#WhatsHappening for March 9, 2016

Hey, hi, howdy kids. We're halfway there. The weekend is just over the horizon.

I thought I'd give you some political commentary in the form of song. 

Sir George Martin, the man who signed the Fab Four to a record contract when everyone else told them "no way" has died. 
Beatles drummer Ringo Starr shared the news on Twitter, writing "Peace and love... George will be missed." A Universal Music Group spokesperson confirmed Martin's death, though details were not revealed.
Martin was the driving force behind 23 chart topping singles in the US and and 30 in the U.K.
While Martin originally told Beatles' manager Brian Epstein that the group's demo was "rather unpromising,” he scheduled the group for a recording session at EMI’s Abbey Road studios in June and signed them afterwards.

Martin suggested to John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison that they replace Pete Best with studio drummer Starr and allowed them to record their own material. For the group's first U.S. single, “Please Please Me,” he convinced them to speed up the tempo and told them “Gentlemen, you have just made your first No. 1 record” from the control room as he listened to the playback.
In addition to producing all but one of the band's LPs, Martin also served as arranger- suggesting strings be added to “Yesterday,” conductor fr the string section of "Eleanor Rigby,” piano player/harpsichord composer on “In My Life," and was responsible for the orchestral part of “A Day in the Life” (probably one of my absolute favorite Beatles' tunes).
Martin described his relationship with the group in his 1979 book, All You Need Is Ears, saying "I must emphasize that it was a team effort. Without my instruments and scoring, very many of the records would not have sounded as they do. Whether they would have been any better, I cannot say. They might have been. That is not modesty on my part; it is an attempt to give a factual picture of the relationship.”

Martin was also an Academy Award nominee for best music, scoring of music, adaptation or treatment for The Beatles’ 1964 classic film A Hard Day’s Night, and arranged scores for Yellow Submarine; Live and Let Die, and other films. 
Among others Martin produced for include Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, America, Jeff Beck, Cheap Trick, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Neil Sedaka, Dire Straits, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Carly Simon, and many others.
Martin was knighted in 1996 and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.
He was 90.

Less than three months after postponing a number of her Unbreakable Tour dates due to surgery, Janet Jackson has canceled the rescheduled dates.
Spin magazine reports that an email from Ticketmaster to fans in the UK read "It is not possible to confirm new date at the present time so we are refunding all ticket holders."
Jackson's European tour dates have been removed from Ticketmaster's site- but the U.S. dates- slated to kick off June 24 in New Jersey- are still on. 

Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to reps for the musician. 
A statement released yesterday said Wyman "is undergoing treatment and is expected to make a full recovery as it was caught in the early stages. The Wyman family has asked for their privacy during this time."

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young have been an on again/off again group since they first got together in 1968, but just months after Neil Young bowed out of having anything to do with the group after David Crosby made disparaging remarks about his relationship with actress Darryl Hannah, Graham Nash has said he's done with the group, too.

Nash- who releases This Path Tonight, his first new studio album in 14 years, on April 15- tells Billboard that, "Right now, I don't want anything to do with Crosby at all. It's just that simple. In my world there will never, ever be a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young record and there will never be another Crosby, Stills & Nash record or show." He declined to say what Crosby had done, saying, "I was letting Crosby be who he is. I let people play their hand in front of me, and I let him do it and then I make a decision."
He told Lust for Life magazine recently that he doesn't "like David Crosby right now. He's been awful for me the last two years, just fucking awful. I've been there and saved his fucking ass for 45 years, and he treated me like shit. You can't do that to me. You can do it for a day or so, until I think you're going to come around. When it goes on longer, and I keep getting nasty emails from him, I'm done. Fuck you. David has ripped the heart out of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young."

Birthdays today include: Bow Wow; Chingy; Robert Sledge of Ben Folds Five; Martin Fry of ABC; Frank Rodriguez of ? & The Mysterians; Jimmy Fadden of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band; Jeffrey Osborne; Robin Trower of Procol Harum; Mark Linday of Paul Revere & Raiders; John Cale of Velvet Underground; Mickey Gilley; and Lloyd Price. #MusicalBirthdays