History Spotlight:
Ric Ocasek of the Cars died on this day in 2019 at the age of 75. The Cars formed in Boston in the mid-1970s by Ocasek and band-mate Benjamin Orr after they met at high school. Their early hits included 'Just What I Needed', 'My Best Friend's Girl' and 'Good Times Roll'. Their 1984 ballad 'Drive' was used as background music for footage of the Ethiopian famine, and its re-release as a single after Live Aid helped raise money for the cause. After the band broke up in the late 1980s, Ocasek embarked on a solo career as well as working as a producer for artists including Weezer, Bad Religion and No Doubt. 

Also, Today In: 

1903 - Country singer and legend Roy Acuff was born in Maynardville, Tennessee. Along with Fred Rose, he founded the Acuff-Rose music publishing company and signed Hank Williams and Roy Orbison, among others.

1945 - Celebrated portrait photographer Raeanne Rubenstein was born in Staten Island, New York. She began her career in New York City in the 1960s, where she worked primarily at the Fillmore East, documenting such icons as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Lou Reed, Pink Floyd and Joe Cocker. Rubenstein visited Nashville in 1975, where she became a fan of the personalities of country music, eventually photographing artists including Dolly Parton, Lynn Anderson, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, Gram Parsons, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson.

1956 - Elvis Presley started a five-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. charts with "Don't Be Cruel." The song went on to become Presley's biggest-selling single recorded in 1956, with sales topping six million by 1961. 

1961 - A group from Hawthorne, Calif., called The Pendletones attend their first real recording session at Hite Morgan's studio in Los Angeles. The band recorded "Surfin," a song that would help shape their career as The Beach Boys. 

1962 - The Four Seasons started a five-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Sherry." 

1965 - The Ford Motor Company became the first automaker to offer an 8-track tape player as an option for its entire line of new vehicles. Tapes were initially only available in auto-parts stores, as home 8-track equipment was still a year away. 

1965 - Otis Redding released his best-selling crossover hit, Otis Blue, on Stax Records. For his third studio LP, the soul star recorded both original material and a variety of popular songs from the day. In addition to topping the R&B Albums chart and landing at No.6 in the UK, the album produced three Top 40 hits, including “Respect” (later popularized by Aretha Franklin), “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” and a cover of The Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Today, Otis Blue is considered to be a definitive title in the soul canon and has been ranked as one of the greatest albums of all time by a variety of outlets, including Rolling Stone. 

1968 - The Doors were forced to perform as a trio at a concert in Amsterdam after singer Jim Morrison collapsed while dancing during the Jefferson Airplane's performance. 

1969 - Before taking the stage with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young at the The Big Sur Folk Festival in California, Stephen Stills gets in a sloppy fistfight with a heckler railing them for their profligate lifestyle. The festival is raising funds for Joan Baez' Institute For The Study Of Nonviolence. 

1970 - Vice President Spiro Agnew said in a speech that the youth of America were being "brainwashed into a drug culture" by rock music, movies, books and underground newspapers. 

1973 - The protest singer Victor Jara is brutally murdered in Chile under orders by the country's new dictator, Augusto Pinochet. The incident inspires Calexico's 2008 track "Victor Jara's Hands." 

1979 - Led Zeppelin scored their sixth U.S. No. 1 album when In Through The Out Door started a seven-week run at the top of the charts. 

1980 - David Bowie opened on Broadway as The Elephant Man. 

1988 - Mark Knopfler announces that Dire Straits has disbanded. He re-forms the group in 1991. 

1997 - A court ruling in France awarded more than $30,000 to a French citizen after he lost his hearing when he stood too close to loudspeakers at a U2 concert four years earlier. 

1998 - Brandy and Monica, who have been lighting up the chatrooms on AOL, perform their duet "The Boy Is Mine" at the MTV Video Music Awards amid rumors that the young divas have serious beef. 

2003 - Johnny Cash was buried in the Cash family cemetery in Hendersonville, Tennessee, next to his wife, June Carter Cash. Among the mourners at the private ceremony: Al Gore, Emmylou Harris, and Sheryl Crow. Cash was widely considered one of the most influential musicians and one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 90 million records worldwide. 

2003 - Madonna's first children's book is published in 42 languages in more than 100 countries. The release of The English Roses by Callaway Editions and Penguin Group, in association with various publishers around the world, is touted as the largest simultaneous worldwide release of a book in history. 

2004 - Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone (John Cummings) died in Los Angeles after a five-year battle with prostate cancer. A statue was dedicated in his honor at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles on Jan. 15, 2005. Known for his fast, high-energy guitar playing, Johnny's style consisted of rapid downstrokes and barre chord shapes. This unique playing style, combined with heavy gain from his amplifier, created the bright, buzzsaw-like sound Johnny's guitar parts were known for, and it was highly influential on many rock guitarists. In 2003, Johnny was number 16 on Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time." 

2007 - At 17 years and one month old, Soulja Boy becomes the youngest artist to write, produce and perform a #1 Hot 100 hit when "Crank That" goes to the top. The record was previously held by Debbie Gibson, who was 17 years and 9 months old when "Foolish Beat" went to #1 in 1988. 

2008 - Pink Floyd keyboard player and founding member Richard Wright died at age 65 from cancer. 

2009 - Kid Cudi releases his debut album, Man On The Moon: The End Of Day. Contributors include Kanye West, Common, and MGMT. The first single is the languid "Day 'N' Nite." 

2010 - In Toronto, Roger Waters begins his The Wall Live tour, a new production of the show he made famous with Pink Floyd in 1980. 

2014 - Barbra Streisand appears on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, performing selections from her duets album with the host standing in for her various duet partners. It marks her first late-night interview since 1967, when she appeared on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. 

2014 - Apple released a tool to remove U2's album, Songs of Innocence, from its customers' iTunes accounts six days after giving away the music for free. Songs of Innocence was meant to be the biggest album launch in history, and on Sept. 9, 2014, it was immediately gifted to all of Apple's iTunes customers worldwide (more than 500 million people). Some users had complained about the fact that U2's latest album had automatically been downloaded onto their devices without permission. In response, Apple's one-click tool immediately removed the U2 album from users' iTunes music libraries and iTunes purchase histories. 

2024 - Tito Jackson died at the age of 70.

Birthdays: 

“King of Country Music” Roy Acuff was born in 1903.

Walter E. Rollins — lyricist behind “Frosty the Snowman,” “Here Comes Peter Cottontail,” and “Smokey the Bear” — was born today in 1906.

Al Casey, guitarist for Fats Waller, was born today in 1915.

Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley (“Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”), who plays on Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, was born today in 1928.

Signe Toly Anderson founding member of Jefferson Airplane, was born today in 1941. She passed in 2016. 

Lee Dorman of Iron Butterfly was born today in 1942.

Music photographer Raeanne Rubenstein was born today in 1945. She passed in 2019.

Abba drummer Ola Brunkert was born today in 1946. 

MTV co-founder Fred Seibert is 73.

Kelly Keagy, drummer and vocalist for Night Ranger (“Sister Christian”), is 72.

Crash Test Dummies drummer Michel Dorge is 64. 

Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein of the Misfits is 60. 

Mimi Parker of Low was born today in 1967.

Allen Shellenberger of Lit is 55.

Franz Ferdinand drummer Paul Thomson is 48. 

Judah Akers of Judah and the Lion is 34. 

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