Birthdays on the Tube, 13-19 December

A continuing series celebrating musicians' birthdays.

16 December 1899: Noel Coward, sharing a birthday with Beethoven, an early English rapper of the silk polka dot dressing gown and cigarette holder school.

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16 December 1770: Not sure whether to admit this, but I can't have been the sole Sex Pistols fan who only became enamoured of the second movement of Ludwig Van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony as a teenager after watching Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, with Alex and fellow droogs discussing the magnificence of Ludwig and ultraviolence in the Moloko milk bar. And who better than Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic in full flow to do it justice?

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14 December 1946: Jane Birkin is still producing not unimpressive music, but she will forever be associated with this scandalous duet with the only credible French musician of the '60s, Serge Gainsbourg. In retrospect, it all seems rather sweet, really, especially the video.

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15 December 1936: Eddie Palmieri, at the peak of his considerable salsa powers in Central Park New York in 1972 with "Vamonos Pal Monte". Distorted but thrilling.

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18 December 1980: Christine Aguilera goes 1940s retro with "Candyman".

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19 December 1885: Joe "King" Oliver's Jazz band are often considered the greatest of them all. No videos on YouTube on his birthday is a decent excuse listen to "Riverside Blues" from 1923.

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