History Highlight:

Today in 1978, United Artists released Buzzcocks' single "Love You More". At 1 minute 29 seconds, it was the second-shortest single ever released. Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs' 1960 hit "Stay" was the shortest hit at 1 minute 28 seconds.

Also, Today In:

1973 - George Harrison knocked Paul McCartney from the top of the U.S. singles chart with "Give Me Love, Give Me Peace On Earth." It was Harrison's second U.S. No. 1 and is the opening track on his 1973 album Living in the Material World.

1975 - Cher married Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band.

1975 - The Jackson 5 announced that they were leaving Motown Records for Epic Records. The brothers were forced to change their name to The Jacksons because Motown owned the other name. Jermaine Jackson stayed with Motown when his brothers broke their contracts and left for CBS; he was replaced by youngest Jackson brother Randy.

1977 - Marvel Comics launched a comic book based on the rock group Kiss.

1979 - One-hit wonder Anita Ward started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Ring My Bell."

1984 - Huey Lewis and the News went to No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Sports.

1990 - New Kids On The Block started a three-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Step By Step," the group's third U.S. No. 1 single.

1995 - Garth Brooks was given a star on Hollywood's Walk Of Fame.

2000 - During a Pearl Jam concert at Denmark's Roskilde Festival, nine people were crushed as the crowd rushed the stage. Investigations concluded that the events were an accident. Several people fell and couldn't get up, and in addition, crowd surfers were falling into the open area. Pearl Jam stopped the show and asked people to back up, but it was too late. As a result, many European venues have banned crowdsurfing. The Pearl Jam song "Love Boat Captain" refers to the events with the line "Lost nine friends we'll never know... two years ago today."

2001 - American guitarist and producer Chet Atkins died in Nashville at age 77. Atkins produced more than 100 albums during his career, and he produced records for Perry Como, Elvis Presley, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves and Waylon Jennings. George Harrison and Mark Knopfler have both cited Atkins as a major influence.

2004 - Kinks founding member Dave Davies was left paralysed on the right-hand side of his body after suffering a stroke. The 57-year-old guitarist and brother of fellow Kink Ray Davies had been promoting his solo material when he collapsed.

2007 - R.E.M. played a five-night series of shows at Dublin's Olympia Theatre. Dubbed 'working rehearsals' by the band, many songs from their forthcoming album 'Accelerate' were debuted, with many of them still as works in progress.

Birthdays:

Folk singer-songwriter Dave Van Ronk was born today in 1936.

Legendary American bass player Stanley Clarke is 69.

Iron Maiden drummer Doug Sampson is 63.

T-Pain (born Faheem Najm) is 35.

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