History Highlight:

Today in 2000, Anais Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho, known professionally as Arlo Parks, was born, making her 24 years old today. Best known as a British singer-songwriter and poet, her debut studio album, Collapsed in Sunbeams, was released in 2021 to critical acclaim. It earned her nominations for Album of the Year, Best New Artist and Best British Female Solo Artist at the 2021 Brit Awards. She won the (breakthrough) Best New Artist Award at the 2021 Brit Awards. Collapsed in Sunbeams also made her the 2021 Mercury Prize winner. In May of 2023, Parks released her second album, My Soft Machine. 

Also, Today In: 

1964 - Bob Dylan and Joan Baez shared the stage for the first time, singing "With God On Our Side" at the Newport Folk Festival. 

1964 - The crowd of over 3,000 at Rolling Stones gig in Manchester, England, proved too hard to control, accidentally breaking the ribs of one policeman and causing another two to faint in the crush. 

1967 - At the National Blues and Jazz Festival in the U.K., Jerry Lee Lewis had his set cut short after the overenthusiastic crowd caused a near-riot. 

1969 - Sly and the Family Stone release "Hot Fun In The Summertime." 

1974 - Four members of the jazz-rock group Chase, including leader Bill Chase, are killed in a plane crash near Jackson, Minnesota. The group had a hit with "Get It On" in 1971. 

1978 - The great Muddy Waters played at a White House picnic at the request of President Carter. Muddy Waters' influence was tremendous not just on blues and rhythm and blues but on rock & roll, hard rock, folk music, jazz, and country music. He passed away in 1983 at the age of 70. 

1980 - AC/DC reached the top of the U.K. Album Chart with Back in Black, which spent two weeks on top of the chart. The album peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 Album Chart in the U.S. and went on to sell 45 million copies worldwide. 

1980 - ABBA scored their eighth UK No.1 single with 'The Winner Takes It All'. Taken from their 'Super Trouper' album. By this time, both couples were divorced. 

1983 - 22-year-old Thomas Reilly is shot and killed by a British soldier in Belfast. He was a friend of the band Spandau Ballet, and sold merch on their True tour. His death would inspire the band's song "Through The Barricades" and the Bananarama song "King Of The Jungle." 

1986 - Queen played their last live concert with Freddie Mercury at the Knebworth Park Festival in England. An audience of 120,000 heard them close out with "We Will Rock You"/"We Are The Champions" and "God Save The Queen." Mercury, who died in 1991 of complications related to AIDS, is considered one of the greatest performers in the history of rock.

1995 - The original members of Kiss played together for the first time since 1980 when Peter Criss and Ace Frehley joined the band to record their MTV Unplugged special, which was later released as the album Kiss Unplugged. It was one of the only times the original members played without makeup on. 

1995 - Grateful Dead guitarist and singer Jerry Garcia died of a heart attack caused by hardening of the arteries at a rehabilitation clinic in San Francisco. He was 53 years old. Garcia performed with the Grateful Dead for their entire thirty-year career (1965-1995), but he also released several solo albums, and contributed to a number of albums by other artists over the years as a session musician. Interesting fact about Garcia - he was well known for his distinctive guitar playing despite missing a finger that was cut off at age four while chopping wood with his brother. 

1996 - The Ramones officially broke up. 

1999 - Spice Girls manager Bob Herbert was killed in a car crash in Windsor, England. Herbert was behind the formation of The Spice Girls and Five and had managed Bros during the 80s. 

2005 - Nickelback release "Photograph," the first single from their album All The Right Reasons. Inspired by a drunken snapshot, the song is about Chad Kroeger's memories of growing up in a small town in Alberta. 

2007 - Baltimore's mayor Sheila Dixon proclaimed this day as the city's official Frank Zappa Day, citing Zappa's musical accomplishments as well as his defense of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. 

2010 - Blues bassist Calvin "Fuzz" Jones dies of complications from lung cancer and a heart attack at age 84 in Southaven, Mississippi. 

2019 - Bon Iver released their fourth studio album, i,i. It features “Hey, Ma.”

2021 - Jason Isbell becomes the first major artist to require proof of COVID vaccination or a current negative test to attend his shows. "I'm all for freedom, but I think if you're dead, you don't have any freedoms at all," he says. 

2021 - American hip-hop and R&B record producer Chucky Thompson died of complications from COVID-19. He was a member of Bad Boy Entertainment's ‘Hitmen’ team of in-house producers during the 1990s and worked with Bad Boy mogul Sean Combs on material for artists such as The Notorious B.I.G. and Faith Evans. 

2023 - Robbie Robertson of the Band died at the age of 80.

Birthdays: 

The Mighty Hannibal was born today in 1939.

Billy Henderson of the Spinners was born today in 1939.

Rinus Gerritsen, bassist for Golden Earring, was born today in 1946.

Barbara Mason (“Yes, I’m Ready”) is 77.

Pete Thomas — drummer for Elvis Costello, as well as Sheryl Crow, Nick Lowe, Randy Newman, Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Cash, Jackson Browne, and many more — is 70.

Kurtis Blow is 65.

Whitney Houston was born today in 1963. She passed away in 2012 at 48 years old. 

Arion Salazar of Third Eye Blind is 54. 

Juanes is 52.

Yekaterina Samutsevich of Pussy Riot is 42.

Anna Kendrick is 39.

Sampa the Great is 33.

Highlights for Today in Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.