History Highlight

Lewis Allan Reed was born today in 1942. He is best-known for being the rhythm/lead guitarist, singer and principal songwriter for The Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. After he left the band in 1970, he released 20 studio albums and his most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side". The band reformed in the '90s and made several more albums. Reed was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice - once with the band and once (posthumously) as a solo act. He passed away in 2013 at the age of 71.

Also, Today In:

1955 - Bo Diddley had his first recording session at Universal Recording Studio in Chicago, where he laid down the single, "Bo Diddley", which would go on to top the U.S. R&B chart by the following June.

1963 - The Four Seasons became the first group to have three consecutive No. 1 singles in the U.S., when "Walk Like A Man" started a three-week run at the top.

1964 - The Beatles began filming what would become their first feature film A Hard Day's Night at Marylebone railway station in London.

1967 - The Supremes recorded "Reflections" and "The Happening."

1974 - Stevie Wonder won four Grammys: Album of the Year for Innervisions, Best R&B Song and Best Vocal for "Superstition" and Best Pop Vocal Performance for "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life".

1975 - A policeman who stopped a Lincoln Continental for running a red light in Los Angeles was surprised to find Paul McCartney at the wheel, accompanied by his wife, Linda. The cop detected the smell of marijuana, and on searching the car, found eight ounces of the substance. Linda was arrested for possession of it.

1977 - "The Barry Manilow Special" aired on ABC-TV.

1983 - A new digital-audio format, a five-inch compact disc or "CD" containing up to one hour of music, was launched by Sony, Philips and Polygram.

1984 - "This Is Spinal Tap" was released in theaters, chronicling the hapless heavy metal band with exploding drummers and an amp that goes to 11.

1985 - Wham! started a three-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart with Make It Big.

1989 - "Like A Prayer" becomes the first hit song to debut in a commercial when it is used in a 2-minute Pepsi ad starring Madonna.

1991 - French singer Serge Gainsbourg — famous for his very sexy 1969 duet with Jane Birkin, "Je t'aime… Moi non plus" — died of a heart attack. During his career, Gainsbourg wrote soundtracks for more than 40 films.

1999 - Dusty Springfield died after a long battle against cancer, aged 59.

2009 - Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, checked himself into rehab to battle an alcohol addiction.

2014 - Arby's bought the hat Pharrell Williams wore to the Grammys on eBay for $44,100. The fast-food chain donated the hat (which resembles their logo) to the Newseum in Washington, DC. Money from the auction went to the From One Hand to Another charity.

2016 - Bob Dylan sold his personal archive of notes, draft lyrics, poems, artwork and photographs to the University of Tulsa, where they would be made available to scholars and curated for public exhibitions. The 6,000 item collection also included master recording tapes of Dylan's entire music catalog, along with hundreds of hours of film video.

Birthdays:

Karen Carpenter was born today in 1950.

John Bon Jovi is 58.

Chris Martin of Coldplay is 43.

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