History Highlight:

Today in 2007, Prince released Planet Earth, his thirty-second studio album. The album was distributed as a free covermount with The Mail on Sunday national newspaper in the U.K., followed by the album's worldwide distribution. This move brought much criticism from U.K. record stores which resulted in Columbia refusing to distribute the album in the U.K., though its release in the rest of the world remained unaffected. Fun fact: This was not Prince's first or only time releasing albums for free. In 2004, he gave free copies of Musicology to all concert goers during the "Musicology" tour, and he gave away copies of Planet Earth with tickets to his 2007 concerts in London.

Also, Today In:

1952 - Eight-year-old prodigy Gladys Knight appeared on the TV show Ted Mack's Amateur Hour, which was a precursor to shows like Star Search and American Idol. She won the top prize of $2,000 for her performance of Nat King Cole's "Too Young."

1958 - John Lennon's mother Julia was killed by a car driven by a drunk driver. John was 17 at the time.

1965 - This week's U.S. top three singles were No. 3 The Byrds, "Mr Tambourine Man," No. 2 The Four Tops, "I Can't Help Myself" and at No. 1. The Rolling Stones with "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." A random chart fact for you.

1972 - Elton John started a five-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Honky Chateau, his first U.S. chart topper.

1973 - Induced by exhaustion and a falling-out with his wife, Ray Davies announced that he was departing The Kinks. After a week of rest, he changed his mind.

1978 - The Rolling Stones started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with "Some Girls," the group's seventh U.S. No. 1 album.

1978 - Bob Dylan performed at what was the biggest open-air concert in history for a solo artist, playing for over 200,000 at "The Picnic at Blackbushe" at Blackbushe Airport in Hampshire, England.

1986 - Run-DMC's Raising Hell became the first rap album certified platinum.

1989 - Simply Red scored their second U.S. No. 1 single with "If You Don't Know Me By Now," a 1973 U.K. hit for Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes.

1998 - Aerosmith were forced to cancel a forthcoming U.S. tour after drummer Joey Kramer was involved in a freak accident in which he was filling his car with gasoline and it caught fire. Kramer hospitalized with second-degree burns.

2009 - 45 years after he played at the Ed Sullivan Theater with The Beatles, Paul McCartney returned to the venue to appear on The Late Show With David Letterman. Earlier in the day, McCartney played a few songs from the theater's marquee, surprising the onlookers in Manhattan.

2012 - "Gangnam Style" was unleashed upon the world. Performed by K-Pop singer PSY, the song debuted on YouTube and became its most-watched video (ever. in history.), surpassing even Justin Bieber's hit "Baby" in that capacity. The song, partly in Korean, is about the lifestyle of the Gangnam district in Seoul, Korea. The video features PSY's now-famous signature dance moves and it spawned several parodies, animated versions, and mash-ups. "Gangnam Style" goes on to become a worldwide phenomenon, with its dance moves attempted by President Obama and British prime minister David Cameron; it was also declared a "force for world peace" on the floor of the United Nations.

Birthdays:

Johnny Thunders, New York Dolls singer, was born today in 1952.

Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis was born in 1956.

American Soul and R&B singer Millie Jackson is 72.

Linda Ronstadt is 70.

Guitarist Joe Satriani is 60.

Highlights for Today in Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts and Wikipedia.