Charlie Watts joined The Rolling Stones after leaving Blues Incorporated.

– In 1965: The Beatles started a nine week run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Beatles 65’, the group’s fourth No.1.

– In 1970: During a UK tour Led Zeppelin appeared at The Royal Albert Hall, London, the night of Jimmy Page’s 26th birthday. (John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck were all in the audience). The two and a quarter hour set was recorded and filmed but shelved for several decades, eventually seeing a release on a 2003 official DVD.

– In 1976: Queen were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. The single enjoyed a nine week run on the chart selling more than a million copies by the end of the month. It reached No.1 again in 1991 for five weeks following Mercury’s death, eventually becoming the UK’s third best selling single of all time.

– In 1988: Whitney Houston scored her sixth consecutive No.1 in the US with ‘So Emotional’.

– In 1997: David Bowie performed his 50th Birthday Bash concert (the day after his birthday) at Madison Square Garden, New York with guests Frank Black, Sonic Youth, Robert Smith of The Cure, The Foo Fighters, Lou Reed, and Billy Corgan and Placebo. Proceeds from the concert went to the Save The Children fund.

– In 2003: A grand piano once owned by Elvis Presley was sold for $685,000 (£425,711). Music producer Robert Johnson and partner Larry Moss sold the piano to the chairman of the Blue Moon Group, Michael Muzio who was planning to take the piano on a casino-sponsored promotional tour. He was then planning for the piano to be shown at the proposed rock museum at Walt Disney World.

– In 2005: Elvis Presley went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Jailhouse Rock.’ The single sold just 21,262 copies to reach No.1, the lowest sales ever for a UK chart topper since data began in 1969. The single was released to celebrate the 70th anniversary of his birth, a previous Elvis chart topper was re-released each week.