History Highlight:
Today in 1989, The B-52s released Cosmic Thing, their first album following the death of guitarist and band co-founder Ricky Wilson. The album features two of The B-52s’ biggest hits: "Roam" and "Love Shack." Frontman Fred Schneider says “Love Shack” was inspired by a club outside of Athens, Georgia: "It was an African American club that had a lot of good shows. It looked like a shack, you wouldn't expect it to be what it was, and when you opened the door, it was a wild band playing." The “Love Shack” video won Best Group Video at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards.

Also, Today In: 

1966 - Led by Frank Zappa, the Mothers of Invention release their debut album Freak Out! Critics and music fans alike are baffled by what they hear. Often cited as one of rock music's first concept albums, the album is a satirical expression of frontman Frank Zappa's perception of American pop culture and the nascent freak scene of Los Angeles. It was also one of the earliest double albums in rock music. 

1968 - Working at Abbey Road studios in London, The Beatles recorded seven takes of "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" for their forthcoming White Album. 

1968 - On this day in 1968, Elvis Presley performed at NBC studios for a program titled, Singer Presents … Elvis. The show was aired on NBC in December of that year. The televised concert is commonly referred to as Elvis’ “‘68 Comeback Special”, as it marked Presley's return to live performance after seven years during which his career was centered on the film industry. The show featured the king performing on a small, square stage, surrounded by an audience composed primarily of women. Presley was outfitted in black leather and performed many of his early hits. 

1970 - The Jackson 5 started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "The Love You Save", the group's third No. 1 of the year. 

1970 - The newly formed Queen featuring Freddie Mercury on vocals, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, and Mike Grose on bass played their first gig at Truro City Hall, Cornwall, England. They were billed as Smile, Brian and Roger's previous band, for whom the booking had been made originally. Original material at this time included an early version of "Stone Cold Crazy." 

1971 - New York venue Fillmore East was closed down after only three years in business. Owned by legendary concert promoter Bill Graham, the club was opened as the companion to the original Fillmore in San Francisco and was succeeded by the Fillmore West, also in San Francisco. Many live albums were recorded in this space by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Love, Miles Davis, and others. 

1986 - Black Flag played their final gig in Detroit, Michigan. The band went on to confirm their split two months later, in August 1986. Considered to be one of the first hardcore punk bands, they are often regarded as pioneers in the movement of underground do-it-yourself record labels. 

1986 - Wham! released their third and final studio album, Music From the Edge of Heaven. It features “Last Christmas” and “I’m Your Man.”

1987 - Whitney Houston became the first woman in U.S. history to enter the album chart at No. 1 with Whitney. She also became the first woman to top the singles chart with four consecutive releases when "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" hit No. 1. 

1988 - MCA Records bought Motown Records for $61 million. 

1989 - Chris Isaak released his third studio album, Heart Shaped World. It features his massive hit “Wicked Game.”

1994 - Aerosmith became the first major band to let fans download a full new track free from the internet.

1995 - Neil Young released his twenty-first studio album, Mirror Ball. It features the singles "Downtown" and "Peace and Love."

1995 - Phish released their first official live release, A Live One. It features “Bouncing Around the Room.” 

1995 - Skee-Lo released his debut studio album, I Wish. It features “I Wish.”

1995 - Circle Jerks released their sixth and final studio album, Oddities, Abnormalities, & Curiosities. It was the band's first release on a major label, although Mercury Records would go on to drop Circle Jerks after they failed to reach mainstream success. 

1999 - After releasing three Spanish-language albums on the Fonovisa label, Enrique Iglesias signed with Interscope Records. In November, he released his first English album, Enrique, which contains two No. 1 hits: "Bailamos" and "Be With You." 

1999 - Coldplay, Muse and David Gray all play the New Bands Tent at the Glastonbury Festival. 

2000 - Nelly released his debut album, Country Grammar, with the hit "Ride Wit Me." It's one of the few rap albums to go Diamond, selling over 10 million copies in America. 

2000 - Sum 41 released their debut EP, Half Hour of Power. It features “Makes No Difference.”

