Tom Waits

Thomas Alan Waits is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He began in the folk scene during the 1970s, but his music since the 1980s has reflected the influence of such diverse genres as rock, Delta blues, opera, vaudeville, cabaret, funk, hip hop and experimental techniques verging on industrial music. Per The Wall Street Journal, Waits “has composed a body of work that’s at least comparable to any songwriter’s in pop today. A keen, sensitive and sympathetic chronicler of the adrift and downtrodden, Mr. Waits creates three-dimensional characters who, even in their confusion and despair, are capable of insight and startling points of view. Their stories are accompanied by music that’s unlike any other in pop history.”

7 December 1949

Born on the same birth date (7 December 1949): James Rivière

Born on the same birth day (7 December): Alex Johnson • Chuy Bravo • Craig Scanlon • Daniel Jones (composer) • Eric Chavez • Fabien Pelous • Felix Calonder • Hack Meyers • Ivan Franceschini • Jeffrey Wright • Jennifer Carpenter • Kateryna Bilokur • Louis I, Count of Sayn-Wittgenstein • Nikola Vaptsarov • Sara Bareilles • Shinichi Ito • Susan Collins

Born in the same month (December 1949): Bill Buckner • David Bedford (athlete) • Jan Brett • José Ramos-Horta • Linda Creed • Mickey Thomas (singer) • Reinhold Weege • Sebastián Piñera • Simone Bittencourt de Oliveira • Susan Shwartz • Tom Kite • Yasmin Alibhai-Brown