25 DECEMBER
In Music History
1948 Country singer Barbara Mandrell is born in Houston, Texas. She would have her first #1 country hit with "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed" in 1978.
1948 Merry Clayton (named for Christmas) is born in New Orleans. A backup singer by trade, she is most famous for her incendiary vocal alongside Mick Jagger on "Gimme Shelter." She would later appear on the Coldplay song "Up & Up."
1945 Soul singer Steve Mancha, of 100 Proof (Aged in Soul), is born Clyde Darnell Wilson in Walhalla, South Carolina.
1945 Noel Redding (bassist for The Jimi Hendrix Experience) is born David Noel Redding in Folkestone, Kent, England.
1944 John Edwards, who in 1977 replaces Philippé Wynne in The Spinners, is born in St. Louis, Missouri.
1944 Henry Vestine aka The Sunflower (guitarist for Canned Heat) is born in Takoma Park, Maryland.
1943 Guitarist Trevor Lucas (of Fairport Convention) is born in Bungaree, Victoria, Australia. He learns to play the guitar to help with his dyslexia.
1937 O'Kelly Isley Jr., the eldest of The Isley Brothers, is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1934 R&B singer McKinley Mitchell, known for the 1962 hit "The Town I Live In," is born in Jackson, Mississippi.
1929 Billy Horton of The Silhouettes is born in Hickory, North Carolina.
1929 R&B singer Chris Kenner, who writes and sings the original version of "Land Of 1000 Dances," is born in Kenner, Louisiana (yes, his last name and birthplace are both Kenner).
1915 Pete Rugolo, jazz composer and arranger, is born Pietro Rugolo in San Piero Patti, Sicily, Italy, but moves to Santa Rosa, California, by age 5. Known for his work with big band leader Stan Kenton.
1913 Singer/actor Tony Martin is born Alvin Morris in San Francisco, California. A steady presence on the pop charts throughout the '40s and '50s, his biggest hits are 1940's "It's a Blue World" (#2) and 1949's "There's No Tomorrow" (#2).
1907 Jazz singer Cab Calloway is born Cabell Calloway III in Rochester, New York. He would grow up in Baltimore, Maryland.
Michael Jackson Rings Paul McCartney With Suggestion
1980Michael Jackson calls Paul McCartney to wish him Merry Christmas and suggest they write some songs together. They end up recording three duets together (including the lead single to Thriller), but their friendship ends when Jackson buys the publishing rights to McCartney's songs.
Read more25 DECEMBER
Featured Events
2024 Halftime of the Christmas Day NFL game between the Ravens and Texans is the "Beyoncé Bowl," a grand spectacle that rivals Super Bowl halftime shows. Queen Bey rides in on a horse and sings an abridged version of her Cowboy Carter album, with Post Malone and Shaboozey singing their parts, and her daughter Blue Ivy showing up for a "Texas Hold 'Em" hoedown.
2023 The second film adaptation of The Color Purple opens in theaters with Fantasia Barrino, who starred in the Broadway production in 2007, reprising her role as Celie, performed in the first film (1985) by Whoopi Goldberg. Halle Bailey, H.E.R., Jon Batiste and Ciara also appear in the film.
2016 George Michael dies of heart failure aged just 53 in bed at his riverside home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. He is found by his boyfriend, Australian hair stylist Fadi Fawaz.More
1994 Green Day play Madison Square Garden in New York City. It's quite a leap for the band, which had been playing small clubs at the beginning of the year. During the show, lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong performs wearing only socks and a strategically placed guitar.
1982 David Bowie and Bing Crosby's "The Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth," an unlikely duet broadcast five years earlier on Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas TV special, becomes an even more unlikely hit, reaching #1 in the UK.
1973 The Sting, a crime caper starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford as con men in 1930s Chicago, debuts in theaters. With Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" as its theme, the film's soundtrack goes to #1 and revives the ragtime genre.More
1954 Annie Lennox is born in Aberdeen, Scotland. In 1980 she forms Eurythmics with her ex-boyfriend Dave Stewart, and in 1992 she releases her first solo album, Diva, with the hits "Why" and "Walking On Broken Glass."
1946 Jimmy Buffett is born in Pascagoula, Mississippi. He's raised in Mobile, Alabama, but his true home will always be in "Margaritaville."More
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