2002 - One day before the first show of The Who's 2002 U.S. tour, bass player John Entwistle died in his hotel room at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. He was 57-years old. When The Who first arrived on the scene, Entwistle's style featured a then-unusual trebly sound (which he described as "full treble, full volume") which influenced many players, and in 2011, a Rolling Stone reader poll selected him as the Greatest Bassist of All Time. The Who's "My Generation," was a song containing one of the earliest bass solos (if not the first) captured on a rock record. 

2009 - Black Eyed Peas went to No. 1 on the U.S. album charts with The E.N.D. the group’s fifth studio album. The album's lead single, 'Boom Boom Pow' topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 consecutive weeks, the second single, 'I Gotta Feeling' replaced 'Boom' and spent 14 weeks at No.1. giving the group 26 consecutive weeks at the top of the charts. 

2012 - Rihanna is lucky to escape with her life after being among 300 people evacuated from a motel during a fire in an elevator shaft. It takes ten firefighters to put out the resulting blaze at the Corinthia Hotel in London, where Rihanna was performing at the Hackney Weekend concert. 

2012 - The chief medical officer of Russia said that The Beatles were to blame for the country's drug problem. Yevgeny Bryun, the nation's medical chief, said that the country's youth first got introduced to the idea of drug-taking when The Beatles traveled to India to "expand their minds." Bryun added that it was after this news entered public consciousness that people in Russia realized you could make money from the sale of drugs. When business then realized it was possible to make money from this, goods associated with pleasure, that was when the growth in the demand for drugs started. 

2014 - Prolific R&B singer, songwriter, musician and producer Bobby Womack died from various cancers at age 70. In the early 60s, Womack sang with his family musical group the Valentinos and was also Sam Cooke's backing guitarist. He would go on to play various genres of music throughout the next 60 years and pen hits such as the Rolling Stones' "It's All Over Now" and New Birth's "I Can Understand It". His biggest singles as a singer were "Lookin' For a Love", "That's The Way I Feel About Cha", "Woman's Gotta Have It", "Harry Hippie", "Across 110th Street", and his 1980s hits "If You Think You're Lonely Now" and "I Wish He Didn't Trust Me So Much." 

2015 - Chris Squire, the bass guitarist and co-founder of 1970s British progressive rock band Yes, died at the age of 67 after battling leukemia. He was the only member to appear on each of their 21 studio albums, released from 1969 to 2014. 

2016 - Mack Rice, the composer who wrote "Mustang Sally" died in Detroit at the age of 82. Rice originally recorded "Mustang Sally" himself in 1965, but the song was not initially a hit. It became a chart success two years later, after Rice's former Falcons bandmate Wilson Pickett asked if he could record it. Rice was also known for co-writing one of the Staple Singers' biggest hits, "Respect Yourself". 

2018 - Joe Jackson, father and manager of the Jacksons, died at the age of 89.

2019 - Radiohead/The Smile frontman Thom Yorke released his third studio album, Anima.

Birthdays: 

Doc Pomus — co-writer of “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “This Magic Moment,” “A Teenager In Love,” and many more — was born today in 1925.

Beach Boy Bruce Johnston is 83. 

Joey Covington — drummer for Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, and Jefferson Starship — was born today in 1945.

Gilson Lavis (drummer for Squeeze) is 73. 

Lisa Germano is 67.

André Cymone is 67. Born Andre Simon Anderson in 1958 and raised in Minneapolis, Cymone came up alongside Prince. He gained acclaim as the bassist for Prince’s band during the late 1970s, contributing to several of his early albums pre-Revolution. As a solo artist, Cymone showcased his futurist Minneapolis vision, churning out innovative music that fused new wave and funk through the late 1970s and 1980s. He has been regarded as an unsung architect of Minneapolis' identity as a music capital. His song, "The Dance Electric" (written by Prince), reached No. 10 on the R&B charts. Cymone later co-wrote and produced hit songs for other acts, including Jody Watley's "Looking for a New Love" and "Real Love". 

Jeffrey Lee Pierce (singer, songwriter and guitarist and founding member and guitarist with The Gun Club) was born in 1958. 

Lorrie Morgan is 66.

Singer Leigh Nash (Sixpence None The Richer) is 49.

Drake Bell is 39.

Colter Wall is 30.

H.E.R. is 28. 

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