Birthday Highlight:

Tommy Stinson is 49 today. Born and raised in Minneapolis, Stinson started learning to play bass at age 11, and he began playing and covering songs with his brother, Bob Stinson, and drummer Chris Mars in a band they called Dogbreath. After recruiting singer Paul Westerberg, Dogbreath changed their name to the Impediments and later, to the Replacements. After the Replacements broke up in 1991, Stinson formed the short-lived Bash & Pop, acting as lead vocalist, guitarist and frontman. In the mid-1990s he was the singer and bassist for the rock band Perfect, and eventually joined the hard rock band Guns N' Roses in 1998. Stinson has also recorded with the Old 97s, and he recently visited The Current's studio in support of his latest two-song solo release.

Also, Today In:

1969 - George Harrison's song "Something" was released as the A-side of a Beatles' 45, a first for Harrison.

1973 - Cher started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Half-Breed," her second No. 1 hit.

1978 - Australia's King of rock 'n' roll, Johnny O'Keefe, died aged 43 of a heart attack. He was the first Australian rock performer to tour the United States, and he was Australia's most successful chart performer, with 29 Top-40 hits between 1958 and 1974. O'Keefe's 1958 hit, "Real Wild Child," was covered by Iggy Pop in 1986.

1979 - "Gotta Serve Somebody" gave Bob Dylan his 12th U.S. top 40 hit when it entered the chart for the first time. Recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala., the song won Dylan a 1980 Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Male.

1998 - A music industry poll was published by Time Out London, naming the top stars from the past 30 years: fifth place was Marvin Gaye; fourth was James Brown; third was Bob Marley; second were The Beatles; and first place went to David Bowie.

2011 - Starship's "We Built This City" was named "the worst song of the 1980s" in a poll by Rolling Stone magazine. "The Final Countdown" by the Swedish band Europe came in second and "Lady in Red" by Chris de Burgh was third. Also, making the top (?) five were Wham!'s "Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go)" and "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats.

Birthdays:

REO Speedwagon frontman Kevin Cronin is 64.

Los Lobos frontman David Hidalgo is 61.

Matthew Sweet is 51.