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On this day in history, May 11, 1888, Irving Berlin, composer of 'God Bless America,' is born

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Today’s Jewish Birthday: Irving Berlin

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Feature: MONTHLY BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE: Let's salute Irving Berlin

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Today-Music-History-May11

Today in Music History for May 11: In 1888, American songwriter Irving Berlin was born in Russia. He wrote nearly 1,000 songs, and had his first hit in 1911 with "Alexander's Ragtime Band." Many of his best songs came from such Broadway musicals as "Call Me Madam" and "Annie Get Your Gun." Berlin also composed film scores, and many of his stage musicals were adapted for the screen. Among the best known of his songs are "White Christmas," "God Bless America" and "There's No Business Like Show Business." He died Sept. 22, 1989. In 1938, composer and pianist Carla Bley was born in Oakland, Calif. She has experimented with many music forms -- free jazz, punk rock and big bands, among others. Once married to Montreal-born pianist Paul Bley, she often made use of rock musicians in her recordings. In 1941, rock singer Eric Burdon, who first came to fame with "The Animals" during the 1960s British invasion, was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. "The Animals" hit the top of the British and North American charts in mid-1964 with "House of the Rising Sun." When the original group broke up in 1966, Burdon renamed his band "Eric Burdon and the Animals" and they began playing psychedelic songs, such as "San Franciscan Nights" and "Sky Pilot." In 1970, Burdon fronted the funk band "War" for their No. 1 hit "Spill the Wine," but they soon split. In 1961, a Soviet musicologist, writing in an East German paper, claimed Dixieland jazz actually started in the Soviet city of Odessa rather than New Orleans. In 1970, the soundtrack LP from the Woodstock concert film was released. It went gold within two weeks. In 1970, Johnny Hodges, long-time alto saxophonist with the Duke Ellington orchestra, died in New York City at age 64. He was known for his lyrical playing, particularly on Ellington's 1938 hit "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart." In 1975, Cher and Gregg Allman performed a duet on "Don't Mess Up a Good Thing" on Cher's TV show. In 1979, bluegrass singer, guitarist and composer Lester Flatt died in Nashville at age 64. Flatt, Earl Scruggs and "The Foggy Mountain Boys" were among the most widely-acclaimed country music acts of the '50s and '60s. Flatt and Scruggs composed "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" and "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," the theme for the "Beverly Hillbillies" TV show. They ended their musical partnership in 1969. In 1981, reggae musician Bob Marley died in Miami of brain and lung cancer. He was 36. Seven months earlier, he had collapsed on stage during a concert in the U.S. Marley and his band, "The Wailers," were practically national heroes in their native Jamaica, and they helped spread reggae music around the world. "Legend," a 1984 greatest hits compilation, has sold an estimated 25 million copies worldwide. In 1981, the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Cats" opened in London. The composer had to mortgage his house to help finance the $1.1 million production. Since then, "Cats" has grossed more than $1 billion in more than a dozen countries, including Canada. In 1983, on the second anniversary of Bob Marley's death, the Jamaican government unveiled a statue of the singer. Fans began throwing rocks and fruit at what they claimed was a poor likeness of Marley. Prime Minister Edward Seaga promised to build a new one. In 1987, singer Billy Idol stormed off stage in San Francisco after twice being hit in the face by tennis shoes thrown by fans. In 1987, "The Oak Ridge Boys" replaced William Lee Golden with Steve Sanders, who had played rhythm guitar for the country group for five years. Golden, who had been with the band for 22 years, responded by filing a $40 million lawsuit, claiming the other members voted to oust him during a meeting that he didn't know was being held. Golden rejoined the group in 1995. In 1988, Frank Sinatra, Isaac Stern, Ray Charles and Leonard Bernstein joined in a musical tribute to Irving Berlin on his 100th birthday. The Carnegie Hall concert ended with all the performers singing "There's No Business Like Show Business." Berlin did not attend, but members of his family did. Berlin died at age 101 on Sept. 22, 1989. In 1989, Max Gordon, who ran New York's Village Vanguard jazz club for 53 years, died at age 86. Almost all the big names in jazz played the Vanguard, including Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Charlie Mingus. In 1989, Roy Orbison was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame at a ceremony in New York. Eric Clapton presented the award to Orbison's widow, Barbara. In 1990, singer Richie Valens was posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1991, "Pearl Jam" first started recording their debut album, "Ten." In 1996, police in riot gear used tear gas to break up a bottle-throwing crowd that gathered after a rock concert was shut down in Cincinnati. Sixteen people were arrested and dozens injured. Police say they stopped the street festival concert by "Seven Mary Three" because people were tearing down barriers and pouring beer on the stage. In 1996, a 17-year-old was crushed to death at a "Smashing Pumpkins" concert at the Point Theatre in Dublin. Fans listening to the concert on the Internet heard lead singer Billy Corgan try to calm the rampaging crowd. In 1997, R&B bandleader Ernie Fields died at age 91. His rocked-up version of Glenn Miller's 1939 chart-topper "In the Mood" was a top-10 hit in 1959. In 2002, "Aerosmith" bassist Tom Hamilton's home on Cape Cod caught fire and was burned to the ground. No one was hurt. In 2009, "The Who" turned another of their rock operas into a stage musical. "Quadrophenia" began touring Britain. "The Who's" "Tommy" was turned into a successful Broadway musical in 1993. In 2010, a U.S. District Court in New York ruled that file-sharing software company LimeWire and its chairman, Mark Gorton, were liable for inducing copyright infringement. In 2011, country music trio "Lady Antebellum" broke a Billboard Hot 100 record when their new single, "Just a Kiss," debuted at No. 7, the highest debut by a country group in the chart's 52-year history. In 2011, with "E.T." at No. 1, Katy Perry became the first artist in history to spend a whole year, 52 consecutive weeks, in the top-10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. She began the streak with "California Gurls," then "Teenage Dream" and "Fireworks." ("Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" continued the run and extended her record to 69 weeks before it slipped from the top-10). In 2012, a Chicago jury convicted William Balfour, the former brother-in-law of award-winning singer Jennifer Hudson, of murdering her mother, brother and seven-year-old nephew in 2008. (He was sentenced to three terms of life in prison plus another 120 years for other charges.) In 2017, singer Dexter Holland of The Offspring graduated with a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Southern California. His research focused on the molecular dynamics of HIV infection. In 2019, Peggy Lipton, a star of the groundbreaking late 1960s TV show "The Mod Squad" and the 1990s show "Twin Peaks," died of cancer at the age of 72. Daughters Rashida and Kidada Jones said in a statement that Lipton died surrounded by family. Lipton played one of a trio of Los Angeles undercover "hippie cops" on "The Mod Squad," which aired on ABC. The Los Angeles Times says it was one of pop culture's first efforts to reckon seriously with the counterculture and one of the first TV shows to feature an interracial cast. Lipton was nominated for Emmys and won a Golden Globe in 1971 for her performance. Lipton married music producer Quincy Jones in 1974, and they had two daughters. The couple divorced in 1989. ---- The Canadian Press

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Dreaming of a role in White Christmas? Audition info here

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