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Today in Music History: Prince's 'Batman' goes No. 1

Prince on stage in The Netherlands in 1986, during the tour for his album 'Parade'.
Prince on stage in The Netherlands in 1986, during the tour for his album 'Parade'.Rob Verhorst/Getty Images

July 22, 2020

History Highlight:

Today in 1989, Prince's soundtrack album to Batman started a six-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart. The album was No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart for six consecutive weeks and to date has sold over eleven million copies worldwide. In the album's liner notes, the lyrics of each song are associated with one of the characters in the film.

Also, Today In:

1965 - Mick Jagger, Brian Jones and Bill Wyman from The Rolling Stones were each fined £5 at East Ham Magistrates Court, London, after being found guilty of "insulting behavior" at a Romford Road service station. Charges stemmed from an incident in which all three had urinated against a wall after the service station attendant had refused them the use of the facilities.

1969 - Aretha Franklin was arrested for causing a disturbance in a Detroit parking lot. After posting $50 bail, she ran down a road sign with her car while leaving the police station.

1977 - Stiff Records released My Aim Is True, the debut album from Elvis Costello, in the U.K.

1989 - Former actress Martika started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Toy Soldiers."

1996 - Donovan was forced to postpone a comeback tour of the U.S. because of a 30-year-old marijuana conviction in the U.K., for which American authorities delayed granting him a waiver to enter the country.

2006 - Johnny Cash was at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with American V: A Hundred Highways. Released posthumously on July 4, the vocal parts were recorded before Cash's death, but the instruments were not recorded until 2005.

2019 - Singer, songwriter and keyboardist Art Neville died at age 81. Art shot to fame as part of the Neville Brothers when they started singing as children, but went their separate ways in the 1950s and 1960s. It was not until 1977 that the brothers finally got together again and in 1978 they recorded their first Neville Brothers album. Art was a founding member of The Meters, and he also played on recordings by many notable artists including Labelle (on "Lady Marmalade"), Paul McCartney, Lee Dorsey, Robert Palmer, Dr. John and Professor Longhair.

Birthdays:

George Clinton is 79.

Supertramp's Rick Davies is 76.

Don Henley is 73.

Keith Sweat is 59

Will Calhoun of Living Colour is 56.

Daniel Jones of Savage Garden is 47.

Rufus Wainwright is 47.

Selena Gomez is 28.

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