1929
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins - one of rock’s original showmen - is allegedly born on this date in Cleveland.
Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Put a Spell on You"

1939
Singer Dion (Dion DiMucci) is born in the Bronx, N.Y. He records with the Belmonts until 1960. They have two top five hits: "A Teenager in Love" and "Where or When." His biggest solo hit is "Runaround Sue," a No. 1 song for two weeks in 1961.

1941
Martha Reeves is born the third of eleven children (and the first girl) to Elijah Joshua and Ruby Lee Gilmore Reeves in Eufaula, Alabama. She will become the lead singer of the Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. During her tenure with The Vandellas, they score over a dozen hit singles including "Dancing in the Street", "Nowhere to Run," and "Jimmy Mack."

1950
Golden Earring drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk is born in the Hague, Netherlands. Cesar's talents are prominently showcased in the band's biggest hit, "Radar Love."

1953
Elvis Presley records "My Happiness" as a gift for his mother. It is his first recording.

1955
XTC drummer Terry Chambers is born.

1960
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters releases "The Twist." The song didn't become a hit until later in the year when Chubby Checker covered it.

1960
Elvis Presley's "It's Now Or Never" is released.

1960
It’s reported that Elvis has taken out a mortgage on Graceland for $164,000.

1963
In the studio, the Beatles start recording "'Til There Was You," "You Really Got a Hold on Me," and "Money (That’s What I Want)."

1964
The Rolling Stones get their first U.K. No. 1 with "It's All Over Now." Meanwhile, their first U.S. hit, a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," peaks at #48.
Check out the great Dean Martin's intro...

1964
The Beatles A Hard Days Night is released. The album features two #1 hits, "Can't Buy Me Love" and the title track.

1966
Bobby Fuller of the Bobby Fuller Four ("I Fought the Law") dies at age 23. His body is discovered in a parked car in Hollywood and the death is later ruled a suicide, although some suspect he might have crossed the Mafia.

1968
Hugh Masekela receives his only gold record for the instrumental "Grazing in the Grass."

1968
The Grateful Dead release their 2nd album, Anthem of the Sun.

1969
Janis Joplin and her Kozmic Blues Band make their first appearance on The Dick Cavett Show.

1970
Blood, Sweat & Tears 3 enters the album charts.

1970
Pink Floyd and Deep Purple play a free concert at London's Hyde Park that attracts an audience of 20,000.

1972
Boston Mayor Kevin White helps get Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones out of jail in Warwick, R.I., so they can make their performance at the Boston Garden. The two were arrested for getting into a scuffle with a Providence, R.I., photographer.

1973
Jethro Tull sell out three nights at the Los Angeles Forum in one-and-a-half hours.

1974
The U.S. Justice Department orders John Lennon out of the country by September 10. The Immigration and Naturalization Service denies him an extension of his non-immigrant visa because of his guilty plea in England to a 1968 marijuana possesion charge.

1975
At London’s Lyceum Theater, Bob Marley & the Wailers record the concert that is featured on their album Live!

1978
The star of Saturday Night Fever and Grease, actor John Travolta, garners his first number one with "You're the One That I Want." He sung it with his Grease partner, Olivia Newton-John. It's awarded a platinum on this date.

1978
Once a member of Stealers Wheel, Gerry Rafferty earns a gold record for "Baker Street."

1980
Billy Joel's "Glass Houses" tops the album chart.

1981
Santana's "Winning" peaks at #17 on the singles chart.

1988
A California appeals court upholds a lower courts' decision to dismiss a case against Ozzy Osbourne and CBS Records. In 1984 a teenager allegedly killed himself after listening to Ozzy's "Suicide Solution."

1988
Nico - smack-addicted former lead singer with the Velvet Underground and the very model of a doomed diva - dies after falling off her bicycle in Ibiza.

1989
Jefferson Airplane re-form. Paul Kantner, Marty Balin, and Grace Slick are joined by Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, who left the Airplane to play with Hot Tuna.

1992
Singer Whitney Houston and rapper Bobby Brown marry at Houston’s mansion in Mendham Township, N.J. Among the guests are Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight, Gloria Estefan, and Dick Clark.

1994
Singer Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries marries Don Burton in Ireland. She scandalizes the press by wearing a see-through wedding dress. O’Riordan asks, "Why would I want to get married looking like a lampshade or a meringue?" Don’t answer.

1995
Selena’s Dreaming of You, a posthumous album by the slain Tejano star, is released. It is the fastest-selling album by a female artist in pop history, with 175,000 copies purchased its first day.

1995
The oldest known musical instrument in the world is found in the Indrijca River Valley in Slovenia. The 45,000 year-old relic, a crude wind instrument, is a bear bone with four artificial holes along its length.

1995
Neil Young and his manager Elliot Roberts form their own record label, Vapor Records.

1998
The late singer/songwriter Harry Chapin - famed for donating half his concert proceeds to causes such as hunger relief - continues his humanitarian efforts through the Harry Chapin Tribute Concert. The concert features members of Chapin’s original band. Attendants are asked to bring donations of nonperishable foods.

1999
BBC Radio 1 hip-hop DJ Tim Westwood is shot in a drive-by shooting in London. He is reported in stable condition the following day.

1999
Radney Foster becomes a new dad. The Arista Austin recording artist and former member of Foster & Lloyd and his wife, Cyndi Hoezle are the parents of baby boy, Jackson Butterfield Foster.

2001
Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard is sentenced in a Queens, N.Y., courtroom to two to four years in prison after having pleaded guilty to cocaine possession in April.

2003
Barry White, the R&B crooner renowned for his deep, erotic baritone, dies at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he had been undergoing dialysis after suffering a stroke in May. He is 58.

2005
Funeral services for Luther Vandross are held at New York’s Riverside Church. The artist died July 1 at John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, N.J., two years after suffering a serious stroke.

2006
Pamela Anderson tells her website that she’s become engaged to Kid Rock - for a second time. "I'm moving on... I feel like I’m finally free... I’m in love," she dribbles. Okay. I'm getting a headache from all the eye-rolling, so here's some birthdays...

July 18 Birthdays

• Gilbert White 1720
• William Makepeace Thackeray 1811
• Vidkum Quisling 1887
• Chill Willis 1903
• S.I. Hayakawa 1906
• Clifford Odetts 1906
• Lou Busch 1910
• Hume Cronyn 1911
• Harriet Nelson 1912
• Marvin Miller 1913
• Richard "Red" Skelton 1913
• Nelson Mandela 1918
• John Glenn 1921
• Dick Button 1929
• Screamin' Jay Hawkins 1929
• 'Papa Dee' Allen (War) 1931
• Tenley Albright 1935
• Hunter S. Thompson 1939
• Brian Auger (Mahavishnu Players) 1939
• Dion DiMucci (Dion and the Belmonts) 1939
• James Brolin 1940
• Martha Reeves 1941
• Lonnie Mack (Memphis) 1941
• Martha Reeves (Martha and the Vandellas) 1941
• Robin McDonald (Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas) 1943
• Kurt Mann 1947
• Glenn Hughes 1950
• Ricky Skaggs 1954
• Terry Chambers (XTC) 1955
• Nigel Twist (The Alarm) 1958
• Audrey Landers 1959
• Elizabeth McGovern 1961
• Jack Irons (Pearl Jam) 1962
• John Herman (Widespread Panic) 1962
• Vin Diesel 1967
• Tony Fagenson (Eve 6) 1978
• Jason Weaver 1979

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