History Highlight:

Today in 1995, Smashing Pumpkins released their album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. The band's third studio album featured the tracks "Bullet with Butterfly Wings", "1979", "Zero", "Tonight, Tonight", "Muzzle" and "Thirty-Three". The record debuted at number one on the Billboard charts and earned the band seven Grammy Award nominations in 1997, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year.

Today In:

1962 - James Brown recorded his legendary Live At The Apollo album. The album sold more than a million copies was listed at No.24 in Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and in 2004, it was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

1966 - Newsweek interviewed The Monkees. They are asked how the music is created. Singer Davy Jones tells them, "This isn't a rock 'n' roll group. This is an act."

1973 - John Lennon began litigation against the U.S. government, accusing them of tapping his telephone.

1979 - Paul McCartney received a medallion cast in rhodium from the Guinness Book of World Records after being declared the most successful composer of all time. From 1962 to 1978, McCartney had written or co-written 43 songs that had sold over a million copies each.

1987 - Michael Jackson started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with Bad.

1998 - Former Stone Roses lead singer Ian Brown was jailed for 4 months after being found guilty of disorderly behavior during a flight from Paris to Manchester. Brown had threatened to chop the hands off a stewardess during a heated exchange.

2004 - Queen became the first rock act to receive an official seal of approval in Iran. Western music was still strictly censored in the Islamic republic, where homosexuality was considered a crime, but an album of Queen's greatest hits was released this week in Iran.

2006 - Forbes.com revealed that Kurt Cobain had overtaken Elvis Presley as the highest earning dead celebrity.

Birthdays:

Bill Wyman, former bass player for the Rolling Stones, is 80.

Jerry Edmonton of Steppenwolf was born today in 1946.

Dale Griffin, drummer and founding member of Mott The Hoople was born today in 1948.

Monica ("The Boy Is Mine") is 36.

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