Birthday’s, Marriages, Deaths and Arrests!

We lost Tom Petty today in 2017, he was only 66 years old.

1945

Don McLean is born in New Rochelle, New York.

1950

Rocker Mike Rutherford (of Genesis) is born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England.

1951

Sting is born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner in Wallsend, Northumberland, England. He earns his nickname when a fellow musician says he looks like a bee in his yellow-and-black striped sweater. He is working as a schoolteacher when his band The Police hit the big time.

1967

Bluegrass singer-songwriter Gillian Welch is born in New York City. She grows up in Los Angeles, where her adoptive parents, Ken and Mitzie Welch, write music for The Carol Burnett Show.

1967

The entire Grateful Dead are arrested for marijuana possession in San Francisco.

1970

Pink Floyd release their fourth album, Atom Heart Mother, in the UK. It becomes their first #1 album in that territory.

1971

Rod Stewart, still a member of the group Faces, goes to #1 in America with his mandolin-powered solo smash “Maggie May,” inspired by the woman who took his virginity.

1971

Rod Stewart’s LP Every Picture Tells A Story hits #1.

1976

Joe Cocker is the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, where he performs “Feelin’ Alright” with his nemesis impersonator, John Belushi.

1978

Gene Simmons’ self-titled solo album is certified Platinum.

1979

Regatta de Blanc is The Police’s second album release. It is even more successful than their debut and earns the band their first Grammy award in 1980. The French title loosely translates to “White Reggae.”

1981

The Police’s fourth album is the last in a sequence of four annual autumn releases. The title, Ghost in the Machine, is taken from a psychology book by Arthur Koestler and breaks their erstwhile tradition of giving their records French-sounding titles. It is a #2 hit in the US, led by the hit single “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.”

1982

“Jack And Diane,” a little ditty about two American kids growin’ up in the heartland, hits #1 in America. It’s the first and only #1 on the tally for John Cougar, who later reverts to his real name, John Mellencamp.

1982

Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett reunite with Genesis for a concert at the Milton Keynes Bowl in England to help pay off debts Gabriel accrued on his WOMAD tour.

1985

Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA tour ends with the last of four shows at Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles.

1989

After years of poorly received output, Neil Young returns to form with Freedom, his 17th studio album. Having ditched Geffen Records after years of problems, Young records Freedom with his original label, Reprise. The album features three songs (“Don’t Cry,” “Eldorado” and “On Broadway”) first released on the EP Eldorado earlier in the year.

1994

Following their Bridge School benefit performance in Mountain View, California, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers part ways with their original drummer, Stan Lynch. “Stan had lost all allegiance to us and was auditioning with other bands,” Petty explains. “I had the feeling he was only staying around for the money.” He is replaced by Average White Band drummer Steve Ferrone.

1999

David Bowie offers a virtual guided tour of the controversial art show “Sensation: Young British Artists From The Saatchi Collection” at davidbowie.com. The show includes Damien Hirst’s shark suspended in formaldehyde (titled “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”) and Tracey Emin’s tent (titled “Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995″).

2004

55-year-old Billy Joel marries Katie Lee, his third wife. She becomes a writer and TV personality while married to Joel, a union that lasts five years.