History Highlight:

Today in 1970, Neil Young picked up a Gold record for "Cinnamon Girl" from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. Young wrote the song while he was suffering from the flu with a high fever at his home at Topanga. A love ode to a mysterious woman, Young has said that the song "was hard to explain to my wife."

Also, Today In:

1966 - It was reported that both George Harrison and Brian Jones had taken up the Indian instrument, the sitar. Brian and the Stones would be the first to use it, on "Paint It Black."

1969 - David Bowie recorded "Space Oddity" at Trident Studios London.

1973 - Neil Diamond appeared on the 20th anniversary show of American Bandstand.

2004 - Organizers at a Paul McCartney gig hired three jets to spray dry ice into the clouds so it wouldn't rain during the concert. The gig in Petersburg, Russia, was McCartney's 3,000th concert appearance. He had performed 2,535 gigs with the Quarrymen and the Beatles, 140 gigs with Wings and 325 solo shows.

Birthdays:

Guitarist Chet Atkins, one of the primary architects of 'The Nashville Sound', was born today in 1924. Among many honors, Atkins received 14 Grammy Awards as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, nine Country Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year awards, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum.

Brian Wilson, original member of Beach Boys, is 74 today.

Lionel Richie is 67.

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