Birthday Highlight:

Chaka Khan (born Yvette Marie Stevens) is 64. Her career began in the 1970s as the frontwoman of the funk band Rufus. In the course of her solo career, Khan has achieved three gold singles, three gold albums and one platinum album with I Feel for You. With Rufus, she achieved four gold singles, four gold albums, and two platinum albums. Widely known as the Queen of Funk, Khan has won ten Grammys and has sold an estimated 70 million records worldwide.

Also, Today In:

1956 - Fats Domino headlined the first day of a 3-day concert organized by the DJ Alan Freed in Hartford, Connecticut. Over the course of the shows, 11 fans were arrested by over-zealous police. It was a litmus test for rock concerts and their effect on young people, as psychiatrist Francis Braceland testified afterwards that rock music is "a communicable disease with music appealing to adolescent insecurity and driving teenagers to do outlandish things. It is cannibalistic and tribalistic."

1963 - Ruby and the Romantics went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Our Day Will Come."

1972 - The film of The Concert For Bangladesh featuring George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton premiered in New York. The event was the first benefit concert of this magnitude in world history. The concert, which was administered by UNICEF, raised $243,418.51 to aid victims of famine and war in Bangladesh. To this day, sales of the album and DVD continue to benefit the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF.

1973 - U.S. immigration authorities ordered John Lennon to leave the United States within 60 days. Lennon then began a long battle to earn his Green Card, which he was finally granted on July 27, 1976.

1977 - Elvis Presley appeared at the Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., the first show in a 49-date, three-month U.S. tour, which proved to be Presley's final tour.

1978 - A&M Records sign a new, young band called The Police.

1985 - Former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty went to No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Centerfield.

1985 - Billy Joel married the "Uptown Girl" Christie Brinkley. They remained married for nine years.

1997 - U2 were at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Pop, the band's fifth U.S. No. 1 album.

2008 - Jack Johnson was at No. 1 on the US album chart with his fifth album, Sleep Through The Static. The album spent three weeks at the top of the charts.

2011 - Guitarist Pete Townshend told Uncut magazine that he regretted ever forming the band, The Who. "What would I have done differently? I would never have joined a band," Townshend was quoted as saying. "Even though I am quite a good gang member and a good trooper on the road, I am bad at creative collaboration."

Birthdays:

Ric Ocasek of The Cars is 68.

Damon Albarn of Blur is 49.

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