Pick a Day

Music History Events: Births

August 24, 1924 Louis Teicher (of the piano-playing duo Ferrante & Teicher) is born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

August 20, 1924 Jazz vocalist Joya Sherrill is born in Bayonne, New Jersey. Known for "I'm Beginning to See the Light" with Duke Ellington's orchestra.

August 3, 1924 Gordon Stoker of Elvis Presley's backing group, The Jordanaires, is born in Gleason, Tennessee.

July 22, 1924 Margaret Whiting is born in Detroit, Michigan, but is raised in Los Angeles, California, where her dad, Richard, composes popular tunes such as "Hooray For Hollywood" and "On The Good Ship Lollipop." Modern listeners know her for her holiday duet with Johnny Mercer, "Baby It's Cold Outside."

July 7, 1924 Mary Ford is born Iris Colleen Summers in El Monte, California.

July 6, 1924 Jazz drummer Louie Bellson, famous for his work with Duke Ellington, is born in Illinois.

June 20, 1924 Chet Atkins, country musician and one of the architects behind the Nashville Sound, is born in Luttrell, Tennessee.

May 1, 1924 R&B singer Big Maybelle, known for the 1956 hit "Candy," is born Mabel Louise Smith in Jackson, Tennessee.

April 28, 1924 Jazz singer Blossom Dearie is born in East Durham, New York.

April 21, 1924 Gospel singer Clara Ward (leader of The Famous Ward Singers) is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

April 18, 1924 Blues musician Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown is born in Vinton, Louisiana.

April 16, 1924 Film composer Henry Mancini ("Moon River") is born Enrico Nicola Mancini in Cleveland, Ohio.

April 16, 1924 Rudy Pompilli (tenor saxophonist for Bill Haley & His Comets) is born in Chester, Pennsylvania.

March 27, 1924 Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan is born in Newark, New Jersey.

January 22, 1924 Jazz trombonist J.J. Johnson is born in Indianapolis, Indiana.

January 11, 1924 Bluesman Slim Harpo is born James Isaac Moore in Lobdell, Louisiana.

January 10, 1924 Jazz drummer Max Roach is born in North Carolina.

January 6, 1924 Bluegrass musician Earl Scruggs (The Bluegrass Boys, The Foggy Mountain Boys) is born near Boiling Springs, North Carolina.

October 16, 1923 Bert Kaempfert, orchestra leader and songwriter, is born Berthold Kämpfert in Hamburg, Germany. Wrote the music for "Strangers in the Night" and "Moon Over Naples."

October 10, 1923 Louis Gottlieb (bass violinist/bassist for The Limeliters) is born in Los Angeles, California.

September 17, 1923 Country musician Hank Williams is born Hiram King Williams in Mount Olive, Butler County, Alabama.

August 20, 1923 Country singer Jim Reeves is born in Galloway, Texas. Known for the 1957 hit "Four Walls."

August 8, 1923 Blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon is born in Gurdon, Arkansas.

July 31, 1923 Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder and president of Atlantic Records, is born in Istanbul, Turkey. Also a songwriter, he writes songs such as "Chains of Love" and "Sweet Sixteen" under the pseudonym A. Nugetre.

May 28, 1923 Gyorgy Ligeti, a contemporary classical music composer, is born in Transylvania, Romania.

May 4, 1923 Ed Cassidy (drummer for Spirit) is born in Harvey, Illinois.

April 30, 1923 Jazz bassist Percy Heath is born in Wilmington, North Carolina.

April 25, 1923 Blues guitarist Albert King is born on a cotton plantation in Indianola, Mississippi.

April 25, 1923 Lyricist Jerry Leiber, who will go on to pen several Elvis Presley hits with composing partner Mike Stoller, is born in Baltimore, Maryland.

April 20, 1923 Tito Puente, mambo musician and Latin jazz composer, is born Ernesto Antonio Puente in New York City.