1964: The Supremes scored their first #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Where Did Our Love Go.” The group’s first of five successive chart-topping hits, the song was written by Motown songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland with the original intention of Mary Wilson singing lead. Motown executive Berry Gordy, however, assigned lead vocals to Diana Ross, who was later instructed to sing in a lower register.

1964: Liberty Records reported that the album The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles Hits by Ross Bagdasarian was selling 25,000 copies a day. In a 1982 interview, Ross Bagdasarian Jr. recalled his father’s trip to London where he met the Beatles, who were very supportive of a Beatles Chipmunk record.

1966: Simon & Garfunkel released “For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her” from their third studio album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

1967: Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell released “Your Precious Love,” the second single from the duo’s first first of three collaborative albums, “United.”

1967: Etta James began sessions at Muscle Schoal’s FAME Studios in Alabama for her eighth studio album, Tell Mama. James had been encouraged by Chess Records head Leonard Chess to record her second album on Chess jazz subsidiary label Cadet Records at Muscle Shoals. The album’s title track became one of the biggest hits of James’ career, her first top 10 hit in four years, and her highest-reaching single on the Billboard pop chart, where it peaked at #23.

1968: Amid rising tensions during the recording of the Beatles’ self-titled “White Album,” Ringo Starr temporarily quit the band. That day, they had begun recording Paul McCartney’s “Back in the USSR,” in which the remaining members each ended up recording drum and bass tracks. Starr had claimed he left because he felt he wasn’t playing well and that he wasn’t being embraced by the other members of the group. He later visited the homes of both John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who both told Starr that it was they who felt like the outsiders. Nonetheless, Starr decided to take a break and took his children on holiday to Sardinia. By early September, Starr returned to the studio, which had been decorated with flowers along with the message “Welcome Back.” It was also during Starr’s trip to the Mediterranean that he spent two weeks on Peter Sellers’ yacht, during which time he wrote “Octopus’s Garden.”

1969: Billy Preston released his fourth studio album, That’s the Way God Planned It. Released on the Beatles’ Apple Records label, the album was produced by George Harrison and featured contributors including Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, and Doris Troy.

1969: Two days after their last recording session together, the Beatles’ last publicity photo shoot was staged on the grounds of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Tittenhurst Park home with photographers Ethan Russell and Monte Fresco. Additional photos were taken by band assistant Mal Evans. It was the last occasion in which all four members were together for band duties. All meetings thereafter were strictly business related.

1970: The Moody Blues achieved their second #1 album in the UK with their sixth studio LP, A Question of Balance.

1970: Neil Diamond entered the Billboard Hot 100 with “Cracklin’ Rosie,” the single that later became his first #1.

1970: Four former session musicians calling themselves Bread topped the Billboard Hot 100 with their first charting single, “Make It With You.” Written by their lead singer David Gates, it was their only #1 single on the pop chart and their highest-charting hit in the UK, where it peaked at #5.

1970: Creedence Clearwater Revival’s fifth studio album, Cosmo’s Factory, began nine straight weeks as their second and of two LPs to hit the top of the Billboard pop chart.

1974: “Jazzman,” the lead single of Carole King’s Wrap Around Joy album, was released. The song became King’s third top 10 single, reaching #2, and the album later became her third #1 LP in the US.

1974: Frank Zappa released “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” backed with “Cosmik Debris” as the first single from his fifth solo album, Apostrophe (‘). It became his first single to chart in the US, reaching #86 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1975: Manfred Mann’s Earth Band released their sixth studio album, Nightingales & Bombers.

1977: Beach Boys co-founder Dennis Wilson released Pacific Ocean Blue, his debut solo album and only solo LP released during his lifetime.

1983: Genesis released “Mama,” the lead single from their self-titled twelfth studio album.

1983: Depeche Mode released Construction Time Again, their third studio album and first to feature Alan Wilder as a member.

1988: Phil Collins’ version of “A Groovy Kind of Love” was released as the lead single from the soundtrack to the film Buster, in which Collins also stars. Collins had recorded a demo of the song as a guide for collaborator Stephen Bishop, only to find out later that his demo had actually been used in the film.

1989: Jefferson Airplane released their self-titled eighth and final studio album. The album and accompanying tour marked the last time the band performed together until their 1996 induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

2005: The Rolling Stones released “Streets of Love” backed with “Rough Justice” as the lead single from the band’s twenty-second British and twenty-fourth studio album, A Bigger Bang.

2006: Gov’t Mule released their seventh studio album, High & Mighty.

Birthdays Today

John Lee Hooker, blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist, was born in Tutwiller, Tallahatchie County, MS in either 1912 or 1917.

Bob Flanigan, tenor vocalist and founding member of The Four Freshmen, was born in Greencastle, IN in 1926.

Jerry Capehart, songwriter and music manager who co-wrote both “Summertime Blues” and “C’mon Everybody” with Eddie Cochran and also wrote “Turn Around, Look at Me,” which was a chart hit for Glen Campbell, the Lettermen, and the Vogues, was born in Goodman, MO in 1928.

Dale Hawkins, singer, songwriter, and guitarist, often called the architect of swamp rock boogie, was born Delmar Allen Hawkins in St. Mary Parish, LA in 1936.

Chuck Brown, guitarist, bandleader, and singer known as “The Godfather of Go-Go,” was born in Gaston, NC in 1936.

Joe Chambers, guitarist for The Chambers Brothers, was born in 1942.

Carl Mann, rockabilly singer and pianist, was born in Huntington, TN in 1942.

Ron Dante, singer, songwriter, session vocalist, lead singer for The Archies and The Cuff Links, and producer for Barry Manilow, Cher, John Denver, and others, was born Carmine John Granito in Staten Island, NY in 1945.

Mutha Withem, songwriter and keyboardist for Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, was born in San Diego, CA in 1946.

Donna Godchaux, Muscle Shoals session singer and vocalist with the Grateful Dead, was born Donna Jean Thatcher in Florence, AL in 1947.

David Leon “Billy” Knight, percussionist who played on songs by his older sister, Gladys Knight, was born in Atlanta, GA in 1947.

David Marks, singer, guitarist, session musician, and early member of the Beach Boys, was born in Hawthorne, CA in 1948.

Peter Laughner, guitarist, songwriter, singer, and leader of several groups, was born in Bay Village, OH in 1952.

Vernon Reid, guitarist, songwriter, and the founder and primary songwriter of Living Colour, was born in London, England in 1958.

Roland Orzabal, singer-songwriter, record producer, and co-founder of Tears for Fears, was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England in 1961.

Debbi Peterson, drummer, vocalist, solo artist, and member of the Bangles, was born in Northridge, Los Angeles, CA in 1961.

Tori Amos, singer-songwriter and pianist, was born Myra Ellen Amos in Newton, NC in 1963.

Steve Cradock, guitarist and member of Ocean Colour Scene, Paul Weller’s backing band, and The Specials, was born in Solihull, Warwickshire, England in 1969.