History Highlight:

Born today in 1944, American soul and R&B singer Millie Jackson is 80. Jackson was born in Thomson, Georgia, and grew up in the greater New York City area. Over a 50-year recording career, Jackson has released more than two dozen albums, including three Gold-certified collections and the 1979 collaboration with Isaac Hayes, Royal Rappin’s. A one-of-a-kind performer, Jackson created a lane for herself with stage banter between songs that plays out like a NC-17 comedy routine. While she has plenty of material clean enough for successful radio play — including a Grammy-nominated take on “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right — many tracks, both dirty and clean, have gotten new life as hip-hop samples. In recent years, Jackson launched her own label called Weird Wreckuds.

Also, Today In:

1952 - Eight-year-old prodigy Gladys Knight appeared on the TV show Ted Mack's Amateur Hour, which was a precursor to shows like Star Search and American Idol. She won the top prize of $2,000 for her performance of Nat King Cole's "Too Young."

1958 - John Lennon's mother Julia was killed by a car driven by a drunk driver. John was 17 at the time.

1964 - Roy Orbison released “Oh, Pretty Woman” as a single. The title was inspired by Orbison's wife, Claudette, interrupting a conversation to announce that she was going out. When Orbison asked if she had enough cash, his co-writer Bill Dees interjected, "A pretty woman never needs any money."

1965 - This week's U.S. top three singles were No. 3 The Byrds, "Mr Tambourine Man," No. 2 The Four Tops, "I Can't Help Myself" and at No. 1. The Rolling Stones with "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." A random chart fact for you.

1972 - Elton John started a five-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Honky Chateau, his first U.S. chart topper.

1973 - Induced by exhaustion and a falling-out with his wife, Ray Davies announced that he was departing The Kinks. After a week of rest, he changed his mind.

1978 - The Rolling Stones started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with "Some Girls," the group's seventh U.S. No. 1 album.

1978 - Bob Dylan performed at what was the biggest open-air concert in history for a solo artist, playing for over 200,000 at "The Picnic at Blackbushe" at Blackbushe Airport in Hampshire, England.

1986 - Run-DMC's Raising Hell became the first rap album certified platinum.

1989 - Simply Red scored their second U.S. No. 1 single with "If You Don't Know Me By Now," a 1973 U.K. hit for Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes.

1998 - Aerosmith were forced to cancel a forthcoming U.S. tour after drummer Joey Kramer was involved in a freak accident in which he was filling his car with gasoline and it caught fire. Kramer hospitalized with second-degree burns.

2007 - Prince released Planet Earth, his thirty-second studio album. The album was distributed as a free covermount with The Mail on Sunday national newspaper in the U.K., followed by the album's worldwide distribution. This move brought much criticism from U.K. record stores which resulted in Columbia refusing to distribute the album in the U.K., though its release in the rest of the world remained unaffected. Fun fact: This was not Prince's first or only time releasing albums for free. In 2004, he gave free copies of Musicology to all concert goers during the "Musicology" tour, and he gave away copies of Planet Earth with tickets to his 2007 concerts in London.

2009 - 45 years after he played at the Ed Sullivan Theater with The Beatles, Paul McCartney returned to the venue to appear on The Late Show With David Letterman. Earlier in the day, McCartney played a few songs from the theater's marquee, surprising the onlookers in Manhattan.

2012 - "Gangnam Style" was unleashed upon the world. Performed by K-Pop singer PSY, the song debuted on YouTube and became its most-watched video (ever. in history.), surpassing even Justin Bieber's hit "Baby" in that capacity. The song, partly in Korean, is about the lifestyle of the Gangnam district in Seoul, Korea. The video features PSY's now-famous signature dance moves and it spawned several parodies, animated versions, and mash-ups. "Gangnam Style" goes on to become a worldwide phenomenon, with its dance moves attempted by President Obama and British prime minister David Cameron; it was also declared a "force for world peace" on the floor of the United Nations.

2014 - “Weird Al” Yankovic released his 14th studio album, Mandatory Fun. It includes parodies of songs by Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke, Iggy Azalea, Lorde, and Imagine Dragons. It also features original songs in the form of pastiche, imitating the styles of the Pixies, Cat Stevens, Foo Fighters, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Southern Culture on the Skids.

2015 - A judge trimmed more than $1 million from the damages Pharrell Williams was ordered to pay after the "Blurred Lines" copyright trial. The case revolved around the question of whether Williams and his co-writer Robin Thicke had copied Marvin Gaye's 1977 hit "Got To Give It Up". The judge also gave Gaye's family a 50 percent cut of future earnings from the song.

2016 - In what they famously describe as a 'conscious uncoupling,' Chris Martin of Coldplay and actress Gwyneth Paltrow officially divorce after more than ten years of marriage.

2018 - "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses became the first '90s video to pass a billion views on YouTube. The next closest '90s video was "Zombie" by The Cranberries, at 739 million.

Birthdays:

Dorothy Fields — songwriter who wrote “The Way You Look Tonight” and “I’m in the Mood for Love” — was born today in 1904.

Cowboy Copas — a Grand Ole Opry member with the hits “Alabam” and “Signed Sealed and Delivered” who died in the same 1963 plane crash that killed Patsy Cline — was born today in 1913.

Peter Lewis, founding member of Moby Grape, is 79.

Linda Ronstadt is 78.

Roky Erickson of the 13th Floor Elevators was born today in 1947.

Artimus Pyle, drummer for Lynyrd Skynyrd, is 76.

Trevor Horn — a member of the Buggles, Art of Noise and Yes who later produced albums by Grace Jones, ABC, Franckie Goes to Hollywood, Seal, LeAnn Rimes, and Belle and Sebastian — is 75.

Gregory Isaacs was born today in 1951.

Marky Ramone is 72.

Johnny Thunders, New York Dolls singer, was born today in 1952. He passed away in 1991.

Alicia Bridges (“I Love the Nightlife [Disco Round]”) is 71.

Today in 1956, Ian Curtis, singer-songwriter and frontman of the band Joy Division, was born in Stretford, Greater Manchester. Interested in poetry, art and music from a very early age, Curtis met Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook in 1976 at a Sex Pistols gig. Sumner and Hook were trying to form a band, and Curtis immediately proposed himself as vocalist and lyricist. After recruiting drummer Stephen Morris, they formed Joy Division and released their debut album, Unknown Pleasures, in 1979, and recorded their follow-up, Closer, in 1980. Among the band's better-known songs are "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and "Transmission," the latter of which is used as the theme music by our own Jake Rudh on his program of the same name. Joy Division disbanded in 1980 after Curtis, who suffered from epilepsy and depression, took his own life. The remaining members formed the band New Order. Today, Joy Division are considered pioneers of the post-punk movement and are seen as one of the most influential bands of the late 1970s.

Guitarist Joe Satriani is 68.

Jason Bonham, son of Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham who has played with the remaining members of the group, is 58.

Stokley Williams of Mint Condition is 57.

Buju Banton is 52.

John Dolmayan of System of a Down is 52.

Ray Toro, guitarist and co-founder of the alternative band My Chemical Romance, is 47.

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