THIS DAY IN MUSIC

May 21st: On this Day

1955, Eddie Calvert was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with his version of 'Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White.' The song from the film 'Underwater' had also been a No.1 for Perez Prado in the same year.

1963, The Beatles recorded two BBC radio programs at the Playhouse Theatre in London. They recorded five songs for Saturday Club and six songs for Steppin' Out.

1964, The Four Pennies were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Juliet'. The group's only UK No.1.

1966, The Castiles (with Bruce Springsteen on vocals) appeared at Freehold Regional High School in New Jersey. They were performing at their own high school for the very first time. All five members of the band were Juniors at Freehold High School.

1967, Jimi Hendrix signed with Reprise Records on the US Warner Brothers label. They released the guitarist's albums Are You Experienced? Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland.

1968, Rolling Stone Brian Jones  appeared at Great Marlborough Street Magistrates court, London on a charge of possession of marijuana, Jones was released on £200 bail.

1970, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young released the protest single Ohio, written and composed by Neil Young in reaction to the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970, when unarmed college students were shot by the Ohio National Guard. The guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.

1972, The Doors, Pink Floyd, The Faces, Family, Curved Air, Atomic Rooster, The Kinks, Rory Gallagher, Uriah Heep, Country Joe McDonald, Buddy Miles, Status Quo, Brinsley Schwarz, Spencer Davis, The Strawbs and Humble Pie all appeared at the 2nd British Rock Meeting, Insel Grun, Germersheim, West Germany. The festival was due to take place in Mannheim, West Germany, but after protests from the locals, the concert actually took place in nearby Germersheim.

1974, Two would-be concert promoters were arrested by police in America on fraud charges in connection with selling mail order tickets for a forthcoming Elten Johnshow. (Elten with an E and not an O). Police took away over $12,000 in cheques.

1977, Rod Stewart was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the double A sided single 'I Don't Want To Talk About It / First Cut Is The Deepest.' The Danny Whitten song 'I Don't Want To Talk About It' was also a UK No.3 hit for Everything But The Girl in 1988.

1977, Stevie Wonder started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with his tribute to Duke Ellington, 'Sir Duke', his sixth US No.1, it made No.2 in the UK.

1979, Elton John started a tour of Russia, when he played the first of eight concerts making him the first Western star ever to do so.

1980, A thief brook into Electric Lady Studios in New York City, the recording studio built by Jimi Hendrix and stole five Hendrix gold records for the albums ‘Are You Experienced’’, ‘Axis: Bold as Love’, ‘Cry of Love’, ‘Rainbow Bridge’ and Live at Monterey.

1980, Joe Strummer of The Clash was arrested at a much-troubled gig in Hamburg, Germany, after smashing his guitar over the head of a member of the audience; he was released after an alcohol test proved negative.

1982, The Hacienda Club was opened in Manchester, England. Madonna made her UK TV debut at the club when C4 music show The Tube  was broadcast live. Home to many Manchester acts including Oasis, Happy Mondays, U2, The Smiths, Charlatans, James, M People who all played at the club. (The club closed in 1997).

1983, David Bowie went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Let's Dance', featuring blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. It was Bowie's first single to reach number one on both sides of the Atlantic. The music video was made by David Mallet on location in Australia including a bar in Carinda in New South Wales, featured Bowie playing with his band while impassively watching an Aboriginal couple’s struggles against metaphors of Western cultural imperialism.

1983, Michael Jackson's album Thriller went back to No.1 for the third time on the UK charts and stayed at the top for another five weeks.

1988, Prince scored his first UK No.1 album with 'Lovesexy.' The cover (based on a photo by Jean Baptiste Mondino) caused some controversy upon release as it depicts Prince in the nude. Some record stores refused to stock it or wrapped the album in black.

1988, Wet Wet Wet and Billy Bragg were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'With A Little Help From My Friends' and 'She's Leaving Home.' The two Beatles songs had been recorded for the childLine charity, sales of the single, which spent four weeks at No.1 on the UK chart, were over £600,000, all of which was donated to ChildLine .

1994, All 4 One started an eleven week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'I Swear', a No.2 hit in the UK. The song had been a No.1 country hit for John Montgomery in 1994.

1994, Manchester United Football Club along with Status Quo were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Come On You Reds'.

2001, Producer, arranger and keyboardist Tommy Eyre died of cancer aged 51. Worked with George Harrison, Wham! Dusty Springfield, and B.B. King. Played and arranged Joe Cocker's hit 'With A Little Help From My Friends' and Gerry Rafferty's 'Baker Street'.

2003, Mariah Carey hit back at Eminem's threats to sample the slushy voicemail messages she left on his mobile. Carey described the rapper as "a little girl" saying it's "like dealing with a girlfriend in 7th grade, and he shouldn't do it because it'll get him in a bit of trouble with her lawyers."

2005, Former East 17 singer Brian Harvey was rushed to hospital following his second suicide bid in a month. The singer battled with police outside his house after taking an overdose of sleeping pills.

2006, Madonna played the first of three sold out nights at The Los Angeles Forum in California, the first dates on her Confessions Tour. The 60-date tour grossed over $260 million, becoming the highest grossing tour ever for a female artist.

2007, Former singer with Creed, Scott Stapp was arrested at his Florida home and charged with assault. The 33-year-old was held without bail following the charges, which related to a domestic assault.

