History Highlight:

On this day in 2020, Poliça their fifth studio album, When We Stay Alive. The songs on the album trace their origin to a household accident that occurred Feb. 28, 2019, when Poliça frontperson Channy Leaneagh broke her back after falling off the roof of her Minneapolis home while trying to clear ice dams. During her recovery, Leaneagh’s doctor advised her to focus not only on physical healing, but mental and emotional healing as well; the advice led to Leaneagh composing a number of new songs — including “TATA,” “Fold Up,” “Feel Life,” “Little Threads,” and “Forget Me Now” — that became the album When We Stay Alive. The track “Forget Me Now” landed at No. 88 in The Current’s Top 89 of 2020. Efforts to tour in support of the album were hampered not by any residual back injuries but by the COVID-19 pandemic that took hold six weeks after the album’s release.

More from The Current:

• Local Current: A track-by-track guide to Poliça's new album 'When We Stay Alive' (Jan. 31, 2020)
• Studio Session: Poliça bring 'When We Stay Alive' to The Current studio (Feb. 4, 2020)

Also, Today In:

1959 - Seventeen-year-old Bob Dylan (known as Robert Zimmerman) sees Buddy Holly perform at the Duluth Armory in Minnesota. Three days later, Holly dies in a plane crash.

1970 - American blues musician Slim Harpo died of a heart attack while recording in London at age 46. He had the 1966 U.S. No. 16 single "Baby Scratch My Back". The Rolling Stones, Pretty Things, Yardbirds and Them all covered his songs.

1970 - The Jackson 5 went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "I Want You Back". The song was originally written for Gladys Knight & the Pips and was the first of four No. 1's for the group. It appeared on the The Jackson 5's first album Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5 and was ranked 121st on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

1970 - "Whole Lotta Love" reaches No. 4 in the U.S., the highest Led Zeppelin will ever chart on the Hot 100. Most of their songs, including "Stairway To Heaven," are not released as singles.

1972 - Joan Baez received a Gold record for her album Any Day Now, with songs written entirely by Bob Dylan.

1976 - ABBA knocked Queen from the U.K. No. 1 position on the U.K. singles chart with "Mamma Mia". Queen's single "Bohemian Rhapsody" had enjoyed a nine-week run at the top of the charts, and by coincidence, Queen's single contains the famous "mamma mia, mamma mia, mamma mia let me go" line.

1979 - With Bo Diddley as their opening act, The Clash began their first U.S. tour.

1981 - Blondie had their third No. 1 single with "The Tide Is High."

1985 - Hüsker Dü released their third studio album, New Day Rising. It features “Celebrated Summer,” “I Apologize,” and the title track.

1986 - Down And Out In Beverly Hills opened. The film co-starred Little Richard.

1994 - Piano virtuoso and singer-songwriter Tori Amos released her second studio album, Under the Pink. Recorded in a hacienda in Taos, New Mexico, Under the Pink features some of Amos’ best-known songs, including “Cornflake Girl,” “God,” “Pretty Good Year,” and “Past the Mission” (with Trent Reznor on backing vocals). The album was a double-platinum commercial success, and it was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 1995 Grammy Awards. Her 1995 Under the Pink Tour also received Small Hall Tour of the Year at the Pollstar Concert Industry Awards.

2000 - Primal Scream released their sixth studio album, XTRMNTR. It features “Swastika Eyes,” “Kill All Hippies,” and “Accelerator.”

2010 - Taylor Swift and Beyoncé sweep the Grammy Awards with record-breaking wins. Earning Album of the Year for Fearless at age 19, Swift is the youngest artist to ever win the award. Beyoncé wins six out of ten nominations - including Song of the Year for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) " - giving her the most wins in one night of any female artist. It's been four months since Beyoncé and Taylor Swift shared the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards after the notorious Kanye West controversy.

2014 - Broken Bells (James Mercer of the Shins, Danger Mouse) released their second full-length album, After the Disco. The album features “Holding On for Life.”

2014 - Young Fathers released their debut album, Dead. It won the 2014 Mercury Prize.

2015 - R&B singer/songwriter Don Covay passed away at the age of 78. His most successful recordings include "Mercy, Mercy" (1964), "See-Saw" (1965), and "It's Better to Have (and Don't Need)" (1974). He also wrote "Pony Time'", a U.S. No. 1 hit for Chubby Checker, and "Chain of Fools", a Grammy-winning song for Aretha Franklin.

2017 - English singer, bassist, and songwriter John Wetton died in his sleep at his home in Dorset, U.K. from colon cancer. He rose to fame with bands Mogul Thrash, Family, King Crimson, Roxy Music, Uriah Heep, and Wishbone Ash. After his period with King Crimson, Wetton formed U.K., and later he was the frontman and principal songwriter of the supergroup Asia. Their biggest hit "Heat of the Moment", reached No. 4 in the U.S. in 1982.

2019 - Harold Bradley, the American country and pop guitarist, died at age 93. As a session musician into the 1970s, he performed on hundreds of albums by country stars such as Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley and Slim Whitman. Bradley was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006 and is believed to be one of the most recorded instrumentalist in history.

2020 - Destroyer released their 12th studio album, Have Me Met. It features “Crimson Tide,” “It Just Doesn’t Happen,” and “Cue Synthesizer.”

Birthdays:

Alan Lomax was born on this day in 1915.

Carol Channing was born on this day in 1921.

Harold “Chuck” Willis (“C. C. Rider”) was born on this day in 1926.

Phillip Glass is 88.

Terry Kath of Chicago was born on this day in 1946.

K.C. Casey of K.C. & the Sunshine Band is 74.

John Joseph Lydon — aka Johnny Rotten — was born on this day in 1956, making him 69 today. He is best known as the lead singer of the Sex Pistols, which lasted from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s. He is also the lead singer of post-punk band Public Image Ltd (PiL), which he founded and fronted from 1978 until 1993, and again since 2009. With the Sex Pistols, he wrote "Anarchy in the U.K.", "God Save the Queen", "Pretty Vacant" and "Holidays in the Sun". Public Image Ltd’s singles include "Public Image", "Death Disco", and "Rise".

Lloyd Cole is 64.

Fat Mike of NOFX is 58.

Jason Cooper, drummer for The Cure, is 58.

Justin Timberlake is 44.

Marcus Mumford, lead singer of Mumford and Sons, is 38.

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