Musician Birthdays: Wayne Coyne (singer/guitarist of the Flaming Lips, famous for hit, “She Don’t Use Jelly”, born in 1961), Zach De La Rocha (singer/rapper for Rage Against the Machine, 1970)

– In 1962: Chubby Checker went back to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘The Twist’. The song first went to No.1 in Sept 1960 and became the only record in American chart history to top the charts on two separate occasions.

– In 1963: The Beatles recorded a TV appearance on the ABC Television program “Thank Your Lucky Stars” in Birmingham playing their new single, ‘Please Please Me.’ The show was broadcast on January 19.

– In 1965: The first day of recording sessions for Bob Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home album were held at Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios in New York City. Dylan recorded ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, and ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.’

– In 1968: Johnny Cash played a show, which was recorded, for his forthcoming live album at Folsom Prison, near Sacramento, California in-front of 2,000 inmates.

– In 1969: Elvis Presley began a ten day recording session that would produce his final US number one record, ‘Suspicious Minds’. The tracks were laid down at American Sound Studios in Memphis and marked the first time Presley had recorded in his hometown since his Sun Records days in 1956.

– In 1970: Steel Mill, (featuring Bruce Springsteen) played at The Matrix in San Francisco, California. Boz Scaggs was the scheduled headliner but he cancelled at that last minute due to illness. Rock critic Philip Elwood, who turned up intending to review Scaggs ended up writing a highly favorable review of Steel Mill for The San Francisco Examiner.

– In 1973: Eric Clapton made his stage comeback at the Rainbow Theatre, London, with Pete Townsend, Ronnie Wood, Stevie Winwood, Rebop, Jim Capaldi and support from The Average White Band. The night’s two shows were recorded for the ‘Rainbow Concert’ album. The Who’s Pete Townshend had organised the concert to help Clapton kick his heroin addiction.

– In 1978: The Police started recording their first album at Surrey Sound Studios, Surrey, England with producer Nigel Gray.

– In 1979: Soul singer Donny Hathaway committed suicide falling from a 15th floor New York hotel window. (1972 UK No.29 single with Roberta Flack ‘Where Is The Love’, 1978 US No.2 single ‘The Closer I Get.’

– In 1986: Sex Pistol members John Lydon, Steve Jones and Paul Cook, as well as the mother of Sid Vicious, sued former manager Malcom McClaren for £1 million ($1.7 million). They settled out of court.

– In 2000: Christina Aguilera had the US No.1 single with ‘What A Girl Wants’.

– In 2003: Diana Ross appeared in a US court charged with driving while twice over the drink driving limit. Police in Tucson reported that Miss Ross could not walk in a straight line, touch her nose or count to 30 after she had been stopped for swerving across the road.

– In 2003: Who guitarist Pete Townshend was arrested on suspicion of child porn offences. Police officers impounded seven computers from his £15 million ($25.5 million) home in Richmond, Surrey.

– In 2005: a report showed that more songs had been written about Elvis Presley than any other artist. It listed over 220 songs including: ‘Graceland’ by Paul Simon, ‘A Room At The Heartbreakhotel’ by U2, ‘Calling Elvis’, Dire Straits, ‘Happy Birthday Elvis’, Loudon Wainwright III, ‘There’s A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis’, Kirsty MacColl, ‘I Saw Elvis in a UFO’, Ray Stevens. ‘Elvis Has Left the Building’ by Frank Zappa and ‘My Dog Thinks I’m Elvis’ by Ray Herndon.

– In 2010: A plaque of the Beatles’ iconic yellow submarine, which was stolen six months ago from Liverpool’s Albert Dock, was set to be replaced by a new creation. The 5ft (1.5m) design featured the faces of the John Lennon, Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison peering through its portholes. The new submarine would hang outside the museum dedicated to the band, The Beatles Story. The former plaque has never been found and the thieves had never been caught.

Musician Birthdays: Clarence Clemons (saxophonist of The E Street Band, born in 1942), Mary J. Blige (R&B, soul, singer/songwriter, born in 1971)

– In 1958: The release date for the Elvis Presley single ‘Jailhouse Rock’ was put back a week after Decca Records pressing plant in the UK were unable to meet the advance orders of 250,000 copies.

– In 1964: ‘Ring Of Fire’ by Johnny Cash became the first Country album to go to No.1 in the US album chart.

– In 1964: ‘Louie Louie’ by The Kingsmen was the number one song on the US Cash Box music chart. For a while, the record was banned by a handful of US radio stations because of its indecipherable lyrics, which were rumored to contain some naughty words. Even the F.B.I. investigated the song, but finally concluded that they could find nothing wrong.

– In 1967: The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded ‘Purple Haze’. Jimi also signed to the new record label Track Records on this day.

– In 1992: Nirvana appeared on NBC-TV’s Saturday Night Live performing two songs, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and ‘Territorial Pissings’. Also on this day the group’s ‘Nevermind’ went to No.1 on the US album chart.

– In 2000: It was reported that Whitney Houston was under investigation after allegedly trying to smuggle 15.2 grams of Marijuana out of Hawaii. A security officer found the drug in the singer’s handbag, Houston then walked away when he tried to detain her.

– In 2003: Pete Townshend issued a public statement denying being a paedophile after his name was linked with a police Internet porn inquiry. But The Who guitarist did admit studying child pornography for research into a campaign against it.

– In 2008: Ringo Starr helped launch the celebrations for Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture. He was joined by acrobats who dangled on wires from cranes as the opening party kicked off a year-long programme of more than 350 events. Organisers hoped the Capital of Culture tag would attract an extra two million visitors to Liverpool and boost the economy by £100m.

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.