Birthday Highlight:

Today in 1959, Ian McCulloch, singer-songwriter and frontman for Echo and the Bunnymen, was born. In 1978, McCulloch founded Echo and the Bunnymen with Will Sergeant, Les Pattinson and a drum machine allegedly named Echo. A year later, the Bunnymen exchanged the drum machine for Pete de Freitas on drums and played in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Their 1980 debut album Crocodiles met with critical acclaim and made the U.K. Top 20. Their second album Heaven Up Here (1981), again found favor with fans and critics and reached number 10 in the U.K. Album chart.

Also, Today In:

1956 - Elvis Presley scored his first U.S. No. 1 single and album when "Heartbreak Hotel" went to the top of the charts. "Heartbreak Hotel" became his first million-seller, and was the best-selling single of 1956.

1962 - The soundtrack to West Side Story went to No. 1 on the U.S. album chart. It went on to spend a total of 54 weeks at the No. 1 position.

1963 - On a recommendation from George Harrison, Decca Records A&R man Dick Rowe (who had turned down The Beatles), went to see The Rolling Stones play in London. The band signed to the label within a week.

1967 - Scott McKenzie's "San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair)" first appeared on the U.S. singles chart and soon became an anthem of the Flower Power movement and hippies everywhere.

1969 - The Beatles single "Get Back" had its U.S. release. John Lennon claimed in 1980 that "There's some underlying thing about Yoko in there," suggesting that Paul McCartney looked at Yoko Ono in the studio every time he sang "Get back to where you once belonged."

1972 - Paul Simon, Chicago and Carole King all performed at a benefit concert for U.S. presidential candidate George McGovern.

1979 - Peaches and Herb started a four-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Reunited".

1984 - Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders married Jim Kerr of Simple Minds. The couple divorced in 1990.

1986 - Cleveland, Ohio, was selected as the site for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

1996 - Rage Against The Machine went to No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Evil Empire. The album won the 1996 Grammy award for Best Metal Performance.

2000 - Rod Stewart had a one-hour throat operation at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles to remove a growth on his thyroid. The growth turned out to be benign.

2005 - Justin Timberlake underwent an operation at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles to remove nodules from his throat.

2014 - Beyonce's sister Solange Knowles attacked Jay-Z in an elevator they were all riding while headed to a gala at The Standard hotel in New York. The footage, which was leaked on TMZ, showed Jay taking his whooping before a security guard restrained Solange. Beyonce later mentioned the incident in her song "Flawless" when she sings, "sometime s--t go down when there's a billion dollars on an elevator."

Birthdays:

Original Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward is 68.

Ian McCulloch, singer-songwriter and frontman for Echo and the Bunnymen, is 57.

Tammy Wynette, the First Lady of Country Music, was born today in 1942.

Adele 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.