May 1

Rock and roll royalty wed today in 1967 when 32-year-old Elvis Presley married 21-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas, beginning the marriage between the King and the teenager he'd groomed since she was 14 in Germany, their union lasting eight years before divorce freed Priscilla from Graceland's gilded cage…

 

Folk lost its greatest storyteller on this day in 2023 when Gordon Lightfoot died at 84 from natural causes, ending the career of the Canadian singer-songwriter whose "If You Could Read My Mind" and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" proved that narrative folk could create timeless radio hits…

 

Grunge tourism reached its darkest today in 1997 when the Seattle house where Kurt Cobain shot himself three years earlier went up for sale with a $3 million asking price, proving that even suicide sites could become macabre real estate opportunities in the music business…

 

Soul's deepest voice faced mortality today in 2003 when Barry White suffered a stroke while being treated for kidney failure, the medical emergency beginning the two-month decline that would end with his death at 58, silencing pop's most seductive bass-baritone forever…

 

We remember Chicago blues' most revolutionary harmonica player on his birthday today in 1930, Marion Walter Jacobs known as Little Walter whose amplified harp work influenced everyone from the Rolling Stones to modern blues while his death in a street fight at 37 in 1968 ended a tragically brief career…

 

Folk's most crystalline voice Judy Collins was born on this day in 1939, the singer whose Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen interpretations introduced those songwriters to wider audiences while Stephen Stills immortalized their romance in "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" before their breakup…

 

Country-rock's smoothest voice Rita Coolidge celebrates her 81st birthday today, the singer whose "We're All Alone" and tumultuous marriage to Kris Kristofferson proved that beauty and talent couldn't guarantee happiness while her session work graced countless classic albums.