History Highlight:

Today in 1997, Jade Bird was born, making her 27 today. As a child she lived in North East England, London, Germany, and Wales, before she returned to London at age 16 to attend the prestigious BRIT School of performance and creative arts. Inspired by many American and Canadian singer-songwriters — including Joni Mitchell, Alanis Morissette and The Civil Wars — Bird started writing songs and signed her first management and record deals at age 17, and by age 19, she performed a showcase at SXSW in Austin, Texas, and released her debut EP, Something American. Known for her energetic pop-Americana sound, Jade Bird has since released two full-length albums, and her most recent EP is 2024’s Burn The Hard Drive, which features the title track and the song “C’est La Vie.”

Also, Today In:

1956 - After test audiences gave a negative reaction to Elvis Presley dying at the end of the film Love Me Tender, Presley was called back to re-shoot the scene. (Spoiler alert: In the new ending, the hero lives.)

1965 - Bob Dylan appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York City. He introduced his new touring band on this tour, made up of guitarist Robbie Robertson, organist Garth Hudson, bassist Rick Danko, pianist Richard Manual and drummer Levon Helm. They would become known simply as The Band.

1967 - Pink Floyd arrived in New York to begin their initial tour of the U.S. in support of their first album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. It had to be canceled midway through the tour due to co-founder Syd Barrett's increasingly bizarre behavior.

1967 - Thieves broke into Mick Jagger's London flat in England and stole jewelry and furs belonging to his then girlfriend Marianne Faithfull.

1970 - Curtis Mayfield left the Impressions to go solo.

1970 - Janis Joplin makes her last recordings, singing "Mercedes Benz," which is included on her posthumous Pearl album a capella. She dies three days later.

1970 - Jimi Hendrix was buried at The Greenwood Cemetery at the Dunlop Baptist Church in Seattle. Among the mourners were Miles Davis, Eric Burdon, Johnny Winter, and members of Derek and the Dominoes.

1977 - The No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 was Meco's "Star Wars Theme / Cantina Band". This started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart. To date it is the biggest-selling instrumental single in the history of recorded music, selling two million units and being the only one ever go Platinum. The original music is from the movie soundtrack by John Williams, but Meco's version was the more popular in regards to the charts.

1980 - The Paul Simon film, One Trick Pony, premiered. It was a semi-autobiographical picture, written by and starring Simon and featuring guest appearances by Lou Reed, The B-52's and Sam & Dave.

1982 - John Cougar went to No. 1 on both the U.S. album and singles charts with American Fool and "Jack And Diane," respectively.

1982 - Sony launched its first compact-disc player, the CDP-101, for $730. That's the equivalent of about $1,630 today.

1984 - U2 released their fourth studio album, The Unforgettable Fire. It features “Pride (In the Name of Love)” featuring backing vocals by Chrissie Hynde, the title track, “Bad,” “A Sort of Homecoming,” and “MLK.”

1984 - Chaka Khan released her fifth studio album, I Feel for You. It features “I Feel for You” (originally by Prince), “This Is My Night,” and “Through the Fire,” which was later sampled for Kanye West’s “Through the Wire.”

1984 - Apollonia 6, a group formed by Prince, released their only studio album, Apollonia 6. It features the hit “Sex Shooter,” which was performed in Purple Rain.

1984 - The Ramones released their eighth studio album, Too Tough to Die. It features "Howling at the Moon (Sha-La-La)."

1987 - Soundgarden release their first EP, Screaming Life, on Sub Pop Records.

1990 - Forbes magazine listed New Kids On The Block as the fifth richest entertainers in the U.S., with an income of $78 million.

1990 - The Pogues released their fifth studio album, Hell’s Ditch. It features “Summer in Siam” and “Sayonara.”

1990 - The La’s released their only studio album, The La’s. It features “There She Goes.”

1991 - Prince and his new backing band The New Power Generation released Diamonds and Pearls on Paisley Park Records and Warner Bros. Records. It was Prince's 13th studio album and included several hit singles,"Gett Off", "Cream", "Money Don't Matter 2 Night", "Insatiable", and the title track. Diamonds and Pearls contains a hybrid of music styles, funk, pop, and R&B. The original holographic album cover (re-pressings of the album are non-holographic) featured dancers Lori Werner (then dancing under the stage name of Lori Elle) and Robia LaMorte, known as "Diamond" and "Pearl" respectively. Both Diamond and Pearl appeared in the music videos for "Cream", "Strollin'", "Gett Off", and the title track, and also participated in Prince's Diamonds and Pearls Tour.

1998- John Fogerty gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Blvd.

2004 - John So, then the mayor of Melbourne, Australia, officially opened "AC/DC Lane," a street named after the veteran rockers. The mayor erected the sign to cheers and to bagpipes playing the AC/DC song, "Long Way To The Top." The City of Melbourne had extra copies of the sign made in anticipation of fans stealing them.

2007 - Radiohead's official website crashed after the band announced that their new album In Rainbows would only be available to order via www.radiohead.com. In Rainbows was one of the first major albums to be released via the "let the listener pay whatever they choose" model. Fans could also choose to pay a fixed price of £40 (more than $80 at the time) for a "discbox" that included two CDs, two records, plus artwork and booklets.

2007 - A judge awards Kevin Federline custody of his two children with Britney Spears, reasoning that she can't be trusted due to her "habitual, frequent and continuous use of controlled substances and alcohol."

2015 - An original tape of The Beatles performing at The Cavern Club in Liverpool in 1962 was found after 50 years languishing in a desk drawer. It featured the Fab Four playing 'Some Other Guy' in September 1962, four weeks before their debut single came out.

2017 - During Jason Aldean's headlining set at the Route 91 Harvest festival on the Las Vegas strip, a gunman opens fire from his suite at the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel, killing 58 and injuring over 500 in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

2018 - French singer, actor, public activist and diplomat Charles Aznavour died at 94. He was famous for his 1974 U.K. No. 1 single "She" and was one of France's most popular and enduring singers (dubbed France's Frank Sinatra). He sold more than 180 million records, recorded more than 1,200 songs (interpreted in nine languages) and he wrote or co-wrote more than 1,000 songs for himself and others.

2019 - American blues guitarist Beverly Watkins died at age 80. She worked with artists like James Brown, B.B. King, and Ray Charles.

Birthdays:

Roger Williams (“Autumn Leaves,” “Born Free”) was born today in 1924.

Grady Chapman of the Robins was born today in 1929.

Richard Harris was born today in 1930. He had a hit with the song, "MacArthur Park," ("… someone left the cake out in the rain …"), although most people nowadays know him best as "the first Dumbledore" from the Harry Potter films. He passed away in 2002.

Blues guitarist Albert “The Ice Man” Collins was born today in 1932.

Julie Andrews, known for her roles in such musical films as Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, is 89.

Herb Fame, of Peaches & Herb, is 82.

Jerry Martini, saxophonist for Sly and the Family Stone, is 81.

Donny Hathaway was born today in 1945. He passed away in 1979.

Martin Turner of Wishbone Ash is 77.

Cub Koda of Brownsville Station (“Smokin’ in the Boys Room”) was born today in 1948.

Brian Greenway of April Wine is 73.

Earl Slick — a frequent collaborator with David Bowie and John Lennon — is 72.

Howard Hewett is 69.

Martin Cooper of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark is 66.

Senegalese singer Youssou N'dour is 65.

Kevin Griffin frontman of Better Than Ezra is 56.

Richard Oakes of Suede is 48.

Nicole Atkins is 46.

Jade Bird is 27.

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