Birthday Highlight:

Tori Amos is 51 today. Born Myra Ellen Amos, she began playing piano at age 5 and attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music Preperatory Division as a child, but was asked to leave at age 11 because of her fondness for rock n' roll and dislike of reading sheet music. By the age of 13, she was playing piano in gay bars - chaperoned by her father, a Methodist preacher (whoa). After a false start in the 80s leading a band called Y Kant Tori Read, Amos hit it big with her solo debut Little Earthquakes in 1992. Amos has sold over 12 million albums worldwide and has been nominated for several awards, including 8 Grammy Award nominations.

Also, Today In:

1956 - Filming began on Love Me Tender, Elvis Presley's first movie.

1962 - The first photo of the Beatles (in the final four formation with Ringo on drums) was taken on August 22, 1962. The last was taken exactly seven years later, on August 22, 1969.

1964 - The original "Dancing In The Streets," by Martha & The Vandellas, was released. It was later covered by Van Halen (and don't forget Mick Jagger and David Bowie).

1968 - Cynthia Powell Lennon, Julian's mother, sued John Lennon for divorce on the grounds that he'd committed adultery with Yoko Ono.

1979 - Led Zeppelin released In Through The Out Door. The record cover was one of the most expensive and elaborate covers ever produced (moisten the inside sleeve artwork and it turns colors).

Birthdays:

John Lee Hooker, the influential blues singer and guitarist, was born today in 1917.