History Highlight:

Diana Ross was born on this day in 1944, making her 81 today. Ross is known best and most-famously for being the lead singer of The Supremes, Motown's most successful 1960s act and one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. The Supremes remain the best-charting all-women group in U.S. history with a total of 12 No. 1 hit singles, including "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love," "Come See About Me," and "Love Child." Ross went solo in 1970 and enjoyed decades of success in music, television, film and stage. She was named the "Female Entertainer of the Century" by Billboard in 1976, and is the only woman artist to have No. 1 singles as a solo artist, as the other half of a duet, as a member of a trio, and as an ensemble member.

Also, Today In:

1965 - Mick Jagger, Brian Jones and Bill Wyman all received electric shocks from a faulty microphone onstage during a Rolling Stones show in Denmark. Bill Wyman was knocked unconscious for several minutes.

1972 - Mott The Hoople had decided to call it all off after four albums when David Bowie came to their rescue. He had a song called "All The Young Dudes," and Mott recorded it with Bowie producing. It became a huge hit in the U.K. and a sizable success in the U.S. as well.

1975 - The movie version of Tommy premiered in London.

1976 - Thin Lizzy released their sixth studio album, Jailbreak. It features the singles "Jailbreak," "The Boys Are Back in Town," "Cowboy Song," and "Running Back."

1976 - Wings released their fifth studio album, Wings at the Speed of Sound. It features the singles "Silly Love Songs" and "Let 'Em In."

1977 - Hall and Oates started a three-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Rich Girl," the duo's first No. 1.

1979 - Village People released their fourth studio album, Go West. It features the singles "In the Navy" and "Go West."

1980 - Van Halen released their third studio album, Women and Children First. It features "And the Cradle Will Rock.…"

1980 - Seven years after its release, Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon broke the record for the longest-charting pop album, a title previously held by Carole King's Tapestry. Dark Side of the Moon remained in the charts until 1988. With an estimated 50 million copies sold, it is Pink Floyd's most commercially successful album and one of the best-selling albums worldwide.

1983 - Thanks to heavy rotation on MTV, Duran Duran had their first American hit when "Hungry Like The Wolf" hit No. 3 on the Hot 100.

1985 - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released their sixth studio album, Southern Accents. It features "Don't Come Around Here No More."

1985 - South African radio stations banned all Stevie Wonder songs when he dedicated the Academy Award he had received the night before to Nelson Mandela.

1987 - Nike began airing a commercial using the Beatles’ song "Revolution," marking the first time an original version of a Beatles song was used in an advertisement.

1988 - Michael Jackson started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Man In The Mirror."

1991 - Bob Dylan's The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 was released.

1994 - Soundgarden entered the U.S. album chart at No. 1 with Superunknown. It was the band's fourth studio release and became the band's breakthrough album with five singles: "The Day I Tried to Live", "My Wave", "Fell on Black Days", "Spoonman", and "Black Hole Sun." The latter two songs won Grammy Awards and helped Soundgarden reach mainstream popularity. Superunknown has sold 9 million copies worldwide.

1995 - Eazy-E (Eric Wright) died of AIDS-related complications at age 31.

1996 - Stone Temple Pilots released their third studio album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop. It features the singles "Big Bang Baby," "Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart," and "Lady Picture Show."

1996 - Superdrag released their debut studio album, Regretfully Yours. It features the singles "Sucked Out" and "Destination Ursa Major."

1996 - Guided by Voices released their ninth studio album, Under the Bushes Under the Stars. It features the singles "The Official Ironmen Rally Song" and "Cut-Out Witch."

1996 - Neutral Milk Hotel released their debut studio album, On Avery Island. It features the singles "Song Against Sex," "You've Passed," and "Naomi."

1996 - Busta Rhymes released his debut studio album, The Coming. It features the singles "Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check," "It's a Party," and "Do My Thing."

1996 - The Verve Pipe released their third studio album, Villains. It features the singles "Photograph," "Cup of Tea," "The Freshmen," and "Villains."

2001 - Gorillaz launched their debut self-titled album. The album sold more than a million copies, and peaked at No. 14 on the albums chart.

2002 - The Walkmen released their debut studio album, Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone. It features the singles "Wake Up," "We've Been Had," and "The Blizzard of '96."

2002 - Drummer Randy Castillo, who played with Ozzy Osbourne and Mötley Crüe, died of cancer at age 51.

2004 - Jan Berry (of Jan & Dean) died at the age of 62.

2006 - U2's The Edge donated his favorite guitar, a 1975 Gibson Les Paul, to a charity he co-founded to replace instruments lost or destroyed when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

2008 - The B-52's lose their apostrophe, becoming the B-52s with the release of their album Funplex. The apostrophe, which was grammatically incorrect, was there because the friend who designed the band’s logo had put it there.

2012 - Justin Townes Earle released his fourth studio album, Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now. It features the singles "Am I That Lonely Tonight?," "Look the Other Way," and "Memphis in the Rain."

2012 - Madonna's 12th studio album MDNA debuts, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard album chart and selling 350,000 copies in two weeks.

2013 - The Strokes released their fifth studio album, Comedown Machine. It features the singles "One Way Trigger" and "All the Time."

2016 - Billy Joel's iconic hit "Piano Man" was selected by the U.S. Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for its cultural, historic, and artistic significance. Even though the record only made it to No. 25 on the Hot 100 in 1974, it became Joel's signature song, and was ranked at No. 421 in the 2004 list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

2019 - British musician Ranking Roger (born Roger Charlery) died at age 56. In January 2019 it was announced that Roger had undergone surgery for two brain tumors, and was undergoing treatment for lung cancer. He was a vocalist in the 1980s two-tone band the Beat (known in North America as the English Beat) and later General Public.

2020 - English singer Neil Landon died at age 78. He was a singer and songwriter with the band Fat Mattress, which he co-founded with guitarist/singer Noel Redding. He later joined The Flower Pot Men, who scored a hit in 1967 with “Let's Go To San Francisco” which reached No. 4 in the U.K. Singles Chart.

2020 - Nine Inch Nails released their 10th studio album, Ghosts V: Together, and their 11th studio album, Ghosts VI: Locusts.

Birthdays:

Rufus Thomas was born today in 1917.

James Caan was born today in 1940.

Steven Tyler is 77.

Teddy Pendergrass, soul singer, was born today in 1950.

Charly McClain is 69.

Guitarist James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins is 57.

Country singer Kenny Chesney is 57.

Erick Morillo was born today in 1971.

Bhad Bhabie is 22.

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