Birthday Highlight:

Van Morrison is 71 today. Born George Ivan Morrison in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Morrison started his professional career as a teenager in the late 1950s, playing in various pop-cover bands. He rose to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B band Them, and his solo career began with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl" in 1967. When Warner Bros. Records bought out Morrison's contract, it allowed him three sessions to record Astral Weeks in 1968. Although the album would eventually receive high praise, it was initially a poor seller; however, the next one, Moondance, established Morrison as a major artist, and throughout the 1970s he built on his reputation with a series of critically acclaimed albums and live performances. "Van the Man" continues to record and tour to this day. He has received six Grammy Awards, the 1994 Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, and has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2015, Van Morrison was knighted for his services to popular music.

Also, Today In:

1957 - Elvis Presley appeared at the Empire Stadium in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Following gigs in Toronto and Ottawa, the Vancouver show marked the third and final time Elvis ever performed outside of the U.S.

1963 - The trio Angels started a three-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "My Boyfriend's Back."

1969 - Decca Records released what has been called the Rolling Stones' most political song, "Street Fighting Man," written after Mick Jagger attended a March 1968 anti-war rally at London's U.S. embassy, during which mounted police attempted to control a crowd of 25,000. The single was kept out of the U.S. Top 40 (reaching No.48) because many radio stations refused to play it based on what were perceived as subversive lyrics.

1976 - George Harrison was found guilty of "subconscious plagiarism" of the Ronnie Mack song "He's So Fine" when writing "My Sweet Lord." Earnings from the song were awarded to Mack's estate; The Chiffons then recorded their own version of "My Sweet Lord."

1985 - Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits started a nine-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album charts. The album also topped the charts in 25 other countries and went on to sell more than 20 million copies worldwide.

1987 - The largest pre-order of albums in the history of CBS Records occurred as 2.25 million copies of Michael Jackson's Bad album were shipped to record stores in the U.S. The LP followed Jackson's 1982 album, Thriller, his biggest seller of all time (more than 35 million copies sold). Bad would go on to sell more than 13 million copies.

1991 - Metallica started a four-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Metallica. The album — which featured the tracks "Enter Sandman," "Sad But True," "The Unforgiven" and "Nothing Else Matters" — went on to sell more than 10 million copies in the U.S. alone.

2002 - NASA announced that Lance Bass, singer with *NSYNC, was to become the first celebrity astronaut. His place on a Russian Soyuz module would make him, at age 23, the youngest person to go into orbit. Bass ended up not taking part in the flight after failing to pay for his $20 million ticket on the craft.

Birthdays:

Gina Schock, drummer for the Go-Go's, is 59.

Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze is 59.

Gerard Love of Teenage Fanclub is 49.

Debbie Gibson is 46.

Craig Nicholls of the Vines is 39.

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