This Day In Music - July 8

 This Day In Music - 8 July

1882 – - Australian born composer Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger) was born in Brighton, Colony of Victoria and died on the 20th of February 1961 in White Plains, New York, U.S.A. He lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. During a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. Although much of his work was experimental and unusual the piece with which he is most generally associated is his piano arrangement of the folk-dance tune "Country Gardens" - https://youtu.be/vR7MAVBvEHs .

1914 - Swing era bandleader Billy Eckstine is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Known for his 1948 rendition of "I Apologize" - https://youtu.be/oFVFkVyQGNQ .

1930 - Italian American singer Jerry Vale is born Genaro Louis Vitaliano in the Bronx, New York City. A singer and actor, during the 1950s and 1960s he reached the top of the pop charts with his interpretations of romantic ballads, including a cover of Eddy Arnold hit "You Don't Know Me" (1956) and "Have You Looked into Your Heart" (1964). Vale, who was of Italian descent, sang numerous songs in Italian, many of which were used in soundtracks by films of Martin Scorsese - https://youtu.be/gybMh2Vob00 .

1935 - Steve Lawrence is born Sidney Liebowitz in Brooklyn, New York City. A singer and actor, he was best known as a member of a duo with his wife Eydie Gormé, billed as "Steve and Eydie." Lawrence had success on the record charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s with such hits as "Go Away Little Girl" (U.S. #1), "Pretty Blue Eyes" (U.S. #9), "Footsteps" (U.S. #7), "Portrait of My Love" (U.S. #9), and "Party Doll" (U.S. #5). "Go Away, Little Girl" sold over one million copies and was awarded a Gold record - https://youtu.be/d9l--WWFwMg .

1940 - American bass player, songwriter, Joe B. Mauldin born. Best known as the bassist for the early rock and roll group The Crickets. He later became a recording engineer at Gold Star Studios, the Los Angeles studio which became the "hit factory" for Phil Spector, Brian Wilson and other major 1960s rock performers. Mauldin died on 7 Feb 2015 aged 74 - https://youtu.be/B-sOtEGMo0c .

1941 - - Leo de Kroo was born in Dordrecht, Netherlands. De Kroo moved to Western Australia (after a few years living in Indonesia), becoming an Australian pop and country music singer. For much of the 1960s he was a regular performer on Bandstand, a pop music TV show, hosted by Brian Henderson. De Kroo was one half of The De Kroo Bros (with his friend Doug Brewer who later changed his surname to De Kroo so they could take the stage name, as well as travel overseas, under the name of "The De Kroo Bros"). As The De Kroo Bros, they also appeared on other pop music shows. The “brothers” signed with Festival Records. In October 1961 The De Kroo Bros played as the support bill for the Cliff Richard and the Shadows Show tour of Australia and New Zealand, and with their new record company successfully reached a top 10 single on the national charts with "(And Her Name Is) Scarlet" (released 1963) which reached hit single status in in 1963, especially in the cities of Sydney (#4), Brisbane (#1), and Perth (#5). In addition, they had 4 other singles that all made it to the Australian Top 100. By 1965 Leo and Doug were so popular that the Australian Women's Weekly even included a "how-to" article on knitting a mohair Beatles style jacket just like those worn by the De Kroo "top pop boys". In 1987 Canetoad Records released a compilation album. In 1988 Festival Records also released a compilation album. Those compilation albums have tracks included that were not part of The De Kroo Bros singles releases - https://youtu.be/DFB7A8EcaMM .

1946 - Ava Gardner divorces bandleader Artie Shaw after one year of marriage. Her next husband is Frank Sinatra.

1954 - - Born Wendy Anne-Marie Stapleton, Wendy Stapleton of Wendy and The Rocketts was born in Melbourne, Vic. An Australian pop/rock singer-songwriter, musical theatre performer and television actress and presenter Stapleton has performed as a backing singer, session musician and a solo artist; she fronted various Melbourne-based groups including Wendy Stapleton Band (1976–1978) and Wendy & the Rocketts (1980–1985) which had a top 30 hit single with "Play the Game" in June 1983 - https://youtu.be/hK18g-SCrnM .

1954 - Dewey Phillips at WHBQ in Memphis becomes the first DJ to play an Elvis Presley song when he spins "That's Alright Mama" on his Red Hot & Blue show. Producer Sam Phillips took an acetate recording of Elvis Presley singing 'That's All Right' to the station and Dewey played the song just after 9.30 that evening, the phone lines lit up asking the DJ to play the song again, so Phillips keeps playing the song, giving Elvis some prime publicity early in his career.

1957 - Elvis Presley's "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" hits #1 in the day before it appears in his second film, Loving You. It holds the top spot for seven weeks - https://youtu.be/jf9Wg2OkSbE .

1958 - The first gold record album was presented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The award went to the soundtrack "Oklahoma!" for $1 million in sales. The Gold standard for albums is changed in 1975 to reflect sales of over 500,000. The first Gold single issued by the RIAA was 'Catch a Falling Star' by Perry Como in March of 1958. A Gold single represented sales of one million records - https://youtu.be/Srt_V-pnw4U .

