Here is the last of the Birthdays. This is my final post until the 26th so a Merry Christmas to those who celebrate and Happy Holidays to you all. Thanks for reading my posts this year.
Born in December (21-31)
December 21
Soul singer Carla Thomas was born on this day, she was a prominent part of the Memphis music scene and recorded a duet album with Otis Redding. Best known for “B-A-B-Y.” in 1966.
British guitarist Albert Lee turns 80 and is known as Mr. Telecaster, he has been sought out to provide his considerable talents for many recordings and live performances. He has played with everyone but I have one little anecdote, Dave Edmunds whom I have mentioned perhaps too many times (twice in the post today) is one of the best guitarists in Pop Rock history. However, the only person he knew that could play a key solo part of his original recording of “Sweet Little Lisa” (1979) was Albert Lee, who would cover the song himself in 1982.
Also on this day we have Carl Wilson, guitarist from The Beach Boys who would have turned 78, experimental Rock pioneer Frank Zappa would have been 83 and George Treadwell was a trumpeter turned Manager for his wife of 10 years, Sarah Vaughan to then managing The Drifters and Ruth Brown.
December 22
Maurice and Robin Gibb would have turned 74, there’s likely a dedicated post coming for the Bee Gees who have sold an estimated 220 million albums worldwide since their first release in 1965. This British trio (with older brother Barry) were born on the Isle of Man and spent some time living in Australia before returning to England as one of the most successful groups in Popular Music history. Also I guy I met at a Paul Carrack gig is the singer and songwriter Eddie Schwartz turns 73 today, he most notably wrote “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” (Pat Benatar), “Don’t Shed a Tear” (Paul Carrack) and a #1 Mainstream Rock Chart hit “The Doctor” by The Doobie Brothers in 1989.
December 23
A busy day today! We have Luther Grosvenor of Spooky Tooth and Mott the Hoople, Adrian Belew of King Crimson, Anthony Phillips guitarist of Genesis, Vocalist and guitarist Victoria Williams who share a birthday and her “Crazy Mary” was covered by Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam, Eugene Booker Record of the Chi-Lites, Frederick Heath was Johnny Kidd (and the Pirates), Buddy Harman the great session drummer and one of my favorites, Chet Baker, the troubled yet sublime trumpeter, composer and vocalist was a key figure in the West Coast Jazz scene.
December 24
Guitarist John Till (The Hawks, Janis Joplin), Mary Ramsey (10,000 Maniacs), Ricky Martin, Lee Dorsey (Ya-Ya) and Dave Bartholomew who brought us so many hits including “Ain’t That a Shame” and “I Hear You Knocking”.
December 25
Statistically in Canada and the US it’s the date with the fewest birthdays but there are quite a few musicians, so I won’t list all that I found. Bob James wrote the theme for the TV show Taxi, John Edwards who played with the popular UK group Status Quo, Blues guitarist Joe Louis Walker, Shane MacGowan of The Pogues, Country singer Barbara Mandrell, Pop singer Dido, Annie Lennox the multi award winning singer and writer had hits with The Eurythmics and Solo such as “No More ‘I Love You’s‘”, Alannah Myles had a #1 Billboard hit with “Black Velvet“, son of Willie, Lukas Nelson and “Minnie the Moocher” himself the great Cab Calloway, he was a guest star in The Blues Brothers Movie, and lastly the king of the Parrotheads, Mr. Margaritaville, the late Jimmy Buffett.
December 26
Born in Ontario, grew up in Quebec but became a Country Music singer in the US is Ronnie Prophet, Lars Ulrich of Metallica, James Mercer of The Shins, Bob Carpenter with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Chris Daughtry.
December 27
Bass player Neil Merryweather (Rick James, Steve Miller, The Merryweathers), singer Hayley Williams, Marlene Dietrich, Scottie Moore was Elvis Presley’s first guitar player, Mike Pinder is the Mellotron player from The Moody Blues, the sound is often mistaken for string, flute and other instruments and it was a big part of the Progressive Rock scene that includes Genesis, Camel, ELO, David Bowie and King Crimson. Pinder introduced the Mellotron to John Lennon and you can hear it played by Paul McCartney in “Strawberry Fields“, then we have Mick Jones of Foreigner, Dire Straits David Knopfler who is Mark’s younger brother.
December 28
Rock keyboardist Edgar Winter, R&B pioneer Johnny Otis “Willie and the Hand Jive”, the multi talented John Legend, Jazz drummer Ed Thigpen, Rockabilly singer Dorsey Burnette and Country singer Joe Diffie.
December 29
Marianne Faithfull was born on this day, despite a tumultuous life and career she was a significant part of the Rock and Folk music scene in the 1960’s, she was the first to release “As Tears Go By” and it hit top 10 in the UK, influential Guitarist and Vocalist Rick Danko was a member of The Hawks, Bob Dylan’s band later to be known as The Band, PhD candidate Dexter Holland had too much success in the Punk Revival scene with The Offspring, however he did defend his thesis and in 2017 gained his Doctorate in Molecular Biology, Marco Antonio Solís of the well known Mexican group Los Bukis, I had the good fortune to see Matt “Guitar” Murphy perform, he was one of the most gifted Blues Guitarists’ and he was also a band member in The Blues Brothers Movie, another guy from The Moody Blues, multi instrumentalist and composer Ray Thomas, the very talented Yvonne Elliman is best known for her #1 hit song “If I Can’t Have You” (1977), Glenn Phillips of Toad and the Wet Sprocket. I would be remiss if I did not mention one of history’s most gifted Cellists, Pau Casals i Defilló, known more popularly in Spanish as Pablo (Pau) Casals who was born in 1876 (-1973). I have family ties with his native Catalonia (El Vendrell), Spain. The above link is a very touching performance to listen to, also of note his truly ground breaking Bach Six Cello Suites was selected by the Library of Congress in 2019.
December 30
Michael Nesmith of The Monkeys is the composer of many songs such as “Different Drum” which was a hit for Linda Ronstadt and The Stone Poneys in 1967, his bandmate Davy Jones was also born on this day, Punk Rock pioneer Patti Smith turns 77, Country artists Skeeter Davis and Suzy Bogguss, the multi talented Tracey Ullman, Rock and Roll Legend Del Shannon who I saw play when he toured with Dave Edmunds, John Hartford wrote and recorded “Gentle on My Mind” before Glen Campbell turned into a big hit winning four Grammy Awards, another Rock and Roll and R&B pioneer Bo Diddley and Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary, one of the most prominent groups of the 60’s Folk Music scene. A day that’s heavy on the notable names we also have Jeff Lynn who formed Electric Light Orchestra and composed some of the most memorable songs of the 1970’s and 80’s.
December 31
For the last day of the calendar we have another impressive list of names, Disco Queen Donna Summer, several Guitarists such as Andy Summers of The Police, Michael Hedges and Pete Quaife of The Kinks, Blues and Folk legend Odetta, Jule Styne was one of the best Composers of the 20th Century and Burton Cummings who I have had the pleasure of seeing many times is a composer, actor and lead vocalist of the iconic band The Guess Who that sold millions of records from the late 1960’s thru to the mid 70’s, then we have the great singer, songwriter and guitarist John Denver who sold over 33 million records with memorable hits such as “Annie’s Song” and “Sunshine on My Shoulders“, not to mention the covers of his songs like “Leaving on a Jet Plane” by the above noted Peter, Paul & Mary.
Mostly Music Covers 