3 FEBRUARY
In Music History
1947 Folk singer Melanie is born Melanie Safka in Queens, New York. She makes a big impact at Woodstock, where she plays on the muddy first day, inspiration for her song "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)."
1947 Dave Davies (lead guitarist for The Kinks) is born in Fortis Green, London, England.
1945 Johnny Cymbal is born John Hendry Blair in Ochiltree, Ayrshire, Scotland.
1943 Folk rocker Shawn Phillips is born in Fort Worth, Texas. He starts his music career as a session musician for Donovan.
1943 Dennis Edwards (of The Temptations) is born in Fairfield, Alabama. He replaces lead singer David Ruffin in 1968.
1943 Eric Haydock (original bass guitarist for The Hollies) is born in Stockport, Cheshire, England.
1941 Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra records "Amapola."
1940 Angelo D'Aleo (of Dion & The Belmonts) is born in the Belmont neighborhood of The Bronx, New York City.
1935 Blues rocker Johnny "Guitar" Watson is born in Houston, Texas.
1928 Pop singer Frankie Vaughan is born Frank Ableson in Liverpool, England.
1920 Actor/singer Russell Arms is born in Berkeley, California. In the '50s, he becomes a popular vocalist on the NBC series Your Hit Parade.
1809 German composer Felix Mendelssohn is born in Hamburg.
The Day The Music Died
1959Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson are killed in a plane crash. Don McLean would call it "The Day the Music Died" in his 1971 hit "American Pie."
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Featured Events
2013 Beyoncé invigorates the 2013 Super Bowl halftime show with a performance that reunites Destiny's Child.More
2003 Phil Spector is charged with murder after police are called to his 33-room mansion in Alhambra, California, and discover the actress Lana Clarkson dead from a gunshot wound.More
1989 "Wild Thing" by Tone Loc becomes the first rap single certified Platinum, with sales of over a million.
1976 David Bowie opens his US tour with a new persona: The Thin White Duke. He's dressed in a black-vested suit with slicked-back hair. Bowie later described the persona as "a nasty character indeed."
1960 Frank Sinatra launches the first fully artist-owned label, Reprise Records (pronounced "repreeze"), so he can own his own masters. Some of his cohorts, including Dean Martin and Rosemary Clooney, join the label, which is sold to Warner Brothers in 1963, where it becomes home to a number of famous acts, including Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell and Green Day.
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