Born On This Day In Music,

April 3rd

1985 – Leona Lewis
British singer, songwriter Leona Lewis, singer, winner of the third UK series of the The X Factor who had the 2006 UK No.1 single ‘A Moment Like This’. The download single set a world record, by being downloaded over 50,000 times within 30 minutes of being available online.

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1974 – Drew Shirley
Drew Shirley, guitarist for Switchfoot is born in Key West, Florida.

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1970 – Matthew Priest
Matthew Priest, from English power pop rock trio Dodgy who had the 1996 UK No.4 single ‘Good Enough’.

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1968 – Sebastian Bach
Sebastian Bach, from American heavy metal band Skid Row. The group achieved commercial success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with its first two albums Skid Row (1989) and Slave to the Grind (1991) the latter of which reached No.1 on the Billboard chart.

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1968 – Jamie Hewlett
Jamie Hewlett, English comic book artist and designer. He is best known for being the co-creator of the comic Tank Girl and co-creator of the virtual band Gorillaz with Blur’s Damon Albarn.

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1962 – Simon Raymonde
English musician Simon Raymonde, from Cocteau Twins. The group released the album Heaven or Las Vegas in late 1990 which became the most commercially successful of their many recordings.

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1962 – Mike Ness
Mike Ness, American guitarist, vocalist, and chief songwriter for the punk rock band Social Distortion.

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1961 – Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy, Golden Globe Award-winning American actor and comedian. Regular cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1980 to 1984. Appeared in the 2006 motion picture musical Dreamgirls. Scored the 1986 US No.3 single, ‘Party All The Time.’

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1949 – Richard Thompson
English singer, songwriter, and guitarist Richard Thompson who was a member of Fairport Convention and is now a solo artist. Thompson was awarded the Orville H. Gibson Award for best acoustic guitar player in 1991 and his songwriting has earned him an Ivor Novello Award. Thompson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to music.

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1946 – Dee Murray
English bass guitarist Dee Murray best known as a member of Elton John’s band. He first appeared with John on the 1970 album Tumbleweed Connection and the milestone albums Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. Murray and drummer Nigel Olsson were also members of the Spencer Davis Group in 1969 and during the Eighties Murray continued working as a session musician. Murray died on 15 January 1992 after suffering a stroke aged 45.

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1944 – Barry Pritchard
Barry Pritchard, guitar, vocals, from English harmony beat group The Fortunes, who had the 1965 UK No.2 & US No.7 single ‘You’ve Got Your Troubles’ and the hits ‘Here It Comes Again and ‘Storm in a Teacup’. Pritchard died on 11th January 1999.

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1944 – Tony Orlando
Tony Orlando, singer from American pop music group Dawn who were popular in the 1970s. Their signature hits include ‘Candida’, ‘Knock Three Times‘, and ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree’.

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1943 – Richard Manuel
Richard Manuel, Canadian composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as a pianist, lead singer, and occasional drummer of the Band. He joined Ronnie Hawkins’s backing group, the Hawks when he was 18. The Band had the 1969 US No.25 single ‘Up On Cripple Creek’, and the 1970 UK No.16 single ‘Rag Mama Rag’. Manuel committed suicide on March 1986 after a gig at the Cheek to Cheek Lounge in Winter Park, Florida.

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1942 – Wayne Newton
Wayne Newton is born Carson Wayne Newton in Norfolk, Virginia.

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1941 – Jan Berry
Jan Berry, who with Jan and Dean, had the 1963 US No.1 & UK No.26 single ‘Surf City’, co-written by The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson. Berry died on 26th March 2004 after being in poor health from the lingering effects of brain damage after a 1966 car crash.

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1938 – Jeff Barry
Jeff Barry, songwriter. Wrote ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’, ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’, ‘Be My Baby’, ‘Baby I Love You’, ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy.’

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1938 – Phillip Wynne
Phillippe Wynne, from American rhythm and blues vocal group the Detroit Spinners who had the 1980 UK No.1 & US No.2 single ‘Working My Way Back To You’. Wynne died on 14th July 1984 after he suffered a heart attack performing at Ivey’s nightclub in Oakland, California the previous night.

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1928 – Don Gibson
American songwriter and country musician Don Gibson who wrote such country standards as ‘Sweet Dreams’ and ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’. Neil Young covered his ‘Oh Lonesome Me’ on his After The Gold Rush album. Gibson died on 17th November 2003 aged 75.

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1924 – Doris Day
American actress, singer, and animal welfare activist Doris Day. She starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s suspense film, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) with James Stewart and sang two songs in the film, ‘Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be), which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song and ‘We’ll Love Again’. She died on 13 May 2019 age 97.

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