Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for May 14th

Today you got one more All Happy Birthday(s) edition of the calendar, to which we say "Hey, what're ya gonna do?"

5/14/1936 - Born on this date, Bobby Darin (real name: Walden Robert Cassotto), who started out as a songwriter for Connie Francis before recording his own first million-seller "Splish Splash" (1958). A cool run of classics quickly followed including "Dream Lover", "Beyond The Sea", "If I Were A Carpenter" and what was probably the definitive version of "Mack The Knife". Bobby had grown up with a kind of sickly childhood, suffering several bouts of rheumatic fever that left his heart in a weakened condition, ultimately leading to his death after an operation -- he was only 37 years old when he passed away.

5/14/1943 - Born on this date, legendary bassist-vocalist Jack Bruce, one of the most influential rock musicians of 1960's. Look at the list of groups he fronted back then: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers; Manfred Mann; Cream; West, Bruce and Laing; most recently a string of hard-rock prog-blues albums with guitarist Robin Trower. Along the way, some very snappy ahead-of-their-time solo LPs as well. Jack could play anything, as evidenced on his solo stuff which could veer from jazz to reggae to folk and blues, R&B, rock, and back again, often on the same album! Really quite a talent. He passed away on October 25, 2014 at age 71.

5/14/1952 - Happy Birthday to David Byrne; the former mastermind-songwriter for Talking Heads turns 63 today. Post-Heads, David's released a handful of hard-to-pin-down solo projects, all the while also dabbling into other forms of media including film, photography, opera, fiction, and non-fiction, and receiving Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe awards along the way. Quirky and restless and unpredictable except for one item: his absolute/total refusal to re-unite Talking Heads...for anything!!! So, an icon of the "been-there-done-that-and-not-looking-back" category of artists, which is one of the things we like most about him, actually.

What do you think? The Calendar would appreciate any feedback, so go ahead and let us have it right here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"Like sittin' on pins and needles/Things fall apart/It's scientific...", xoxo!