History Highlight:

On this day in 2019, Sasami Ashworth — who records as Sasami — released her debut album, a self-titled collection of 10 indie rock tracks. Previously a member of the band Cherry Glazerr, Sasami left in 2018 to pursue a solo career. The songs emerged from sketches written while touring with Cherry Glazerr, which became demos she recorded on her iPad. Later, she fleshed them out in the studio in Los Angeles. “It's kind of like emotionally scribbling a letter on a tear and snot-stained napkin and then re-writing it on fancy papyrus paper,” she said. The singles on Sasami include “Callous,” “Not the Time,” “Jealousy,” and “Free.”

Also, Today In:

1963 - "Please Please Me" by The Beatles shows up at #40 on the Chicago radio station WLS' weekly Silver Dollar Survey, marking the first time a Beatles song makes a radio station survey in America. WLS very likely became the first US radio station to play a Beatles song when they put "Please Please Me" on the air.

1965 - Bob Dylan's single "Subterranean Homesick Blues" was released in the U.S.

1965 - David Bowie made his TV debut with The Manish Boys on a U.K. program called "Gadzooks! It's All Happening" when they performed their single "I Pity The Fool". The song was originally recorded by Bobby Bland in 1961 for Duke Records. In The Manish Boys version, Jimmy Page plays the guitar solo. Bowie later used this guitar riff in two different songs, first on "The Supermen" from 1971 and second on "Dead Man Walking" from 1997.

1966 - Bob Dylan recorded "Just Like A Woman" for his Blonde On Blonde album at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.

1969 - The Small Faces split up after singer Steve Marriott announced he was leaving the band. Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenny Jones linked up with Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart and formed The Faces.

1969 - "Happy Birthday" becomes the first song to be performed in outer space when the astronauts on Apollo IX sing it to celebrate the birthday of the director of NASA space operations, Christopher Kraft.

1970 - Diana Ross made her first performance as a solo act when she appeared in Framingham, Massachusetts. Her self-titled solo debut included her signature songs, "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", the latter becoming Ross's first number-one solo single.

1973 - Paul McCartney was fined $170 for growing cannabis at his farm in Campbeltown, Scotland. McCartney claimed some fans gave the seeds to him and that he didn't know what they would grow.

1973 - Grateful Dead keyboard player Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, a founding member of the band, dies at age 27.

1974 - Queen II (fittingly, their second album) is released in the UK, followed a month later with a US release. None of the tracks chart in America, but "Seven Seas of Rhye" lands at #10 in the UK.

1974 - John Denver records "Annie's Song" and "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" at RCA's Music Center of the World studios in Los Angeles.

1975 - Olivia Newton-John went to No.1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Have You Ever Been Mellow", the singer's second U.S. No.1.

1977 - Foreigner release their self-titled debut studio album.

1986 - Whitney Houston went to No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with her self-titled album. It spent a total of 14 weeks at the No. 1 position.

1990 - Cher won the worst dressed female, and worst video for "If I Could Turn Back Time", in The Rolling Stone Magazine awards. Donny Osmond won the most unwelcome comeback award.

1993 - Beavis and Butt-Head, a show about two animated idiots who watch MTV, debuts on MTV.

1994 - Two influential albums from the '90s were released: Soundgarden's Superunknown and Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral. They enter the albums chart at #1 and #2, respectively. Superunknown is Soundgarden’s fourth studio release. It spawned five singles, including "Black Hole Sun" and "Spoonman." Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral includes their most controversial single, "Closer." and Grammy-nominated single "Hurt."

2003 - Former Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler was injured when the Honda motorbike he was riding was involved in a collision with a car. The singer and guitarist suffered a broken collarbone and six broken ribs in the accident.

2003 - 50 Cent's first single, "In Da Club," tops the Hot 100 for the first of nine weeks.

2008 - China was set to impose stricter rules on foreign pop stars after Bjork caused controversy by shouting "Tibet, Tibet" at a Shanghai concert after a powerful performance of her song “Declare Independence”. Talk of Tibetan independence was considered taboo in China, which had ruled the territory since 1951. A spokesperson from the culture ministry said Bjork would be banned from performing in China if there was a repeat performance.

2011 - Alice in Chains bass player Mike Starr dies of a prescription drug overdose at age 44. Starr was the last person to see the group's lead singer, Layne Staley, before he died in 2002.

2016 - English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, audio engineer, and musician, Sir George Martin died at age 90. He worked as EMI records in-house record producer and became known as the "fifth Beatle". Martin produced all but one of The Beatles albums giving him 30 No. 1 hit singles in the U.K. and 23 No. 1 hits in the U.S. He also produced many other acts including: Matt Monro, Cilla Black, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, The Fourmost, Jeff Beck, Ultravox, Kenny Rogers, UFO, Cheap Trick, Elton John and Celine Dion. Martin received a Knighthood in 1996.

Birthdays:

Jazz pianist/composer Dick Hyman is 97. Over his 70-year career, he was a session player, performer, and composed several film scores for Woody Allen films.  In the 1960s, Hyman recorded pop albums on Enoch Light's Command Records, recording several albums on the Moog Synthesizer. Beck sampled the whistling intro of “The Moog and Me” for the song “Sissyneck” on the 1996 album Odelay.

George Michael "Micky" Dolenz, singer and drummer for The Monkees, is 79.

Randy Meisner, bassist for the Eagles, was born today in 1946.

Singer/songwriter Carole Bayer Sager is 77.

Little Peggy March, best known for the 1963 hit song “I Will Follow Him”, is 76.

Clive Burr, drummer for Iron Maiden, was born today in 1957.

Gary Numan is 66.

Peter Gill, drummer of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, is 60.

Shawn Mullins is 56.

Gareth "Gaz" Coombes, lead singer for Supergrass, is 48.

Tom Chaplin of Keane is 45.

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