July 24th: Born On This Day In Music

1990 – Jay McGuiness
British singer, songwriter Jay McGuiness with boy band The Wanted. Their debut single, ‘All Time Low’, topped UK Singles Chart.

1982
Tord Øverland Knudsen, bass, keyboards for English indie rock band The Wombats.

1973
Mecca, Digable Planets, (1993 UK No. 67 single ‘Rebirth Of Slick’).

1969 – Jennifer Lopez
American singer, actress, and dancer Jennifer Lopez. She scored the 2001 UK No.1 single ‘Love Don’t Cost A Thing’, and the 2001 US No.1 single ‘I’m Real’. For her first leading role in Selena (1997), she became the first Hispanic actress to earn over $1 million for a film. She went on to star in Anaconda (1997) and Out of Sight (1998), and established herself as the highest-paid Hispanic actress in Hollywood.

1961
Paul Geary, drummer with, Extreme who had the 1991 US No.1 & UK No.2 single ‘More Than Words’). Geary is now a manager working with The Smashing Pumpkins, Creed, The Scorpions, Fuel, Steel Panther, Jason Bonham and others.

1958
Mick Karn, bass, sax, Japan, (1982 UK No.5 single ‘Ghosts’).

1957
Larry Gott, guitarist from English rock band James who scored the 1991 UK No.2 single ‘Sit Down’ and the hits ‘Laid’ and ‘Come Home’.

1957
Country music singer-songwriter and actress, Pam Tillis, (the daughter of country music singer Mel Tillis). She scored the 1991 hit ‘Don’t Tell Me What to Do’, and has since charted more than 30 singles on the US country charts, including her only No.1 single, 1995’s ‘Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life)’.

1953
American musician and guitarist Gary Shider. He was musical director of the P-Funk All-Stars and as a member of Parliament-Funkadelic he scored the hit ‘One Nation Under A Groove’. He died on June 16, 2010 from cancer of the brain and lungs.

1951
Jamaican-born British musician Lynval Golding, guitarist with The Specials who had the 1981 UK No.1 single ‘Ghost Town’.

1949
English drummer Graham Lear best known for his time working with Gino Vannelli, Santana, Paul Anka, and REO Speedwagon.

1948
Drummer Kim Berly, of The Stampeders, is born Kimball Meyer in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada.

1947
Alan Whitehead, drummer, from Scottish pop rock band Marmalade, (originally formed in 1961 as The Gaylords). They scored the 1969 UK No.1 single with their version of The Beatles song ‘Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da’.

1944
Irish guitarist Jim Armstrong, with Van Morrison and Them, who had the 1965 UK No.2 & US No.24 single ‘Here Comes The Night’. Armstrong has also played with The Doors, Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa.

1942
German-born bassist and singer, Heinz Burt, The Tornados, (1962 UK & US No.1 single ‘Telstar’). The first major hit from a UK group on the American chart. Crippled by motor neuron disease, Heinz died aged 57 following a stroke on 7th April 2000.

1941
Barbara Love, The Friends Of Distinction, (1969 US No.3 single ‘Grazing In The Grass’).

1935
English songwriter Les Reed. His major songwriting partners were Gordon Mills, Barry Mason and Geoff Stephens, although he wrote songs with many others such as Roger Greenaway, Roger Cook, Peter Callander, and Johnny Worth. Reed co-wrote around sixty hit songs, and is best known for ‘It’s Not Unusual’, ‘Green, Green Grass of Home’ and ‘Delilah’, (hits for Tom Jones) as well as ‘The Last Waltz’ (Engelbert Humperdinck). He died on 15 April 2019 age 83.

1934
Jazz drummer Rudy Collins, who performed with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Cab Calloway, is born in New York City. Died on August 15, 1988

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