History Highlight:

Today in 1975, David Bowie's "Fame" was released. John Lennon had been in on the recording session, lending guitar and vocals, and Bowie felt Lennon's contributions during the recording was significant enough that he gave him co-songwriting credit. The main riff of the song was based on an improv devised by Bowie's guitarist Carlos Alomar. "Fame" became Bowie's biggest hit to that point in the U.S. It was his first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Also, Today In:

1959 - Bobby Darin was at No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart with "Dream Lover". It was the American singer's first No. 1 and the song featured Neil Sedaka on piano.

1966 - The Small Faces appeared live at The Marquee Club in Wardour Street, London.

1968 - The Beatles recorded "Good Night" at Abbey Road studios. John Lennon wrote this song as a lullaby for his 5-year-old son Julian with Ringo singing the lead vocals.

1969 - Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, The Nice, Ten Years After, Taste, and several others appeared at The Bath Festival of Blues in England, hosted by DJ John Peel.

1969 - Henry Mancini started a two week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Love Theme from Romeo And Juliet".

1975 - Wings went to No. 1 on the U.K. chart with their fourth album Venus And Mars. The follow up to Band On The Run featured the U.S. No. 1 single "Listen What The Man Said".

1980 - Paul McCartney's Coming Up became one of the few "live" recordings to reach the top of Billboard's Hot 100. American disc jockeys preferred it to the studio version on the flip side of the record.

1984 - Bruce Springsteen shot his "Dancing In The Dark" music video in front of 200 extras at the St. Paul Civic center. Courtney Cox played the front row fan who gets to dance on stage with Bruce, and the video became his first to get significant airplay on MTV.

1993 - Notorious transgressive rock singer GG Allin died of a heroin overdose.

1997 - Radiohead went to number 1 on the U.K. album chart with their third album OK Computer.

1997 - Puff Daddy and Faith Evans started a three-week run at No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart with "I'll Be Missing You". The song was released in memory of fellow Bad Boy Records artist Notorious B.I.G. who was murdered on March 9, 1997. The song sampled the melody of The Police hit "Every Breath You Take".

1997 - Radiohead went to No. 1 on the U.K. album chart with their third album OK Computer. The British group's first self-produced album later appeared in many critics' lists and listener polls for best album of the year and also won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance.

1997 - The classic Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon spent its 1056th week on US album charts.

2007 - Rod Stewart received ten stitches in his leg after slipping on stage in Manchester, England.

Birthdays:

Charles Clouser, keyboards, drums, engineer, and once a member of Nine Inch Nails (1994-2000) is 53.

Mark Stoermer, bassist for The Killers, is 39.

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

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