THROWBACK THURSDAY: Lotsa Musical Birthdays on October 21

October 21 is the birthday of many amazing musical giants of various styles and genres. Happy birthday all!

On this day in 1915 Owen Bradley was born in Westmoreland, Tenn. He became renowned as one of country music's greatest producers in the 1950s and '60s. He was the subject of an episode in the current season of the Cocaine & Rhinestones podcast. And though he's most famous for his behind the scenes work for other artists -  Ernest Tubb, Roy Acuff, Kitty Wells, Patsy Cline, Bill Monroe, Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty etc. -- Bradley also recorded some songs under his own name. Here's one from 1949 with vocals by Jack Shook and Dottie Dillard:

John Birks Gillespie, better known as "Dizzy," was born in 1917. He was a colossus of be-bop and he did it all with a bent trumpet. Here he is in France in 1971 playing "Night in Tunisia":

Cuban singer Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso, aka Celia Cruz, was born in Havana in 1925. Here she is playing in Zaire in 1974

Derek Bell, best known as the harpist for The Chieftains was born in Belfast in 1935. This is from a solo album called (I'm not kidding!!) Derek Bell Plays With Himself:

Blues rocker Elvin Bishop was born in 1942 in Glendale, California.

Erick Lee Purkhiser was born in 1946. The world later got to know him as Lux Interior of The Cramps. He was the maddest daddy!

Other musicians born on Oct. 21 include country singer Mel Street (1935); British Invader Manfred Mann (1940); soul guitarist Steve Cropper (1941); Beau Brummel singer Ron Elliot (1943 -- not to be confused with Florida rocker Ronny Elliott); weirdo rocker Julian Cope (1957); Queens of the Stone Age singer Nick Oliveri (1971) and singer songwriter Josh Ritter (1976).

Happy birthday all!