Charlie Parker, an enormously influential alto saxophonist and one of modern jazz's finest blues interpreters, died on 3/12/1955 while staying with a friend at the ritzy Hotel Stanhope in New York City. Parker was a world-class substance abuser, but his death was attributed to lobar pneumonia and heart failure. Parker was 34 … On 3/5/1982, John Belushi, an enormously influential comic actor and a wanna-be blues musician, died in the company of a friend at the ritzy Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles. Belushi, also a world-class substance abuser, died of a drug overdose. He was 33 … On 3/3/1966, a group of musicians that included Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, and Jim Messina combined talents and formed Buffalo Springfield. The group's first album was released the next year; it included the band's biggest hit, “For What It's Worth” … Buffalo Springfield apparently took a hit of another kind on 3/20/1968 when police raided Stills' Topanga Canyon home and busted Young, Furay, Messina, and guitarist Eric Clapton for “being at a place where it is suspected marijuana is being used.” The musicians spent a night in jail and were later forced to pay a small fine on reduced charges of disturbing the peace. Buffalo Springfield broke up soon after.

On 4/3/1959, the BBC banned the Coasters' song “Charlie Brown” because of its use of the word “spitball.” The august institution eventually reconsidered its position, however, and two weeks later the single was yakking it up on the Beeb … On 4/4/1977, British CBS released the self-titled debut album by The Clash. The company's U.S. branch refused to issue the album, apparently deeming such punk anthems as “White Riot,” “Police and Thieves,” and “London Burning” too crude for American audiences. A version of the album containing only 10 of the original 14 songs was finally released stateside two years later … U.S. music lovers were later presented the fuzzy-cheeked face of new wave in the form of The Knack, whose second album … But the Little Girls Understand was released on 4/14/1980 … At least one little girl apparently didn't understand, preferring her rockers old and wrinkled; on 4/9/1989, 19-year-old Mandy Smith married Rolling Stone bassist Bill Wyman. According to Wyman, the two had been dating for six years (you do the math). Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever, and the star-crossed lovers split only 17 months after they wed … Wyman would live to love again, however; on 4/21/1993, he married the relatively elderly actress Suzanne Accosta (she was 33). That same year, Wyman's 30-year-old son Stephen married 46-year-old Patsy Smith — Mandy's mother — making Bill his ex-wife's step-grandfather. Or something.