History Highlight:

Today in 1974, Nick Drake died in his sleep due to overdose at age 26. Drake signed to Island Records when he was twenty years old and recorded the classic album Pink Moon in 1972. In 2000, Volkswagen featured the title track from Pink Moon in a T.V. ad, and within a month Drake had sold more records than he had in the previous thirty years.

Also, in:

1967 - The Who peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart with "I Can See for Miles" which was their first and only top ten single in the U.S.

1971 - Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger and John Densmore announced that The Doors would carry on after Jim Morrison's death earlier in the year. They would later split up in October of 1973.

1976 - The Band made their final performance, "The Last Waltz", at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The show, held on Thanksgiving Day, also featured Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond and Eric Clapton. Martin Scorsese filmed the event and made it into a documentary two years later.

1989 - Alice Cooper peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart with "Poison" which was Alice Cooper's final top ten single in the U.S.

1992 - The Bodyguard opened nation-wide featuring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner. The soundtrack featuring Houston's "I Will Always Love You" is one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time, selling more than 42 million copies worldwide.

2005 - Madonna achieved her sixth number one on the U.S. album charts with "Confessions on a Dance Floor", her third consecutive U.S. album chart topper. The album went to No. 1 in 40 countries, setting a new record previously held by The Beatles when they went No. 1 in 36 countries in 2000.

2007 - Kevin Dubrow, the frontman of metal band Quiet Riot, was found dead in his Las Vegas home at the age of 52. Their 1983 release Metal Health was the first metal album to top the U.S. charts.

2011 - Don DeVito, a longtime Columbia Records executive who produced the Bob Dylan albums Blood on the Tracks and Desire died at age 72 after a 16-year battle with cancer. DeVito had also worked with artists including Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Aerosmith. He started off as a guitarist touring for Al Kooper, and had his own band, The Sabres, which later broke up mid-tour. According to Columbia, DeVito was stranded in Arkansas, when he happened to meet Johnny Cash and developed what would become a lifelong friendship. Cash would later introduce DeVito to Dylan.

2019 - Scottish singer songwriter Iain Sutherland who helped compose Rod Stewart's 1975 hit song 'Sailing' died. Sutherland and his brother Gavin recorded the song in 1972 before it became a worldwide hit for Rod. The brothers worked as a folk group, the Sutherland Brothers Band and later combined with a local rock band, Quiver, and billed themselves as the Sutherland Brothers & Quiver.

Birthdays:

Paul Desmond, saxophonist for the Dave Brubeck Quartet and composer of “Take Five,” was born today in 1924.

Soul singer Percy Sledge, singer of No. 1 single "When A Man Loves A Woman," was born today in 1940.

Singer Bob Lind (“Elusive Butterfly”) is 82.

Jerry Portnoy, harmonica player for Eric Clapton and Muddy Waters, is 81.

Singer Jocelyn Brown (“Somebody Else’s Guy”) is 74.

Amy Grant is 64.

Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age was born today in 1964.

Tim Armstrong of Rancid is 59.

Neil Hamburger is 57.

Rodney Sheppard of Sugar Ray is 57.

Erick Sermon of EPMD is 56.

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