Birthday highlight:

Al Green is 78 today. Born on April 13, 1946, in Forrest City, Arkansas, Green is best known for recording a string of soul hits in the early 1970s, including "Tired of Being Alone," "I'm Still In Love With You," "Love and Happiness," and his signature song, "Let's Stay Together," which was a No. 1 single in 1972. Al Green was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, where he is described as "one of the most gifted purveyors of soul music."

Also, today in:

1965 - The Beatles recorded the song "Help!" during an evening recording session at Abbey Road in London.

1965 - The Beatles win their first Grammy Awards, taking Best New Artist and Best Performance by a Vocal Group for "A Hard Day's Night." Record of the Year went to The Girl From Ipanema by Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto.

1968 - Bobby Goldsboro started a five-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Honey."

1971 - The Rolling Stones released Brown Sugar, the first record on their label Rolling Stones Records, which introduced the iconic licking-tongue-and-lips logo.

1973 - The Wailers, led by Bob Marley, release their fifth studio album, Catch a Fire. The first album on their new label, Island Records, it makes Marley and the Wailers international recording stars and brings reggae music to the forefront.

1974 - Elton John went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Bennie And The Jets," his second U.S. No. 1.

1974 - Paul McCartney's Band On The Run went to No. 1 on the U.S. album charts. It was McCartney's third number-one album in the U.S., and it went on to sell more than 6 million copies worldwide.

1974 - The song “Come and Get Your Love” became the first song by an all-Indigenous and Mexican American band to crack the Billboard Top 10, peaking at No. 5.

1985 - USA for Africa started a four-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "We Are The World."

1993 - The first "Aerosmith Day" was observed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

2004 - Pixies returned to the stage after 12 years with a 27-song set at the Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis. In 2021, the band released a recording of the Fine Line show to streaming services.

2009 - A jury found the now 69-year-old Phil Spector guilty of second-degree murder in the 2003 shooting death of the actress Lana Clarkson.

2012 - Five of Tom Petty's guitars were stolen from a soundstage in Culver City, Calif., where Petty and the Heartbreakers, were rehearsing for an upcoming tour. The stolen gear included a 1967 Blonde Rickenbacker, a 1967 Epiphone Sheridan, a 1965 Gibson SG TV Jr., a Fender Broadcaster, and a Dusenberg Mike Campbell Model that belonged to Campbell himself. Petty was offering a "no questions asked" reward bounty of $7,500 to anyone with information leading to the guitars' recovery. The instruments were recovered four days later, and a private security guard was arrested in connection with the theft.

2019 - English keyboardist and guitarist Paul Raymond died at age 73. He joined Plastic Penny in the early 1960s as their keyboardist and vocalist, and he replaced Christine McVie in British blues band Chicken Shack. He first joined the band UFO in 1976 and played with them during four different stints. He was a regular in the UFO lineup since 2003. Raymond had also worked with Michael Schenker in MSG.

2019 - Billie Eilish hits No. 1 in America with her debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, making the 17-year-old singer the first artist born in the '00s to top the chart.

Birthdays:

Mike Chapman — wrote hit singles for the Sweet, Suzi Quatro, Smokie, Mud, and Racey with business partner Nicky Chinn; later produced albums for Blondie and the Knack — is 77.

Peabo Bryson (“Beauty and the Beast,” “A Whole New World”) is 73.

Max Weinberg, the drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, is 73.

Blondie keyboardist and songwriter Jimmy Destri is 70.

Original Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Hillel Slovak was born today in 1962.

Marc Ford of The Black Crowes is 58.

Aaron Lewis of Staind is 52.

Lou Bega is 49.

Nellie McKay is 42.

Ty Dolla Sign is 42.

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