08 May 1911
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music
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birth Robert Johnson, blues singer, guitarist. Influenced Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Eric Clapton, (Cream covered 'Crossroads) The Rolling Stones, ('Love In Vain'). Johnson died on 16th August 1938.
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08 May 1940
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music
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birth Ricky Nelson, US singer, (1958 US No.1 'Poor Little Fool', 1961 UK No.2 single 'Hello Mary Lou' plus over 30 US Top 40 hit singles). Played himself on his parent's US TV The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet.' Nelson died on 31st December 1985.
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08 May 1941
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music
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birth John Fred Gourrier, from John Fred and His Playboy Band, (1968 US No.1 & UK No.3 single 'Judy In Disguise'). Died on 15th April 2005 after a long battle with kidney disease aged 63.
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08 May 1943
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music
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birth Paul Samwell-Smith, The Yardbirds, (1965 UK No.3 and US No.6 single 'For Your Love').
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08 May 1943
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music
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birth Toni Tennille, The Captain and Tennille, (1980 US No.1 & UK No.7 single 'Do That To Me One More Time').
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08 May 1943
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music
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birth Danny Whitten, guitarist, singer, songwriter. Member of Neil Young's Crazy Horse and writer of 'I Don't Wanna Talk About It', covered by Rod Stewart, Rita Coolidge and Everything But The Girl. The Neil Young song The Needle and the Damage Done was written about Whittens heroin use (before he died of an overdose on Nov 18th 1972).
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08 May 1944
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music
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birth Bill Legend, T Rex, (1971 UK No.1 single 'Hot Love'. Plus over 20 other UK Top 40 singles).
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08 May 1947
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music
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birth Rick Derringer, producer, guitar, vocals, The McCoys, (1965 US No.1 & UK No.5 single 'Hang On Sloopy'), Edgar Winter Group, (1973 US No.1 & UK No.18 single 'Frankenstein').
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08 May 1951
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music
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birth Chris Frantz, drummer, Talking Heads, (1983 US No.9 single 'Burning Down The House', 1985 UK No.6 single 'Road To Nowhere').
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08 May 1951
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music
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birth Philip Bailey, vocals, Earth Wind and Fire, (1975 US No.1 single 'Shining Star', 1981 UK No.3 single 'Let's Groove') & solo, (1985 UK No.1 single 'Easy Lover' duet with Phil Collins).
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08 May 1954
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music
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BBC radio in the UK banned the Johnny Ray song Such a Night after listeners complain about its 'suggestiveness'. Ray was famous for his emotional stage act, which included beating up his piano, and writhing on the floor.
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08 May 1955
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music
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Tony Bennett was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Stranger In Paradise'. Based on a theme from Borodin's 1888 opera - 'Prince Igor'. The song was a hit in the 1953 Broadway show 'Kismet'.
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08 May 1955
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music
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birth Alex Van Halen, Van Halen, drums, (1984 US No.1 & UK No.7 single 'Jump').
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08 May 1964
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music
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The Beatles had held the No.1 position on the US singles chart for fourteen weeks with three No.1's in succession. 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' for seven weeks, 'She Loves You' for two weeks and 'Can't Buy Me Love', for five weeks.
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08 May 1964
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music
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birth Dave Rowntree, drummer, Blur, (1994 UK No.1 album 'Parklife' spent over 2 years on the UK chart, 1995 UK No.1 single 'Country House', plus over 12 other UK Top 40 singles).
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08 May 1965
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music
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The filming of the promotional film for Bob Dylans 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' took place at the side of the Savoy Hotel in London. Actors in the background were Allen Ginsberg and Bob Neuwirth. This became one of the first 'modern' promotional film clips, the forerunner of the music video. The original clip was actually the opening segment of D. A. Pennebaker's film, Don't Look Back, a documentary on Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of England. In the film, Dylan, who came up with the idea, holds up cue cards for the camera with selected words and phrases from the lyrics. The cue cards were written by Donovan, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Neuwirth and Dylan himself. While staring at the camera, he flipped the cards as the song played.
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08 May 1969
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music
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John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr signed a business management contract with Allen Klein and his company ABKCO, but Paul McCartney refused to sign, continuing to let the Eastmans represent his interests.
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08 May 1970
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music
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The Beatles twelfth and final album, 'Let It Be' was released, (it was recorded before 'Abbey Road' and originally to be called 'Get Back'). The album came in a deluxe-boxed edition with a 'Get Back' book.
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08 May 1972
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music
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birth Darren Hayes, singer, songwriter, Savage Garden, (1998 US No.1 & UK Top 5 single 'Truly Madly Deeply.' Solo 2002 UK No.8 single 'Insatiable').
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08 May 1974
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music
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UK keyboard player Graham Bond committed suicide after throwing himself under a London tube train at Finsbury Park station, aged 36. It took police two days to identify his body which was crushed beyond all recognition. Briefly a member of Blues Incorporated, a group led by Alexis Korner, before forming the Graham Bond Quartet, with a lineup of Bond on vocals and organ, Ginger Baker on drums and Jack Bruce on bass.
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08 May 1975
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music
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birth Enrique Iglesias, singer, (2000 US No.1 single 'Be With You', 2002 UK No.1 & US No.3 single 'Hero').
