History Highlight:

Zenzile Miriam Makeba, nicknamed “Mama Africa,” was born on this day in 1932 in South Africa. In addition to being an electrifying singer and performer, she spoke out against apartheid in South Africa. One of the first African musicians to receive recognition worldwide, she released more than 20 studio albums in her career, and had a U.S. hit with the 1967 single “Pata Pata.” She and Harry Belafonte’s 1965 album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba won a Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording. In 2008, she suffered a heart attack after singing "Pata Pata" at a concert in Italy and died that day.

Also, Today In:

1959 - The winners of the first Grammy Awards were announced. Domenico Modugno's "Volare" was Record of the Year; Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn was Album of the Year and The Champs' "Tequila" won Best R&B Performance.

1966 - John Lennon made his infamous remarks that led to an uproar — and even led to the banning and burning of Beatles records for a brief period in some communities. In an interview with The Evening Standard, Lennon commented, "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary." Lennon later apologized.

1967 - The Rolling Stones went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Ruby Tuesday," the group's fourth No. 1 single. According to a 1971 Rolling Stone interview, Keith Richards said he wrote the song in a Los Angeles hotel room in early 1966 about a groupie he knew. Marianne Faithfull, however, recalls it differently; according to her, Brian Jones presented an early version of this melody to the rest of the Rolling Stones, and many believe that Jones actually wrote the song.

1971 - The Rolling Stones announced they were moving to France, mostly for tax purposes.

1973 - At the Dane County Memorial Coliseum in Madison, Wis., Pink Floyd played the first night of a 19-date North American tour.

1977 - CBS Records released The Clash's self-titled debut album in the U.K. CBS in the U.S. refused to release it until 1979. Until that time, Americans bought more than 100,000 imported copies of the record, making it one of the biggest-selling import records of all time. Several songs from the album including "Janie Jones", "White Riot", and "London's Burning" became classics of the punk genre and were among the first punk songs to see significant presence on singles charts. The album featured Jones and Strummer on guitars and vocals, with Paul Simonon on bass and Terry Chimes on drums.

1986 - 41-year-old Richard Manuel of The Band committed suicide in a hotel room in Florida. His band mate, Robbie Robertson, honored his friend with the song, "Fallen Angel," in 1987.

1989 - Debbie Gibson started a three-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Lost In Your Eyes", her second U.S. No. 1.

1994 - Kurt Cobain was rushed to hospital after overdosing on alcohol and drugs in a Rome hotel during a Nirvana European tour. Cobain had taken 50 to 60 pills of Rohypnol mixed with champagne; rumors circulated that Kurt was dead.

1999 - Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham gave birth to a baby son, Brooklyn; husband David Beckham, a star midfielder with Manchester United at the time, greeted the media with the news.

1997 - Raymond Edwards, The Silhouettes bassist died. The doo wop/R&B group's single "Get A Job" was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard R&B singles chart and pop singles chart in 1958 and is included in the soundtracks of American Graffiti, Trading Places and Stand By Me. The doo-wop revival group Sha Na Na derived their name from the song's lyrics.

2001 - Village People singer Glenn Hughes died of lung cancer at age 50 in his Manhattan apartment in New York. He was the original "Biker" character in the disco group who scored the 1978 U.S. No. 2 single Y.M.C.A.

2009 - Britney Spears kicked off a world tour in New Orleans, her first concert tour in five years. The 27-year-old dressed as a ringmaster in the show and featured jugglers, acrobats and martial arts dancers.

2014 - Real Estate released their third album, Atlas. It features the single “Talking Backwards,” their highest-charting song to date.

2015 - Daryl Hall and John Oates sued cereal maker Early Bird Foods & Co. over the company's use of the name Haulin' Oates for their maple syrup granola bars. The two musicians accused the Brooklyn-based firm of infringing on their trademark by creating a phonetic play on the band's well-known name.

2019 - Keith Flint, singer and dancer with English electronic dance group The Prodigy was found dead at his home in Essex, England age 49.

2020 - Barbara Martin died at age 76. She is best known as one of the original members of Motown group The Supremes. She and her group mates, Diana Ross (then known as Diane), Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard, signed a recording contract with Motown founder Berry Gordy on January 15, 1961 as the Supremes. Early on, before Martin left the group in the early spring of 1962 when she got pregnant, Martin, Wilson, Ross, and Ballard worked as studio backing singers, providing vocals and rhythmic effects, such as hand claps, for Motown's leading groups.

Birthdays:

David Matthews — keyboardist who worked with James Brown, Bonnie Raitt, George Benson, Nina Simone, and more — is 82. Also has been sampled in hip-hop songs by the Notorious B.I.G., Nas, MF Doom, and more.

Eric Allandale of The Foundations was born on this day in 1936.

Bobby Womack was born on this day in 1944.

Dieter Meier, frontman of Yello (“Oh Yeah” from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), is 79.

Bob Lewis, co-founder of Devo, is 77.

Yes bassist Chris Squire was born today in 1948.

Shakin’ Stevens is 76.

Chris Rea is 73.

Emilio Estefan, of Miami Sound Machine, is 71.

Catherine O’Hara is 70.

Jason Newsted, formerly of Metallica, is 61.

Grand Puba is 58.

Evan Griffith Dando of the Lemonheads is 57.

The Cranberries' drummer Fergal Lawlor is 53.

Ivy Queen is 52.

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