April 14

          TOP   BIRTHDAYS
    1925     Gene "Jug" Ammons, Tenor Sax, b. Chicago, IL, USA, d. Aug. 6, 1974, USA. The son of famed Jazz pianist Albert Ammons, he played alongside Sonny Stitt in Billy Eckstine's Band.
    1952     Kenny Aaronson, bassist, b. New York (Brooklyn), NY, USA.
    1962     John Bell, guitar/vocals, b. Athens, GA, USA.Member group: 'Widespread Panic', a group formed in 1982, when vocalist John Bell and guitarist Mike Houser met while attending college in Athens, Georgia.Then, bassist Dave Schools left academia to join the duo the next year, and Widespread Panic was officially born.
    1949     Ritchie Blackmore, guitar. Member group: 'Deep Purple'. His LPs include: "Rainbow Rising", "Bent Out of Shape", and "Straight Between the Eyes".
    1949     Dennis Bryon, drums. Member groups: 'Amen Corner', and the 'Bee Gees'.
    1942     Tony Burrows, (sessions) vocalist. Worked with such groups as 'Edison Lighthouse', and 'White Plains', and others.Interestingly, Tony never had a hit under his own name.However, he holds the very unusual honor of having four records in the British Top Ten charts at once -- all under different names.For 'Edison Lighthouse', he sang "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)," Singing with 'White Plains', he had a hit with "My Baby Loves Lovin'". For 'The Pipkins' he sang the novelty "Gimme Dat Ding," and for the 'Brotherhood of Man', he sang "United We Stand," -all of which, in 1970, were big hits in both the U.S.and U.K.
    1945     Ritchie Blackmore, guitar, b. Weston-Super-Mare, Avon, England. Co-founder of 'Deep Purple', and also worked with 'Rainbow'.
    1967     Steve Davis, trombone, b. Wooster MA, USA. (Raised in Binghampton, NY)
    1964     Stuart Duncan, Bluegrass fiddler, b. Quantico, VA, USA. Member group: "Nashville Bluegrass Band"
    1946     Patrick Fairley, Vocals/6-String Bass, b. Scotland, UK. Member group: 'Marmalade'
    1948     Larry Ferguson, keyboards. Member group: 'Hot Chocolate'.
    1920     Gil Fuller, Jazz arranger/composer, b. Los Angeles, CA, USA. né: Walter Fuller. CAUTION: Do not confuse with veteran Jazz and dance band trumpeter/vocalist Walter Fuller (b. Feb 15, 1910, Dyersburg, TN, USA, d. April 20, 2003, San Diego, CA, USA) who is often confused with Gil Fuller whose birthname is also Walter Fuller.
    1925     Bill (Willie) Harris II, Guitar, b. Nashville, NC, USA. d.Dec.6 or 17, 1988
    1965     Carl Hunter, bass and background vocals. b. Liverpool, England, UK. Member group: 'The Farm'
    1952     Jerry Knight, bassist, b.Los Angeles, CA, USA. Member group: 'Raydio' (Jerry was a founding member.)
    1933     Buddy Knox, vocals, b.USA.Best recalled release: "Party Doll"
    1949     Sonja Kristina, vocals, b. Great Britain.
    1935     Loretta Lynn, vocals, b. Butcher's Hollow, KY, USA. née: Loretta Webb. Best known recording "Coal Miner's Daughter", and "I'm a Honky-Tonk Girl". Loretta was the first woman to earn the CMA's 'Entertainer of the Year' award. In 1979, she was named ACM 'Artist of the Decade'.
    1967     Barrett Martin, drummer/percussionist/composer/producer, b. Olympia, WA, USA.
    1932     D. L.Menard, Cajun singer-songwriter/guitarist, b. Erath, LA, USA.
    1949     June Millington, vocals, b. USA.
    1915     Jimmy Namaro, Vibes/marimba/leader, b. La Rosita, Mexico (some sources say b. 1919)
    1921     Lucy Reed, singer, b. Marshfield, WI, USA, d. July 1998. (some sources say b. 1924). Lucy married drummer Joe DeRidder, who died in WW2.While serving in the US Airforce, his plane was shot down over France.(The couple may have had 3 sons, one of whom was name Jeff.) The BigBands Database Plus thank Ms Jayna DeRidder for the following information.

