History Highlight:
Today in 2019, songwriter and artist Daniel Johnston died of a suspected heart attack at his home in Texas at the age of 58. Kurt Cobain once described him as 'the best songwriter on earth' and famously wore one of Johnston's t-shirts to the 1992 MTV Awards. Other musicians who have covered Johnston's songs include Pearl Jam, Tom Waits, Wilco, Death Cab for Cutie, Sufjan Stevens and Yo La Tengo. 

Also, Today In: 

1952 - Producer Ahmet Ertegun began recording his newest signing, 21-year-old Ray Charles, at Atlantic Records on West 56th Street in New York City. 

1965 - The Beatles started a nine-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Help!, the group's sixth U.S. chart topper. 

1970 - NME’s Keith Allston met with Jimi Hendrix, for what would turn out to be the artist’s final interview. In the article, Hendrix spoke about a new musical phase, even detailing collaborations with Miles Davis and Paul McCartney. 

1971 - The animated Jackson Five series premiered on ABC. 

1973 - Bruce Springsteen releases his second album, The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle. 

1976 - KC and the Sunshine Band went to No. 1 on the US singles chart with "(Shake Shake Shake), Shake Your Booty," the group's third No. 1 hit. 

1977 - One of the strangest pairings in the history of music turned out surprisingly well when David Bowie and Bing Crosby recorded their duet of "Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth." It was broadcast in December on Bing's posthumous TV special, A Merrie Olde Christmas, and later released on disc. 

1979 - The Who made their first appearance in the U.S. without their late, great drummer, Keith Moon. Replacing him at the Passaic, N.J., gig was ex-Small Faces and Faces drummer Kenney Jones. 

1982 - John "Cougar" Mellencamp had two singles in the U.S. Top Ten as well as the No. 1 album. The singles "Jack and Diane" and "Hurts So Good" were at Numbers 4 and 8, respectively, while Mellencamp's album American Fool was at No. 1 for the first of nine weeks, and it was the best selling album of 1982. 

1982 - Frank Zappa's "Valley Girl" reached its chart peak of #32 on the Hot 100. It's the only Top 40 hit for the eccentric singer, who releases over 60 albums in his lifetime. His daughter, Moon Unit Zappa, plays the Valley Girl in the song. 

1987 - Peter Gabriel's video of "Sledgehammer" was deemed best of the year by MTV. 

1993 - Mariah Carey started an eight week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Dreamlover." 

1996 - Noel Gallagher walked out on Oasis halfway through an American tour after a fight with his brother, Liam, in a Charlotte, N.C., hotel. Noel flew back to London the following day. 

2000 Huey Lewis and Gwyneth Paltrow release a cover of Smokey Robinson's "Cruisin'" as a duet. The single reaches #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for a week and also appears in the 2000 film Duets, which stars the pair. 

2001 - Walking to work as a comic-book illustrator in New York, Gerard Way witnessed the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The day's events inspired him to start a band, which became My Chemical Romance. 

2009 - Punk musician Jim Carroll dies of heart attack in Manhattan, New York City, at age 60. 

2014 - Cosimo Matassa, who recorded Little Richard and Fats Domino at his New Orleans studio, dies at age 88. 

2014 - Songwriter, singer, manager, and record producer Bob Crewe died at age 83. Crewe wrote a string of Top 10 singles for the Four Seasons, including "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Walk Like a Man", and "Rag Doll". He also had hit recordings with Lesley Gore, Michael Jackson, Bobby Darin, Roberta Flack, Peabo Bryson, Patti LaBelle, Barry Manilow and others. 

2020 - Toots Hibbert, frontman of the legendary reggae band Toots and the Maytals, died at the age of 77. Hibbert was one of Jamaica’s most influential musicians, helping to popularize reggae in the 1960s with songs like “Pressure Drop,” “Monkey Man,” and “Funky Kingston.” Hibbert was such a seminal figure in the rise of reggae music that he is widely recognized as the artist that coined the term in the first place, via his 1968 single, “Do The Reggay.” 

Birthdays: 

Moby is 58. 

Harry Connick Jr. is 56. 

Richard Ashcroft of The Verve is 52.  

Coldplay guitarist Jonny Buckland is 46. 

Ludacris is 46. 

Tommy Shaw of Styx is 70. 

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