This Date In Music History- July 18

Birthdays:

Dion DiMucci, who created a streetwise doo-wop persona on hits like "The Wanderer,” turns 69.

Martha Reeves "Dancing in the Street," is 67.

Lonnie Mack ("Memphis") is also 67.

Danny McCullock - guitarist for The Animals ("House Of The Rising Sun") was born in 1945.

History:

Screamin' Jay Hawkins ("I Put A Spell On You"), one of rock's original showmen - was allegedly born on this date in Cleveland in 1929.

In 1966, Bobby Fuller ("I Fought The Law") was found dead in his car in Hollywood (the death is ruled a suicide but the evidence points to foul play).

In 1953, Elvis Presley recorded a song ("My Happiness") supposedly for his mother's birthday (which actually was in April) at Sun Records in Memphis. The so-called vanity disc, which cost Presley $3.98, was his first recording. It would surface 37 years later as part of an RCA compilation called "Elvis - the Great Performances".

In 1960, Roy Orbison saw his first record, "Only The Lonely" climb into the Top 5 in the United States after The Everly Brothers and Elvis both turned the song down. Over the next six years, he would have 22 Top 40 hits.

Also in 1960, 15 year old Brenda Lee had the number one song in the US with "I'm Sorry", a tune that was recorded in the last ten minutes of a session and originally meant to be the "B" side of "That's All You Gotta Do". The record reached #12 in the UK.

The US Justice Department ordered John Lennon out of the country by September 10, 1974. The Immigration and Naturalization Service denied him an extension of his non-immigrant visa because of his guilty plea in England to a 1968 marijuana possession charge. The US Court of Appeal would overturn the deportation order in 1975 and Lennon was granted permanent resident status the following year.

The oldest known musical instrument in the world was found in the Indrijca River Valley in Slovenia in 1995. The 45,000 year-old relic was a bear bone with four artificial holes along its length. Or maybe it was just a bone with holes in it?

The Four Seasons scored their fourth US #1 hit in 1964 with "Rag Doll". Co-writer Bob Gaudio said that he got the inspiration for the song from a young girl in tattered clothes that cleaned his car windows at a stop light. The song reached #2 in the UK.

The Rolling Stones charted in the US for the first time in 1964 when a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" peaked at #48.

Hank Ballard & the Midnighters released "The Twist" in 1960, the original version of the song Chubby Checker later built a career on.

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

The Beatles album "A Hard Days Night" was released in 1964.

2002 The Rolling Stones crew chief, 54 year old Royden Magee, who had worked with the band for 30 years, died on July 18, 2002, during a rehearsal in Toronto. The Stones had just finished dinner and resumed rehearsing when they got word that Magee had collapsed and stopped breathing. He was taken by ambulance to nearby Sunnybrook Hospital with no vital signs after suffering an apparent heart attack. He was pronounced dead on arrival. The members of the band said they were devastated by his death.