April 5 in Music History
Today In Oldies Music History: April 5
--Births
1922: Gale Storm1925: Stan Levey
1928: Tony Williams (The Platters)
1929: Joe Meek
1932: Billy Bland
1934: Stanley Turrentine
1939: Ronnie White (The Miracles)
1941: Dave Swarbick (Fairport Convention)
1942: Alan Clarke (The Hollies)
1944: Crispian St. Peters
1944: Nicholas Caldwell (The Whispers)
1950: Agnetha Faltskog (ABBA)
Deaths
1981: Bob "The Bear" Hite (Canned Heat)1998: Cozy Powell (ELP, Black Sabbath, Rainbow)
2006: Gene Pitney
Events
1936: The fourth deadliest tornado in US history rips through Tupelo, MS, killing 235 but sparing Elvis Presley, still an infant, who is held in his Great Uncle Noah's house by his mother Gladys until the storm passes.1955: Ray Charles marries his second wife, Della Beatrice Howard, in Houston, TX.
1958: Johnny Mathis' compilation album Johnny's Greatest Hits, the first "greatest hits" LP, enters the Billboard charts, where it will stay for almost nine and a half years. It's a record that would only be broken in 1982 by Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon.
1964: The Beatles film the famous opening scene from their first movie, A Hard Day's Night, running away from several rabid female fans at London's Marylebone train station.
1964: The Searchers make their US television debut, singing "Needles and Pins" and "Ain't That Just Like Me" on on CBS' Ed Sullivan Show.
1967: Monkees fans march in London in protest of band member Davy Jones' announced induction into the Army. The teen heartthrob is eventually exempted from duty for being his family's main provider.
1967: Elvis Presley's 24th movie, Double Trouble, premieres in Hollywood.
1982: The record industry trade magazine Record World folds after 36 years.
1984: Marvin Gaye's funeral takes place at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles, drawing some very notable mourners, including Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, and Berry Gordy.
Gaye had been shot to death three days earlier by his father after he intervened in an argument between his parents.
1987: Buddy Rich's funeral in Los Angeles also draws some very notable mourners, including Frank Sinatra, Artie Shaw, and Johnny Carson.
1990: After serving months of his sentence for drug possession, resisting arrest, and other charges, James Brown is put on a work-release program, moving from his jail to South Carolina's Lower Savannah Work Center, where he provides counseling for drug addicts. He is paid four dollars an hour.
2003: On stage in Melbourne, Australia on the eve of the Iraq War, Carlos Santana declares, "We are the architects of the world and our agenda is different to Saddam Hussein and George Bush. Dignity and grace are our weapons - unity, salvation and elegance."
2008: Toto breaks up after performing its final concert in Seoul.