    Subject: war story
    From: Jayna DeRidder

    "My grandfather, Joseph Alphonse DeRidder of Norway, Michigan, enlisted in the summer of 1943.He eventually became a 2nd lieutenant and co-pilot of a B-17 (the "Little Jeffy" -named for my father, age 1 at the time.) He flew about 23 missions over Europe, was based in Knettishall (sp?) England, and took part in D-Day.His plane was shot down over France at the end of July 1944 and he was MIA until his body was found 2 weeks later.He was buried in France and remains there.His widow, my grandmother, went on with her life and raised my father.In 1994, my father came home from work to find a message on his answering machine that he couldn't figure out.A man was calling because he had found something that he thought might belong to my father."

    "Out of curiousity, my dad returned the man's call and discovered that this fellow was the son of one of my grandfather's colleagues in the war - he was the bombardier on the plane or something.Well, the man's father (a Bill DeWitt, Jr.) had just passed away, and the son was going through his father's things and found a very old diary that had belonged to a young soldier named Joe DeRidder.He read through it briefly, called information in Michigan and located my dad.He subsequently mailed the diary to us and it unlocked 50 years of information we had never known.We were able to see a side of the war as we had never seen it before.All his hopes, fears and daily grind written down on a daily basis for two years.And after reading the diary, I felt like I had actually come to know my grandfather--so did my dad, who was only 2 when he lost his father.There were a lot of tears when we read the last entry in the diary - the day before he lost his life.He had written:

    "....Saturday, July 29, 1944......We bombed he same oil refinery at Meresburg, Germany as we did yesterday.We carried twenty 200 pound bombs.The flak was very heavy and accurate and scares me more and more every time I see it.It's a miracle how we can fly through that stuff and still get back.We lost 2 ships of our group today.I saw 3 ships go down again as the group ahead of us got hit by fighters.It was a 9 hour trip." And, that's the last entry.I am so grateful to this man who found the diary and sent it to us.We had copies made of the diary so every family member could have one - copies were sent to my grandfather's surviving brothers and sisters, too.I would love to be able to hear from anyone who knew my grandfather."

