25 AUGUST
In Music History
1989 Chicago mayor Richard Michael Daley declares today "Pops Staples Day" in honor of the native musician and leader of The Staple Singers.
1988 Metallica issue their fourth studio album, ...And Justice For All, featuring "One" and "To Live Is To Die."
1987 Mötley Crüe lead singer Vince Neil suffers a mustard-related injury when he angrily breaks a jar of Gulden's before a show in Rochester, New York (he wanted Frenchie's). The show is cancelled, and Neil is airlifted to Baltimore, where surgeons work to repair nerve and tendon damage in his hand.
1984 Menudo, the Puerto Rican boy band with the ever-changing lineup, release their 16th studio album, Evolucion. The album introduces their new 12-year-old singer, Ricky Martin.
1979 Bandleader Stan Kenton dies days after having a stroke in Los Angeles, California, at age 67. Known for hits with June Christy and a popular version of "Laura," named for the 1944 film-noir of the same name.
1977 California governor Jerry Brown appoints singer and longtime environmental activist Helen Reddy to the state's Parks Commission.
1976 Frankie Avalon's summer replacement variety series, Easy Does It, debuts on CBS.
1973 Butch Trucks, drummer for The Allman Brothers Band, crashes his car while driving in Macon, Georgia, breaking his leg in the process. This happens within sight of the spot where Duane Allman had died in a crash two years earlier.
1973 Todd Rundgren puts on a free concert at Wollman Rink in Central Park, where he records the song "Sons Of 1984" for his upcoming album, Todd. The audience is given lyric sheets so they can sing along in the chorus.
1973 The Stories' "Brother Louie" hits #1 in the US for the first of two weeks.
1970 Country singer Jo Dee Messina is born in Holliston, Massachusetts.
1970 At Plymouth Guildhall in England, Emerson, Lake & Palmer perform for the first time. They play to a far larger audience four days later at the the Isle Of Wight Festival.
1967 Jeff Tweedy (frontman for Wilco) is born in Belleville, Illinois.
1967 After a two-year bout with stage fright, Beach Boys founder and resident genius Brian Wilson returns to playing live with the band.
1966 Public Enemy DJ Terminator X is born Norman Lee Rogers. In the late '90s, he joins the family business raising African black ostriches on a farm in North Carolina.
Lauryn Hill Releases First Solo Album
1998Fugees member Lauryn Hill releases her solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. It becomes the first hip-hop album to win the Grammy for Album of the Year.
Read more25 AUGUST
Featured Events
2009 Skillet's Awake album debuts at #2 on the US albums chart, tying with Underoath's Define The Great Line and Casting Crowns' The Altar and the Door for the highest-charting Christian rock album. The album also features their first Hot 100 entry: "Awake and Alive."More
2001 After shooting the music video for "Rock The Boat" in The Bahamas, 22-year-old Aaliyah dies in a plane crash along with eight others when the overloaded aircraft goes down shortly after takeoff.More
1994 Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin reunite in a London studio to record the concert that becomes the MTV special Unledded.
1979 The Knack's "My Sharona" hits #1 in the US for the first of six weeks.
1976 Boston release their self-titled debut album, which despite being mostly recorded in Tom Scholz' basement studio, becomes one of the best-selling debuts of all time.More
1975 Bruce Springsteen releases his third album and big breakthrough: Born to Run.
1970 The little-known 23-year-old singer Elton John plays his first live show in the United States, co-headlining with the singer/songwriter David Ackles at The Troubadour in West Hollywood. The show gets rave reviews, giving him a huge career boost in America.More
1970 Jimi Hendrix opens Electric Ladyland Studios in New York City. He dies a few months later, but the studio lives on, with many major acts recording there over the years.
1967 Jimmy Page's band The Yardbirds play the Village Theatre (later the Fillmore East) in New York City, where their opening act, Jake Holmes, plays his song "Dazed And Confused." Later with Led Zeppelin, Page releases a very similar song with the same title.More
1961 Billy Ray Cyrus is born in Flatwoods, Kentucky. The "Achy Breaky Heart" singer is also known as dad to Hannah Montana alum Miley Cyrus.
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