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Today in Music

April, 7

  • 1998 Carlos Vega, a Los Angeles drummer best known for his work with James Taylor, dies of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
  • 1995 Airport police seize a loaded pistol from Eddie Van Halen’s carry-on luggage. No charges are filed against the guitarist.
  • 1974 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “Bennie and the Jets,” Elton John. The song is first released as the B-side to “Candle in the Wind,” an ode to Marilyn Monroe.
  • 1970 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “Let It Be,” The Beatles. The song enters the Hot 100 at No. 6, higher than any previous entry on Billboard’s pop singles chart.
  • 1968 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “Honey,” Bobby Goldsboro.
  • 1951 Folk star Janis Ian (Janis Eddy Fink) is born in New York City. She has a No. 3 hit in 1975 with “At Seventeen.”
  • 1920 Sitarist Ravi Shankar is born.
  • 1915 Jazz singer Billie Holiday (Eleanor Gough) is born in Baltimore. She is posthumously given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987 and three of her recordings receive Grammy Hall of Fame Awards: “Strange Fruit” (1939 recording), “God Bless the Child” (1941) and “Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)” (1945). The 1972 film “Lady Sings the Blues” is based on her life.