2008, Lou Pearlman, the music mogul who created the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison over a decades-long scam that swindled thousands of investors out of their life savings. Many victims were Pearlman's relatives, friends and retirees in their 70s or 80s who lost everything.

2008, Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler checked into Las Encinas Hospital rehabilitation clinic in Pasadena, California, to recover from multiple leg surgeries.

2010, U2's lead singer Bono had emergency spinal surgery after suffering an injury while preparing for tour dates. The 50-year-old singer was treated at a specialist neurosurgery clinic in Munich and was expected to stay there for a number of days.

2011, Adele went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Rolling In The Deep', taken from her second studio album, 21. The video to the song was nominated for seven MTV Video Music Awards nominations, 'Rolling in the Deep' was also the Billboard Year End Hot 100 Number One Single of 2011. And on 12 February 2012, 'Rolling in the Deep' received three Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Short Form Music Video.

2011, Bob Dylan came out on top as both the most inspirational individual for poets and the dream collaborative partner, in a survey carried out by The Foyle Poetry Society. The extensive survey questioned poets asking which musician and which genre of music most inspired their writing. The young people, aged between 11 and 17, from countries throughout the world also voted for artists such as Regina Spektor, David Bowie, Florence and the Machine, Leonard Cohen, Morrissey and Pete Doherty.

2013, Trevor Bolder, the bassist in David Bowie's legendary 1970s backing band Spiders From Mars, died from cancer at the age of 62. Bolder appeared on the studio albums Hunky Dory (1971), The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), Aladdin Sane (1973), and Pin Ups (1973). He joined Uriah Heep in 1976, replacing John Wetton.

2013, Chris Brown was charged with a misdemeanor hit-and-run and driving without a valid license following an accident in the San Fernando Valley, California. If convicted, the singer could face up to one year in jail with other recent incidents including an outburst at a valet, a parking lot brawl with Frank Ocean and a fight with Drake in a New York nightclub.

2015, Black Sabbath received a lifetime achievement prize at the Ivor Novello songwriting awards. Guitarist Tony Iommi picked up the trophy, confirming the heavy metal band would embark on their "final tour" next year. Ed Sheeran was named songwriter of the year, and Annie Lennox was awarded the fellowship of the British Society of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (Basca) - the society's highest honour.

May 21st: Born on this day

1904, Born on this day, Fats Waller, American jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer and comedic entertainer. His best-known compositions, "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose", were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984 and 1999. Waller died 15th December 1943.

1940, Born on this day, Tony Sheridan, singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was best known as an early collaborator of The Beatles. Sheridan died on 16th February 2013.

1941, Born on this day, Ronald Isley, The Isley Brothers, (1968 UK No.3 single 'This Old Heart Of Mine', 1969 US No.2 single 'It's Your Thing').

1943, Born on this day, Hilton Valentine, guitar, The Animals, (1964 UK & US No.1 single 'House Of The Rising Sun').

1943, Born on this day, John Dalton, The Kinks (1964 UK No.1 & US No.7 'You Really Got Me', 1967 UK No.2 single 'Waterloo Sunset' plus 19 other UK Top 40 singles).

1943, Born on this day, Vincent Crane, keyboards, The Crazy world of Arthur Brown, (1968 UK No.1 and US No.12 single 'Fire'), Atomic Rooster, (1971 UK No.4 single 'The Devil's Answer'). He died on 14th February 1989.

1948, Born on this day, Leo Sayer, (1977 UK & US No.1 single 'When I Need You', the Chrysalis record label's first No.1, plus 13 other UK Top 40 singles).

1954, Born on this day, Marc Ribot, guitarist and composer. Norah Jones, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits.

1955, Born on this day, Stan Lynch, American musician, songwriter and record producer who was the original drummer for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, (1977 single 'American Girl', 1989 UK No.28 single 'I Won't Back Down', 1991 UK No.3 album 'Into The Great Wide Open'). He partnered with longtime friend Don Henley to help put together Eagles' reunion album Hell Freezes Over and as a producer and writer, Lynch has worked with a diverse array of acts, such as The Band, Eagles, Don Henley, Jackopierce, Joe 90, Scotty Moore, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, The Jeff Healey Band, Tim McGraw and Ringo Starr.

1963, Born on this day, Kevin Shields, My Bloody Valentine, (1991 UK No.29 single 'To Here Knows When').

1963, Born on this day, Tim Lever, Dead Or Alive, (1985 UK No.1 single 'You Spin Me Round (Like A Record').

1964, Born on this day, Martin Blunt, bass, The Charlatans, (1990 UK No.9 single 'The Only One I Know', 1996 UK No.3 single 'One To Another', plus 3 UK No.1 albums).

1972, Born on this day, The Notorious B.I.G. (aka Biggie Smalls, aka Christopher G. Wallace). Gunned down on the streets of Los Angeles on 9th March 1997 aged 24. (1995 UK No.34 single 'One More Chance', 1997 US No.1 single 'Hypnotize').

1975, Born on this day, Lee Gaze, guitarist, Lostprophets, (2004 UK No.8 single ‘Last Train Home’, 2006 UK No.1 album ‘Liberation Transmission’).

1978, Born on this day, Adam Wade Gontier, lead singer and guitarist of Three Days Grace.

1985, Born on this day, Mutya Buena, singer, Sugababes, (2002 UK No.1 single, 'Round Round', 2002 UK No.2 album 'Angels With Dirty Faces'). Quit the group in Dec 2005.