This Day In Music - July 28

 This Day In Music – 28 July

1901 - Pop crooner Rudy Vallee is born in Island Pond, Vermont.

1933 - The first singing telegram is sent - to popular crooner Rudy Vallee, on the occasion of his 32nd birthday.

1938 - George Cummings born in Meridian, Mississippi. Steel guitarist with American rock band Dr Hook who had the 1970s hits 'The Cover of Rolling Stone', 'A Little Bit More', 'When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman' and 'Sylvia's Mother' - https://youtu.be/bD0CSd6BM6w .

1943 - American guitarist Mike Bloomfield born in Chicago. He was a member of the Paul Butterfield band and Electric Flag. He played on Bob Dylan's album Highway 61 Revisited. Bloomfield's Telecaster guitar licks were featured on Dylan's 'Like a Rolling Stone', and he appeared onstage with Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival, where Dylan used Bloomfield and the Butterfield Band which marked Dylan's first use of an electric band in a live performance. Bloomfield was found dead in his car in San Francisco from an accidental heroin overdose on 15 February 1981 aged 37 - https://youtu.be/ZvkmOKdS60g .

1943 - Richard (Rick) Wright born in Hatch End, Middlesex, England. Keyboardist, vocals for Pink Floyd (1973 US No.1 & UK No.2 album The Dark Side Of The Moon, spent a record breaking 741 weeks on the US chart. 1979 UK and US No.1 single 'Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)'. Wright died on 15th Sept 2008 aged 65 from cancer. Wright appeared on the group’s first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, in 1967 alongside Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and Nick Mason - https://youtu.be/HrxX9TBj2zY .

1948 - Gerald Casale born in Ravenna, Ohio, U.S.A. Vocalist, bass guitar/synthesizer player, and a founding member of the new wave band Devo. He also directed most of Devo's videos and has also directed videos for The Cars, Rush, Foo Fighters and Soundgarden. In 1970, he was a student at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, and was a witness to the 1970 Kent State Shootings. Two people killed at the shootings, Jeffrey Miller and Allison Krause, were friends of Casale. Casale described that day in multiple interviews as being "the day I stopped being a hippie". Together with Bob Lewis, Casale used the shooting as a catalyst to develop the concept of De-evolution, forming the band Devo in 1973 - https://youtu.be/j_QLzthSkfM .

1949 - - Peter Doyle born in Melbourne, Australia. Initially a Vocalist with The Virgil Brothers, a Melbourne based Pop/R&B Trio, then singer from The New Seekers who had the 1972 UK No.1 and US No.7 & No.11 single 'I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing' and hits with 'You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me' ( No.4 ) and 'Beg, Steal or Borrow' ( No.25 ). Doyle died on 13th October 2001 aged 52 - https://youtu.be/z9Y1sY_IK14 .

1949 - Simon Kirke born in Lambeth, London, England. Drummer with Free, (1971 UK No.2 & US No.4 single 'All Right Now') then Bad Company (1974 UK No.15 single 'Can't Get Enough') - https://youtu.be/Pjaa_xuVpDs .

1949 - Steve Took born in Eltham, London, England. A percussionist, best known for his membership of the duo Tyrannosaurus Rex - T.Rex with Marc Bolan. Took died on 27th October 1980. His death certificate records the cause of death as being asphyxiation after inhaling a cocktail cherry - https://youtu.be/0wFjPy4IxME .

1952 - - Glenn A. Baker was born in Sydney, Australia. An Australian journalist, commentator, author and broadcaster well known in Australia for his vast knowledge of Rock music. He has written books and magazine articles on rock music and travel, interviewed celebrities, managed bands and promoted tours of international stars. In the mid-1980s, Baker took the BBC's "Rock Brain of the Universe" crown three times. Baker was the Australian editor of Billboard for over 20 years. A little-known detail may be that he managed Ol '55, a Sydney based 1950's-era Rock 'N' Roll band from 1975 - 2001 - https://youtu.be/OLYds-RcXh0 .

1954 - Guitarist Steve Morse is born in Hamilton, Ohio. After forming The Dixie Dregs, he joins Deep Purple in 1994.

1954 - The Crew-Cuts' cover of "Sh-Boom" hits #1 for the first of nine weeks in the US. It also peaked at #1 in - https://youtu.be/1_obmvfv050 .

1960 - Malcolm Holmes born. Best known for being the original drummer with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. In 2013 during at gig at the Danforth Music Hall, Toronto Canada, Holmes had a cardiac arrest and his heart stopped for over 3 minutes. The rest of the group thought he had died. Luckily a paramedic restarted his heart - https://youtu.be/EPmTGFg06zA .

1962 - Rachel Sweet born in Akron, Ohio. Singer, best known for her 1978 No.30 single 'B-A-B-Y' and the 1980 No.13, ‘I Go To Pieces’ - https://youtu.be/3mRAEZWa904 .

1963 - Guitarist Shaunna Hall, best known for her contributions to 4 Non Blondes ( No.2 with 1993 ‘What’s Up’) and George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic, is born - https://youtu.be/6NXnxTNIWkc .

1965 - Texas Axile born. Keyboardist with English group Transvision Vamp who had the 1989 & UK No.3 single 'Baby I Don't Care' - https://youtu.be/r26krlXFmOI .

