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Today in Music History: Happy Birthday, Aimee Mann

September 08, 2015

aimee mann
Aimee Mann in The Current's studio.
MPR photo/Nate Ryan

Birthday Highlight:

Today, Aimee Mann celebrates her 55th birthday. In the 1980s, Mann sang in the Boston new wave band 'Til Tuesday until she left to begin a solo career in the early 1990s. In 1999, Mann recorded original songs for the soundtrack to the Paul Thomas Anderson film Magnolia, for which she received Academy Award and Grammy Award nominations. She has released seven solo albums. Recently, she teamed up with Ted Leo and has been performing under the name, The Both.

Also, Today In:

1956 - Eddie Cochran signed a contract with Liberty Records. Cochran, who was born in Albert Lea, Minn., went on to give Liberty three top-40 hits over the next four years of his short life, including "Summertime Blues," "Twenty Flight Rock" and "C'mon Everybody."

1962 - "Monster Mash," by Bobby "Boris" Pickett (providing all the voices and creating the spooky sound effects), entered the singles chart. It went on to reach No. 1 shortly before Halloween that year, and it became a perennial seasonal favorite thereafter.

1971 - The prestigious National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences' Bing Crosby Award was presented to Elvis Presley for his "creative contributions and outstanding artistic significance to the field of phonograph records." The only other artists to receive the award prior to Elvis were Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Irving Berlin.

1973 - Marvin Gaye started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Let's Get It On," his second U.S. No. 1.

1982 - Peter Gabriel released his fourth studio album, titled Security in the U.S. and Canada.

1988 - Elton John auctioned off a number of his costumes and memorabilia for a tidy $6.2 million.

1990 - Jon Bon Jovi went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Blaze Of Glory." The track appeared in the motion picture Young Guns II, for which it was originally recorded.

1999 - As part of a promotion for Apple/EMI's re-release of The Beatles' Yellow Submarine album, a cross-channel train custom-designed with artwork from the animated film left Waterloo Station in London for Paris.

Birthdays:

Patsy Cline was born today in 1932.

Benjamin Orr, the late bassist for The Cars, was born today in 1955.