History Highlight:

Today in 1994, Clerks: Music from the Motion Picture was released. The soundtrack to director Kevin Smith’s 1994 breakthrough black-and-white film set in a convenience store in New Jersey, the album features songs by Alice in Chains, Stabbing Westward, and Bad Religion, as well as music by three bands with Minnesota ties: Bash & Pop, Golden Smog, and Soul Asylum. Clips of dialogue from the film are also interspersed on the soundtrack album.

Also, Today In: 

1960 - Aretha Franklin made her onstage debut at the Village Vanguard in New York. 

1969 - The great blues man Muddy Waters was nearly killed in a car crash near Chicago. Three of his companions in the vehicle were killed in the crash. Waters passed away in 1983, but his influence was tremendous, not just on blues and rhythm and blues but on rock and roll, hard rock, folk music, jazz, and country music. 

1975 - Saturday Night — a title later changed to Saturday Night Live — made its debut on NBC. Music is a big part of the show, and the first episode features two musical guests performing two songs each: Janis Ian doing "At Seventeen" and "In the Winter," and Billy Preston playing "Nothing from Nothing" and "Fancy Lady." 

1976 - The Sex Pistols recorded their first single, "Anarchy in the U.K." It would be a smash, despite being banned by the BBC. The lyrics endorse a violent interpretation of anarchy that reflected the sense of anger, confusion, restlessness, economic frustration and social alienation which was being felt by a generation of disenfranchised youth in the 1970s. 

1976 - Donna Summer's Four Seasons Of Love concept album is released. 

1981 - Prince gets booed off the stage while opening a show for The Rolling Stones at Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles. The Stones have good intentions in bringing in a rising star, but his act isn't a good fit for this crowd, and when he opens his trench coat to reveal bikini briefs, it gets ugly. Prince never again performs as an opening act. 

1983 - Lionel Richie releases his second solo album, Can't Slow Down. 

1985 - Simply Red released their debut album, Picture Book. It features “Holding Back the Years.”

1986 - Janet Jackson started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with 'When I Think Of You'. This was her first U.S. No. 1 and it came from the album Control which was produced in Minneapolis. Control, was the third studio album by American singer Janet Jackson, and it became her commercial breakthrough. Her collaborations with the songwriters and record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis resulted in an unconventional sound: a fusion of rhythm and blues, rap vocals, funk, disco, and synthesized percussion that established Jackson, Jam and Lewis as the leading innovators of contemporary R&B. 

1990 - Drummer Dave Grohl played his first gig with Nirvana when they appeared at the North Shore Surf Club in Olympia. 

1991 - Apple Computers settled a lawsuit launched by The Beatles record company, Apple Corporation, over name and logo rights. The computer company reportedly paid $29 million to settle the suit.

1994 - Korn released their self-titled debut album. It features “Blind,” “Need To,” “Shoots and Ladders,” and “Clown.”

1997 - Elton John went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Candle In The Wind 1997", a rewrite of his 1974 hit about Marilyn Monroe. The opening lines of the original version, "Goodbye Norma Jean, though I never knew you at all," were adapted to "Goodbye England's rose, may you ever grow in our hearts", and so on. This version was raising funds for the Diana, Princess of Wales charity, following her death in Paris. The song was produced by Sir George Martin, co-written by Elton's long-time writing partner Bernie Taupin, and is the second best-selling single in history (behind Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" from 1942). 

2003 - Justin Timberlake made his first appearance on Saturday Night Live, doing double-duty as host and musical guest. It was the first of many appearances he made on the show through the coming years; his sketches eventually grew to include a Bee Gees parody, a sketch about dating Lady Gaga, a bailiff in a courtroom trial of an alligator, "the Target lady," appearing in drag on stage with Beyonce, and the infamous "In a Box" bit. 

2004 - The Vote for Change tour wrapped up in Washington, D.C. with a concert featuring Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., The Dave Matthews Band, Dixie Chicks and James Taylor. The goal of the tour was to get President George W. Bush voted out of office in the November elections. Bush won by a narrow margin. 

2004 - James Blunt released his debut album, Back to Bedlam. It features “You’re Beautiful.”

2005 - Deerhoof released their seventh album, The Runners Four.

2009 - Barbra Streisand went to No. 1 on the U.S. album charts with Love Is the Answer. It was Streisand's ninth No. 1 album, making her the only artist to have a No. 1 album in America in five different decades. 

2010 - George Michael was released from Highpoint Prison in Suffolk, England after serving four of an eight week-sentence for driving under the influence of drugs. The singer had been arrested after crashing his car into the front of a Snappy Snaps store in Hampstead, North London in July of that year. 

2010 - Belle and Sebastian released their eighth studio album, Write About Love. It features the title track.

2011 - George "Mojo" Buford (harmonica player for Muddy Waters's band) dies in Minneapolis after a long illness at age 81. 

2012 - The Rolling Stones new single "Doom And Gloom" was released, the first new studio recordings since 2005's "A Bigger Bang". "Doom And Gloom" was the lead single from the band's most recent greatest hits collection, GRRR! 

2013 - Lady Gaga makes her movie debut playing shape-shifting assassin La Camaleon in the Robert Rodriguez action-crime flick Machete Kills. 

2015 - Camera Obscura keyboardist Carey Lander died from osteosarcoma, a rare form of blood cancer at age 33. The Scottish indie pop band's first album, Biggest Bluest Hi Fi, was released in 2001. 

2016 - Rod Stewart was knighted at Buckingham Palace, becoming Sir Roderick David Stewart. 

2018 - The Music Modernization Act was passed into law, clarifying how artists, songwriters and producers are compensated for music played on streaming services, online radio, and satellite radio. It also granted royalties for songs written before 1972. 

2019 - Big Thief released their fourth studio album, Two Hands. It features “Not” and “Forgotten Eyes.”

Birthdays: 

Jazz drummer Art Blakey was born today in 1919.

Dottie West ("Here Comes My Baby") was born today in 1932.

Gene Watson (“Fourteen Carat Mind”) is 80. 

Gary Mallaber, writer and drummer from Steve Miller Band, is 78. 

Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates is 78. 

Andrew Woolfolk, sax player from Earth Wind and Fire, was born on this day in 1950. He passed away in April of 2022. 

Paulette Carlson (born in Moose Lake, Minnesota, in 1952) of Highway 101 is 72.

Scott Johnson of Gin Blossoms is 62. 

Todd Snider is 58.

MC Lyte is 54.

Petra Haden is 53.

Brendan Brown of Wheatus is 51. 

Dominic Aitchison of Mogwai is 48.

Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship is 45.

Cardi B is 32. 

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