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Birthdays on the Tube: 3-9 April

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

by Peter CulshawSunday, 4 April 2010

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.

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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.

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