History Highlight:

Today in 1971, Ahmir Khalib Thompson, known professionally as Questlove, was born - making him 52 today. Questlove is an American musician, record producer, disc jockey, filmmaker, music journalist, and actor. He is the drummer and joint frontman (with Black Thought) for the hip hop band the Roots. The Roots have been serving as the in-house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon since 2014. Questlove has produced recordings for artists including Elvis Costello, Common, D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Jay-Z, Booker T. Jones, Al Green, Amy Winehouse, and John Legend. In 2021, Questlove made his directorial debut with Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), a film about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which featured performances by Stevie Wonder, Sly and The Family Stone, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Mavis Staples, B.B. King, and many other top Soul, Jazz, Gospel and Latin artists of the era. Summer of Soul won both the US Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for documentary at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.

Also, Today In:

1964 - The Beatles' debut U.S. album, Meet The Beatles, was released.

1965 - The Rolling Stones and The Kinks made their first appearance on ABC-TV's "Shindig!".

1968 - Despite his supposed falling out with the New York-Cambridge folk singer circle, Bob Dylan joined Pete Seeger, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Odetta, Richie Havens, Ramblin' Jack Elliot and The Band in commemorating the late Woody Guthrie.

1969 - Bruce Springsteen had two of his poems published in the Ocean County College Literary Yearbook Seascapes. Springsteen was in his second semester at the Toms River, New Jersey College.

1979 - Eric Clapton peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart with "Promises" which was Clapton's third top ten single as a solo artist in the U.S.

1980 - Pink Floyd's The Wall began a 15-week run as the No. 1 album on the U.S album chart.

1982 - Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat during a concert at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, IA. Osbourne thought it was a rubber bat, so he bit its head off and was taken to a hospital after the concert to undergo a rabies injection.

1983 - Def Leppard released their third album Pyromania which went on to reach No. 2 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart and sell ten million copies in the U.S.

1986 - Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder performed together at a concert in Washington, D.C. commemorating the first Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the U.S.

1988 - The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and The Supremes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

1994 - Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream was No. 20 on the Billboard album chart. It would go on to sell four million copies.

1997 - Ben and Jerry's introduced 'Phish food', a new flavor of ice cream named after the rock group Phish. The ingredients were chocolate ice cream, marshmallows, caramel and fish-shaped fudge.

2000 - Tourism chiefs in Liverpool were banned from putting up motorway signs saying "Liverpool, the Birthplace of The Beatles" because the Highways Agency thought the signs would distract drivers.

2002 - George Harrison had the posthumous U.K. No. 1 single with the re-release of the 1971 former No. 1 "My Sweet Lord".

2006 - American music executive Johnny Bienstock died of complications from heart disease at age 83. Bienstock owned Moss Rose Music, worked with Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow, Elvis Presley, The Bee Gees, Eric Clapton, Del Shannon and Meat Loaf.

2009 - Bon Iver releases Blood Bank, a four-track EP and follow up to the hugely-successful For Emma, Forever Ago. The song "Woods," which features on the EP, will go on to be sampled by Kanye West on his track "Lost in The World."

2012 - Etta James died from complications of leukemia at the age of 73. She is best remembered for her signature song "At Last" which reached No. 2 on the Billboard R&B chart, and she also placed nine other songs in the American Top 40, won three Grammy Awards, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

2021 - At Joe Biden's inauguration, Lady Gaga sang the national anthem and Jennifer Lopez belted out "This Land Is Your Land" before Biden was sworn in. At night, Bruce Springsteen, John Legend, Demi Lovato, and Tim McGraw all performed on a socially distanced concert special capped by a fireworks display on the National Mall as Katy Perry belted out, of course, "Firework."

2022 - Meat Loaf dies at 74. His 1977 album Bat Out Of Hell is one of the best-selling albums of all time; its 1993 sequel, Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell, contains the #1 hit "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)."

Birthdays:

Leadbelly (Huddi William Ledbetter), blues musician, who wrote "Goodnight Irene", "The Rock Island Line", and '"The Midnight Special" was born today in 1889.

Ron Townson of The 5th Dimension was born today in 1933.

Billy Powell, singer from The O'Jays, ("Love Train") was born today in 1942.

Paul Stanley, co-founder and frontman of KISS, is 71.

Ian Hill, bassist for Judas Priest, is 72.

Guitarist and singer-songwriter Rusty Anderson, best-known as the accompanying lead guitarist for Paul McCartney's tours since 2001, is 64.

Nathan Connolly of Snow Patrol is 42.

Kevin Parker of Tame Impala is 37.

Highlights for Today in Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.