History Highlight:

Today in 1939, Grace Slick was born, making her 84 today. Regarded as a prominent figure in San Francisco’s psychedelic music scene of the 1960s, Slick came to fame as the lead singer and frontwoman of Jefferson Airplane and the subsequent spinoff bands, Jefferson Starship and Starship. Slick retired from the music business, stating in a 2007 interview, "You can do jazz, classical, blues, opera, country until you're 150, but rap and rock and roll are really a way for young people to get that anger out.” She has since put more energy into painting and drawing, sometimes depicting fellow 1960s musicians, such as Janis Joplin, Jerry Garcia and others.  

Today In: 

1964 - Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman" was certified Gold after spending 15 weeks on the singles chart. 

1968 - Marvin Gaye scored his first No.1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Heard It Through The Grapevine.” Though the Norman Whitfield/Barrett Strong song is now a soul classic affiliated with Gaye, that wasn’t always the case. Gaye’s rendition was actually the third to be released, following versions by The Miracles (1966), as well as by Gladys Knight & the Pips, who also scored a major hit with the song in 1967. 

1970 - Jim Morrison of The Doors was sentenced to six months in jail and fined $500 for exposing himself during a concert in Miami. 

1970 - Elton John released his third studio album Tumbleweed Connection. The cover photo for the album was taken at Horsted Keynes railway station, 30 miles south of London and captured John and Bernie Taupin in front of the late-nineteenth-century station to represent the album's rural Americana concept, despite the English location. 

1971 - Pink Floyd released their sixth studio album, Meddle, in the U.S. The U.K. release would follow on Nov. 13. 

1975 - Bob Dylan performed the first show of his Rolling Thunder Revue at the War Memorial Auditorium in Plymouth, Massachusetts, which later became the subject of two documentaries. 

1982 - Australian band Men At Work went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Who Can It Be Now,'' the group's first U.S. No. 1. 

1987 - George Michael released his first solo album, Faith. Packed with hits ("I Want Your Sex," "Father Figure," the title track), it went to No. 1 in both the U.K. and U.S., and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. In 2003, the album was ranked number 480 on Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In addition to playing a large number of instruments on the album, Michael wrote and produced every track on the recording except for one, "Look at Your Hands", which he co-wrote with David Austin. 

1990 - Axl Rose was released on $10,000 bail after being arrested for allegedly hitting a neighbor over the head with a bottle. The incident happened after a complaint to the police about loud music coming from the singer's house. 

1998 - All four original members of Black Sabbath reunited to perform "Paranoid" on Late Night with David Letterman. Prior to that date, Black Sabbath had not appeared on television since 1976. 

1999 - Santana's Supernatural album went to No. 1 in America, giving the group its first chart-topping album in 28 years. 

1999 - It's an early attempt at video over the web, as Neil Young's annual Bridge School Benefit concert is "cybercast" to a few brave souls trying to get their modems to work. The Who, Pearl Jam, and Brian Wilson perform at the show. 

2002 - Jason William Mizell, better known as Jam Master Jay, was murdered by an unknown assassin's single bullet at his recording studio in Queens, New York. Jam Master Jay was the DJ of Run-D.M.C., who. became one of the biggest hip-hop groups in the 1980s and are credited with breaking hip-hop into mainstream music. 

2003 - Steve O'Rourke suffered a stroke and died in Miami. O'Rourke had managed Pink Floyd since 1968, and was the executive producer for their 1982 film The Wall. 

2006 - Keane becomes the first major act to release a song on a USB memory stick. For £3.99, fans can purchase the 512MB drive at HMV stores, plug it into a computer, and transfer the track "Nothing In My Way" along with various videos and screensavers. The "single on a stick" format would fail to catch on. 

2008 - American producer and saxophonist Mike Terry died in Detroit aged 68. Worked with Martha And The Vandellas, Jackie Wilson, Mary Wells, The Four Tops, The Supremes, Kim Weston, Marvin Gaye, The Isley Brothers and Edwin Starr. 

2010 - Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) made a rare public appearance, performing "Peace Train" at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, which was organized and hosted by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Midway through the song, Colbert interrupted him and introduced Ozzy Osbourne, who started performing "Crazy Train." Stevens and Osbourne went back and forth, resulting in a strange and hilarious train wreck. 

2016 - With the Cubs in the World Series for the first time since 1945 (they hadn't won since 1908), longtime fan Eddie Vedder led the crowd in "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch. 

2016 - American songwriter Curly Putman died aged 85. He wrote "Green, Green Grass of Home" which was covered by many artists including Elvis Presley, Johnny Darrell, Gram Parsons, Joan Baez, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Porter Wagoner, Merle Haggard, Joe Tex and Tom Jones. He also co-wrote (with Bobby Braddock), "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" made famous by Tammy Wynette. 

2021 - Carole King, Tina Turner, Jay-Z, LL Cool J, Todd Rundgren, the Go-Go's and Foo Fighters are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

Birthdays: 

Eddie Holland of Motown's legendary Holland-Dozier-Holland production team is 84. 

Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and The Great Society is 84. 

Otis Williams of The Temptations is 82. 

Gavin Rossdale is 58. 

Eels bassist Tommy Walter is 53. 

Vanessa White is 34. 

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