Birthdays on the Tube: 3-9 April

Billie Holiday, Joe Meek, Merle Haggard, Pharrell Williams and Doris Day on video

Billie Holiday: Lady Day sings the Blues
This week’s birthdays of musicians include a couple of disturbed geniuses, Billie Holiday and Joe Meek, underrated rock’n‘roller Carl Perkins, country legend Merle Haggard, as well as Doris Day, Pharrell Williams and bluesman Muddy Waters, whose mojo is working overtime. Videos below.
9 April 1932: Carl Perkins was never the most famous rock’n’roller, but among aficionados is one of the best. Shot on a fuzzy Canadian TV show from 1956.



7 April 1915: Billie Holiday, one of the greatest singers of the 20th century, sings “My Man”, about an abusive relationship that was all too autobiographical.



5 April 1929: Fascinating Arena documentary about the music producer Joe Meek, of "Telstar" fame, who killed himself in his Holloway Road studio where he concocted some classic early Sixties pop hits.

{youtube}hTrkQeIyeZU {/youtube}

4 April 1915: Bluesman Muddy Waters, born McKinley Morganfield, motoring at his best with “Got My Mojo Working”.

 

3 April 1924: Doris Day shows she was more than a glamour girl with “Que Sera, Sera”.



5 April 1973: Pharrell Williams, of the production duo The Neptunes, performs “Can I Have it Like That”.

 

6 April 1937: Country star Merle Haggard sings of a bad guy whose mother failed to keep him from going off the rails.

{youtube}ffHcGlF0xDw {/youtube}

Add comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.

rating

0

explore topics

share this article

more new music

A new Renaissance at this Moroccan festival of global sounds
The very opposite of past it, this immersive offering is perfectly timed
Hardcore, ambient and everything in between
A major hurdle in the UK star's career path proves to be no barrier
Electronic music perennial returns with an hour of deep techno illbience
What happened after the heart of Buzzcocks struck out on his own
Fourth album from unique singer-songwriter is patchy but contains gold
After the death of Mimi Parker, the duo’s other half embraces all aspects of his music
Experimental rock titan on never retiring, meeting his idols and Swans’ new album
Psychedelic soft rock of staggering ambition that so, so nearly hits the brief
Nineties veterans play it safe with their latest album