History Spotlight:

Today in 1994, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana committed suicide by firearm at his home in Seattle. Strangely, like Jimi, Janis, Jim Morrison and Brian Jones, he was 27 when he died. Cobain formed Nirvana with Krist Novoselic in in 1985 and established it as part of the Seattle music scene and grunge genre. Despite releasing only three full-length studio albums in their seven-year career, Nirvana has come to be regarded as one of the most influential and important rock bands of the modern era.

Also, Today In:

1958 - The first "Greatest Hits" compilation is released, and it's by Johnny Mathis. It's a huge hit, and the format catches on quickly. The Mathis album stays in the Billboard 200 album chart for over 9 years, a record not broken until Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon.

1985 - At 3:50 pm Greenwich Mountain Time, 5,000 radio stations around the world played the benefit single "We Are The World" simultaneously.

1980 - R.E.M. played their first ever gig when they appeared at St Mary's Episcopal Church, Athens, Georgia. The band had no name at this point - according to Michael Stipe, they had considered "Twisted Kites", "Negro Wives" and "Cans of Piss" - but they settled on "R.E.M." after Stipe selected it at random from a dictionary. Fortunately.

2002 - Layne Staley, lead singer of Alice in Chains passed away at age 34.

2006 - World-renowned American singer/songwriter Gene Pitney died at the age of 66. He charted 16 Top 40 US hits and 22 Top 40 hits in the UK. He also wrote the early 60s hits "He's A Rebel" by The Crystals and "Hello, Mary Lou" by Ricky Nelson. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2002.

2008 - Apple's iTunes overtook Wal-Mart to become the largest music retailer in the US.

2008 - Toto broke up after performing their final concert in Seoul.

2009 - Donald Trump fired TLC member Tionne Watkins, better known by her stage name T-Boz, in the sixth week of The Celebrity Apprentice, season 8.

2011 - A statue in tribute to Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain was unveiled in his hometown of Aberdeen, Washington. The unveiling marked the 17th anniversary of Cobain's death, which occurred on April 5, 1994.

Birthdays:

Everett Morton, drummer for the British 80s ska band The Beat, is 66.

Jacob Slichter, drummer for Semisonic, is 56.

Christopher 'Kid' Reid (Kid N Play) is 53.

Mike McCready, lead guitarist for Pearl Jam, is 51 today.

Paula Cole is 49.

Pharrell Williams is 43.

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