Birthday Highlight:

Bryan Ferry, singer for Roxy Music, is 71 today. Roxy Music had three number one albums and ten top ten singles in the U.K. between 1972 and 1982. Their singles included "Virginia Plain", "Street Life", "Love is the Drug", "Dance Away", "Angel Eyes", "Over You", "Oh Yeah", "Jealous Guy" and "More Than This". After disbanding Roxy Music, Ferry went solo in 1973, gaining attention for his hits "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall", "Let's Stick Together" and "This Is Tomorrow". If you combine his solo and Roxy Music sales, Ferry has sold over 30 million albums worldwide.

Also, Today In:

1937 - Blues singer Bessie Smith died aged 43 after being involved in a car accident while traveling along Route 61 outside Memphis, Tennessee.

1956 - Fats Domino's version of "Blueberry Hill" entered the chart and zoomed to the Top 5. The song has an interesting history: It was a hit by Glenn Miller as a new tune in 1940, then, Louis Armstrong successfully revived it in the early '50s, but Fats had the big hit.

1964 - Roy Orbison started a three week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Oh Pretty Woman".

1965 - Queen Elizabeth II bestowed honor upon The Beatles with the Order Of The British Empire.

1969 - The Beatles released Abbey Road in the U.K.

1981 - The Go-Go's started a six-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with Beauty And The Beat.

1987 - Michael Jackson started a six-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Bad. Released nearly five years after Jackson's previous studio album, Thriller, Bad went on to become the world's best-selling album having sold between 30 to 45 million copies worldwide. The album produced five U.S. No.1s.

1990 - Dave Grohl joined Nirvana.

Birthdays:

Olivia Newton-John is 68.

Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men is 44.

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