8 MARCH
In Music History
1947 Songwriter Carole Bayer Sager is born in Manhattan, New York City.
1946 Randy Meisner (bassist for Poco, Eagles) is born in Scottsbluff, Nebraska.
1945 Micky Dolenz (drummer, vocalist for The Monkees) is born George Michael Dolenz, Jr. in Los Angeles, California.
1943 Shel Macrae (of The Fortunes) is born Andrew Raeburn Semple in Burnbank, Scotland.
1942 Ralph Ellis (guitarist for The Swinging Blue Jeans) is born in Liverpool, England.
1927 Jazz pianist/composer Dick Hyman is born in New York City.
1869 French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz dies aged 65. He is best known for his 1830 dream-like Symphonie fantastique.
Superunknown And The Downward Spiral Released The Same Day
1994Two seminal albums from the '90s are released: Soundgarden's Superunknown and Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral. They enter the albums chart at #1 and #2, respectively.
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Featured Events
2003 50 Cent's first single, "In Da Club," tops the Hot 100 for the first of nine weeks. The bumpin' beat comes from 50's producer, Dr. Dre, who is also his label boss.
1973 Grateful Dead keyboard player Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, a founding member of the band, dies at age 27.More
1970 Diana Ross performs for the first time as a solo artist, starting an 11-night engagement at the Monticello in Framingham, Massachusetts, where she hones her act for her Las Vegas debut in May. She left The Supremes two months earlier.
1969 The Small Faces break up when lead singer Steve Marriott leaves the band. Marriott forms Humble Pie, and the remaining members rechristen themselves The Faces after adding new lead singer Rod Stewart and guitarist Ron Wood.
1969 "Happy Birthday" becomes the first song to be performed in outer space when the astronauts on Apollo IX sing it to celebrate the birthday of the director of NASA space operations, Christopher Kraft.
1963 The Four Tops get a $400 advance to sign with Motown. They spend the rest of the year singing backup for other acts, including The Supremes.
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