Pick a Day

Music History Events: Releases

January 8, 2016 David Bowie's Blackstar album is released on his 69th birthday. When Bowie dies two days later, it becomes clear that his ruminations on mortality are his parting words.More

December 15, 2014 Little Big Town release "Girl Crush," a jealousy ballad in 6/8 time. The unusual song becomes a huge hit, going to #1 on the Country chart and winning the CMA Awards for Single of the Year and Song of the Year.

October 27, 2014 Taylor Swift issues 1989, her biggest-selling album. The first two singles are monster hits: "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space."More

June 17, 2014 Sam Smith releases his debut album, In the Lonely Hour, in the US.

December 13, 2013 In a bold and brilliant marketing move, Beyoncé's self-titled album is released with no advance notice, sending radio stations scrambling to get the songs on the air and generating lots of free publicity.More

May 17, 2013 Eight years in the making, Daft Punk's fourth album, Random Access Memories, features guest appearances from a range of artists including Giorgio Moroder, Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams. It becomes their first US chart topper, propelled by the massive worldwide hit single (and Nile Rodgers collaboration) "Get Lucky."

October 22, 2012 Taylor Swift releases her fourth album, Red. The first single is the #1 "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," a kiss-off to an ex she refuses to name.

October 31, 2011 The album Lulu, a baffling collaboration between Metallica and Lou Reed, is released. The first single, "The View," reaches peak lunacy when James Hetfield screams, "I am the table!"

October 26, 2010 Keith Richards releases his autobiography, Life. His drug use is a big topic - here's a quote: "I loved a good high. And if you stay up, you get the songs that everyone else misses because they're asleep."

January 12, 2010 Vampire Weekend release their second album, Contra, which goes to #1 in America. The cover girl is an unwilling subject, leading to a lawsuit.More

August 25, 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

November 23, 2008 Fourteen years after Axl Rose started working on it, the Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy is released.More

November 11, 2008 Eighteen-year-old Taylor Swift releases her second album, Fearless, which goes on to sell over 10 million copies in America. Standout tracks include "Love Story" and "You Belong With Me."

October 22, 2008 Guns N' Roses release their first new material since 1999 when the title track of their new album Chinese Democracy is issued as a single. The band - with Axl Rose as the only original member - first performed the song in 2001.

June 17, 2008 Katy Perry's major-label debut album, One of the Boys, is released, featuring the hit single "I Kissed a Girl." It's not her first album: In 2001 she released a gospel album under her real name, Katy Hudson.More

March 3, 2008 Chumbawamba break the record for longest album title with their 160-word release The Boy Bands Have Won...More

March 3, 2008 Duffy releases her debut album, Rockferry, featuring the hit "Mercy." It sells about 9 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling album of 2008 in the UK. For her next album, Endlessly, she uses a different writing, production and marketing team, with disastrous results, as the album is a startling commercial failure with no hit singles.More

November 20, 2007 The debut album from Amy Winehouse, Frank, is finally released in the US eight months after her second album, and three years after its British release. Although critically acclaimed and massively influential in her native UK, it fails to set the American charts on fire, reaching its peak of #33 only after the singer's untimely death in 2011.

October 10, 2007 Radiohead takes an innovative approach with the release of their seventh studio album, In Rainbows, by offering it as a pay-what-you-want download. Most people pay nothing for the download, but the album still fares well - better, in fact, than the previous Hail to the Thief album - through pre-sales for "discbox" editions.More

October 9, 2007 Josh Groban releases his Christmas album Noël. It becomes the top-selling album of 2007 and one of the best-selling Christmas albums of all time.

March 13, 2007 Amy Winehouse's second album, Back to Black, is released in the US. It enters the Billboard chart the following week at #7, and surges to its chart peak of #2 after Winehouse wins five Grammy awards for the album the following year, including Record of the year and Song of the Year for "Rehab."

October 23, 2006 My Chemical Romance release their wildly popular third album, The Black Parade, which was recorded during the band's stay at the notoriously haunted Paramour Mansion in Los Angeles.More

September 12, 2006 Justin Timberlake releases his second solo album, FutureSex: LoveSounds. Impelled by the lead single "SexyBack," it goes to #1 in the US and sells over 9 million copies.

May 23, 2006 Dixie Chicks release Taking the Long Way, their seventh studio album. It goes on to win five Grammy Awards.

April 25, 2006 Bruce Springsteen releases We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, a collection of songs popularized by Pete Seeger. The album brings Seeger into the spotlight, drawing attention to his work as a musicologist and scion of folk music. "I've managed to survive all these years by keeping a low profile," Seeger says. "Now my cover's blown."

January 10, 2006 The High School Musical soundtrack is released. It sells 6000 copies its first week, but after the movie airs on January 20, it does a lot better, eventually selling over 4 million, making it the #1 album of 2006.

November 15, 2005 American Idol winner Carrie Underwood releases her debut album, Some Hearts. Featuring the hits "Jesus, Take The Wheel" and "Before He Cheats," it becomes the best-selling album of the year.More

October 4, 2005 Little Big Town gets the last laugh when their second album, The Road to Here, is released and spawns four Top 20 hits on the country chart. It's humble pie for critics who shredded the group and their self-titled debut in 2002.More

March 29, 2005 Weezer release "Beverly Hills," the lead single from their Make Believe album.

November 12, 2004 Gwen Stefani, who has been with her band No Doubt since 1986, issues her first solo album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby., with the #1 hit "Hollaback Girl."