History Highlight

Today in 1975, The Jackson 5 announced that they were leaving Motown Records for Epic Records. The brothers were forced to change their name to The Jacksons because Motown owned the other name. Jermaine Jackson stayed with Motown when his brothers broke their contracts and left for CBS; he was replaced by youngest Jackson brother Randy. Fun fact: The Jackson's first album released under the new name was technically their first gold album, despite their having sold more than 10 million albums while at Motown.

Also, Today In:

1973 - George Harrison knocked Paul McCartney from the top of the U.S. singles chart with "Give Me Love, Give Me Peace On Earth." It was Harrison's second U.S. No. 1 and is the opening track on his 1973 album Living in the Material World.

1975 - Cher married Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band.

1977 - Marvel Comics launched a comic book based on the rock group Kiss.

1978 - United Artists released The Buzzcocks' single "Love You More". At 1 minute 29 seconds, it was the second-shortest single ever released. Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs' 1960 hit "Stay" was the shortest hit at 1 minute 28 seconds.

1979 - One-hit wonder Anita Ward started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Ring My Bell."

1984 - Huey Lewis and the News went to No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Sports.

1990 - New Kids On The Block started a three-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Step By Step," the group's third U.S. No. 1 single.

1995 - Garth Brooks was given a star on Hollywood's Walk Of Fame.

2000 - During a Pearl Jam concert at Denmark's Roskilde Festival, nine people are crushed to death as the crowd rushed the stage. Investigations concluded that the events were an accident. Several people fell and couldn't get up, and in addition, crowd surfers were falling into the open area. Pearl Jam stopped the show and asked people to back up, but it was too late. As a result, many European venues have banned crowdsurfing. The Pearl Jam song "Love Boat Captain" refers to the events with the line "Lost nine friends we'll never know... two years ago today."

2001 - American guitarist and producer Chet Atkins died in Nashville at age 77. Atkins more than 100 albums during his career, and he produced records for Perry Como, Elvis Presley, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves and Waylon Jennings. George Harrison and Mark Knopfler have both cited Atkins as a major influence.

Birthdays:

Folk singer-songwriter Dave Van Ronk was born today in 1936.

Legendary American bass player Stanley Clarke is 65.

Iron Maiden drummer Doug Sampson is 59.

The La's guitarist Peter James Camell is 49.

T-Pain (born Faheem Najm) is 31.

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