History Spotlight:

Today in 1983, Karen Carpenter died of heart failure, a complication of her anorexia nervosa. She was 32. Though her life ended too soon, she and her brother, Richard Carpenter, formed the 1970s duo The Carpenters and released more than a dozen hit records before Karen was even 24. She is best-known for her vocal performances but was also a talented drummer, and started off in The Carpenters singing from behind the drum kit.

Also, Today In:

1965 - "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" by The Righteous Brothers was No. 1 in the U.S. and the U.K. simultaneously.

1966 - The Rolling Stones released "19th Nervous Breakdown". The song would go on to peak at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart.

1968 - The Beatles recorded "Across the Universe" at Abbey Road Studios in London. During the recording, John Lennon and Paul McCartney decided the song needed falsetto harmonies, so they invited two female fans into the studio to sing on the song.

1969 - Since John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr hired the services of Allen Klein to represent them the previous day, Paul McCartney hired the law firm of Eastman & Eastman (Linda Eastman's father's law firm) as general legal counsel for Apple. It was the beginning of the end for The Beatles.

1972 - David Bowie finished recording The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

1978 - Queen peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart with "We Will Rock You"/"We Are the Champions" which was their second top ten single in the U.S.

1980 - The Ramones released their fifth album End of the Century. The album was produced by Phil Spector and went on to become their highest charting album in the U.S. reaching No. 44 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. It features "Rock 'n' Roll High School" and "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?"

1986 - Janet Jackson released Control, her third studio album.

1989 - Guns N' Roses became the first act in 15 years to have two albums in the top five of the Billboard 200 Album Chart. Appetite for Destruction was at No. two and the EP G N' R Lies was at No. five.

2000 - ABBA member Bjorn Ulvaeus revealed that the band had refused a $1 billion offer from a British and American consortium to regroup.

2009 - Erick Lee Purkhiser, also known as Lux Interior, died at age 62. He was best-known as the singer and founding member of The Cramps, and performed with the band from 1972 until his death in 2009. He formed the band with his wife Kristy Wallace, better known as Poison Ivy, a.k.a. Ivy Rorschach and the addition of guitarist Bryan Gregory and drummer Pam Balam resulted in the first complete lineup of the band. The Cramps were one of the first punk bands and have influenced countless bands since across multiple genres.

2016 - Van Morrison became Sir Van Morrison when he received his knighthood at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

2016 - American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, arranger and bandleader Maurice White died. With Earth, Wind & Fire, he had the 1975 U.S. No. 1 single "Shining Star", and the 1981 U.K. No. 3 single "Let's Groove". White won seven Grammys, and was nominated for a total of 20 Grammys and also worked with Deniece Williams, The Emotions, Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond.

2017 - Black Sabbath played their last concert. The two-hour gig at the NEC Arena in their home city of Birmingham saw the rock veterans play 15 songs ending with their first hit, "Paranoid". Ticker tape and balloons fell as singer Ozzy Osbourne, 68 at the time, thanked fans for nearly five decades of support. Sabbath's 'The End Tour' began in the U.S. in January in 2016 and took in 81 dates across the world.

2020 - Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson asked fans to boycott the band he helped start because of a forthcoming performance at a hunting event in Nevada. In a tweet Wilson said there was nothing he could do to stop the concert at Safari Club International's annual convention in Reno, Nevada, which would feature the touring group led by co-founder Mike Love. The convention would also include a keynote speech by Donald Trump Jr. Animal rights activists described the annual convention as one of the world's largest gatherings for trophy hunters and a celebration of the "senseless killing" of hundreds of animals.

2021 - Soul singer Gil Saunders died. He came to fame as lead singer with Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes and sang lead on the international 1984 dance music hit "Today's Your Lucky Day".

2021 - R&B singer/songwriter Nolan Porter died age 71. He recorded two albums and six singles in the early 1970s. His best known song is "Keep On Keeping On", which became popular on the northern soul scene. In 1978 Joy Division used the guitar riff from Porter's song for their song "Interzone" on their debut album Unknown Pleasures.

Birthdays:

John Steel, drummer with The Animals, is 83.

Mike Deasy, guitarist with the Wrecking Crew, is 83.

Barry Beckett, keyboardist and session musician in the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, was born on this day in 1943. He worked with many artists including Paul Simon and Traffic.

Jimmy Johnson, guitarist and session musician also in the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, was born on this day in 1943. He played on many hits and countless sessions including Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin, Clarence Carter, Arthur Conley, Wilson Pickett, Joe Cocker, Paul Simon, Rod Stewart. He also engineered The Rolling Stones album Sticky Fingers.

Florence LaRue from The 5th Dimension is 80.

Margie and Mary Ann Ganser of the Shangri-Las age were born on this day in 1948.

Alice Cooper (Vincent Furnier) is 76.

Phil Ehart from Kansas is 73.

Jerry Shirley, drummer with Humble Pie, is 72.

Tim Booth, the singer from the band James, is 64.

Jonathan Larson, who wrote Rent, was born today in 1960.

Country star Clint Black is 62.

Kevin John Wasserman, better known by his stage name Noodles, of The Offspring, is 61.

James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem is 54.

Natalie Imbruglia is 49.

Cam’ron is 48

Gavin DeGraw is 47.

Former member of the Pussycat Dolls, Kimberly Wyatt, is 42.

MJ Lenderman is 25.

Gigi Perez is 24.

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