Pick a Day

Music History Events: Births

October 1, 1913 Producer/composer Charles Randolph Grean is born. Wrote the popular 1950 novelty song "The Thing."

August 23, 1913 Bob Crosby, Dixieland bandleader and swing singer (of the Bob-Cats), is born in Spokane, Washington. He is one of seven siblings, one of them another famous entertainer: Bing Crosby.

July 15, 1913 Country singer Cowboy Copas is born Lloyd Estel Copas in Blue Creek, Ohio.

July 5, 1913 R&B singer and guitarist Smiley Lewis, known for the 1955 hit "I Hear You Knocking," is born Overton Amos Lemons in DeQuincy, Louisiana.

June 22, 1913 Pop singer Dotty Todd is born Doris Dabb in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She and her husband will form the '50s singing duo Art and Dotty Todd, known for the UK hits "Broken Wings" and "Chanson D'Amour."

May 16, 1913 Woody Herman, jazz clarinetist and saxophonist, is born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

April 13, 1913 Western Swing fiddler "Pappy" Wade Ray is born in Evansville, Indiana.

April 4, 1913 Chicago blues legend Muddy Waters is born McKinley Morganfield in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.

March 30, 1913 Frankie Laine is born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio in Chicago.

January 26, 1913 Composer Jimmy Van Heusen, who teams with lyricist Sammy Cahn to write a number of hits, including "Come Fly With Me" for Frank Sinatra, is born Edward Chester Babcock in Syracuse, New York.

January 25, 1913 Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski is born.

January 17, 1913 Jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Vido Musso is born in Carini, Italy.

December 5, 1912 Blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson, author of "Eyesight To The Blind" and "One Way Out," is born Alex "Rice" Miller in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. This is the date he claims he was born, but his headstone (erected 12 years after his death) reads March 11, 1908. He became Sonny Boy Williamson after impersonating another blues musician with that name, and is often referred to as Sonny Boy Williamson II so they don't get mixed up.

November 24, 1912 Jazz pianist Teddy Wilson is born in Austin, Texas. He works with a host of influential performers, including Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, and Lena Horne.

October 31, 1912 Western singer-songwriter Dale Evans is born Lucille Wood Smith (changed to Frances Octavia Smith soon after) in Uvalde, Texas. She meets screen partner Roy Rogers in 1944 and the pair marry in 1947.

October 25, 1912 Country comedian and Hee Haw regular Minnie Pearl is born Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon in Centerville, Hickman County, Tennessee.

September 5, 1912 Experimental composer John Cage is born in Los Angeles, California. Known for his composition "4'33," in which musicians were present but did not play their instruments. Instead, environmental sounds provided the music for the piece.

August 23, 1912 Song-and-dance man Gene Kelly is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

July 5, 1912 Prolific songwriter Mack David, known for his work on Disney films such as Cinderella and Alice In Wonderland, is born in New York City. His younger brother is songwriter Hal David, known for his collaborations with Burt Bacharach.

May 18, 1912 Perry Como is born Pierino Ronald Como in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. One of the most popular crooners of the 1940s and 1950s, he also starred in a number of movies and made many TV appearances.

May 13, 1912 Jazz musician Gil Evans is born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

April 2, 1912 Jazz singer Herbert Mills (of The Mills Brothers) is born in Piqua, Ohio.

March 24, 1912 Novelty singer Nervous Norvus (Jim Drake) is born in Memphis. He has a hit with "Transfusion" in 1956.

March 15, 1912 Country blues singer/songwriter Lightnin' Hopkins is born in Centerville, Texas.

March 14, 1912 Les Brown, known for his Band of Renown during the big-band era, is born in Reinerton, Pennsylvania.

February 2, 1912 Burton Lane, known for composing the music for the Broadway productions of Finian's Rainbow (1947) and On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965), is born Morris Hyman Kushner in New York City.

December 15, 1911 Jazz pianist/composer Stan Kenton is born in Wichita, Kansas.

December 14, 1911 Spike Jones is born Lindley Armstrong Jones in Long Beach, California. He allegedly earns his nickname for being so thin, like a railroad spike.

November 12, 1911 Trumpet player Buck Clayton is born in Kansas.

November 5, 1911 Cowboy singer and film star Roy Rogers is born Leonard Franklin Slye in Cincinnati, Ohio.