History Highlight:

Today in 1973, Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd went to No. 1 on the U.S. album charts. The album went on to enjoy a record-breaking 741 discontinuous weeks on the Billboard chart, and has now sold over 45 million copies worldwide.

Also, Today In:

1963 - Andrew Oldham, a 19-year-old music publicist, caught a gig by the Rolling Stones at London's Crawdaddy club. He was so impressed that on the following day, he signed the young band to their first managerial contract; they began work on their first recordings two weeks later.

1964 - The Beatles recorded the TV special "Around The Beatles" at Wembley Studios in England. As well as performing songs, they played Act V Scene 1 of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Nights Dream" with John playing the female role of Thisbe, Paul as Pyramus, George as Moonshine and Ringo as Lion. Paul later named his cat Thisbe.

1968 - The Broadway musical Hair opened at the Biltmore Theatre in New York City. The show featured the songs "Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In", "Good Morning Starshine" and the title song. The production ran for 1,729 performances, finally closing on July 1, 1972.

1979 - Blondie's Heart Of Glass hits No. 1.

1980 - Marshall Tucker Band bass player Tommy Caldwell died of injuries from a car accident aged 30 in his hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina.

1981 - A former member of T Rex, Steve Currie was killed in a car crash returning to his home in Portugal. He was 33 years old.

1982 - The California State Assembly consumer-protection-committee heard testimony from "experts" who claimed that when "Stairway To Heaven" was played backward, contained the words: "I sing because I live with Satan. The Lord turns me off, there's no escaping it. Here's to my sweet Satan, whose power is Satan. He will give you 666. I live for Satan."

1984 - Bon Jovi made their debut appearance on U.S. television on American Bandstand where they performed "Runaway" and "She Don't Know Me".

1987 - While on a plane en route from Miami to Boston, Ozzy Osbourne bought three rounds of drinks for everyone on the plane and sang "Crazy Train" over the PA system.

1990 - Sinead O'Connor started a six-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, her second album. The album was nominated for four Grammy Awards in 1991, including Record of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and Best Music Video, Short Form for "Nothing Compares 2 U", winning the award for Best Alternative Music Performance. O'Connor refused to accept the nominations and the award due to the Grammy's extreme commercialization, she said. The critically acclaimed album contains her most famous single, "Nothing Compares 2 U", and was one of the best-selling records in the world in 1990, topping the charts in many countries, including the U.S., U.K., and Canada.

1990 - Motley Crue peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart with "Without You" which was their second and final top ten single in the U.S.

1990 - Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose married girlfriend Erin Everly, daughter of The Everly Brothers' Don Everly at the Cupid Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. Their marriage was annulled in January 1991.

1990 - Robert Plant peaked at number thirteen on the Billboard 200 Album Chart with his fifth full-length solo album Manic Nirvana which went Gold in the U.S.

1999 - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2000 - A blaze swept through James Brown Enterprises, the office that coordinates the superstar's tours. Nobody was injured, but memorabilia and live tapes were destroyed in the blaze. An employee was later arrested and charged with arson.

2003 - Apple launches iTunes, which becomes the first widely-successful legal music download site, thanks to the emergence of the iPod, which lets people take their music with them. At first, the service was available only to Mac users and the music files were encoded in Apple's proprietary format restricting where they could be played.

2015 - Jack Ely died at the age of 71 after a long illness. The Kingman singer's hit "Louie Louie" reached the top of the charts in 1963 and sparked an FBI investigation into whether or not its lyrics were obscene.

Birthdays:

Muscle Shoals keyboardist Chuck Leavell is 65. He has recorded and toured with the Rolling Stones, the Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton and many others.

Kim Gordon, bassist, guitarist and vocalist of Sonic Youth, is 64.

West coast hip hop pioneer Too $hort is 51.

Howard Donald of Take That 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.