History Highlight:

Today in 2018, Irish musician and singer-songwriter Dolores O'Riordan from The Cranberries died unexpectedly while she was in London, England, for a recording session. The Cranberries had the 1994 hit singles "Linger", "Dreams" and "Zombie" and the band's 1993 debut album Everybody Else Is Doing It So Why Can't We spent a total of 86 weeks on the U.K. chart and reached No. 18 on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart and shipped five million copies there.

Also, in:

1965 - The Who had their first hit when they released "I Can't Explain" in the UK. "I Can't Explain", with Jimmy Page on guitar, was the A-side of the group's first single released under the name The Who. Their previous single, "Zoot Suit" / "I'm the Face," was released under the name The High Numbers. In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Pete Townshend, the writer of the song, referred to "I Can't Explain" as "a song, written by some 18-year-old kid, about the fact that he can't tell his girlfriend he loves her because he's taken too many Dexedrine tablets."

1967 - The Rolling Stones were forced to change the lyrics of "Let's Spend The Night Together" to "Let's Spend Some Time Together" when appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show after the producers objected to the content of the lyrics.

1972 - Led Zeppelin's 'Black Dog' made its debut on the U.S. singles chart.

1976 - Bassist Paul Simonon auditioned for The London SS, the band went on to become The Clash.

1977 - The Eagles were at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Hotel California, the group's third US No.1 album.

1982 - Harry Casey of KC and the Sunshine Band was seriously injured in a head-on car crash.

1992 - Dee Murray, bass player with the Elton John band, died after suffering a stroke aged 45.

1994 - Singer songwriter Harry Nilsson died in his sleep of heart failure after spending the previous day in the recording studio.

2002 - 1980's British pop legend Adam Ant was admitted to a mental ward 24 hours after being charged by police with pulling a gun on staff in a London pub.

Birthdays:

Ronnie Van Zant, singer for Lynyrd Skynyrd, was born today in 1948.

Melvyn Gale, cellist for Electric Light Orchestra, is 68.

Duke Elwin Erikson of Garbage of 69.

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