History Highlight:

Brian Wilson, an original member of Beach Boys, is 75. Wilson wrote or co-wrote more than two dozen Top 40 hits for the group. Thought of as one of the most innovative and influential creative forces in popular music, he's one of the very first pop artists to write, arrange, produce, and perform his own material.

Also, Today In:

1948 - Toast Of The Town, which would later be called The Ed Sullivan Show, premiered on CBS. The first show was produced on a budget of $1,375. Only $375 was allocated for talent and $200 of that was shared by the young stars of that night's program, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

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.

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."

1973 - Neil Diamond appeared on the 20th anniversary show of American Bandstand. The show also featured Little Richard, Cheech and Chong, Paul Revere and the Raiders and Three Dog Night.

1992 - Mariah Carey scored her sixth U.S. No. 1 single with "I'll Be There". The song was also a U.S. No. 1 for The Jackson Five in 1970.

2000 - The Ronettes were awarded $2.6 million in back earnings from Phil Spector. New York judge Paula Omansky ruled that the producer had cheated them out of royalties.

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.

Lionel Richie is 68.

John Taylor, bass and co-founder of Duran Duran, is 57.

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