History Highlight:

Today in 1993, American musician, composer and nonconformist Frank Zappa passed away from prostate cancer. Zappa’s work is known for its experimentation with sound, musical virtuosity, free-form improvisation and satire of American culture. In a career spanning over 30 years, Zappa composed within the genres of rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and more. A truly multi-talented artist, Zappa also had his hand in directing feature-length films, music videos and designing album covers. He is considered to be one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation. During his career, Zappa was nominated for nine competitive Grammy Awards, which resulted in two wins – one posthumous. In 1998, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Also, in:

1956 - The "Million Dollar Quartet" impromptu jam session took place at Sun Studios in Memphis with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins. The jam session seems to have happened by pure chance. The recording was first released in Europe in 1981, then a few years later more tracks were discovered and released as The Complete Million Dollar Session. In 1990, the recordings were released as Elvis Presley - The Million Dollar Quartet.

1960 - The Crickets released the single "I Fought the Law" on Coral Records. Written by Sonny Curtis of the Crickets, a remake by the Bobby Fuller Four became a top-ten hit for the band in 1966 and was also recorded by The Clash in 1979 after Joe Strummer and guitarist Mick Jones heard the song on a jukebox in San Francisco.

1962 - The Beatles made their London-area TV debut when they appeared in a live broadcast from Wembley on Tuesday Rendezvous. The Beatles performed live, doing lip-sync performances of "Love Me Do" and 45 seconds of "P.S. I Love You."

1965 - The Byrds started a three-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Turn! Turn! Turn!", the group's second No. 1.

1971 - Sly and the Family Stone started a five-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Family Affair", their third U.S. No. 1.

1979 - U2 appeared at The Hope and Anchor in London. Misnamed "The U2s", they played to only nine people and the show ended abruptly after The Edge broke a guitar string.

1980 - Prince played the first night on his 31 date Dirty Mind North American tour at Shea's Theater in Buffalo, New York. After being told by his managers he couldn't wear spandex pants without any underwear, Prince began performing in a long trench coat, black high heeled boots and leggings, and bikini brief trunks.

1988 - Roy Orbison played his final ever gig when he appeared in Cleveland, Ohio. Orbison died of a heart attack two days later.

1993 - Multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer, Frank Zappa died of prostate cancer. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, jazz and orchestral works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. Zappa was a self-taught composer and performer, and his diverse musical influences led him to create music that was often difficult to categorize.

2002 - In a rare interview, Whitney Houston told Primetime's Diane Sawyer that "crack is whack" and that she has used alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and prescription drugs at different points during her career but that she was determined not to let drugs become a problem in her life again.

2005 - Pussycat Dolls were at No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart with "Stickwitu", the group's second No. 1.

2006 - Yahoo revealed that Britney Spears was the most searched for term of 2006 with more online searches done about Spears than any other topic or person. Female celebrities dominated the top 10 overall search list, with Shakira at number three, Jessica Simpson at number four and Paris Hilton at number five.

Birthdays:

Singer Freddy Cannon was born today in 1940.

Chris Hillman of The Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers is 79.

Lynyrd Skynyrd guitar player Gary Rossington was born today in 1951. He passed away in March 2023.

Rapper Jay-Z is 54.

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