Pick a Day

Music History Events: Took A While

July 5, 2015 Damon Albarn has to be carried off stage after a performance in Denmark overruns by five hours.More

October 7, 2014 The TV series The Wonder Years, which went off the air in 1993, is finally released on DVD. What took so long? The distributor spent years clearing most of the 285 songs that were used on the show, including the theme, Joe Cocker's version of "With A Little Help From My Friends."

August 2, 2014 Weird Al Yankovic's Mandatory Fun goes to #1, giving the parody master his first chart-topping album.More

October 1, 2011 After 28 years and two children together, Gene Simmons (62) and Shannon Tweed (54) finally get married. Their wedding song is "At Last," sung by their daughter Sophie.More

March 14, 2011 Long-neglected Neil Diamond is finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Alice Cooper, Tom Waits, Dr. John, Darlene Love and Leon Russell.

June 28, 2010 Jake Holmes finally gets around to suing Led Zeppelin for plagiarizing his 1967 song "Dazed And Confused." Led Zeppelin released a very similar song with the same title on their 1969 debut album, but Holmes waited decades to take legal action. The case is eventually settled, with the writing credit on the song changed to "Jimmy Page, Inspired By Jake Holmes."

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

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.

September 26, 2008 Clay Aiken announces he is gay in People magazine, saying: "It was the first decision I made as a father. I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that."

June 14, 2008 Pearl Jam and My Morning Jacket bond, a tardy Kanye West riles the crowd and calls organizers "squid brains," and MGMT dance like hippies at Bonnaroo 2008.More

December 20, 2006 Nearly 40 years after it was recorded, Procol Harum organist Matthew Fisher is awarded 40% of the songwriting credit for "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" by a London court. The judgment is reduced on appeal in 2008.

May 27, 2006 For the first time in their 22-year career, Red Hot Chili Peppers score a #1 album in the US: the two-disc set Stadium Arcadium.

February 15, 2006 Thanks to download sales, Weezer's "Buddy Holly" is certified Gold (500,000 copies) 12 years after it was released. It wasn't sold as a single in America so fans would have to buy the album to get it.

October 30, 1999 Santana's Supernatural album goes to #1 in America, giving the group their first chart-topping album in 28 years.

December 5, 1998 Billboard changes the way they calculate the Hot 100, finally accounting for airplay. Previously, if a song wasn't available for purchase as a single, it couldn't chart. As labels withheld singles to goose album sales, popular songs like "Don't Speak" and "One Headlight" were conspicuously absent from the chart, prompting the change.

May 16, 1998 Five years after it was first released (in Danish), "Torn" goes to #1 on the US Airplay chart with a version by the Australian actress Natalie Imbruglia.More

May 6, 1995 Thanks to a stream of airplay for perplexing tracks like "Lightning Crashes" and "All Over You," Live's Throwing Copper summits the Billboard albums chart just over a year after it was released, bumping off The Lion King soundtrack.

November 1, 1994 Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York album, taken from a performance a year earlier, is finally released. The album tops the charts in many countries, including the US, UK and Australia.

August 14, 1994 Bob Dylan, who refused an invitation to the original 1969 festival, performs on the last day of Woodstock '94, singing "It Ain't Me Babe," "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," "Masters Of War," "Just Like A Woman," and "Highway 61 Revisited" on the main North Stage. Over on the South Stage, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong wallops fistfuls of mud at fans and incites an all-out mudfight. Bassist Mike Dirnt gets his front teeth knocked out by a security guard in the chaos.

June 24, 1992 Billy Joel graduates! He finally gets his high school diploma from Hicksville High School in Long Island, New York. He didn't graduate with his class in 1967 because of a missed English credit.More

October 7, 1989 Paula Abdul's first album, Forever Your Girl, hits #1 in America. The album was released on June 13, 1988 and first appeared on the chart July 23 that year. It took 64 more weeks to hit the top spot, a record for the longest climb to the top.

March 23, 1985 John Fogerty's comeback album Centerfield hits #1 in America. He had plenty of time to work up material: Fogerty took 10 years off because of a dispute with his former record label.

February 23, 1983 After 18 nominations, Lionel Richie finally wins a Grammy when his solo debut single "Truly" takes the award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male.

August 12, 1978 After years on the road and substantial chart success, The Commodores finally get their first #1 hit with the Lionel Richie-penned ballad "Three Times a Lady," which is taken from their album Natural High. The single stays at #1 for two weeks.

May 31, 1976 Ten years after it appeared on The Beatles' Revolver album, Capitol Records issues "Got To Get You Into My Life" as a single in America.More

December 9, 2023 Thanks to a new music video, "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee, originally released in 1958, goes to #1 in America, making Lee, 78, the oldest artist ever to top the chart. And at 65 years, it's the longest a song has ever taken to reach the top spot.

September 29, 2023 'N Sync release their first new music since 2002 with the single "Better Place," used in the movie Trolls Band Together.

March 3, 2023 De La Soul's first six albums, including their 1989 groundbreaking debut, 3 Feet High And Rising, are finally made available for streaming. A label dispute, along with challenges getting the many samples cleared, kept them in purgatory.

May 5, 2015 After years working in Nashville as a songwriter and as a member of the bands The SteelDrivers and The Jompson Brothers, Chris Stapleton, 37, releases his debut album, Traveller, with a rootsy sound that harkens back to the days of Hank Williams. It wins the Grammy for Best Country Album and both the ACM and CMA awards for Album Of The Year.

May 24, 2008 Forty-two years after releasing his first album, Neil Diamond scores his first #1 when Home Before Dark tops the albums chart.