more cool people being born every day – here are some interesting birthdays for the second week of january:
january 5: chris stein, songwriter and guitarist for blondie. wrote some of that band’s biggest hits alongside debbie harry, including rapture, the first rap (or rap-influenced) song to reach #1 in the charts.
rapture:
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january 6: matthew sweet, singer/guitarist/songwriter. collaborated with michael stipe in the early 80s, just after graduating from high school. had his biggest hit in 1991 with the song girlfriend (off the album of the same name).
girlfriend:
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january 7: matthew shipp, pianist. primarily focuses on jazz, but collaborations with dj spooky and el-p show his adventurous side. listen via lastfm.
january 8: shirley bassey. classic british singer, hugely popular through the 60’s 
and 70’s, only person to record the theme song for more than one james bond film (she’s done three).
diamonds are forever:
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goldfinger:
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january 9: pj harvey, british singer/songwriter. her early album “dry” was listed in kurt cobain’s top 20 albums of all time, helping catapult her to stardom.
beautiful feeling (with cowboy junkies):
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january 10: don letts. filmmaker, dj, and musician. founded (along with mick jones) the post-clash band big audio dynamite.
b.a.d. (from ferris bueller’s day off): 
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january 11: lee ritnour, guitarist. influenced greatly by jazz legend wes montgomery. performed on many artists’ songs, including acoustic guitar for “comfortably numb” by pink floyd.
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You skipped Jan. 8! Elvis, R Kelly, Jenny Lewis, David Bowie, and my brother Ted! One of the biggest birthday days of the year!
Sorry, you didn’t skip Jan. 8, but you skipped some fascinating birthdays. Why are you thinking lately about birthdays, Gary?