1999 Belgian producer Mike Dellanay is killed in a car accident while traveling to MIDEM. He is 40. Brussels-based Dellanay had a 15-year career as a bass player and producer, and ran his own company, Peanuts Productions. He was a former member of the group Kiwi.
1998 Justin Tubb, son of late Country Music Hall of Fame member Ernest Tubb, dies early in the morning following surgery for an aortic aneurysm.
1994 David Cole, who went from being a New York club DJ to superstar producer, dies of complications from spinal meningitis at age 32. Along with Robert Clivilles, Cole produced hits by Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin before bursting onto the pop music scene as the duo C+C Music Factory with the 1991 smash “Gonna Make You Sweat.”
1992 Greg McPherson, a music professor at the University of Massachusetts, files a $21 million lawsuit against New Kids on the Block manager Maurice Starr saying he wasn’t paid for his work on the group’s “Hangin’ Tough Live” album. McPherson also charges that the New Kids only sang 20 percent of their own vocals and lip-synched in concert.
1992 Composer Ken Darby dies of heart problems in Sherman Oaks, Calif., at age 82. He adapted music for such films a “The King and I” and “Camelot,” winning three Academy Awards. He also wrote the Elvis Presley hit “Love Me Tender.”
1974 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “You’re Sixteen,” Ringo Starr. Former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney sings a brief solo on the song.
1969 Jethro Tull opens its first U.S. tour in New York.
1962 Brian Epstein signs a management contract with the Beatles.
1949 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “A Little Bird Told Me,” Evelyn Knight & the Stardusters.
1941 Neil Diamond is born in Brooklyn, N.Y. He scores three No. 1 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100, the biggest of which is the 1978 duet “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” with Barbra Streisand. He stars in and composes the music for “The Jazz Singer” in 1980. He writes the No. 1 songs “I’m a Believer,” recorded by the Monkees, and “Red Red Wine,” recorded by UB40.
1939 Singer/songwriter Ray Stevens is born. Best known as a novelty singer, Stevens lands his first top 40 song in 1961 with “Jeremiah Peabody’s Poly Unsaturated Quick Dissolving Fast Acting Pleasant Tasting Green and Purple Pills.” His two No. 1 songs are “Everything Is Beautiful” in 1970 and “The Streak” in 1974.
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