Born On This Day In Music, June 22nd

1981
Chris Urbanowicz, guitarist, with English rock band The Editors, who had the 2007 UK No.1 album An End Has a Start and earned the band a Brit Awards nomination for best British Band.

1976
Sally Polihronas, Australian singer from Bardot, winners of the Australian Popstars reality show, who had the 2000 Australian No.1 single ‘Poison’, and 2000 Australian No.1 self-titled album.

 

1970
Steven Page, guitar, vocals, with Canadian rock band Barenaked Ladies who scored the 1998 US No.1 & UK No.5 single ‘One Week’. The group has sold over 15 million records including albums and singles, and were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in March of 2018.

1965
Tom Cunningham, drummer with Scottish band Wet Wet Wet who formed in 1982. They are best known for their 1994 cover of The Troggs’ 1960s hit ‘Love Is All Around’, which spent 15 weeks at No.1 on the UK charts.

1964
Bobby Gillespie, guitar, vocals, from Scottish rock band Primal Scream who had the 1994 UK No.7 single ‘Rocks’ and the 1991 UK No.8 album Screamadelica.

1964
Mike Edwards, vocals with English group Jesus Jones who had the 1990 US No.2 hit with ‘Right Here Right Now’ and the 1991 UK No.7 single ‘International Bright Young Thing’.

1962
British Jamaican R&B and soul singer, Ruby Turner, who scored the 1987 UK hit single ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’. As a session backing vocalist, she has worked with Bryan Ferry, UB40, Steel Pulse, Steve Winwood, Jools Holland and Mick Jagger.

1961
Jimmy Somerville, UK singer, who with Bronski Beat had the 1984 UK No.3 single ‘Smalltown Boy’. With British pop duo The Communards had the 1986 UK No.1 single with a cover version of the Thelma Houston hit ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’.

1959
Alan Anton, bassist with Canadian alternative country/blues/folk rock band, Cowboy Junkies.

1957
Gary Beers, bassist from Australian rock band INXS, who had the 1988 UK No.2 & US No.1 single ‘Need You Tonight’. Their 1987 album Kick has sold over 10m copies in the US alone and features four Top 10 singles; ‘Need You Tonight,’ ‘Devil Inside’, ‘New Sensation,’ and ‘Never Tear Us Apart.’ INXS has sold over 55 million records worldwide.

1956
Derek Forbes, bassist with Scottish rock band, Simple Minds, who had the 1985 US No.1 single ‘Don’t You, Forget About Me’, and the 1989 UK No.1 single ‘Belfast Child’, plus over 20 other UK Top 40 singles.

1956
Green Gartside, singer, songwriter from British band Scritti Politti, who had the 1984 UK No.10 single ‘Wood Beez, Pray Like Aretha Franklin’, and the hit ‘The Word Girl’, as well as a US Top 20 hit ‘Perfect Way’.

1953
American singer, songwriter Cyndi Lauper, who had the 1984 US No.1 single ‘Time After Time’, and the UK & US No.2 single ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’, (first recorded in 1979 by American musician Robert Hazard). The song received Grammy Award nominations for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

1953
British songwriter, producer, and DJ Ian Levine. During the 80s and 90s he co-wrote and mixed a number of dance-pop hits for a variety of artists, including: Pet Shop Boys, Bucks Fizz, Erasure, Kim Wilde, Bronski Beat and Bananarama. He is known as a moderniser of Northern soul music in the UK.

1949
Alan Osmond from American family group The Osmonds. They had the 1971 US No.1 single ‘One Bad Apple’, the 1974 hit ‘Crazy Horses’ and the 1974 UK No.1 single ‘Love Me For A Reason’. They had their own 1972–1973 Saturday morning cartoon series, The Osmonds, on ABC-TV. The Osmonds have sold over 75 million records world wide.

1949
Larry Junstrom, a founding member of Lynyrd Skynyrd and longstanding bassist with the band .38 Special. Junstrom played bass with Lynyrd Skynyrd from its formation in 1964 until he was replaced by Leon Wilkeson in 1971. He then joined .38 Special in 1976 with Donnie Van Zant, the younger brother of the Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman Ronnie Van Zant. He died on 6 October 2019 at the age of 70.

1948
American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and record producer Todd Rundgren. Member of Nazz and Utopia. Had the solo 1972 US No.16 & 1973 UK No.36 single ‘I Saw The Light’. Rundgren engineered / produced many notable albums for other acts, including The Band’s Stage Fright (1970), Badfinger’s Straight Up (1971), Grand Funk Railroad’s We’re an American Band (1973), the New York Dolls’s New York Dolls (1973), Hall & Oates’s War Babies (1974), Bat Out Of Hell (1977).

1947
Howard Kaylan, from the The Turtles who had the US 1967 No.1 single ‘Happy Together’ and the 1967 hit ‘She’d Rather Be with Me’. He later worked with Frank Zappa, alongside his friend and partner Mark Volman who used the stage names of Flo & Eddie.

1944
Peter Asher, Peter & Gordon, who had the 1964 UK & US No.1 single ‘World Without Love’, written by Lennon & McCartney. Asher was a producer and Head of Apple Records in late 60s and went on to become James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt’s manager.

1939
Bobby Harrison is born in West Ham, England. The Procol Harum drummer will leave the band, along with guitarist Ray Royer, to form Freedom.

1936
Kris Kristofferson, musician, actor, and writer, known for such hits as ‘Me and Bobby McGee’, ‘For the Good Times’, ‘Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down’, and ‘Help Me Make It Through the Night’. In 1985, Kristofferson joined fellow country artists Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash in forming the country music supergroup The Highwaymen. In 2004, Kristofferson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Died September 28, 2024 (aged 88) in home in Maui, Hawaii.

1913
Pop singer Dotty Todd is born Doris Dabb in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She and her husband will form the ’50s singing duo Art and Dotty Todd, known for the UK hits “Broken Wings” and “Chanson D’Amour.” Dotty Todd died in Los Angeles on December 12, 2000, at the age of 87, three months after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Art Todd died on October 10, 2007, of congestive heart failure in Honolulu at the age of 93

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