Pick a Day

Music History Events: Births

September 29, 1935 Jerry Lee Lewis is born in Ferriday, Louisiana.

April 14, 1935 Loretta Lynn, a coal miner's daughter, is born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky. She overcomes poverty to become one of the most beloved and influential women in country music. "She blazed so many trails for all of us girls in country music," Miranda Lambert says.

February 16, 1935 Sonny Bono is born in Detroit. He finds success as a producer and record executive before marrying Cher, with whom he forms the duo Sonny & Cher. He is elected to Congress in California, where he serves until the time of his death.

January 8, 1935 The King is born: Elvis Aaron Presley arrives in Tupelo, Mississippi.

May 3, 1933 James Brown is born in Barnwell, South Carolina, raised in Augusta, Georgia. His '60s and '70s hits like "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" and "Funky Drummer" break new ground with a percussive soul sound that lays the foundation for hip-hop when they're heavily sampled in the '80s and '90s. He's also an electrifying performer whose dazzling stage moves are emulated by the likes of Michael Jackson and Prince.

April 29, 1933 Willie Nelson is born in Abbott, Texas.

February 21, 1933 Nina Simone is born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, where she begins playing the piano at age 3.

February 18, 1933 Yoko Ono is born in Tokyo, Japan. She becomes an artist in New York City's downtown scene and meets future husband John Lennon at one of her exhibits in the mid-'60s.

December 5, 1932 Richard Wayne Penniman, who will become known as Little Richard, is born in Macon, Georgia.

April 27, 1932 Casey Kasem, a DJ famous for hosting American Top 40 and for being the voice of Shaggy on Scooby-Doo, is born Kemal Amen Kasem in Detroit, Michigan.

February 26, 1932 Johnny Cash is born J.R. Cash in Kingsland, Arkansas, the fourth of seven kids. He starts using the name John R. Cash when he joins the Air Force in 1950 (they wouldn't accept initials), and becomes Johnny Cash when he signs with Sun Records in 1954. One of the most popular and influential musicians of his time, Cash gets inducted into the Country, Rock And Roll, Gospel and Songwriters hall of fames.

January 22, 1931 Sam Cooke is born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He grows up in Chicago, where at six years old he forms the group the Singing Children with his siblings.

September 23, 1930 Ray Charles is born Ray Charles Robinson in Albany, Georgia. Blinded by glaucoma by age 7, he becomes a transgressive musician, adding gospel elements to new forms of music that become known as soul and rock.

November 30, 1929 Dick Clark is born in Mount Vernon, New York. Dubbed the "world's oldest teenager," he becomes a cultural icon as the longtime host of American Bandstand and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.

November 28, 1929 Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr. is born in Detroit, Michigan.

May 12, 1929 Burt Bacharach is born in Kansas City, Missouri.More

February 5, 1929 Hal Blaine, the famous session drummer coined the term "Wrecking Crew" for the prolific group of Los Angeles studio musicians, is born in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

December 30, 1928 R&B and rock 'n roll icon Bo Diddley is born Ellas Otha Bates in McComb, Mississippi. He grows up on the South Side of Chicago, where he and his friends perform music on street corners.

February 26, 1928 Fats Domino is born Antoine Domino in New Orleans, Louisiana. One of nine children, he quickly masters the piano, taking the name Fats from piano great Fats Waller (and also, he's 5'5" and well over 200 pounds).

March 1, 1927 Harry Belafonte is born in Harlem, New York, but at age 8 moves to Jamaica (his mother's birthplace) with his family. The Belafontes move back to New York in the early stages of World War II; in the '50s, Harry becomes a top entertainer, his career buoyed by the calypso craze.

August 3, 1926 Tony Bennett is born Anthony Dominick Benedetto in Astoria, Queens, New York. In 1962, he will perform "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" for the first time, and it becomes his signature song.

January 3, 1926 Beatles producer George Martin is born in London. He signs the group to EMI in 1962 and his expertise as an arranger helps shape the band's unique sound. Upon Martin's death in 2016, Paul McCartney states: "If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle it was George."

September 16, 1925 Bluesman B.B. King is born Riley B. King near Berclair, Mississippi.

June 10, 1922 Judy Garland is born Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. A few years later, her family moves to California and she becomes a child star, playing Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz when she's 17.

April 3, 1922 Actress and singer Doris Day is born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff in Cincinnati, Ohio. She turns to singing when a car accident wrecks her dreams of becoming a professional dancer.More

December 15, 1921 Alan Freed is born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. At the Cleveland radio station WJW, he becomes the first white disc jockey to play upbeat rhythm and blues records north of the Mason Dixon line. At the time, they are called "race" records, but Freed calls the music "rock and roll." Freed attracts a large following on WJW, and his late-night radio show, the Moondog Rock 'n' Roll Party, helps increase the popularity of rhythm and blues and makes Cleveland a trendsetter in Midwestern pop culture.

June 7, 1917 Dean Martin is born Dino Paul Crocetti in Steubenville, Ohio. After teaming with Jerry Lewis in the popular comedy act Martin & Lewis, he becomes a top entertainer of the 1950s and 1960s, known for hits like "Memories Are Made Of This" and "That's Amore."

April 25, 1917 Jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald is born in Newport News, Virginia.

December 12, 1915 Frank Sinatra is born Francis Albert Sinatra in Hoboken, New Jersey.More

June 9, 1915 Les Paul, a key developer of the electric guitar, is born Lester William Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin.