Ringo at 70 - It's the New 50

He looks great--Ringo will be 70 on his next birthday, which he will celebrate onstage:

Ringo Starr, who will celebrate his 70th birthday on July 7, will perform that night at Radio City Music Hall with the latest edition of his All-Starr Band, featuring Edgar Winter, Gary Wright, Rick Derringer, Richard Page of Mr. Mister and Wally Palmer of the Romantics.

Ringo is an outstanding musician, and seems to be an all-around great guy as well. He's a testimony to clean living, and the health benefits of happiness. Ringo's happiness was hard-won, though: after decades of alcoholism, he entered detox in 1988 and has been sober ever since. Here's a Ringo treat from 1990, "I Call Your Name" in tribute to the 10th anniversary of John Lennon's death:

Happy Birthday Elvis, Wherever You Are

Today would have been Elvis Presley's 75th birthday. If Elvis hadn't died on August 16, 1977 (or on any other date after that), he might look something like this today:



Elvis was a huge influence on the Beatles: their album of BBC transcriptions includes covers of four Elvis songs, and his jumped-up rockabilly style found its way into numerous Lennon-McCartney originals, including "I'll Cry Instead," "Can't Buy Me Love," "Run for Your Life," and "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party." Elvis's manager Colonel Tom Parker sent the Beatles a congratulatory telegram before their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, and the Beatles met Elvis in Los Angeles in during their American tour in the summer of 1965. Influence went in the other direction as well: in the early 1970s, Elvis frequently included "Yesterday," "Something," and "Get Back" in his live setlists.

I was walking across the parking lot of the Sea View Inn in Haleiwa, Hawaii on the afternoon of August 16, 1977, when a total stranger walked up to me and said, "Did you hear that Elvis died?" One of those moments when the headlong rush of time briefly slowed. . .I can still feel the heat radiating from the asphalt, and hear the tradewinds rustling through the palm trees.