History Highlight:

On this day in 1975 in Washington, D.C., Damian Kulash was born, making him 50. At age 11, Kulash attended the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan, where he befriended fellow camper Tim Nordwind; the two were amused by an art teacher who often said, “OK … go,” when the kids were drawing. After attending Brown University and winning the 1998 Weston Prize in music composition just before graduating, Kulash relocated to Chicago, where he and Nordwind, along with Andy Duncan (later replaced by Andy Ross) and drummer Dan Konopka, formed the band OK Go (named by Kulash and Nordwind from their experience at summer camp). OK Go quickly gained ground in Chicago and beyond, and became the house band for live recordings of the NPR program This American Life, hosted by Ira Glass. Since then, OK Go have released five studio albums, the most recent being 2025’s And the Adjacent Possible. Coinciding with their music, OK Go have achieved international renown for their vividly creative music videos, which have featured treadmills, marching bands, intricate machinery, and zero gravity. Those videos became the foundation for OK Go Sandbox, an initiative with the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul that uses OK Go’s music videos as resources for teachers creating STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) lessons. Beyond his work in OK Go, Damian Kulash co-directed — together with his wife, Kristin Gore — the 2023 film, The Beanie Bubble, which costars Zach Galifinakis and Elizabeth Banks in a dramatization of the 1990s Beanie Babies craze. 

Also, Today In:

1939 - Judy Garland, at age 16, recorded "Over The Rainbow" for the movie The Wizard of Oz.

1966 - Smiley Lewis, New Orleans R&B singer, died of stomach cancer. He wrote “One Night” covered by Elvis Presley and “I Hear You Knocking,” a 1955 U.S. No.2 for Gale Storm plus a U.K. No.1 and a U.S. No.2 for Dave Edmunds.

1967 - The Beatles politely declined an offer of $1 million from promoter Sid Bernstein to make a second appearance at New York's Shea Stadium. Bernstein had actually successfully contracted the Beatles to play at Shea Stadium in both 1965 and 1966.

1968 - Jose Feliciano performed a slow, bluesy version of "The Star Spangled Banner" before the fifth game of the World Series between the Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals. Although released as a single that peaked at No. 50, it wasn't well received in all circles; some radio stations refused to play his songs (at least until he released "Feliz Navidad," two years later). In an October 2006 NPR interview, Feliciano expressed pride at opening the door for later interpretations of the national anthem.

1976 - At a hearing in New York, John Lennon was awarded his green card, granting him permanent residency status in the United States. The ruling overturned previous efforts by the U.S. government to deport him.

1977 - The Runaways released their third studio album, Waitin’ for the Night.

1978 - Billboard magazine reported that Marvin Gaye had twice filed bankruptcy papers earlier in the year, with debts of $7 million.

1982 - Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page was given a 12-month conditional release following a cocaine possession conviction.

1989 - Paula Abdul finally reached No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Forever Your Girl. Abdul had spent 64 consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 before hitting No. 1, making it the longest time for an album to reach the number-one spot. Forever Your Girl includes four number-one singles: the title track, plus "Straight Up," "Cold Hearted" and "Opposites Attract." The chart-topping remix of "Opposites Attract" features rapping segments in the intro and bridge — and the rapper, MC Skat Kat, is none other than The Current's Production Manager, Derrick Stevens.

1995 - Alanis Morissette went to No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Jagged Little Pill. The album went on to become the biggest-selling album to date by a woman artist, with sales totaling more than 30 million. It also gave the Maverick label, founded by Madonna, its first No. 1.

1997 - Janet Jackson released her sixth studio album, The Velvet Rope. It features “Together Again.”

1997 - Everclear released their third studio album, So Much for the Afterglow. It contained the singles “Father of Mine,” "Everything to Everyone" and "I Will Buy You a New Life."

1997 - Pixies released the greatest-hits compilation Death to the Pixies.

1999 - Garth Brooks released an album as "Chris Gaines," a character he created that was intended for a movie. The ruse turned off many fans, and the album was Brooks' first since 1995 that failed to debut at No. 1, charting behind Creed's Human Clay.

2002 - Mick Jagger donated £100,000 (about $156,000 at the time) to his old grammar school to help pay for a music director and to buy musical instruments. The resulting music center is named after Jagger.