1960 - Andy Fletcher born in Nottingham, England. Played bass, synth with English electronic band Depeche Mode. The group have had 50 songs in the Singles Chart and seventeen top 10 albums in the chart and have sold over 100 million records worldwide - https://youtu.be/_6FBfAQ-NDE .

1961 - Graham Jones born. Guitarist with Haircut 100. The band had four Top 10 hit singles between 1981 and 1982, including 'Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)', 'Love Plus One' and 'Fantastic Day' - https://youtu.be/G2cat4kykzI .

1965 - The Dave Clark Five's first movie, Having A Wild Weekend, opens in London. (For audiences, it's entitled Catch Us If You Can, after their hit of the same name.). Songs featured by the group in the movie included 'Catch Us If You Can,' 'Having a Wild Weekend' and 'I Can't Stand It' - https://youtu.be/6NfTwLuiPeA .

1966 - The Beatles released the ‘Nowhere Man’ 4-track EP in the , which included: ‘Drive My Car’, ‘Michelle’ and ‘You Won't See Me’. All four tracks were taken from The Beatles sixth studio album, Rubber Soul - https://youtu.be/kfSQkZuIx84 .

1967 - The Monkees began a 29-date tour with The Jimi Hendrix Experience as support act. Hendrix was dropped after six shows after being told his act was not suitable for their teenybopper audience.

1969 - Singer/actress Marianne Faithfull, girlfriend of Mick Jagger, attempts suicide with barbiturates while on the set of the film Ned Kelly (also starring Mick). She is dropped from the cast of the movie, eventually recovers, and when awaking from her coma, tells friends that "wild horses couldn't drag me away." The Rolling Stones song "Wild Horses" is built around that phrase - https://youtu.be/vu2C1tuLCFw .

1972 - Bill Withers' "Lean On Me" hits #1 in . The song endures as a message of compassion and goodwill; in 1989 it is used as the theme to the movie Lean On Me, about a troubled school and its no-nonsense principal. His only No.1 hit, it made No.18 in the and No. 42 in - https://youtu.be/fOZ-MySzAac .

1972 - Donny Osmond was at No.1 on the and singles charts with his version of the Paul Anka song 'Puppy Love.' His only solo No.1's - https://youtu.be/Mkn1kFmUW5E .

1973 - Led Zeppelin's fifth album Houses Of The Holy was on both the and album charts. The album spent a total of 39 weeks on the chart. The cover art for Houses Of The Holy was inspired by the ending of Arthur C. Clarke's novel Childhood's End. It is a collage of several photographs which were taken at the Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland, by Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis - https://youtu.be/TRt4hQs3nH0 .

1974 - David Bowie releases David Live, recorded at Tower Theatre in Philadelphia. It is Bowie's first official live album - https://youtu.be/q0cqMBFJcJQ .

1978 - Exile's "Kiss You All Over" was released - https://youtu.be/OpaCXtahXxk .

1978 - After a massive six months at #1, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack is finally bumped off the top spot by Gerry Rafferty's City To City - https://youtu.be/FajnV1ZTeaw .

1981 - The Go-Go's release their debut album, Beauty and the Beat. It reaches #1 in the , becoming the first by an all-girl band to do so - https://youtu.be/r3kQlzOi27M .

1995 - TLC started a seven-week run at No.1 on the singles chart with 'Waterfalls', the group's second No.1, a No.4 hit in and the - https://youtu.be/8WEtxJ4-sh4 .

1996 - Spice Girls release their debut single, "Wannabe," in the . It shoots to #1, setting Spice-mania in motion. As the single is released in and the it climbs to the #1 spot there as well - https://youtu.be/gJLIiF15wjQ .

1997 - Weezer fan club founders Mykel Allan, 31, and her sister Carli, 29, are killed along with their younger sister, Trysta, in a car accident in Colorado on the way back from one of the band's shows. The girls, who had befriended many up-and-coming Los Angeles-based bands, are honoured through many tribute songs, including Weezer's "Mykel and Carli" and Jimmy Eat World's "Hear You Me" - https://youtu.be/0nEOY4iELvo .

1998 - The Roy Orbison Estate filed a $12 million royalty suit against Sony Music Entertainment Inc.

2000 - "The Real Slim Shady" debuts at #1 in the , giving Eminem his first chart-topper on the Singles chart. He reaches #1 in with “Stan” in 2001 but doesn't reach #1 in until two years later (2002) with "Lose Yourself" - https://youtu.be/eJO5HU_7_1w .

2004 - Mark Purseglove known as the world's ‘biggest bootlegger’ was sentenced to 3 years 6 months jail by Blackfriars Crown Court. Purseglove had built up a £15 million pirate CD empire by bootlegging live concerts of some of the world's biggest stars including The Beatles, David Bowie and Pink Floyd.

2016 - Geri Horner, Emma Bunton and Mel B of the Spice Girls announce that they are forming a new group called GEM, which is what you want. What you really, really want.

2016 - Canadian rapper and singer Drake was at No.1 on the chart with his fourth studio album Views. His single, “One Dance” was No. 1 in . With Views, Drake also joined Adele, Michael Bublé and Taylor Swift as the only artists in the 2010s decade to have an album remain at No.1 on the Billboard 200 for six consecutive weeks - https://youtu.be/qL7zrWcv6XY .