History Highlight

Today in 2001, guitarist and keyboard player Jay Bennett left the band Wilco. Conflicts had begun to arise between Bennett and Jeff Tweedy during the making of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, when Tweedy was unsure of Bennett's mixing abilities against those of producer Jim O'Rourke. Unbeknownst to Bennett, Tweedy invited O'Rourke to remix "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart", and the results impressed the other band members — even Bennett. The album was completed in 2001, and Bennett was dismissed from the band immediately afterwards. Bennett was the second member of Wilco to depart within six months, following drummer Ken Coomer's exit in March of that year. After leaving Wilco, Bennett released five solo albums. On May 24, 2009, Bennett died unexpectedly in his sleep.

Also, Today In:

1955 - Elvis Presley released his first No. 1 hit, "I Forgot to Remember to Forget / Mystery Train." It hit the top of the country charts several months later and stayed there for five weeks.

1964 - Glasgow city council in Scotland announced that all boys and men with Beatle styled haircuts would have to wear swimming caps after a committee was told that hair from "Beatle-cuts" was clogging the filters in public pools.

1968 - The Doors started a four-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Waiting For The Sun, which contained the hit single, "Hello, I Love You."

1968 - The Rascals (formally the Young Rascals), started a five week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "People Got To Be Free." The group had 13 Top 40 hits.

1969 - The legendary Woodstock music festival ended in upstate New York.

1970 - Keyboardist and singer/songwriter Christine McVie of U.K. blues outfit Chicken Shack joined up with new husband John McVie in Fleetwood Mac.

1974 - Eric Clapton started a four-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with 461 Ocean Boulevard.

1991 - Nirvana shot the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at a studio in Culver City, Calif., at a cost of less than $50,000. The video features real Nirvana fans as the audience. The video won Nirvana the Best New Artist and Best Alternative Group awards at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, and in 2000 the Guinness World Records named "Smells Like Teen Spirit" the Most Played Video on MTV Europe.

2002 - Nelly, featuring Kelly Rowland, held the No. 1 position on the U.S. singles chart with "Dilemma."

2007 - High School Musical 2 premiered on the Disney Channel and Family Channel. Watched by a total of 17.2 million viewers in the United States, it became the highest-rated basic-cable broadcast in U.S. history.

2012 - Three members of the Russian feminist punk-rock band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years' imprisonment after staging a performance in a Moscow cathedral in protest of the Orthodox Church leader's support for President Putin during Putin's election campaign.

Birthdays:

Kevin Rowland, frontman of Dexy's Midnight Runners, is 64.

Former Men at Work lead guitarist Ron Strykert is 60.

Belinda Carlisle, who has performed with the Go-Go's and as a solo artist, is 59.

Jill Cunniff of Luscious Jackson is 51.

Donnie Wahlberg of New Kids on the Block is 48.

Kelvin Mercer of De La Soul is 48.

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