History Highlight:

Richard Butler, born in 1956, celebrates his 61st birthday today. Known best as the lead singer of the Psychedelic Furs who formed in 1977, took a hiatus in 1992, and regrouped in 2000, he also founded the band Love Spit Love and began his solo career in 2006.

Also, Today In:

1956 - Elvis Presley appeared on ABC TV's Milton Berle Show. During the performance, Presley abruptly halted an uptempo rendition of "Hound Dog" with a wave of his arm and launched into a slow, grinding version accentuated with energetic, exaggerated body movements. Presley's gyrations created a storm of controversy.

1959 - Robert Zimmerman, later known as Bob Dylan, graduated from Hibbing High School in northern Minnesota. While in high school, Zimmerman formed several bands; one of those bands, the Golden Chords, performed covers of songs by Little Richard and Elvis Presley. The Golden Chords' performance of Danny and the Juniors' "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay" at their high school talent show was reportedly so loud that the principal cut the microphone. In the 1959 Hematite — the Hibbing High School yearbook — young Bob's photo is captioned, "Robert Zimmerman: to join Little Richard," and it notes that Bob was a member of the Latin and Social Studies clubs.

1961 - Roy Orbison went to No. 1 on the U.S. chart with "Running Scared."

1974 - Patti Smith recorded her first song, a cover of the Hendrix classic, "Hey Joe."

1983 - During a 48-date North American tour, U2 played at Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver. The show was recorded and released as U2 Live At Red Rocks: Under A Blood Red Sky.

1993 - Country singer Conway Twitty died from an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

2002 - Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Glenn Colvin), bass guitarist with The Ramones, died at at age 49 at his Hollywood, Calif., apartment of a heroin overdose.

2007 - Paul McCartney released his 21st solo album, Memory Almost Full, on the new Hear Music Starbucks label. The album was subsequently played non-stop in more than 10,000 Starbucks outlets across 29 countries.

Birthdays:

Badfinger singer Tom Evans was born today in 1947.

Guitarist Freddie Stone of Sly and the Family Stone is 70.

Actor and singer Mark Wahlberg, also known as Marky Mark, is 46.

Pete Wentz, Fall Out Boy bassist, is 38.

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