History Highlight

On this day in 1943, Lou Reed was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. With a career that spanned nearly 50 years, Reed is best-known as the leader and co-founder of one of rock 'n' roll's most influential bands, The Velvet Underground. Of the band, critic Lester Bangs wrote, "Modern music begins with the Velvets and the implications and influence of what they did seem to go on forever." Reed also had a very productive solo career since the 1970s, spawning such notable hits as "Walk on the Wild Side" and "Perfect Day." He passed away in 2013 from liver disease.

Also, Today In:

1955 - Bo Diddley had his first recording session at Universal Recording Studio in Chicago, where he laid down the single, "Bo Diddley", which would go on to top the U.S. R&B chart by the following June.

1963 - The Four Seasons became the first group to have three consecutive No. 1 singles in the U.S., when "Walk Like A Man" started a three-week run at the top.

1964 - The Beatles began filming what would become their first feature film A Hard Day's Night at Marylebone railway station in London.

1974 - Stevie Wonder won four Grammys: Album of the Year for Innervisions, Best R&B Song and Best Vocal for "Superstition" and Best Pop Vocal Performance for "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life".

1975 - A policeman who stopped a Lincoln Continental for running a red light in Los Angeles was surprised to find Paul McCartney at the wheel, accompanied by his wife, Linda. The cop detected the smell of marijuana, and on searching the car, found eight ounces of the substance. Linda was arrested for possession of it.

1983 - A new digital-audio format, a five-inch compact disc or "CD" containing up to one hour of music, was launched by Sony, Philips and Polygram.

1985 - Wham! started a three-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart with Make It Big.

1991 - French singer Serge Gainsbourg — famous for his very sexy 1969 duet with Jane Birkin, "Je t'aime… Moi non plus" — died of a heart attack. During his career, Gainsbourg wrote soundtracks for more than 40 films.

1999 - Dusty Springfield died after a long battle against cancer, aged 59.

2009 - Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, checked himself into rehab to battle an alcohol addiction.

Birthdays:

Karen Carpenter was born today in 1950.

Eddie Money is 68.

John Bon Jovi is 55.

Chris Martin of Coldplay is 40.

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