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Part of Which parts of May birthdays deserve the closest look?
Musicians with May birthdays: a dated, sourced directory
A dated directory of musicians born in May lists each birth date alongside the source that records it and the citation confirming the exact day.
A May birthday list is only worth publishing if each date can be traced to a source and checked against a second one. Here are the musicians, the day, and where the record sits.
What to take away
- Every date below comes from a published source, not from memory.
- Time zones and local clocks can shift a date by one day. A birth registered before midnight in one place can read as the next day elsewhere.
- Full name, birthplace and middle initial are what separate two people born on the same date. Use all three before you merge records.
The May directory
| Musician | Full name | Date | Birthplace | Known for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bing Crosby | Harry Lillis Crosby Jr. | May 3, 1903 | Tacoma, Washington | Singer, actor | AllMusic artist page; Encyclopaedia Britannica |
| Judy Collins | Judith Marjorie Collins | May 1, 1939 | Seattle, Washington | Folk singer, songwriter | AllMusic artist page |
| Stevie Wonder | Stevland Hardaway Judkins, later Morris | May 13, 1950 | Saginaw, Michigan | Singer, multi-instrumentalist | AllMusic artist page; Encyclopaedia Britannica |
| Bono | Paul David Hewson | May 10, 1960 | Dublin, Ireland | U2 vocalist | AllMusic artist page; Encyclopaedia Britannica |
| Janet Jackson | Janet Damita Jo Jackson | May 16, 1966 | Gary, Indiana | Singer, performer | AllMusic artist page; Encyclopaedia Britannica |
| CeeLo Green | Thomas DeCarlo Callaway | May 30, 1974 | Chattanooga, Tennessee | Singer, rapper | AllMusic artist page |
| Adele | Adele Laurie Blue Adkins | May 5, 1988 | Tottenham, London, England | Singer, songwriter | AllMusic artist page; Encyclopaedia Britannica |
Each row names a working musician with a May birth date carried in standard reference works and label or studio biographies. The Source column now names the work itself, so you can open that artist page or reference entry and compare it with the year here.
Most US vital records offices release a birth certificate only to the person named, a close relative, or someone with a court order. So the years above rest on the named works, not on a certificate we have seen. Where two works are named in a row, check both under the artist's stage name.
May musician birthdays
- May 1Judy Collins, 1939
- May 3Bing Crosby, 1903
- May 5Adele, 1988
- May 10Bono, 1960
- May 13Stevie Wonder, 1950
- May 16Janet Jackson, 1966
- May 30CeeLo Green, 1974
How a date gets confirmed
Start with the authority that holds the record. For a US-born subject that is the state vital records office that issued the birth certificate, and its eligibility rules decide who may request a copy.
Confirming a birth date
- Start with the authority holding the record
- USstate vital records office
- Social Security Death Indexdecedents only
- Canadaprovincial registries
- Fallbackstudio publicity files, label guides
- Check day-of-year arithmetic
- Check weekday drift across years
The Social Security Death Index covers decedents only. Provincial registries do the same job in Canada.
For performers, studio publicity files and league or label media guides are the practical fallback when no public record is available.
Then check the arithmetic. Day-of-year tells you how far into the year a date sits, which is how you catch a transposed day and month. Weekday drift across years catches the rest: a date that should fall on a Tuesday and does not is wrong somewhere.
The February index sets out why a public date is a key rather than a detail, and why that changes what a page like this should claim. The reasoning does not change with the month, which is why the link sits here.
Where the dates disagree
Sources conflict more often than readers expect, and the honest move is to show both. A studio biography may give a year the performer later corrected. A label page may repeat an early error for decades.
When that happens, cite each source and state the disagreement. Do not resolve it.
The March musicians page covers how release chronology gets mixed up with personal chronology, which is one of the common causes here. No row in the table above depends on the March list.
Copyright, publicity and the list itself
A single date is a fact, and facts are not protected by copyright, which covers expression rather than information. The public domain holds works whose protection expired or never applied. A compiled list is a separate question.
Some jurisdictions recognize a database right in the investment behind a collection, even where each item is a plain fact. That is why a scraped directory can be a problem when a single date is not. Publicity rights are a third question, set by state statute and varying widely.
Checking a date before you publish it
- Note the source that holds the date, and the date you checked it.
- Confirm the day-of-year arithmetic and the weekday for that year.
- Check the time zone where the birth was registered, in case a local clock shifts the day.
- Match full name, birthplace and middle initial before merging two records.
- Record the license or terms for every source you draw on.
The May index covers what this site claims and does not claim, and the January index carries the route for asking. Both are index pages for the site itself, kept here so you can read its stated limits and send a correction.
Common questions
Why give a source column instead of a link?
A link can rot; a named work stays checkable. Each row names the work that holds the date, so you can open that artist page or reference entry and compare the year with the one printed here.
Does a public domain source guarantee an accurate date?
No. Age removes protection, not error. An old printed source can be wrong in ways that are now impossible to check, which is why you record where a value came from, not only whether you may use it.
