11 ready-to-read segments for January 4, lead story first. Free to use on air; a quick credit to Today in Tunes is appreciated.
On this day in 1967, 59 years ago: The Doors release their debut album. Elektra issued the record, cut at Sunset Sound in Hollywood. Its seven-minute "Light My Fire" was trimmed to under three minutes for radio and went to No. 1, lifting the album to No. 2. Here's The Doors with “Light My Fire.”
On this day in 1960, 66 years ago: Marty Robbins' "El Paso" tops the Hot 100. The gunfighter ballad led the first chart of 1960 and was his only pop No. 1. He kept a long run on the country charts, with 17 No. 1 country singles.
On this day in 1964, 62 years ago: Bobby Vinton's "There! I've Said It Again" goes to No. 1. The ballad spent four weeks on top of the Hot 100 until the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" replaced it.
On this day in 1971, 55 years ago: Loretta Lynn releases the album Coal Miner's Daughter. Its title song, the album's only single, topped the country chart and became her signature. The title later named her best-selling autobiography and the 1980 film of her life.
On this day in 1975, 51 years ago: Elton John's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" hits No. 1. His cover of the Beatles song held No. 1 on the Hot 100 for two weeks. After it, the next 14 chart-toppers each lasted just one week, a record streak at the time.
On this day in 1710, 316 years ago: Composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi is born. He died at just 26, but his Stabat Mater became the most often printed piece of music of the 18th century, and his comic La serva padrona stirred up a famous Paris opera feud.
On this day in 1942, 84 years ago: Guitarist John McLaughlin is born in Doncaster. He played on Miles Davis's Bitches Brew, then led the Mahavishnu Orchestra, mixing electric jazz-rock with Indian and classical ideas. Later, in Shakti, he blended jazz with Indian music.
On this day in 1946, 80 years ago: Arthur Conley is born in Georgia. After Otis Redding heard him, he had Conley re-record a song for his own label, and together they reworked a Sam Cooke tune into "Sweet Soul Music". Cut in Muscle Shoals, it reached No. 2 in the US and sold a million.
On this day in 1956, 70 years ago: Joy Division's Bernard Sumner is born. The guitarist of Joy Division stepped up to sing after Ian Curtis's death, becoming the voice and lyricist of New Order.
On this day in 1986, 40 years ago: Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott dies at 36. The band's singer, bassist and main songwriter turned the folk song "Whiskey in the Jar" into a rock hit, and broke big with "The Boys Are Back in Town" from Jailbreak.
On this day in 2011, 15 years ago: Gerry Rafferty, the voice of "Baker Street", dies. The Scottish songwriter's "Baker Street", with its famous saxophone line, reached No. 2 in the US, and his album City to City knocked Saturday Night Fever off the top in 1978.
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