1966 - Chris Farlowe and the Thunderbirds were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the Mick Jagger and Keith Richards song 'Out Of Time'. The song was first released on the Stones 1966 album Aftermath (UK version). It peaked at No.12 in - https://youtu.be/LMli47EQVWE .

1970 - - The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger makes his acting debut in Ned Kelly, a film about the legendary Australian outlaw, which makes his debut in Kelly's own hometown of Glenrowan.

1971 - George Harrison releases his song "Bangla Desh," which brings attention to the refugee crisis in that country. He performs it three days later at his Concert For Bangladesh, the first major rock fundraiser - https://youtu.be/eqaDRYDPU5s .

1973 - The "Summer Jam" concert takes place at Watkins Glen racetrack in New York, outdrawing Woodstock with a crowd of over 600,000. The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band, and The Band play to the massive crowd that paid $10 a ticket - if they bought one. After the soundchecks turn into a de facto concert for the many fans who showed up the night before, the Summer Jam gets officially underway. About 150,000 people have paid $10 each for a ticket, but few, if any, have their tickets collected. All other attendees get in for free. The concert goes on to enter The Guinness Book of World Records for the largest audience ever at a pop festival. Historians estimate that nearly one out of every three people aged 17-24 from Boston and New York are in attendance. Forty years later, cars abandoned by concertgoers are discovered by a maintenance crew. The Grateful Dead's So Many Roads (1965-1995), released in 1999, includes an 18-minute jam they played during sound check.

1973 - Deep Purple release "Smoke On The Water" as a single in America. The song, considered an add-on to fill space on the album, first appeared in March 1972 on Machine Head. By this time, lead singer Ian Gillan has quit the band - https://youtu.be/PaLYXq4lvW8 .

1979 - 'I Don't Like Mondays' gave The Boomtown Rats their second UK No.1 single (it also hits N.1 in ). Bob Geldof wrote the song after reading a report on the shooting spree of 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer, who fired at children playing in a school playground across the street from her home in San Diego, California. She killed two adults and injured eight children and one police officer. Spencer showed no remorse for her crime, and her full explanation for her actions was "I don't like Mondays, this livens up the day" - https://youtu.be/-Kobdb37Cwc .

1987 - The Ice-T album Rhyme Pays becomes the first hip-hop album to get a warning label for explicit lyrics.

1987 - - Kylie Minogue released a cover version of the Gerry Goffin and Carole King penned song 'The Loco-Motion' in Australia, as her debut single. Minogue had first performed the song at an impromptu performance at an Australian rules football charity event with the cast of the Australian soap opera Neighbours. The song reached No.1 in Australia and the success in her home country resulted in her signing a record deal with PWL Records in London, England - https://youtu.be/POWsFzSFLCE .

1990 - DeAndre Cortez Way (Soulja Boy) born in Chicago, Illinois. American rapper known for 2007 US No.1 and No.6 single 'Crank That (Soulja Boy)'.

1992 - Prince trademarks the male/female symbol he has been using on various album covers and promotional materials. He later re-designs the symbol and uses it as his name.

1993 - 10,000 Maniacs perform with lead singer Natalie Merchant for the last time at the birthday bash for New York radio station Z100 (Bon Jovi, Duran Duran, The Proclaimers and Terence Trent D'Arby are also on the bill). Merchant launches a successful solo career and the band soldiers on without her, bringing new lead singer Mary Ramsey into the fold.

1995 - After decades of legal wrangling, James Al Hendrix, surviving father of Jimi, is once again granted legal use of his son's name and likeness for merchandising.

1996 - Marge Ganser from The Shangri-Las died of breast cancer. The group scored over ten hits during the 60s including the 1964 US & No.1 'Leader Of The Pack' - https://youtu.be/Q8UKf65NOzM .

2000 - Guitarist Jerome Smith (of KC And The Sunshine Band) dies in a construction-site accident in Miami, Florida, at age 47 - https://youtu.be/w-l5FyA3pgo .

2004 - American soul singer George Williams from The Tymes died of cancer. Had the 1963 US million seller 'So Much in Love' and the 1975 UK No.1 single 'Ms Grace' (No.52 AU).

2014 - - Donald James Delbridge - a.k.a. Johnny Rebb was born on the 20th of March 1935 and died on the 28th of July 2014. A pioneering 50's Rock 'N' Roll singer dubbed the "Gentleman Of Rock", he was vocalist with Sydney based "Surf" band 'The Atlantics' that was active from 1961 - 1970 - https://youtu.be/PLiHvt3ZDSo .

2014 - Linda Ronstadt was honoured with a National Medal of Arts at the White House in Washington, D.C. The honour was a particularly special moment for Ronstadt, who didn't make it to her induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (in April of this year) since Parkinson's disease limited her ability to travel. The singer was brought into the East Room by wheelchair, but she walked onto the stage to receive her award - https://youtu.be/IsEwBzfdMnk .

2018 - Neil Diamond stops by the command post near his home in Basalt, Colorado, to play for firefighters and rescue personnel who have been battling wildfires in the area - https://youtu.be/bcIf57sAqBs .

2020 - The British music magazine Q publishes its last issue, ending a 34-year run.