History Highlight:
In 2017, SZA released her debut studio album, Ctrl. It features the tracks "Drew Barrymore," "Love Galore," "The Weekend," "Broken Clocks," and "Garden (Say It like Dat),” and each of these singles went on to be certified Double Platinum or higher by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Guest artists on Ctrl include Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar, James Fauntleroy, and Isaiah Rashad. Thematically, Ctrl addresses SZA’s personal journey toward understanding and achieving balance in life, and SZA underscores that theme by including audio clips of her mother and grandmother dispensing advice. The album and its songs received four Grammy Awards nominations, and SZA herself was nominated in the category of Best New Artist. At year's end, multiple media outlets — including NPR, The New York Times, Pitchfork, Time magazine, and Billboard — ranked Ctrl at or near the top of their respective lists of the best albums of 2017.

Also, Today In: 

1964 - During an evening session Bob Dylan recorded "Mr. Tambourine Man" at Columbia Recording Studios in New York City.  

1970 - Princeton University bestowed an honorary Doctorate of Music upon Bob Dylan.  

1971 - Paul McCartney's second solo effort, Ram, was certified Gold.  

1972 - Bruce Springsteen first signed with Columbia Records. Springsteen had built up a loyal following in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and his successful audition with Columbia talent scout John Hammond sealed his fate. He started to assemble the E Street Band from various former bandmates — including longtime members saxophonist Clarence Clemons, bassist Garry Tallent, and organist Danny Federici — and released the debut effort Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey in January of 1973. 

1978 - The Rolling Stones released Some Girls, their first studio album recorded with Ronnie Wood as a full member. It features “Miss You,” “Beast of Burden,” “Respectable,” and “Shattered.”

1978 - Dire Straits released their self-title debut album. It features “Sultans of Swing” and “Water of Love.”

1979 - Nick Lowe released Labour of Lust. It features “Cruel to Be Kind” and “Without Love.”

1984 - Cyndi Lauper started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Time After Time." The song appeared on Lauper's 1983 debut album She's So Unusual, and featured Rob Hyman of The Hooters singing backup vocals. Fun fact: Lauper gained inspiration for the song from the 1979 science fiction film "Time After Time", which she read about in TV Guide magazine.   

1986 - Genesis released Invisible Touch, their most successful album. The title track gave them their only No. 1 hit. It also features “In Too Deep,” “Land of Confusion,” and “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight.”

1990 - M.C. Hammer's debut album, Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em, started a record breaking 21-week stay at the top of the U.S. album charts, making it the longest uninterrupted stay at the top since the album charts started.  

1990 - Wilson Phillips went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Hold On." Twenty-five years earlier to the day, Wendy and Carnie Wilson's father, Beach Boy Brian, had been at No. 1 with "Help Me, Rhonda." 

1992 - Catherine Wheel released their debut album, Ferment. It features “Black Metallic” and “I Want to Touch You.”

1992 - Pete Rock & CL Smooth released their debut album, Mecca and the Soul Brother. It features "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)."

1998 - Brandy released her second studio album, Never Say Never. It features “The Boy Is Mine,” "Have You Ever?" and “Top of the World.”

1998 - The Ronettes appeared in the Supreme Court of New York for their lawsuit against producer Phil Spector. The Ronettes, whose hits included "Be My Baby" and "Walking In The Rain," claimed that Spector had breached the group's 34-year-old contract by paying the members no royalties since 1963. 

2000 - The day after Curve magazine runs an interview with Sinead O'Connor declaring she's a lesbian, the Irish singer appears on The Rosie O'Donnell Show to perform her anthemic single "No Man's Woman."

2003 - Gillian Welch released her fourth studio album, Soul Journey.

2009 - Sonic Youth released their 15th studio album, The Eternal. It features “Sacred Trickster” and “Antenna.”

2009 - Dirty Projectors released their fifth studio album, Bitte Orca. It features “Stillness Is the Move” and “Temecula Sunrise.”

2011 - A Belgian music festival, which prided itself on its horse-meat sausages announced it was going meat-free on the day that vegetarian singer Morrissey appeared. In 2009, the singer left the stage at California's Coachella festival saying he could "smell burning flesh".  

2017 - Gene Simmons of Kiss filed a trademark application for the devil horns hand gesture, which he claims he invented in 1974. The description in the application reads: "Hand gesture with the index and small fingers extended upward and the thumb extended perpendicular." According to Simmons, he invented the gesture when he used it at a concert in 1974; he is seen using it on the cover of the 1977 Kiss album Love Gun.  

2017 - 'Adios', the 64th and final studio album by American singer-songwriter Glen Campbell, was released.

2017 - Big Thief released their second studio album, Capacity. It features "Mythological Beauty" and “Shark Smile.”

2017 - Cigarettes After Sex released their self-titled debut album. It features “K” and “Apocalypse.”

2017 - Phoenix released their sixth studio album, Ti Amo. It features “J-Boy.”

2019 - Bushwick Bill, rapper with the Geto Boys, died at the age of 52.

2020 - Welsh rock guitarist Paul Chapman died on his 66th birthday. He is best-known for his work in bands such as UFO and Lone Star.  

2022 - Singer Julee Cruise, who collaborated with David Lynch, died at the age of 65.

Birthdays: 

Cole Porter was born today in 1891. His numerous hit songs include "Night and Day," "Begin the Beguine," "I Get a Kick Out of You," "Well, Did You Evah!" "I've Got You Under My Skin," "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," and "You're the Top." 

Fred Waring ("My America") was born today in 1900.

Blues musician Skip James was born today in 1902.

Les Paul was born today in 1915. 

Calvin “Fuzz” Jones — bassist for Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and many others — was born today in 1926.

Johnny Ace, Billboard’s 'most played artist of 1955', was born today in 1929. Ace had eight hits in a row, including 'Cross My Heart', 'Please Forgive Me' and 'Never Let Me Go'. 

Jackie Wilson was born today in 1934. A tenor with a four-octave vocal range, he was nicknamed "Mr. Excitement", and was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. Gaining fame in his early years as a member of the R&B vocal group Billy Ward and His Dominoes, he went solo in 1957 and recorded over 50 hit singles that spanned R&B, pop, soul, doo-wop and easy listening. Wilson suffered a massive heart attack while playing a Dick Clark show at the Latin Casino in New Jersey on September 29, 1975, falling head-first to the stage while singing "Lonely Teardrops", and remained in a coma until his death 8 years later.  

Jon Lord of Deep Purple was born today in 1941.

Mick Box of Uriah Heep is 78. 

Trevor Bolder of Spiders From Mars and Uriah Heep was born today in 1950. 

James Newton Howard — scored over 100 films and is the recipient of a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, and nine nominations for Academy Awards — is 74.

Pete Byrne of Naked Eyes is 71.

Paul Chapman of UFO was born today in 1954.

Johnny Depp is 62.

Chemical Brothers keyboardist Ed Simons is 54. 

Matthew Bellamy of Muse is 47. 

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