Birthday Highlight:

Little Richard, born Richard Wayne Penniman, is 84 today. Little Richard is considered one of the key figures in the invention of rock n' roll, alongside the likes of Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry. He charted seventeen original hits in less than three years, including the towering classics "Tutti Frutti," "Good Golly Miss Molly," and "Long Tall Sally." At the height of his popularity in 1957, he quit popular music and became a born-again preacher, but returned to the spotlight mixing both secular and spiritual music later in life.

Also, Today In:

1960 - Elvis Presley started a ten-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with G.I. Blues. His fifth US No.1 album. Music on this album comprised songs that had appeared in the film of the same name.

1960 - Paul McCartney and Pete Best were arrested for pinning a condom to a brick wall and then igniting it. The two were told to leave Germany and The Beatles returned home, discouraged.

1965 - The Beatles played their last ever show in their hometown of Liverpool when they appeared at The Liverpool Empire during the group's final UK tour. Only 5,100 tickets were available, but there were 40,000 applications for tickets.

1973 - Paul McCartney released Band On The Run, his fifth album since his departure from The Beatles. Two hit singles from the album - 'Jet' and 'Band on the Run' - made it McCartney's most successful album.

1975 - Fleetwood Mac received their first Gold record for their second self-titled album, which was their first album with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.

1976 - Music weekly NME reviewed the Sex Pistols debut single 'Anarchy In The UK' saying "Johnny Rotten sings flat, the song is laughably naive, and the overall feeling is of a third-rate Who imitation."

1987 - The Jesus And Mary Chain were banned from appearing on a US music TV show after complaints of blasphemy when the group's name was flashed across the screen.

1987 - Belinda Carlisle went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Heaven Is a Place on Earth", the ex Go-Go's member first solo No. 1, also a No. 1 hit in the U.K. Fun fact: The promotional video was directed by Diane Keaton and features an appearance of Carlisle's husband Morgan Mason.

1992 - Whitney Houston started a ten-week run at No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart with "I Will Always Love You".

2003 - David Bowie announced that he had to postpone the first five concerts of his first North American tour in eight years due to the flu.

2004 - U2 went to No. 1 on the U.S. album chart giving them their sixth U.S. No. 1 album, with How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.

2006 - Beatles lyrics handwritten by Sir Paul McCartney to an early version of Maxwell's Silver Hammer sold for $192,000 at an auction in New York. A guitar owned by Jimi Hendrix fetched $168,000, a notebook containing lyrics written by Bob Marley, sold for $72,000 and a poem penned by Doors frontman Jim Morrison made $49,000 at the Christie's sale.

2011 - After spending 45 weeks at the top end of the UK charts, singer Adele's second album 21 become the biggest selling LP in Britain this century, surpassing the late Amy Winehouse's 2006 LP Back to Black.

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