Dr. Rock's Blog & Roll

Happy Birthday this week to:

Mar 07
1943 ● Chris Taylor White → Zombies
1945 ● Arthur Lee (Arthur Porter Taylor) → Love
1946 ● Matthew Fisher → Procol Harum
1946 ● Peter Wolf (Blankfield) → J. Geils Band
1962 ● Taylor Dayne (Leslie Wunderman) → "Love Will Lead You Back" (1990)
1967 ● Randy Guss → Toad The Wet Sprocket

Mar 08
1942 ● Ralph Ellis → Swinging Blue Jeans
1944 ● Keef Hartley → John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Keef Hartley Band
1945 ● George Michael "Micky" Dolenz, Jr. → The Monkees
1946 ● Carole Bayer Sager → Songwriter, co-wrote "Nobody Does It Better"
1946 ● Randy Meisner → Poco, Eagles, solo
1947 ● Andrew Semple → Fortunes
1947 ● Michael Allsup → Three Dog Night
1948 ● Little Peggy March (Margaret Battavio) → "I Will Follow Him" (1964)
1948 ● Mel Galley → Deep Purple, Whitesnake
1949 ● Dave Lambert → The Strawbs
1954 ● Cheryl Baker (Rita Maria Crudgington) → Bucks Fizz
1957 ● Clive Burr → Iron Maiden
1958 ● Gary Numan (Webb) → New Wave synth-pop, "Cars" (1979)
1964 ● Peter "Ped" Gill → Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Motorhead
1964 ● Salt (Cheryl James) → Salt-N-Pepa
1968 ● Shawn Mullins → Folk/pop singer, "Lullaby" (1998)
1978 ● Kameelah Williams → R&B dance/pop band 702

Mar 09
1933 ● Lloyd Price → "Stagger Lee" (1958)
1936 ● Mickey Gilley → Country singer
1942 ● John Cale → Velvet Underground, solo
1942 ● Mark Lindsay → Paul Revere & The Raiders
1944 ● Gary Leeds → Walker Brothers
1944 ● Trevor Burton → The Move
1945 ● Robin Trower → Procol Harum, solo
1948 ● Jeffrey Osborne → L.T.D., solo - "On The Wings Of Love" (1982)
1948 ● Jimmie Fadden → Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
1951 ● Frank Rodriguez → ? and The Mysterians
1958 ● Martin Fry → ABC
1968 ● Robert Sledge → Ben Folds Five
1980 ● Chingy (Howard Bailey, Jr.) → Rapper, "Right Thurr" (2003
1987 ● Bow Wow (Shad Gregory Moss) → Rapper, "Beware Of Dog" (2000)

Mar 10
1903 ● Bix Beiderbecke → Jazz pianist
1940 ● Dean Torrence → Jan & Dean
1947 ● Tom Scholz → Boston
1950 ● Ted McKenna → Sensational Alex Harvey Band
1962 ● Gary Clark → Danny Wilson, "Mary's Prayer" (1987)
1963 ● Jeff Ament → Pearl Jam
1964 ● Neneh Cherry (Neneh Mariann Karlsson) → Pop/dance/hip hop, "Seven Seconds" (1994)
1964 ● Patrick Kane → Hue & Cry
1966 ● Edie Brickell → Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians
1967 ● Susie Q (Susan Banfield) → Cookie Crew
1971 ● Timbaland (Timothy Zachery Moseley) → Rapper, producer
1977 ● Robin Thicke → "Lost Without U" (2007)
1983 ● Carrie Underwood → "Wasted" (2007)

Mar 11
1944 ● Ric Rothwell → Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders
1945 ● Harvey Mandel → Canned Heat, Rolling Stones, solo
1947 ● Mark Stein→ Vanilla Fudge
1948 ● George Kooymans → Golden Earring
1950 ● Bobby McFerrin → "Don't Worry, Be Happy" (1988)
1955 ● Catherina "Nina" Hagen → "New York New York" (1983)
1957 ● Cheryl Lynn → Disco diva, "Got To Be Real" (1978)
1961 ● Bruce Watson → Big Country
1961 ● Mike Percy → Dead Or Alive
1968 ● Lisa Loeb → "Stay" (1994)
1969 ● Pete Droge→ "If You Don't Love Me (I'll Kill Myself)" (1994)
1979 ● Benji Madden (Benjamin Levi Combs) → Good Charlotte
1979 ● Joel Madden (Joel Reuben Combs) → Good Charlotte

Mar 12
1940 ● Al Jarreau → "Breakin' Away" (1981)
1942 ● Brian O'Hara → The Fourmost
1942 ● Larry Kaye (Kassman) → Quotations
1942 ● Paul Kantner → Jefferson Airplane/Starship
1946 ● Liza Minnelli → "Cabaret" (1972)
1948 ● James Taylor → "You've Got A Friend" (1971)
1948 ● Les Holyrod → Barclay James Harvest
1949 ● Bill Payne → Little Feat
1949 ● Mike Gibbins → Badfinger
1957 ● Marlon Jackson → Jackson 5
1957 ● Steve Harris → Iron Maiden
1969 ● Graham Coxon → Blur, solo

Mar 13
1933 ● Mike Stoller → Songwriter, Lieber & Stoller
1939 ● Neil Sedaka → "Calendar Girl" (1961)
1940 ● Daniel Bennie → The Reflections
1949 ● Donald York → Sha Na Na
1959 ● Ronnie Rogers → T'Pau
1960 ● Adam Clayton → U2
1972 ● Common (Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr.) → Rapper

Labels: birthdays, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, folk artist, Poco, prog rock artist, R and B artist, rock artist, Rock birthdays, soul artist, This Week's Birthdays, U2

When U2 (click here for my playlist at DrRock.com) formed as a band in 1976 in Dublin, all of the four members were still in their mid-teens and three (Bono, The Edge and Larry Mullen) were practicing Christians. A short five years later, they released their second album on October 12, 1981. Appropriately titled October, it was less a progression forward than a reaffirmation of the booming rockers that marked their debut LP, Boy in 1980. More so than Boy, October’s lyrics tended toward religious themes and subjects (“Gloria,” “Tomorrow” and “With A Shout” in particular). In early 1981, Adam Clayton was the only U2 member who didn’t join a certain Christian group in Dublin. The experience led the other three to question the inevitable conflict between their religious beliefs and their growing rock n’ roll stardom. And they used that effectively on October, for combining religious statements with their signature sound placed them in a totally different realm than those of their early 80s punk-rock and synth-pop contemporaries. However, October didn’t sell well and is rarely counted among U2’s better albums. Nevertheless, it’s a good predecessor to their third studio album, War (1983), which launched U2 on the trajectory that made them global megastars by the end of the decade. October is available on Amazon (as a CD) and iTunes (as track downloads).

Labels: album of the day, Bono, October, rock album, rock artists, rock groups, The Edge, U2