History Highlight:

Today in 2008, Jerry Reed passed away at age 71. Reed was famous for being a country singer as well as an actor who appeared in more than a dozen films like "Smokey and the Bandit", "The New Scooby-Doo Movies", "Concrete Cowboys" and even "The Waterboy", which was his final role. His signature songs included "Guitar Man", "A Thing Called Love", "When You're Hot, You're Hot" (which won him a Grammy), and of course "East Bound and Down" (the theme song for "Smokey and the Bandit"). Reed was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2017.

Also, Today In:

1952 - Atlantic Records bought Ray Charles' contract from Swingtime Records, where Charles had been recording in the mellower, bluesy style of Nat King Cole and Charles Brown.

1953 - The Texas duo of Buddy Holly and Bob Montgomery auditioned for radio station KDAV's Sunday Party. The duo started a slot on Sunday afternoon that became known as The Bob and Buddy Show.

1956 - Elvis bought that famous pink Cadillac for his mother as his career gained momentum.

1977 - Blondie, a band co-founded by singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein, signed their first major label contract with Chrysalis. Blondie were pioneers in the early American new wave and punk scenes of the mid 1970s. Their first two albums contained strong elements of both genres, and although successful in the United Kingdom and Australia, Blondie were regarded as an underground band in the United States until the release of Parallel Lines in 1978.

1979 - U2 released their first record in their native Ireland. It was an EP titled U2-3.

1983 - Guitarist Mick Jones was dismissed from the Clash by Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon for "drifting apart from the original concept of the band." The Clash soon broke up afterwards, and Jones went on to form Big Audio Dynamite.

1984 - After 25 years in the music industry, Tina Turner had her first solo No. 1 single with "What's Love Got To Do With It."

2011 - Green Day's Billy Joe Armstrong was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight for wearing his pants too low. A flight attendant approached Armstrong and told him, "Pull your pants up or you get off the plane." Later, Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins released a statement saying that the airline and Armstrong had settled their differences over the incident.

Birthdays:

Marshall Lytle of Bill Haley and The Comets was born today in 1933.

Conway Twitty was born today in 1933.

Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees is 74.

Gloria Estefan is 63.

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