Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today December 15
1944
Glenn Miller disappears over the English Channel
The plane carrying Major Glenn Miller from England to Paris vanishes over the English Channel, never to be found. The world's most popular bandleader, author of “In the Mood” and “Moonlight Serenade”, had traded glory for entertaining Allied troops. His mystery remains open; his swing, intact eight decades later.
Glenn Miller
1891
A.P. Carter is born, who roamed Appalachia collecting the songs that founded country music
On December 15, 1891, Alvin Pleasant Carter was born in Virginia. He sold fruit trees across Appalachia and used the trips to write down traditional songs house by house. With his wife and sister-in-law he recorded the 1927 Bristol sessions, considered the starting point of commercial country music. Many of those pieces are still basic repertoire.
A.P. Carter
The Carter Family
1921
Alan Freed is born, who named rock and roll and lost everything for taking envelopes
On December 15, 1921, Alan Freed was born in Pennsylvania, a radio host who in the fifties began playing rhythm and blues by Black artists for white audiences and popularised the phrase rock and roll. He staged the country's first racially mixed concert audiences. In 1960 the payola scandal left him without work and he died broke six years later.
Alan Freed
1939
Cindy Birdsong is born, who joined the Supremes at the worst possible moment
On December 15, 1939, Cindy Birdsong was born in Camden, New Jersey, a singer with the Bluebelles whom Motown recruited in 1967 to replace Florence Ballard, the group's founder, pushed out by the company itself. Birdsong spent years holding a position nobody wanted to explain, singing alongside Diana Ross on the Supremes' biggest hits.
Cindy Birdsong
The Supremes
Diana Ross
1943
Fats Waller dies, the pianist who made stride laugh
Fats Waller dies of pneumonia at 39, aboard a train near Kansas City. A genius of stride piano and composer of “Ain't Misbehavin'” and “Honeysuckle Rose”, he mixed virtuosity and comedy like no one else in 1930s Harlem. His joy concealed a serious artist whom the industry of his time did not always allow to be one.
Fats Waller
1955
Paul Simonon is born, who smashed his bass and created punk's most famous album cover
On December 15, 1955, Paul Simonon was born in London, an art student who joined the Clash without knowing how to play bass: they taught him by painting the notes on the neck. In September 1979, furious that the New York crowd was sitting down, he smashed the instrument against the stage. The photograph of that instant ended up on the cover of "London Calling".
Paul Simonon
The Clash
1911
Stan Kenton is born, who tried to turn the big band into concert music
On December 15, 1911, Stan Kenton was born in Kansas, a pianist and bandleader who refused to accept that big bands existed only for dancing. He assembled enormous line-ups with dissonant brass sections and even strings, and called it progressive jazz. Critics spent decades split between those who saw a visionary and those who called him pretentious.
Stan Kenton
1939
Dave Clark is born, the drummer who owned his own recordings when nobody did
On December 15, 1939, Dave Clark was born in Tottenham, a drummer who put his band together to fund a trip for his amateur football team. The Dave Clark Five competed with the Beatles on the charts in 1964. The remarkable part came later: Clark had signed contracts that left him owning his own recordings, virtually unheard of for a musician of his era.
Dave Clark
The Dave Clark Five
1946
Carmine Appice is born, whose drumming shaped John Bonham before Led Zeppelin existed
On December 15, 1946, Carmine Appice was born in Brooklyn, drummer for Vanilla Fudge, the band that in 1968 took an unknown English support act called Led Zeppelin on a US tour. John Bonham later acknowledged taking much of his style from him. Appice ended up co-writing the disco hit "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" with Rod Stewart.
Carmine Appice
Vanilla Fudge
Rod Stewart
1991
Alana Haim is born, the youngest of the trio who learned to play in the family covers band
On December 15, 1991, Alana Haim was born in Los Angeles, the youngest of the three sisters. Their parents put together a family covers band to play neighbourhood charity fairs, and that is where all three learned the trade as children. As Haim they took that seventies Californian sound to Grammy-nominated albums, all three singing and swapping instruments.
Alana Haim
Haim
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