History highlight:

On this day in 1995, Wilco released their debut studio album, A.M. Coming just months after the breakup of the band Uncle Tupelo — which essentially split into the Jay Farrar-led Son Volt and the Jeff Tweedy-led Wilco — A.M. was recorded during the summer of 1994 at Easley Recording in Memphis, Tennessee. The album was a moderate success in its day, but it contained the singles “Box Full of Letters” and “Passenger Side,” both of which are now much loved by Wilco fans. Following A.M., Wilco began to expand their sound beyond alt-country influences. In an interesting side note about the art direction of the album sleeve, the photos of the radios on the cover of A.M. were taken by Mark Gilliland, but the black-and-white photos of the members of Wilco in studio, which appear on the inside of the album insert, were taken by Minneapolis photographer Daniel Corrigan.

Also, today in:

1958 - Eddie Cochran recorded "Summertime Blues," which was later covered by artists such as Blue Cheer, The Who and Rush. In the original recording, Cochran sang both the vocal and bass vocal parts, played all the guitar parts, and added the hand clapping.

1958 - W.C. Handy, widely regarded as the "Father of the Blues," died at the age of 84. At his funeral, more than 150,000 people gathered near the church to pay their respects.

1967 - John Lennon recorded his backing vocals for "Good Morning Good Morning" at Abbey Road Studios in London, and Paul McCartney added a lead guitar solo to the Sgt. Pepper’s track. Lennon had decided he wanted to end the song with animal sound effects, and asked that they be sequenced in such a way that each successive animal was capable of scaring or eating the preceding one.

1968 - Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay" hit No. 1 about three months after his death, becoming the first-ever posthumous No. 1 hit.

1970 - John Lennon peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)," which was Lennon's first top-ten single as a solo artist in the U.S.

1970 - Simon and Garfunkel were at No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart with "Bridge Over Troubled Water," the duo's only U.K. No. 1. Only Art Garfunkel sang on the track.

1973 - Pink Floyd's LP Dark Side of the Moon hits No. 1.

1973 - Led Zeppelin released their fifth studio album, Houses of the Holy. The album benefited from both John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page installing studios at home, which allowed them to develop more sophisticated songs and arrangements and expand their musical style. Although critical response was mixed, Houses of the Holy became a commercial success, later receiving a Diamond (over 10 million albums sold) certification by the RIAA in 1999. In 2020, the album was ranked at number 278 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

1976 - Genesis began their first North American tour since Peter Gabriel left the band, appearing in Buffalo, New York, with Phil Collins taking over as lead singer. The band had auditioned more than 400 vocalists to be Gabriel's replacement, but ended up going with the guy who'd been their main backup singer all along.

1981 - Blondie's "Rapture" hit No. 1 on the Hot 100, becoming the first chart-topper to feature rapping.

1982 - David Crosby was arrested after crashing his car on the San Diego Highway. Police also found cocaine and a pistol in his car. When the police asked Crosby why he carried the gun, he replied, "John Lennon."

1985 - Four-year-old Alicia Cook makes her acting debut on the "Slumber Party" episode of The Cosby Show. She later become famous as Alicia Keys.

1992 - Over $100,000 worth of damage was caused when Ozzy Osbourne invited the first two rows of an audience onstage in Irvine, California. Several other rows took up the offer, and the band was forced to exit the stage.

1994 - Nirvana singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain checked into the Exodus Recovery Center in Marina del Rey, California, after Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic threatened to disband Nirvana if he didn't enter rehab. Cobain walked out of the center three days later.

1995 - Ol’ Dirty Bastard released his debut studio album, Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version. It features “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” and “Brooklyn Zoo.”

1995 - Juliana Hatfield released her second solo album, Only Everything. It features “Universal Heart-Beat.”

1995 - Mudhoney released their fourth studio album, My Brother the Cow. It features "Into Yer Shtik" and "Generation Spokesmodel."

1995 - Soul for Real released their debut studio album, Candy Rain. It features the title song and “Every Little Thing I Do.”

1995 - Real McCoy released their third studio album, Another Night. It features "Another Night," "Automatic Lover (Call for Love)," "Run Away," "Love & Devotion," and the hit cover version of "Come and Get Your Love."

2000 - Jimmy Page accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages from a magazine which claimed he had caused or contributed to the death of his Led Zeppelin bandmate John Bonham.

2000 - Common released his fourth studio album, Like Water for Chocolate. It features “The Light” and “The 6th Sense.”

2005 - At London's Brixton Academy, Queen kicked off their first tour with Paul Rodgers of Bad Company and Free replacing Freddie Mercury on vocals.

2010 - Rush were inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. They were recognized for the songs "Closer to the Heart," "The Spirit of Radio," "Tom Sawyer," "Limelight" and "Subdivisions."

2013 - Justin Bieber ran into some trouble at Munich airport when customs officials detained and quarantined his monkey. Bieber had recently been given the capuchin monkey as a pet by record producer Mally Mall.

2013 - Rock guitarist and session musician Hugh McCracken died of leukemia in New York City at the age of 70. He appeared on many recordings by Steely Dan, Billy Joel, Roberta Flack, B. B. King, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, The Monkees, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Carly Simon, Aretha Franklin, Van Morrison, The Four Seasons, and Daryl Hall & John Oates. Because of such high demand for his work, McCracken declined Paul McCartney's invitation to help form his new band, Wings, after appearing on his 1971 album, Ram.

2014 - Tickets for Kate Bush's first live shows in 35 years sold out in less than 15 minutes. Bush’s 22-date Before the Dawn residency at the Hammersmith Apollo in London was her first series of shows since The Tour of Life in 1979. Demand was so high that the singer's own website, as well as other ticket-selling sites, crashed as people tried to log on. Nearly 80,000 people attended the residency, which ran from Aug. 26 to Oct. 1, 2014. Bush performed most of the songs from Hounds of Love, and selections from several other more-recent records.

2023 - Ryuichi Sakamoto of the Yellow Magic Orchestra died at the age of 71.

Birthdays:

Thad Jones was born today in 1923.

Chuck Portz of The Turtles is 80.

John Evan (born John Spencer Evans) of Jethro Tull is 77.

Reba McEntire is 70.

Cheryl James, aka "Salt" of Salt-n-Pepa, is 59.

Dave Keuning of The Killers is 49.

Lady Gaga is 39.

J-Kwon is 39.

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