Maintenance
Musicians with September birthdays at a glance
Musicians with September birthdays, their dates, and what the available source types can—and cannot—confirm before you treat a copied date as proof.
What to take away
- Musicians with September birthdays are named below, each with the source type the date rests on: label biographies, studio publicity files, published interviews, published autobiographies, and the Social Security Death Index for deceased American performers.
- Every date is as published by the source type named, not verified against a birth certificate or other vital record.
- Where two sources disagree by a day, the disagreement is stated, not resolved. A local clock and a time zone can move a birth date across midnight.
- A copied date is not a second source. Twenty pages repeating one publicity file are one source counted twenty times.
- Correct the origin, not the display. A panel regenerates from its source, so a fix applied downstream returns.
- Match on identifiers, not names. Full name, birthplace and middle initial separate two performers who share a date.
September birthdays, by name
| Musician | Date | Known for | What the date rests on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barry Gibb | September 1, 1946 | Douglas, Isle of Man singer; the Bee Gees; "Stayin' Alive" (1977) | Label biography; published interviews |
| Billy Preston | September 2, 1946 | Houston keyboardist; "Will It Go Round in Circles" (1973) | Label biography; published interviews |
| Beyonce | September 4, 1981 | Houston singer; album Lemonade (2016); formerly Destiny's Child | Label biography and published interviews |
| Freddie Mercury | September 5, 1946 | Queen frontman; "Bohemian Rhapsody" (1975) | Studio publicity file; band biography |
| Buddy Holly | September 7, 1936 | Lubbock, Texas singer-guitarist; "Peggy Sue" (1957) | Birth record cited in standard reference works |
| P!nk (Alecia Moore) | September 8, 1979 | Doylestown, Pennsylvania singer; "So What" (2008) | Label biography; published interviews |
| Otis Redding | September 9, 1941 | Dawson, Georgia soul singer; "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" (1968) | Label biography; published interviews |
| Barry White | September 12, 1944 | Galveston, Texas singer and producer; "You're the First, the Last, My Everything" (1974) | Label biography |
| Jennifer Hudson | September 12, 1981 | Chicago singer and actor; album Jennifer Hudson (2008) | Label biography; published interviews |
| Fiona Apple | September 13, 1977 | New York singer; debut album Tidal (1996) | Label biography; published interviews |
| Nas (Nasir Jones) | September 14, 1973 | Brooklyn rapper; debut album Illmatic (1994) | Label biography; published interviews |
| B.B. King | September 16, 1925 | Mississippi blues guitarist; named his guitar Lucille | Published autobiography and interviews |
| Nick Jonas | September 16, 1992 | Dallas-born singer; the Jonas Brothers | Label biography; published interviews |
| Leonard Cohen | September 21, 1934 | Montreal songwriter; "Hallelujah" | Published biography; published interviews |
| Joan Jett | September 22, 1958 | Wynnewood, Pennsylvania singer-guitarist; "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" (1982) | Label biography; published interviews |
| Bruce Springsteen | September 23, 1949 | Long Branch, New Jersey singer; Born to Run (1975) | Label biography; published interviews |
| Ray Charles | September 23, 1930 | Albany, Georgia singer; "Georgia on My Mind" | Published autobiography |
| John Coltrane | September 23, 1926 | North Carolina saxophonist; A Love Supreme (1965) | Published biography; label notes |
| Olivia Newton-John | September 26, 1948 | Cambridge, England singer and actor; "Physical" (1981) | Label biography; published interviews |
| Avril Lavigne | September 27, 1984 | Belleville, Ontario singer; "Complicated" (2002) | Label biography |
| Jerry Lee Lewis | September 29, 1935 | Ferriday, Louisiana singer-pianist; "Great Balls of Fire" (1957) | Published biography; published interviews |
| Sting | October 2, 1951 | Wallsend, England singer; the Police | Not September; listed to show the boundary |
The last row matters. A date one day outside the month is the most common error in a month index. It usually enters when a compiler reads a UTC timestamp as a local date.
Two of those source types are books. Ray Charles told his own story in Brother Ray (1978), and B.B. King did the same in Blues All Around Me (1996). Both were written with David Ritz.
Where a date comes from
For a living performer, the citable source is usually a label biography or a studio publicity file, not a vital record. Both are marketing documents, and every outlet that receives one repeats its date.
For a deceased performer, the Social Security Death Index is often the earliest record a researcher can reach. It gives a date and a state of issue, not a birthplace. Freddie Mercury died in London in 1991, so his September 5 date comes from studio publicity files and Queen biographies.
A state department of health holds the birth certificate, and its eligibility rules govern who may obtain a copy. Confirm those rules with the issuing office rather than relying on a summary.
Why a day slips
A birth at 11:40 p.m. local time falls on the next day in UTC. A compiler working in UTC records the next day and never sees the local record.
How a birthday slips a day
- 1140 p.m. local birth recorded locally
- Next day in UTCcompiler records wrong day
- September 5, 1946fell on a Thursday
- September 5, 1981fell on a Saturday
- Weekday mismatchevidence of a copy error
Weekday drift compounds it. September 5, 1946 fell on a Thursday; September 5, 1981 fell on a Saturday. A page that prints a weekday beside a date can be checked against a calendar, and a mismatch is evidence of a copy error.
Matching the right person
Two performers can share a name and a September date. Full name, birthplace and middle initial are the fields that separate them, and a record missing any of the three is weak.
The musicians on the January page sets out why the identifier is the field worth chasing. The same problem appears in a list of actors with late-year birthdays.
How machine-built lists gather dates
Machine-built collections match text to entities, which is entity linking, and store the result in a knowledge graph. Much of the input arrives by web scraping, which collects what pages say without recording which page copied which.
The graph grows more confident for the reason it should grow less.
How to use a September birthday list
This site organizes by month and describes bodies of work, not private records. The September index covers what a month grouping asserts, and the April musicians page covers what happens to a name in transit.
A September birthday is a sorting fact. It tells you where to look, not what a record says. The January index sets out how a correction should be recorded.
Common questions
If twenty sites agree, is the date right?
Only if the twenty are independent, and for performer birthdays they usually are not. Agreement between copies is one source counted twenty times, not twenty confirmations.
Which source should I cite for a living musician?
A label biography or a studio publicity file is the reachable source, and it is a marketing document. Cite it as what it is, and note that it repeats rather than verifies.
What if two sources disagree by a day?
State both and cite each. Do not resolve it. A one-day gap usually traces to a local clock, a time zone, or a compiler reading a UTC timestamp as a local date.
Can I get the birth certificate myself?
Eligibility is set by the state or provincial vital records office that holds the record. Confirm the current rules with that office, and consult a licensed attorney on access questions.
