Pick a Day

Born on December 8

2016 Still fecund at 73, Mick Jagger welcomes his eighth child, a son named Deveraux. The mother is Jagger's girlfriend, Melanie Hamrick.

1984 Country singer-songwriter Sam Hunt is born in Cedartown, Georgia. He has a huge hit in 2017 with "Body Like a Back Road," which sets a record with 34 weeks at #1 on the Country chart.

1982 Nicki Minaj is born Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty in Trinidad. With a panoply of flows and a striking visual presense, she signs with Lil Wayne's Young Money label and becomes the most popular female rapper in history, with over 100 chart placements, mostly features on tracks by the likes of Rihanna, Usher and Post Malone.

1979 Ingrid Michaelson is born in Staten Island, New York. The indie-pop singer finds acclaim through sync placements in commercials for Old Navy ("The Way I Am") and TV shows like Grey's Anatomy ("Keep Breathing") before going on to write the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical The Notebook.

1973 Corey Taylor, lead singer of Slipknot and Stone Sour, is born in Des Moines, Iowa. His traumatic childhood informs many of the lyrics he writes, which he delivers in a combination of screams, growls and clean melodic singing.

1972 Ryan Newell (lead guitarist for Sister Hazel) is born in Gainesville, Florida.

1966 Sinead O'Connor is born in Glenageary, County Dublin, Ireland. At 23 she takes the Prince-written "Nothing Compares 2 U" to #1 around the world, but she struggles with fame and soon becomes known less for her music and more for courting controversy, especially after she tears up a photo of the Pope on Saturday Night Live in 1992.

1966 Rapper Bushwick Bill (of Geto Boys) is born Richard Stephen Shaw in Jamaica.

1962 Marty Friedman (lead guitarist for Megadeth) is born in Washington, D.C. He picks up the guitar at age 14 after seeing Kiss in concert.

1959 Paul Rutherford (of Frankie Goes to Hollywood) is born in Liverpool, England.

1957 Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen is born in Hackney, London, England. He joins the band in 1982 as a replacement for Pete Willis.

1956 Warren Cuccurullo is born in Brooklyn, New York. He joins Duran Duran in 1985 to replace guitarist Andy Taylor. He learned of the vacancy while working on Taylor's solo album - before the rest of the band had been informed.

1950 Dan Hartman is born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. The "I Can Dream About You" singer also pens hits for other artists, including "Free Ride" for Edgar Winter Group and "Living In America" for James Brown.

1949 Ray Shulman (of Gentle Giant) is born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England.

1947 Gregg Allman (of The Allman Brothers Band) is born in Nashville, Tennessee.

1947 Geoff Daking (drummer for Blues Magoos) is born.

1944 George Baker is born Johannes Bouwens in Hoorn, Netherlands. His group George Baker Selection scores a hit with their debut single, "Little Green Bag," which is later revived in the Quentin Tarantino movie Reservoir Dogs in 1992.

1943 Graham Knight (original bass player for Marmalade) is born in Glasgow, Scotland.

1943 Jim Morrison is born James Douglas Morrison in Melbourne, Florida. He becomes lead singer of The Doors.

1941 Bobby Elliott (drummer for The Hollies) is born in Burnley, Lancashire, England.

1939 Jerry Butler (lead singer of The Impressions) is born in Sunflower, Mississippi. He moves to Chicago, where he sings in a church choir with future bandmate Curtis Mayfield.

1925 Jazz organist Jimmy Smith is born in Norristown, Pennsylvania. He helps popularize the Hammond B-3 electric organ in the '60s.

1925 Sammy Davis, Jr. is born in New York City. By the age of 3, he is a vaudeville performer alongside his father in the Will Mastin Trio. An all-around entertainer, he excels as a singer, actor and comedian, often performing with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin as part of The Rat Pack. His most famous song is "The Candy Man," a #1 hit in 1972.

1914 Floyd Tillman, forerunner of western swing and honky tonk, is born in Ryan, Oklahoma, and grows up in Post, Texas.

1828 Martha Ella Blocksom, subject of the song "Lorena," is born in Zanesville, Ohio.