History Highlight:

Today in 1998 Fugees member Lauryn Hill released her debut solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 422,624 copies in its first week, which broke a record for first-week sales by a female artist. It featured three hit singles: "Doo Wop (That Thing)", "Ex-Factor", and "Everything Is Everything". "Doo Wop (That Thing)", the lead single, peaked at No. 1 in the U.S., with the latter two singles peaking within the Top 40. To promote the album, Hill did performances on Saturday Night Live and the Billboard Music Awards before embarking on a sold-out, worldwide concert tour, and the album became the first hip-hop album to win the Grammy for Album of the Year.

Also, Today In:

1958 - Staten Island, N.Y., doo-wop group The Elegants went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with their re-worked version of the Mozart lullaby, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," re-titled "Little Star."

1962 - Little Eva went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "The Loco-motion." Songwriters Carole King and Gerry Goffin had offered the tune to Dee Dee Sharp ("Mashed Potatoes"), but she turned it down. As a result, King and Goffin asked their babysitter, Eva Boyd, to record it — and she took it to No. 1.

1967 - Brian Wilson returned to performing live with The Beach Boys in Honolulu after a two-year hiatus.

1967 - Bobbie Gentry started a four-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Ode To Billy Joe." Gentry is known for being one of the first female country artists to compose and produce her own material. The song was a No. 1 hit in the United States, and became a big international seller. The song is a first-person narrative that reveals a family at dinnertime on the day that "Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge."

1970 - Elton John performed in the U.S. for the first time. His gig at the Troubadour Club in Los Angeles launched a 17-date tour and the first big impact Elton John would make in America.

1973 - At the Las Vegas Hilton, Bobby Darin performed his final concert. Darin died on Dec. 20, 1973, following open-heart surgery. He was 37 years old.

1975 - Bruce Springsteen released his third album and big breakthrough, Born to Run.

1976 - Boston released their self-titled debut album, which despite being mostly recorded in Tom Scholz' basement studio, became one of the best-selling debuts of all time.

1979 - The Knack started a five-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "My Sharona," the group's only chart topper.

1986 - Paul Simon released his epic Graceland album.

1994 - Jimmy Page and Robert Plant taped a show in London for MTV's Unplugged series. It was later released as Unledded.

2001 - After shooting the music video for "Rock The Boat" in The Bahamas, 22-year-old Aaliyah died in a plane crash along with eight others when the overloaded aircraft went down shortly after takeoff.

2009 - During a radio broadcast on BBC Radio 6 Music, Bob Dylan revealed that he was speaking to a number of car companies about becoming the voice of their GPS systems. Dylan said he thought it would be good for drivers to hear him saying things like, "Take a left at the next street. No, a right. You know what, just go straight."

2014 - Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" was voted the greatest guitar riff of all time by listeners of BBC Radio 2 in the U.K.

Birthdays:

Composer Leonard Bernstein (West Side Story, others) was born today in 1918.

Gene Simmons of KISS is 71.

Rob Halford of Judas Priest is 69.

Elvis Costello, born Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus, is 66.

Billy Ray Cyrus is 59.

Guitarist Viv Campbell of Def Leppard is 58.

Norman Rogers of Public Enemy is 54.

Jeff Tweedy is 53.

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