musical birthdays

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John Cale
Born: March 09, 1942
Welsh musician, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer who was a
founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his
five-decade career, Cale has worked in various styles across rock, drone, classical,
avant-garde and electronic music.

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Carrie Underwood
Born: March 10, 1983
Carrie Marie Underwood is an American singer. She rose to prominence after
winning the fourth season of American Idol in 2005...Underwood has sold 85
million records worldwide. She is the tenth highest-certified female artist
and the highest-certified female country artist of all time on the RIAA's Top
Artists (Digital Singles) ranking, also being the female artist with the most
number-one entries (16) on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. Her accolades
include eight Grammy Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards, 17 American Music
Awards, five Guinness World Records and inductions into the Hollywood Walk
of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry. Billboard ranked her the top female country
artist of the 2000s and 2010s, and Some Hearts the top country album of the
2000s. Rolling Stone applauded her as "the female vocalist of her generation in
any genre", Time listed her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world
in 2014 and Forbes declared her the most successful American Idol winner.

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Bobby McFerrin
Born: March 11, 1950
American jazz vocalist. He is known for his vocal techniques, such as singing
fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch—for example, sustaining
a melody while also rapidly alternating with arpeggios and harmonies—as well
as scat singing, polyphonic overtone singing, and improvisational vocal percussion.
He is widely known for performing and recording regularly as an unaccompanied
solo vocal artist.

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James Taylor
Born: March 12, 1948
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time
Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more
than 100 million records worldwide.

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Mike Stoller
Born: March 13, 1933
As half of the legendary writing/production team of
Leiber and Stoller, during the '50s and '60s Mike Stoller
was at once a devoted follower of black culture and
music and one of its defining forces. Leiber and Stoller
wrote hits for Elvis Presley, including "Love Me" (1956),
"Jailhouse Rock" (1957), "Loving You", "Don't", and "King
Creole"...In all, Leiber and Stoller wrote or co-wrote over
70 chart hits. They were inducted into the Songwriters Hall
of Fame in 1985 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

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Quincy Jones
Born: March 14, 1933
American record producer, musician, composer, and film producer. His career
spans six decades in the entertainment industry with a record 80 Grammy Award
nominations, 28 Grammys, and a Grammy Legend Award in 1992...Jones was the
producer, with Michael Jackson, of Jackson's albums Off the Wall (1979), Thriller
(1982), and Bad (1987), as well as the producer and conductor of the 1985 charity
song "We Are the World", which raised funds for victims of famine in Ethiopia. In
2013, Jones was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as the winner, alongside
Lou Adler, of the Ahmet Ertegun Award. He was named one of the most influential
jazz musicians of the 20th century by Time magazine.

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Ry Cooder
Born: March 15, 1947
Ryland Peter Cooder is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer,
record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for
his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, and his collaborations with
traditional musicians from many countries. Cooder's solo work draws upon many
genres. He has played with John Lee Hooker, Captain Beefheart, Taj Mahal, Gordon
Lightfoot, Ali Farka Touré, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Neil Young,
Randy Newman, Linda Ronstadt, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, David Lindley, The Chieftains,
Warren Zevon, Manuel Galbán, The Doobie Brothers, and Carla Olson and The Textones
(on record and film)...Cooder was ranked at No. 8 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list
of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

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Nancy Wilson
Born: March 16, 1954
Nancy Lamoureux Wilson is an American musician. She rose to fame alongside
her older sister Ann as a guitarist, backing and occasional lead vocalist in the
rock band Heart.

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John Sebastian
Born: March 17, 1944
American singer/songwriter, guitarist, harmonicist, and autoharpist, who is best known
as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in 2000; for his impromptu appearance at the Woodstock festival in 1969; and for his No.
1 hit in 1976, "Welcome Back".

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James McMurtry
Born: March 18, 1962
American rock and folk rock/americana singer,
songwriter, guitarist, bandleader, and occasional
actor (Daisy Miller, Lonesome Dove, and narrator
of Ghost Town: 24 Hours in Terlingua). He performs
with veteran bandmates Daren Hess, Cornbread,
and Tim Holt. His father, novelist Larry McMurtry,
gave him his first guitar at age seven. His mother,
an English professor, taught him how to play it: "My
mother taught me three chords and the rest I just
stole as I went along. I learned everything by ear or
by watching people."

