History highlight:

Today in 2001, Valerie Jones died at age 45. She was one-third of the sister group The Jones Girls, who sang back-up vocals with Lou Reed, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Lou Rawls, Teddy Pendergrass and Betty Everett. Diana Ross eventually provided larger exposure for the group by giving the sisters a featured portion within her own stage show. Their biggest hit was "You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else", which broke the Billboard Magazine Top 40 at No. 38 in 1979. The song was also a Top 5 R&B hit, and became a gold record.

Also, in:

1967 - The Monkees' album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones Ltd went to number one on the U.S. album chart. It was their fourth album to sell over a million copies, following The Monkees, More Of The Monkees and Headquarters.

1969 - Cindy Birdsong of the Supremes was kidnapped at knifepoint by a maintenance man who worked in the building she lived in. She later escaped unharmed by jumping out of his car on the San Diego freeway. The kidnapper was arrested in Las Vegas four days later.

1979 - Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand's "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" was at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart. A radio station engineer had spliced together Neil's version with Barbra's version and got such good response, the station added it to their playlist. When Neil was told about it, he decided to re-record the song with Barbra herself, and within weeks of its release, the single went to No. 1 in the U.S. and No. 5 in the U.K.

1982 - U.S. folk singer David Blue died of a heart attack aged 41 while jogging in New York's Washington Square Park. He was a member of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue during the late 70s and he wrote "Outlaw Man" covered by The Eagles on their 1973 Desperado album.

1983 - MTV aired the full 14-minute version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video for the first time. Regarded as the most influential pop music video of all time, the video was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2009, the first music video to ever receive this honor, for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant.

1995 - Mariah Carey went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with her duet with Boyz II Men "One Sweet Day". It made Carey the first artist in history to have two consecutive single debut at No. 1, with "Fantasy" being her first.

2000 - The Smashing Pumpkins played their final concert when they appeared at the Metro Club in Chicago.

2002 - Oasis singer Liam Gallagher was arrested and charged with assault after he Kung-Fu kicked a police officer. The incident happened at the Bayerischer hotel in Munich. The singer lost his two front teeth in the brawl.

2012 - Led Zeppelin received a prestigious award from Barack Obama for their significant contribution to American culture and the arts. Dressed in black suits and bow ties, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page were among a group of artists who received Kennedy Center Honors at a dinner event at the White House. In his tribute to the band, Obama said: "When Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham burst onto the musical scene in the late 1960s, the world never saw it coming." The president thanked the former band members for behaving themselves at the White House given their history of "hotel rooms being trashed and mayhem all around".

2013 - Reggae singer Junior Murvin, best known for the 1976 hit song "Police and Thieves", died in Jamaica aged 67.

2014 - American saxophone player Bobby Keys died as a result of cirrhosis at his home in Franklin, Tennessee. Keys started touring at age fifteen with Bobby Vee and fellow Texan Buddy Holly and was best known as being the main saxophone player for The Rolling Stones. When on tour with the Stones, according to legend, Keys filled a bathtub with Dom Perignon champagne and drank most of it.

Birthdays:

Tom McGuinness of Manfred Mann is 75 today.

Rick Savage of Def Leppard is 56 today.

Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel is 48 today.

Singer Nelly Furtado is 38 today.

Singer Britney Spears is 35 today.

Singer/songwriter Charlie Puth is 25 today.

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