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Today in Music

April, 4

  • 2000 Mick Jagger returns to Dartford Grammar School in southeast England to open an arts center named in his honor.
  • 2000 Eight previously unreleased live tracks from Ben Harper are made available for purchase via Liquid Audio at 150 online retailers. Seven of the tracks are for purchase only, but the eighth, a live version of “Nobody’s Fault” recorded in Australia, is distributed for free.
  • 1998 Eric Clapton’s first album of regular studio material since 1989 makes an auspicious debut at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. “Pilgrim” (Duck/Reprise) ties the opening position of 1992’s “Unplugged,” which went on to reach No. 1.
  • 1992 Backup singer Dyane Buckelew, wife of guitarist Rick Derringer, gives birth to the couple’s first daughter, Mallory Loving. The child is born in Georgetown, S.C.
  • 1974 “Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones” opens as the first film with a quadraphonic soundtrack.
  • 1973 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “The Night the Lights Went out in Georgia,” Vicki Lawrence. Lawrence is probably best known as the look-alike to the star of “The Carol Burnett Show.” The song debuts at No. 100 on the Hot 100.
  • 1968 R&B star James Brown makes a national TV appeal for calm following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
  • 1965 Actor Robert Downey Jr. is born in New York, NY. Downey Jr. has penned more than 30 original songs, and his version of Charley Chaplin’s theme song, “Smile,” is included on the soundtrack to the film “Chaplin.”
  • 1964 The Beatles make music history by holding the top five places in the singles charts with: “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Twist and Shout,” “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Please Please Me.” The group also becomes the only to have three consecutive No. 1 songs (“Can’t Buy Me Love” took over the No. 1 spot from “She Loves You,” which succeeded “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”)
  • 1963 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “He’s So Fine,” The Chiffons. In 1976 the estate of songwriter Ronnie Mack wins a lawsuit against former Beatle George Harrison. A judge rules that Harrison subconsciously copied his No. 1 song “My Sweet Lord” from “He’s So Fine.”
  • 1960 Elvis Presley records “Are You Lonesome Tonight.”
  • 1939 Trumpeter Hugh Masekela is born in Wilbank, South Africa. His biggest pop hit is “Grazing in the Grass,” a No. 1 song for two weeks in 1968.
  • 1928 Writer/actor/dancer/singer Maya Angelou is born Margueritte Annie Johnson in St. Louis, Mo. She adopts the nickname Maya from the babytalk of her younger brother who called her either “My” or “Mine.”
  • 1915 Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) is born in Rolling Fork, Miss. The blues singer and guitarist is presented a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992.