Birthday Highlight:

Bonnie Raitt, blues and roots singer-songwriter, is 67 today. Raitt released albums throughout the 1970s and 1980s but didn't get commercially successful until her 10th album Nick of Time. You might best know Raitt for her singles "Something to Talk About", "Love Sneakin' Up on You", and the ballad "I Can't Make You Love Me" (covered here by Bon Iver), but Raitt has also won 10 Grammy Awards and is listed as No. 50 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time" and No. 89 on their list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

Also, Today In:

1958 - The soundtrack to South Pacific went No. 1 on the U.K. album chart. It spent a record 115 weeks at the No. 1 position. In the U.S., the album stayed at No. 1 for seven months.

1965 - The Beatles worked on a new George Harrison song "Think For Yourself" at Abbey Road for their forthcoming Rubber Soul album. After rehearsing the song, they recorded the basic instrumental track in one take.

1971 - Led Zeppelin released their fourth album. Generally referred to as "Led Zeppelin IV", "Four Symbols" or "The Fourth Album", it had no official title. The album went on to sell over 37 million copies worldwide.

1975 - Elton John was named Godfather to John and Yoko Lennon's son Sean.

1975 - David Bowie made his U.S. TV debut performing "Fame", on the CBS-TV show Cher. Bowie who was living in New York at the time had written the song with John Lennon during a jam session.

1995 - Michael Jackson sold the rights to scores of Beatles songs (he had outbid Paul McCartney for the rights several years earlier) to Sony for $95 million.

2009 - Morrissey stopped a concert halfway through his second song after being hit in the eye by a plastic beer bottle lobbed at the stage. He then said goodnight to the 8,000 strong crowd in Liverpool, England before walking off.

2012 - Reports surfaced that Jermaine Jackson filed legal papers at Los Angeles County Superior Court asking to have the spelling of his surname altered to Jacksun for "artistic reasons." The request was granted in February 2013.

Birthdays:

Porl Thompson of The Cure is 59.

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