    1924    Shorty Rogers, Trumpet/Leader/Composer/Arranger, b. Great Barrington, MA, USA. d. Nov.7, 1994, Van Nuys, CA, USA. Age: 70. né: Milton M. Rajonsky.
    1938     Monty Waters, Alto Sax, b. Modesto, CA, USA
    1917     Donna Wood, vocals, b. Massachusetts, USA, d. April 8, 1947, Hollywood, California, USA. (heart ailment). Donna was born into a musical family. Her father was Robert E. Wood, a radio singer in the 1920's with his wife Gertrude Anderson-Wood. Donna is perhaps best recalled for her group 'Donna and Her Don Juans', and the 'Don Juans' are perhaps best recalled for their work with the Horace Heidt orchestra. (Incidentally, Donna's sister, Gloria Wood was also a fine singer, and both ladies later were members -at the same time- with the Kay Kyser Orchestra. Gloria Wood also sang with Wingy Manone & His Orchestra, Jimmy Wakely, and others.) The exact makeup of 'Donna and the Don Juans' is unclear. In private correspondence, Leslie Siegel (author of the novel "Where The Woods Were") reported she found this early 1940s newspaper clipping that credited the "Don Juans" as comprised of George Jackson, Eddie James and Jimmy O'Brien. The photo above shows 'Donna and Her Don Juans' as they appeared for a performance in Philadelphia during the early 1940s. Unfortunately, the men were not further identified. During the time that Donna Wood was with the Horace Heidt orchestra, two other singers were also present. Art Carney (who was on the road for 6 years with Horace Heidt singing mostly Novelty numbers), and who may (at certain times) have sung with Donna. Gordon McCrae was with the Heidt band at the same time, and may also have sung with Donna (and with Art). Apparently, the 'Don Juans' were a fairly fluid group, - comprised of whomever was around - the norm for those days!. Heidt's release of "Mary", credits the vocal to Larry Cotton, with Donna and her Don Juans,--who are listed as (Gordon, Charlie, and George --presumably, Gordon McCrae, Charlie Jackson and George Jackson). Another Horace Heidt orchestra release "I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire', had a vocal chorus by Larry Cotton, together with 'Donna and her Don Juans', -- again listed as (Gordon, Charlie and George). (Of course, record labels are notorious for wrong information.) While the earlier vocal group had George Jackson, Eddie James and Jimmy O'Brien, as mentioned above. It is interesting to note that during one period, both Donna, and her singing sister Gloria Wood (please see see our Sept 8, Calendar page) were both present in the Heidt orchestra. Later, Gloria and Donna were both members (again at the same time) of the 'Kay Kyser and His Kollege of Musical Knowledge' orchestra. Gloria later sang with 'Wingy Manone and His Orchestra', Jimmy Wakely, and others. She also sang the Rice-A-Roni TV commercial jingle on American radio. Sadly, the 'Donna and Her Don Juans' group ended when Donna died just 6 days short of her 30th birthday.
          TOP   Notable Events occuring this date include:
    1945.    Trevor Bacon, vocals/guitar, died in Sumter, SC, USA. Age: 38
    1954.    Lil (née: Lillian Johnson) Green, vocals, died in Chicago, IL, USA. Age: 34
    1956.    Ampex Corporation (bankrolled by singer Bing Crosby) demonstrated first commercial videotape recorder.
    1974.    Al Morgan, bass, died in Los Angeles, CA, USA. Age: 65
    1988.    Pony Poindexter, alto sax, died in Oakland, CA, USA. Age: 62
    1990.    Thurston Harris, vocals, died in Pomona, CA, USA. Age: 58
    1992.    Pianist Sammy Price died in New York (Manhattan), NY, USA. Age: 83. He had played with such men as Sidney Bechet, Lester Young and King Curtis.
    1995.    Danny Turner, alto-tenor sax, died in New York, NY, USA. Age: 75
    1995.    Burl Ives, folksinger, died (cancer). Age: 85
    1996.    Gaylord Birch, drums, died in San Francisco, CA, USA. Age: 50
          TOP   Songs Recorded/Released this date include:
         1944 "Besame Mucho" - The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra.vocal: Bob Eberly & Kitty Kallen
         1944 "It's Love, Love, Love" - The Guy Lombardo Orchestra.vocal: Skip Nelson
         1950 "Bewitched", Bill Snyder
         1952 "Anytime" - Eddie Fisher
         1952 "Tell Me Why" - The Four Aces
         1952 "Wheel of Fortune" - Kay Starr
         1954 "If You Love Me (Really Love Me)", Kay Starr
         1958 "Looking Back", Nat "King" Cole
         1958 "Witch Doctor", David Seville
         1960 "Mama" - Connie Francis
         1960 "Greenfields" - The Brothers Four
         1960 "Theme from "A Summer Place" - Percy Faith
         1960 "He'll Have to Go" - Jim Reeves
         1962 "P.T.109", Jimmy Dean
         1968 "Honey" - Bobby Goldsboro
         1968 "You are My Treasure" - Jack Greene
         1968 "Young Girl" - The Union Gap
         1976 "'Til I Can Make It on My Own - Tammy Wynette
         1976 "Disco Lady - Johnnie Taylor
         1976 "Let Your Love Flow - Bellamy Brothers
         1976 "Right Back Where We Started From - Maxine Nightingale
         1984 "Footloose" - Kenny Loggins
         1984 "Breakdance", Irene Cara
         1984 "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" - Phil Collins
         1984 "Borderline", Madonna
         1984 "Oh Sherrie", Steve Perry
         1984 "Let's Hear It For The Boy", Deniece Williams
         1990 "Poison", Bell Biv Devoe
         1990 "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You", Heart
         1990 "Alright", Janet Jackson
         1990 "Vogue", Madonna