History Highlight:

Today in 1994, Massive Attack released their second studio album, Protection. Among the many styles of music featured on the album — ranging from R&B to hip-hop to electronica — are the title track, “Karmacoma” and “Sly.” In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Protection No. 51 in its list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1990s.

Also, Today In: 

1937 - Blues singer Bessie Smith died aged 43 after being involved in a car accident while traveling along Route 61 outside Memphis, Tennessee. With the nickname "the Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s, and one of the greatest singers of her era. 

1956 - Fats Domino's version of "Blueberry Hill" entered the chart and zoomed to the Top 5. The song has an interesting history: It was a hit by Glenn Miller as a new tune in 1940, then, Louis Armstrong successfully revived it in the early '50s, but Fats had the big hit. 

1956 - Elvis Presley returns to his hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi, to play the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. One of the many smitten teenage girls in the audience is Wynette Pugh, who goes on to stardom as Tammy Wynette. 

1957 - The musical West Side Story, a retelling of Romeo and Juliet with New York City gang members, debuts on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre. It runs for 732 performances. 

1964 - Roy Orbison started a three week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Oh Pretty Woman". 

1965 - Queen Elizabeth II bestowed honor upon The Beatles with the Order Of The British Empire. 

1969 - The Beatles released their 11th studio album, Abbey Road. It's viewed as one of the Beatles' best albums, and one of the greatest albums of all time with songs such as "Something" / "Come Together," "I Want You (She's So Heavy),"  "Here Comes the Sun," "Because," and "Golden Slumbers." It is the last album the group started recording, although Let It Be was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. The album's cover, featuring the group walking across a marked crosswalk outside Abbey Road Studios, has become one of the most famous and imitated in the history of recorded music. 

1974 - John Lennon releases Walls And Bridges. 

1975 - The Rocky Horror Picture Show opens in Westwood, California. Featuring a young Meat Loaf along with Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon, the movie tanks but later becomes a cult classic, with audience members shouting back at the screen and bringing toast, toilet paper, and other assorted items to enhance the viewing experience. 

1979 - U2 made their recorded debut with Three, a three-song EP featuring the songs “Out of Control,” “Stories for Boys,” and “Boy/Girl.” Upon its release, all 1,000 copies of the 12-inch vinyl sold out instantly, making the EP the fastest-selling 12-inch record ever in Ireland. 

1980 - Madness released their second studio album, Absolutely. It features “Baggy Trousers.”

1981 - The Go-Go's started a six-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Beauty And The Beat. 

1987 - Michael Jackson started a six-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Bad. Released nearly five years after Jackson's previous studio album, Thriller, Bad went on to become the world's best-selling album, having sold between 30 to 45 million copies worldwide. The album produced five U.S. No. 1s. 

1994 - Love and Rockets released their fifth studio album, Hot Trip to Heaven. It features “Body and Soul” and “This Heaven.”

1994 - Radiohead released their My Iron Lung EP.

1995 - Prince released his 17th studio album, The Gold Experience. It features “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World,” “Endorphinmachine,” and “I Hate U.”

1995 - Emmylou Harris released her 18th studio album, Wrecking Ball. It features a cover of the Neil Young classic song as the title track, as well as songs by Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Gillian Welch, and Daniel Lanois.

1995 - Lisa Loeb released Tails. It features "Stay (I Missed You)."

1995 - Sonic Youth released their ninth studio album, Washing Machine. It features “The Diamond Sea” and “Little Trouble Girl.”

2000 - Good Charlotte release their self-titled debut album. 

2000 - 98 Degrees' new album Revelation is premiered in U.S. Wal-Mart stores via an exclusive satellite broadcast concert. 

2002 - Colin Hay of Men at Work appears throughout the Scrubs episode "My Overkill," performing his song "Overkill" in various fantasy sequences. 

2003 - Singer Robert Palmer ("Addicted To Love") died of a heart attack in a Paris hotel room. He was 54. 

2008 - Clay Aiken announces he is gay in People magazine, saying: "It was the first decision I made as a father. I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that." 

2009 - Jay-Z started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album charts with 'The Blueprint 3', the rappers eleventh studio album. 

2012 - Pink, aka "P!nk," lands her first No. 1 album in America with The Truth About Love. Her sixth studio album, it features the hits "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" and "Just Give Me A Reason." 

2014 - Prince released both Plectrumelectrum (with 3rdeyegirl) and ArtOfficial Age on the same day.

2014 -  Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke releases his second solo album, Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, for just $6 on the peer-to-peer file-sharing platform BitTorrent. According to the album's producer, Nigel Godrich, "It could be an effective way of handing some control of Internet commerce back to people who are creating the work." In just over a week, the album averages 1.8 million downloads. 

2016 - Universal, Warner Brothers, Sony and several other record labels filed a lawsuit against the operators of YouTube-mp3.org, a service that allowed its users to remove audio from videos streamed on YouTube. The court action, launched against a German company, alleged that "tens, or even hundreds, of millions of tracks are illegally copied and distributed by stream ripping services each month." 

Birthdays: 

George Gershwin was born today in 1898.

Shug Fisher of Sons of the Pioneers was born today in 1907.

Marty Robbins was born today in 1925.

Julie London was born today in 1926.

David Frizzell ("I'm Gonna Hire a Wino to Decorate Our Home") is 83.

Bryan Ferry, singer for Roxy Music, is 79.

Lynn Anderson (“Rose Garden”) was born today in 1947. 

Olivia Newton-John was born on this day in 1948. She passed away in August of 2022. 

Stuart Tosh — drummer for Pilot, the Alan Parsons Project, 10cc, Camel, and Roger Daltrey — is 73.

Craig Chaquico, guitarist for Jefferson Starship, is 70.

Cesar Rosas, frontman for Los Lobos, is 70.

Carlene Carter is 69.

Darby Crash of the Germs was born today in 1958.

Doug Supernaw is 64.

Cindy Herron of En Vogue is 63.

Al Pitrelli — guitarist for Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Megadeth, Alice Cooper, and more — is 62.

Tracey Thorn of Everything But The Girl is 62.

Shannon Hoon, frontman for Blind Melon, was born today in 1967.

Ras Kass is 52.

Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men is 52.

Christina Milian is 43.

James Blake 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.