History Highlight:

Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell was born today in 1964. Chris Cornell, who passed away May 18th of this year, helped define the grunge movement and has a practically unparalleled vocal range. Outside of his bands, which also includes Temple of the Dog, the one-off tribute band dedicated to his late friend Andrew Wood, he also released four solo studio albums, Euphoria Morning (1999), Carry On (2007), Scream (2009), Higher Truth (2015), and the live album Songbook (2011).

Also, Today In:

1940 - Billboard's first comprehensive record chart was published. The magazine had previously published best-seller lists submitted by individual record companies, but the new chart combined the top sellers from all major labels. Billboard's first No. 1 song was "I'll Never Smile Again" by Frank Sinatra and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.

1963 - Jan and Dean started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Surf City," written by Beach Boy Brian Wilson, with the Beach Boys on backing vocals.

1965 - Bob Dylan released "Like a Rolling Stone" which would become his first major hit single eventually peaking at number two on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Chart.

1968 - Iron Butterfly's second album, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, entered the U.S. album chart for the first time. The album, which went on sell more than four million copies in the U.S. alone, contained the 17-minute title track that filled the second side of the LP. The song would later inspire one of Bart Simpson's more creative pranks.

1974 - The Ramones decided that their new lead singer would be their then-drummer Joey Ramone.

1975 - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played the opening night on their Born To Run Tour at The Palace Theatre in Providence, R.I. The tour actually began more than a month before the album, Born to Run, was released; "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" made its first appearance, but the show was mostly dominated by older material. The show also saw the live debut of Steven Van Zandt, aka Little Steven, as a member of The E Street Band.

1976 - Buzzcocks made their live debut supporting The Sex Pistols and Slaughter & The Dogs at The Lesser Free Trade Hall, Manchester. In the audience were Morrissey, Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook (soon to form Joy Division), Mark E. Smith (The Fall) and Mick Hucknall.

1986 - Sid And Nancy, the film based on the life of Sex Pistol Sid Vicious, premiered in London.

1991 - EMF went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Unbelievable." The song spent 14 weeks on the chart before reaching the top. Fun fact: the song contains samples of U.S. comedian Andrew Dice Clay throughout the track, including the loud exclamation of "oh!" at the start of each chorus along with the words "it's unbelievable" spoken during the bridge.

1996 - De La Soul's Stakes Is High debuts at No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart, and No. 4 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

2016 - Weed-loving rappers Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg began their "High Road" tour with a show in West Palm Beach, Florida. Says Khalifa, "It's a joint performance."

Birthdays:

Kim Carnes, who had a No. 1 hit single in 1980 with "Betty Davis Eyes," is 72.

Carlos Santana, better known as simply Santana, is 70.

Simple Minds keyboardist Mick MacNeil is 59.

Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard is 51.

Mark Mallman is 44.

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