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Billy Sheehan
Born: March 19, 1953
American bassist known for his work with Talas, Steve Vai, David Lee Roth, Mr. Big,
Niacin, and The Winery Dogs. Sheehan has won the "Best Rock Bass Player" readers'
poll from Guitar Player magazine five times for his "lead bass" playing style. Sheehan's
repertoire includes the use of chording, two-handed tapping, right-hand "three-finger
picking" technique and controlled feedback.

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Carl Palmer
Born: March 20, 1950
English drummer and percussionist, credited as one of the most respected
rock drummers to emerge from the 1960s. He is a veteran of a number of
famous English bands: the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster,
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Asia. Inducted into the Modern Drummer
Hall of Fame in 1989, he was awarded "Prog God" at the 2017 Progressive
Music Awards.

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Roger Hodgson
Born: March 21, 1950
English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the former co-frontman
and founder member of progressive rock band Supertramp. Hodgson composed
and sang the majority of the hits such as "Dreamer", "Give a Little Bit", "Break-
fast in America", "Take the Long Way Home", "The Logical Song" and "It's Raining
Again".

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Andrew Lloyd Webber
Born: March 22, 1948
English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of
his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West
End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle,
a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass...In
2001 The New York Times referred to him as "the most commercially
successful composer in history". The Daily Telegraph ranked him the
"fifth most powerful person in British culture" in 2008, with lyricist
Don Black writing "Andrew more or less single-handedly reinvented
the musical."

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Chaka Khan
Born: March 23, 1953
American singer and songwriter. Her career has spanned nearly five decades,
beginning in the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the funk band Rufus. Khan re-
ceived public attention for her vocals and image. Known as the "Queen of Funk",
Khan was the first R&B artist to have a crossover hit featuring a rapper, with
"I Feel for You" in 1984. Khan has won ten Grammy Awards and has sold an
estimated 70 million records worldwide...She was ranked at number 17 in VH1's
original list of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll.

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Carol Kaye
Born: March 24, 1935
Carol Kaye is an American musician. She is one of the most prolific recorded bass guitarists in
rock and pop music, playing on an estimated 10,000 recordings in a career spanning over 65
years...During the peak of her years of session work, she became part of a stable of Los
Angeles-based musicians which went by a variety of informal names, but has since become
known as "The Wrecking Crew". Her work with the collective led to her prominent role in the
2008 documentary film titled The Wrecking Crew.

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Elton John
Born: March 25, 1947
Sir Elton Hercules John CH CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight) is an English
singer, songwriter, pianist and composer. Collaborating with lyricist Bernie
Taupin since 1967 on more than 30 albums, John has sold over 300 million
records, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He has
more than fifty Top 40 hits in the UK Singles Chart and US Billboard Hot 100,
including eight number ones in the UK and nine in the US, as well as seven
consecutive number-one albums in the US. His tribute single "Candle in the
Wind 1997", rewritten in dedication to Diana, Princess of Wales, sold over 33
million copies worldwide and is the best-selling chart single of all time. According
to Billboard in 2019, John is the top solo artist in US chart history (third overall),
and the top Adult Contemporary artist of all time.

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Steven Tyler
Born: March 26, 1948
American singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and former television music
competition judge. He is best known as the lead singer of the Boston-based
rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, piano, and per-
cussion. He is known as the "Demon of Screamin'" due to his high screams and
his wide vocal range. He is also known for his on-stage acrobatics. During his
high-energy performances, Tyler usually dresses in bright, colorful outfits with
his trademark scarves hanging from his microphone stand.

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Mariah Carey
Born: March 27, 1969
American singer, songwriter, actress, record producer, and entrepreneur.
Referred to as the "Songbird Supreme" by the Guinness World Records, she
is noted for her five-octave vocal range, power, melismatic style, and sig-
nature use of the whistle register.

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Reba McEntire
Born: March 28, 1955
Reba Nell McEntire, or simply Reba, is an American country music singer and
actress. Dubbed "the Queen of Country", she has sold more than 75 million
records worldwide. Since the 1970s, McEntire has placed over 100 singles on
the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, 25 of which reached the number one
spot. She is an actress in films and television. She starred in the television series
Reba, which aired for six seasons. She also owns several businesses, including a
clothing line.