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08 May 1976
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music
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Abba scored their third UK No.1 single with 'Fernando', the song went on to become ABBA's biggest selling single, with sales over 10 million. And also on day Abba started a nine-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with their 'Greatest Hits' album.
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08 May 1976
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music
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BBC Radio 1 DJ Johnny Walker announced he was quitting the station after being told he must pretend to like The Bay City Rollers. More on Radio 1
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08 May 1976
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music
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Former lead singer of the Lovin Spoonful John Sebastian went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Welcome Back', taken from the US TV show 'Welcome Back Kotter'.
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08 May 1976
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music
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birth H, (Ian Watkins), vocals, Steps, (1998 UK No.1 single 'Heartbeat / Tragedy', 1999 UK No.1 album 'Steptacular' spent over a year on the UK chart).
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08 May 1976
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music
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birth Martha Wainwright, Canadian / American, singer-songwriter, daughter of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle and sister of Rufus Wainwright. Appeared on recordings by her family members and has released several independent EPs. Her full length self-titled debut was released in 2005.
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08 May 1977
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music
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Born on this day in New Hartford, New York, blues rock guitarist and singer Joe Bonamassa, who has released nine studio albums as well as being a member of Black Country Communion.
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08 May 1978
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music
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birth Ana Maria Lombo, Eden's Crush, (2001 US No. 8 single 'Get Over Yourself').
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08 May 1982
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music
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Neil Bogart died of cancer at the age of 39. Bogart was the founder of Casablanca Records, with Peter Guber, home of Donna Summer, The Village People, Kiss, T.Rex and Joan Jett.
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08 May 1982
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music
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Paul McCartney scored his fifth UK No.1 album with 'Tug Of War'. The album featured the duet with Stevie Wonder 'Ebony & Ivory', which was inspired by McCartney hearing comedian Spike Milligan say "black notes, white notes, and you need to play the two to make harmony, folks!", (the ebony (black) and ivory (white) keys on a piano).
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08 May 1982
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music
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Vangelis went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Chariots Of Fire', his only US No.1. Vangelis was accused of plagiarising 'Chariots of Fire' from a song by fellow Greek composer Stavros Logaridis called 'City of Violets'. Vangelis won in court by convincing the judge to allow him to bring his keyboard setup into the court to demonstrate his method of composing by improvising new music.
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08 May 1984
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music
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Roger Waters released his first solo album The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking. The concept album, as originally envisioned by Waters in 1977, rotated around a man's thoughts during a midlife crisis, and featured guest musicians Eric Clapton on guitar, David Sanborn on saxophone and Michael Kamen on piano.
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08 May 1985
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music
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birth Matt Jay, Busted, (2003 UK No.1 single 'You Said No', 2002 UK No.2 album, 'Busted').
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08 May 1993
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music
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Aerosmith entered the US album chart at No.1 with 'Get A Grip', a No.2 hit in the UK. The album went on to sell over 20 million copies worldwide as well as winning the band two Grammy awards.
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08 May 1993
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music
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Mark Knopfler received an honorary music doctorate from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
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08 May 1996
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music
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A Los Angeles judge ruled against Tommy Lee and wife Pamela Anderson in their bid to keep Penthouse magazine from publishing still photos from an X-rated home movie that was stolen from their home.
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08 May 1999
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music
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Ricky Martin went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Livin' La Vida Loca'. The song spent 5 weeks at No.1.
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08 May 2005
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music
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Bruce Springsteen was at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Devils and Dust' his 13th No.1 studio album.
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08 May 2006
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music
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The Rolling Stones called off their forthcoming European tour after guitarist Keith Richards underwent emergency brain surgery. The 62 year-old guitarist suffered "mild concussion" when he fell out of a coconut tree on holiday in Fiji.
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08 May 2008
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music
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American Country artist Eddy Arnold died of natural causes, one week before his 90th birthday. He sold more than 85 million records and had 147 songs on the US charts, including 28 number one hits on Billboard's Country Singles chart. He was once managed by Colonel Tom Parker (who later managed Elvis Presley). Arnold had the 1965 US No.4 hit, Make The World Go Away.
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08 May 2013
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music
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Ja Rule was released from prison after serving nearly two years on gun and tax evasion charges. The rapper was let out of a prison in Ray Brook, New York, but would remain under house arrest until 28 July. The 37-year-old pleaded guilty to not filing tax returns over a five-year period in 2011 and attempted criminal possession of a weapon the year before. He was sentenced to 28 months in prison after failing to pay $1.1m (£710,319) in taxes between 2004 and 2008. The rapper was also sentenced to two years in prison for possessing a semi-automatic handgun, which police found hidden in his car after a concert in New York in 2007.
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08 May 2013
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music
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A painting by Fernand Leger owned by Madonna sold for $7.2 million (£4.7m) in New York. The singer bought the 1921 Cubist work, Three Women at the Red Table, in 1990 for $3.4m (£2.2m). According to Sotheby's, proceeds from the sale "would benefit Madonna's Ray of Light Foundation, supporting girls' education projects in the Middle East and South Asia".
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08 May 2014
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music
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Chuck Berry was named as one of the 2014 Polar Music Prize laureates. A spokesperson from the award committee said: "In the course of three minutes he conjures up an image of the everyday life and dreams of a teenager, often with the focus on cars. Chuck Berry, born in 1926, was the first to drive up onto the highway and announce that we are born to run."
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