History Spotlight:

Today in 2012, Greg Ham, multi-instrumentalist with the band Men At Work, best known for playing the saxophone on "Overkill" and "Who Can It Be Now", and the flute on "Down Under", was found dead at his home in Melbourne, Australia, having suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 58 years old. In January 1983, Men At Work were the first Australian artists to have a simultaneous No. 1 album, Business as Usual and No. 1 single, "Down Under," in the U.S. Billboard charts. Following his time with Men At Work, Ham taught guitar at a primary school in Melbourne and he worked with high school music students on their assessment exams.

Also, Today In:

1978 - Arista Records released the Patti Smith single, "Because The Night." A track that Bruce Springsteen left off of Darkness At The Edge Of Town, Smith somehow got a copy, changed some of the words and took a co-writing credit with Springsteen. It would be her only charting single, reaching No. 13 later in the year.

1980 - Blondie hits No. 1 in the U.S. with "Call Me," which is featured in the Richard Gere movie American Gigolo.

1982 - Simon & Garfunkel, who had made a big splash with their New York Central Park concert the year before, reunited for a European tour. The U.S. leg never materialized because of continued friction between the two.

1994 - Nas releases the seminal rap album Illmatic. He says the title means "Realness — the epitome of ill."

1999 - Although the Madison Square Garden marquee in New York read "Bob Dylan, Tonight At 8pm", Neil Young was actually slated to perform. Following one number during the show, Neil quipped, "That was Bob playing guitar with me on the last song."

2003 - Loretta Lynn was joined onstage in New York for three songs by The White Stripes.

Birthdays:

Alexis Korner, the godfather of British blues, was born today in 1928.

Bernie Worrell, keyboardist and founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic, is 72 today.

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