History Highlight:

Today in 1968, the animated Beatles film Yellow Submarine was released in the United States. Initial press reports stated that the Beatles themselves would provide their own character voices; however, aside from composing and performing the songs, the real Beatles participated only in the closing scene of the film, while their cartoon counterparts were voiced by other actors. Paul McCartney's voice, for example, was performed by actor Geoffrey Hughes — who would later become well-known to BBC and PBS audiences for his role as Onslow on the comedy series Keeping Up Appearances.

Also, Today In:

1964 - Decca Records released the Rolling Stones' "Little Red Rooster." Written by Willie Dixon (as The Red Rooster), and previously recorded by Howlin' Wolf and Sam Cooke, the single was recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago.

1968 - Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones purchased Cotchford Farms in Sussex, England, where A.A. Milne had written Winnie The Pooh. Statues of various Pooh characters decorate the estate.

1976 - Rod Stewart started an eight-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Tonight's The Night," his second U.S. No. 1. The track features whispers from actress Britt Ekland, who was Stewart's girlfriend at the time.

1982 - Australian band Men At Work started a 15-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with their debut album Business As Usual, which went on to sell more than five million copies in the United States.

1992 - Elton John performed his first concert in Mexico at the Estadio Azteca stadium in Mexico City in front of an audience of 90,000.

2000 - The Beatles launched their first official website, www.thebeatles.com. The site went live on the same day as the release of their retrospective Compilation 1 album.

2004 - Rapper and founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan Ol' Dirty Bastard (Russell Jones), collapsed and died at a Manhattan recording studio in New York at the age of 35.

2012 - The original collage that was reproduced and included in copies of The Beatles' 1967 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band record sold for $87,720. The piece, which was designed by Peter Blake, was sold to an unnamed bidder as part of an auction of modern British art at Sotheby's in London.

2016 - Leon Russell died in Nashville at age 74. He led Joe Cocker's band Mad Dogs & Englishmen, and appeared at George Harrison's 1971 Concert for Bangladesh. Many of his songs became hits for others, among them "Superstar" (written with Bonnie Bramlett) for the Carpenters, "Delta Lady" for Joe Cocker and "This Masquerade" for George Benson. More than 100 acts have recorded "A Song for You", which Russell said he wrote in 10 minutes.

Birthdays:

Huey Lewis and the News drummer Bill Gibson is 66.

Aldo Nova is 61.

Bassist Nikolai Fraiture of The Strokes is 39.

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