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Bobby Kimball
Born: March 29, 1947
American singer and songwriter best known as the original and longtime front-
man of the rock band Toto from 1977 to 1984 and again from 1998 to 2008.
Kimball has also performed as a solo artist and session singer.

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Eric Clapton
Born: March 30, 1945
English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter, referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". He was also named number five in Time magazine's list of "The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players" in 2009...Clapton has received 18 Grammy Awards as well as the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2004 he was awarded a CBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music. He has received four Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds and of Cream.

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Angus Young
Born: March 31, 1955
Angus McKinnon Young is an Australian musician, best known as the co-founder, lead
guitarist, songwriter and only constant original member of the Australian hard rock
band AC/DC. He is known for his energetic performances, schoolboy-uniform stage
outfits and his own version of Chuck Berry's duckwalk. Young was ranked 24th in Rolling
Stone magazine's 100 greatest guitarists of all-time list. In 2003, Young and the other
members of AC/DC were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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Susan Boyle
Born: April 1, 1961
Susan Magdalane Boyle is a Scottish singer. She rose to fame in 2009 after appearing as a contestant on the third series of Britain's Got
Talent, singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables. As of 2021, Boyle has sold 25 million records. Her debut album, I Dreamed a
Dream (2009), is one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century, having sold over 10 million copies worldwide, and it was the best-
selling album internationally in 2009. In 2011, Boyle made UK music history by becoming the first female artist to achieve three successive
albums debut at No.1 in less than two years...On 13 May 2012, she performed at Windsor Castle for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant
singing "Mull of Kintyre". On 23 July 2014, she performed "Mull of Kintyre" at the Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in
front of the Queen. To date, Boyle has released eight albums, including two Christmas releases, The Gift and A Wonderful World. In 2019,
Boyle celebrated ten years in show business, with a compilation album titled Ten and a tour.

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Emmylou Harris
Born: April 02, 1947
Emmylou Harris is an American singer, songwriter, and musician.
She has released dozens of albums and singles over the course
of her career and has won 14 Grammys, the Polar Music Prize,
and numerous other honors, including induction into the Country
Music Hall of Fame. In 2018, she was presented the Grammy Life-
time Achievement Award. Harris' work and recordings include work
as a solo artist, a bandleader, an interpreter of other composers'
works, a singer-songwriter, and a backing vocalist and duet partner.
She has worked with numerous artists.

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Richard Thompson
Born: April 03, 1949
Richard Thompson is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist...Music critic Neil McCormick
described Thompson as "a versatile virtuoso guitarist and a sharp observational singer-
songwriter whose work burns with intelligence and dark emotion". His songwriting has earned
him an Ivor Novello Award and, in 2006, a lifetime achievement award from BBC Radio. His
1991 song "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" was included in Time magazine's "All Time 100 Songs"
list of the best English-language musical compositions released between 1923 and 2011.

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Pick Withers
Born: April 04, 1948
English rock and jazz drummer. He was the original drummer for the rock band
Dire Straits and played on their first four albums, which included hit singles such
as "Sultans of Swing," "Romeo and Juliet" and "Private Investigations". Withers was
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Dire Straits in 2018.

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Mike McCready
Born: April 05, 1966
American musician who serves as the lead guitarist for the American rock
band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard and Eddie Vedder,
he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam. McCready was also a
member of the side project bands Flight to Mars, Temple of the Dog,
Mad Season and The Rockfords.

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Warren Haynes
Born: April 06, 1960
American musician, singer and songwriter. Haynes is best known for his work
as longtime guitarist with the Allman Brothers Band and as founding member
of the jam band Gov't Mule. Early in his career he was a guitarist for David Allan
Coe and The Dickey Betts Band. Haynes also is known for his associations with
the surviving members of the Grateful Dead, including touring with Phil Lesh
and Friends and the Dead. In addition, Haynes founded and manages Evil Teen
Records.

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John Oates
Born: April 07, 1948
American rock, R&B and soul guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer
best known as half of the rock and soul duo, Hall & Oates (with Daryl Hall).