History Spotlight:

Today in 2009, Erick Lee Purkhiser, also known as Lux Interior, died at age 62. He was best-known as the singer and founding member of The Cramps, and performed with the band from 1972 until his death in 2009. He formed the band with his wife Kristy Wallace, better known as Poison Ivy, a.k.a. Ivy Rorschach and the addition of guitarist Bryan Gregory and drummer Pam Balam resulted in the first complete lineup of the band. The Cramps were one of the first punk bands and have influenced countless bands since across multiple genres.

Also, Today In:

1965 - "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" by The Righteous Brothers was No. 1 in the U.S. and the U.K. simultaneously.

1966 - The Rolling Stones released "19th Nervous Breakdown". The song would go on to peak at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart.

1968 - The Beatles recorded "Across the Universe" at Abbey Road Studios in London. During the recording, John Lennon and Paul McCartney decided the song needed falsetto harmonies, so they invited two female fans into the studio to sing on the song.

1969 - In response to Lennon, Harrison and Starr acquiring the services of Allen Klein to represent them the previous day, Paul McCartney hired the law firm of Eastman & Eastman, Linda Eastman's father's law firm, as general legal counsel for Apple. It was the beginning of the end for The Beatles.

1972 - David Bowie finished recording The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

1978 - Queen peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart with "We Will Rock You"/"We Are the Champions" which was their second top ten single in the U.S.

1980 - The Ramones released their fifth album End of the Century. The album was produced by Phil Spector and went on to become their highest charting album in the U.S. reaching number 44 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart.

1983 - Karen Carpenter died of heart failure, a complication of her anorexia nervosa. She was 32. Though her life ended too soon, she and her brother, Richard Carpenter, formed the 1970s duo The Carpenters and released more than a dozen hit records before Karen was even 24. She is best known for her vocal performances but was also a talented drummer, and started off in The Carpenters singing from behind the drum kit.

1986 - Janet Jackson released Control, her third studio album.

1989 - Guns N' Roses became the first act in 15 years to have two albums in the top five of the Billboard 200 Album Chart. Appetite for Destruction was at number two and the EP G N' R Lies was at number five.

2000 - ABBA member Bjorn Ulvaeus revealed that the band had refused a $1 billion offer from a British and American consortium to regroup.

2016 - Van Morrison became Sir Van Morrison when he received his knighthood at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

2016 - American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, arranger and bandleader Maurice White died. With Earth, Wind & Fire, he had the 1975 U.S. No. 1 single "Shining Star", and the 1981 U.K. No. 3 single "Let's Groove". White won seven Grammys, and was nominated for a total of 20 Grammys and also worked with Deniece Williams, The Emotions, Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond.

2017 - Black Sabbath played their last concert. The two-hour gig at the NEC Arena in their home city of Birmingham saw the rock veterans play 15 songs ending with their first hit, "Paranoid". Ticker tape and balloons fell as singer Ozzy Osbourne, 68 at the time, thanked fans for nearly five decades of support. Sabbath's 'The End Tour' began in the U.S. in January in 2016 and took in 81 dates across the world.

Birthdays:

Alice Cooper (Vincent Furnier) is 71.

Tim Booth, the singer from the band James, is 59.

Country star Clint Black is 57.

Natalie Imbruglia is 44.

Former member of the Pussycat Dolls, Kimberly Wyatt, is 37.

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