Pick a Day

Music History Events: Releases

June 7, 2006 Nelly Furtado releases her third album, Loose. A Timbaland production, it includes two #1 hits: "Promiscuous" and "Say It Right."

March 6, 2006 Pearl Jam make their new single "World Wide Suicide" available as a free download after the track is leaked.

February 28, 2006 Bruce Springsteen releases Hammersmith Odeon London 1975.

February 14, 2006 Willie Nelson issues the single "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other."

September 12, 2005 The Pussycat Dolls, which started 10 years earlier as a burlesque dance troupe, release their debut album, PCD. "The whole Pussycat Doll thing is a movement," lead singer Nicole Scherzinger says. "A whole concept and a thing unto itself."More

September 6, 2005 The Rolling Stones release their album A Bigger Bang. It sells just a million copies in America (modest by Stones standards), but the accompanying tour breaks the record for highest-grossing tour, earning $558 million.

August 30, 2005 Rihanna, 17, releases her first album, Music Of The Sun. The lead single is the hit "Pon De Replay," which draws on her Bajan heritage with Caribbean rhythms.

June 3, 2005 Shakira releases the Spanish-language portion of her double-album project, Oral Fixation, which is joined by its English counterpart in the fall. The two-part project is a followup to her first English-language album, Laundry Service, and reflects the singer's evolution from a Colombian pop princess to an international superstar.More

April 27, 2005 Swedish alt-pop star Robyn issues her first independent album on her own label, Konichiwa, after her longtime label Jive Records rejects her increasingly edgier synthpop demos, in particular The Knife-produced "Who's That Girl." Robyn becomes her first #1 album in Sweden and earns a Grammy nomination for Best Electronic/Dance Album in 2009.

April 26, 2005 Bruce Springsteen releases Devils & Dust.

April 12, 2005 Shakira releases "La Tortura," a Spanish-language duet with Alejandro Sanz. Thanks to a saucy video that runs on MTV, it crosses over to an English-speaking audience and becomes the first Top 40 hit (#23) sung entirely in Spanish since "Macarena" in 1996.

March 29, 2005 Weezer release "Beverly Hills," the lead single from their Make Believe album. The video is shot at the Playboy mansion, where they perform the song to a strange mix of Playboy bunnies and Weezer fans.

March 15, 2005 Nashville Star alum Miranda Lambert releases her major-label debut album, Kerosene. The title track, a pyromaniac revenge fantasy, goes to #15 on the country chart and earns her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.

December 28, 2004 On his 26th birthday, John Legend releases his debut solo album, Get Lifted. The lead single is the kiss-off song "Used to Love U," but the second single, the tender ballad "Ordinary People," is the most enduring song. The album is the first released on Kanye West's GOOD Music label.

November 30, 2004 Rapper T.I. releases his third album, Urban Legend. It's his first of seven consecutive albums to hit #1 on the R&B chart.

November 30, 2004 Kelly Clarkson releases her second album, Breakaway. With a string of hits ("Since U Been Gone," "Behind These Hazel Eyes," "Because Of You"), it cements her as superstar and proves American Idol voters were right in choosing her over Justin Guarini.

November 23, 2004 Robert Downey, Jr. releases his debut studio album, The Futurist.

October 26, 2004 Sugarland's debut album, Twice the Speed of Life, is released. It is the only Sugarland album to feature Kristen Hall, who leaves the band in 2005.

July 5, 2004 On the 50th anniversary of the day he recorded the song, Elvis Presley's first single, That's Alright, is re-released. In the UK, it's a hit, going to #3.

February 24, 2004 After EMI refuses to let DJ Danger Mouse release his Grey Album, a mash-up of Jay-Z's Black Album with samples from The Beatles' White Album, the DJ makes the album available as a download, for free, on his website for one day.

February 10, 2004 The string band Old Crow Medicine Show release "Wagon Wheel," a song based on a Bob Dylan outtake from 1973 called "Rock Me Mama." The song becomes a bluegrass standard, most famously recorded by Darius Rucker, whose 2013 version is a #1 Country hit.

November 18, 2003 Blink-182, the pop-punk purveyors of gross puns with album titles like Enema Of The State and Take Off Your Pants And Jacket, prove they're all grown up when they choose to leave their fifth album, an experimental art project, untitled.More

November 17, 2003 Tori Amos releases her first compilation album, Tales Of A Librarian.

November 17, 2003 Let It Be... Naked, a stripped-down version of The Beatles' Let It Be album, is released. Phil Spector produced the original, and the new release removed his lavish strings and other accoutrements.

November 10, 2003 The paperback version of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain's Journals is released, sparking renewed interest in the dead rock star. A disorganized collection of his writings and drawings, the front cover warns, "if you read, you'll judge."

October 14, 2003 Barbra Streisand releases The Movie Album.

September 29, 2003 "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne is released. The music video stars model/actress Rachel Hunter, who plays Stacy's mom - the obsession of her teenage daughter's friend.

September 16, 2003 Joss Stone, 16, releases her debut album, a covers collection called The Soul Sessions. The first single is "Fell In Love With A Boy," her take on "Fell In Love With A Girl" by The White Stripes.

September 15, 2003 Madonna's first children's book is published in 42 languages in more than 100 countries. The release of The English Roses by Callaway Editions and Penguin Group, in association with various publishers around the world, is touted as the largest simultaneous worldwide release of a book in history.

September 14, 2003 The Australian band Jet release their debut album, Get Born, which includes the hit "Are You Gonna Be My Girl," used in a popular iPod commercial. The band is part of a wave of young rock acts with a back-to-basic sound that includes The Strokes and The White Stripes.