2003 - Death Cab for Cutie released their fourth studio album, Transatlanticism. It features “The New Year” and “The Sound of Settling.”

2003 - Ludacris released his fourth studio album, Chicken-n-Beer. It features “Stand Up.”

2008 - Spotify launched in Sweden. (The U.S. launch was July 14, 2011.) The most-streamed song for October was "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay; for all of 2008 it was "Human" by The Killers.

2009 - Monkees vocalist Davy Jones ruled out ever reuniting with his former bandmates after launching a scathing attack on them in The National Enquirer, saying, "It's not a case of dollars and cents. It's a case of satisfying yourself. I don't have anything to prove. The Monkees proved it for me."

2009 - Film and TV composer Vic Mizzy, who wrote the theme songs to Green Acres and The Addams Family, died in Bel Air at age 93.

2013 - Annie Lennox described the sexualized imagery of modern pop videos as "dark" and "pornographic." "I'm all for freedom of expression," she told BBC Radio 5 live, "but this is clearly one step beyond, and it's clearly into the realm of porn." The singer called for pop videos to be rated in the same way as films.

2014 - Weezer released their ninth studio album, Everything Will Be Alright in the End, the band's first album on Republic Records. It features “Back to the Shack.”

2014 - The TV series The Wonder Years, which went off the air in 1993, was finally released on DVD. What took so long? The distributor spent years clearing most of the 285 songs that were used on the show, including the theme which was Joe Cocker's version of "With A Little Help From My Friends."

2016 - Phantogram released their third studio album, Three. It features “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore.”

2016 - Lizzo released her debut solo EP, Coconut Oil. It features “Good As Hell.”

2016 - Green Day released their 12th studio album, Revolution Radio. It features “Bang Bang” and the title track.

2016 - The Rolling Stones played the first night of the Desert Trip festival, at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. The event also featured Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters and the Who. The six-day (split over two weekends) event rakes in $160 million, making it the highest-earning music festival ever.

2017 - Jason Aldean paid tribute to Tom Petty and the victims of the Las Vegas shooting a week earlier with a performance of "I Won't Back Down" on Saturday Night Live.

2017 - Cardi B hit No. 1 in the U.S. with "Bodak Yellow," becoming the first solo female rapper without a guest artist to reach the top since Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)" 1998.

Birthdays:

Chet “Dino Valenti” Powers, lead singer for Quicksilver Messenger Service (“Get Together”), was born today in 1937.

Influential folk singer-songwriter Judee Sill was born today in 1944.

Kevin Godley of 10cc is 80.

Dave Hope, bassist for Kansas, is 76.

John Mellencamp is 74.

Bon Jovi drummer Tico Torres is 72.

Yo-Yo Ma is 70.

Mike Shipley — producer who worked with Alison Krauss, the Damned, the Cars, Green Day, Def Leppard, Sex Pistols, Queen, and many more — was born today in 1956.

Michael W. Smith is 68.

Simon Cowell is 66.

Toni Braxton is 58.

Thom Yorke is 57.

Damian Joseph Kulash of OK Go is 50.

Nathaniel Rateliff is 47. Born in St. Louis, Rateliff grew up in a small town in central Missouri, where he first learned to play drums before taking up guitar as a teenager. When he was 18, Rateliff, along with this best friend and lifelong musical collaborator Joseph Pope III, moved to Denver, Colorado. Rateliff performed as a solo artist and in a few different bands with a modicum of success, but it was the founding of Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats — and the release of their 2015 self-titled debut album — that catapulted Rateliff’s career. Since that time, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats have released an additional three studio albums, the most recent being 2024’s South of Here. Rateliff also released the critically acclaimed solo album And It’s Still Alright in 2020.

Lockett Pundt of Deerhunter and Lotus Plaza is 43.

Flying Lotus is 42.

Lauren Mayberry is 38. She is a Scottish singer, musician and songwriter best known as the vocalist and percussionist of the Scottish pop band Chvrches. Mayberry has collaborated with artists such as Marshmello, Death Cab For Cutie, Bleachers, The National, the lead singer of Paramore, Hayley Williams, and The Cure's frontman, Robert Smith. Mayberry is also a vocal feminist and is the founder of TYCI, a feminist collective in Glasgow.

Eric Burton of Black Pumas is 36.

Lewis Capaldi is 29.

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