1 February

Pick a Day

1 FEBRUARY

In Music History

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2026 A week before his Super Bowl performance, Bad Bunny becomes the first Spanish-language artist to win the Grammy for Album Of The Year when Debí Tirar Más Fotos takes the prize. Kendrick Lamar picks up five trophies (including Record Of The Year for "Luther") to become the most-awarded rapper in Grammy history with 27.

2016 Skillet's 2009 track "Monster" goes double platinum with more than 2.6 million sales and streams, making it the biggest digital single in Christian music history.

2013 The documentary Sound City is released in theaters. Directed by Dave Grohl, it tells the story of Sound City Studios, where his group Nirvana made their Nevermind album. Tom Petty, Rick Springfield, Stevie Nicks and a host of other stars appear in the film to share their memories of recording there.

2009 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform at the Bridgestone halftime show during Super Bowl XLIII between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

2007 Forced to do a press conference to promote his upcoming Super Bowl halftime show, Prince answers the first question with a guitar lick, then turns the event into a concert, leaving reporters stunned.

2007 Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who twice won the Pulitzer Prize for the '50s operas The Consul and The Saint of Bleecker Street, dies at age 95.

2007 Wayne Fontana, famous for fronting Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, pours gasoline on the car of a bailiff sent to collect a debt, and sets the vehicle on fire. At his hearing in November, Fontana shows up dressed as Lady Justice, complete with sword and scales. The judge is not amused, sentencing him to 11 months in prison, and stating: "He has come dressed as a fool and he wants to act like a fool - I hope they give him a prison uniform at Nottingham Prison to keep him warm."

2003 Latin-jazz percussionist Mongo Santamaria dies after suffering a stroke at age 85.

2000 The Christian rock band Skillet release their third studio album, Invincible. It's the band's first release without founding member Ken Steorts, who is replaced by Kevin Haaland on guitar.

1994 Harry Styles is born in Worcestershire, England. He rises to fame in the boy band One Direction, and after their breakup in 2016, he becomes the best-selling solo artist of the bunch, with hits like "Sign of the Times," "Watermelon Sugar" and "Aperture."

1994 Tori Amos releases her second album, Under The Pink, featuring the hit single "Cornflake Girl."More

1989 Paul Robi (of The Platters) dies of cancer at age 57 in Los Angeles, California.

1988 After an arduous year of touring and recording, The Cars officially disband. The return in 2011 for an album and tour, but part ways for good soon after.

1987 Journey wrap up their Raised on Radio tour with a show in Anchorage, Alaska. It's their last tour with Steve Perry, who makes one more album with the band, Trial by Fire, in 1996.

1986 Diana Ross weds Norwegian businessman Arne Naess in Geneva, Switzerland.

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Green Day Bring Punk Out of the Basement With Dookie

1994

Green Day release their major-label debut album, Dookie, bringing punk rock out of the basement with songs like "Basket Case" and "When I Come Around." At night, they play a gig at Slim's in San Francisco with The Dead Milkmen.

Green Day emerged from the East Bay punk scene, where they were regulars at a club called 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. Their first two albums were issued on the indie label Lookout! Records, but in 1993 they signed to Reprise Records, a division of Warner Bros. This was seen as traitorous to some of their longtime fans, a topic addressed on their next album with the track "Walking Contradiction." Dookie is named after poop and clocks in at under 40 minutes, averaging less than three-minutes a song. This doesn't sound like a recipe for success, but after the "Basket Case" video takes off on MTV, the song gets added to a surprising number of Contemporary Hit Radio stations, playing alongside Ace Of Base, Sheryl Crow and Janet Jackson. As new fans get to know Green Day, they learn that their songs all mean something; "Basket Case" is about lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong's panic attacks. None of the singles are available for purchase in America, so fans have to buy the album to own them, and many do - it goes on to sell a staggering 10 million copies by 1999 and 20 million by 2024, making it the best-selling punk album in history. Green Day are on the vanguard of a whole movement, with fellow punks The Offspring, Rancid and blink-182 releasing huge albums over the next few years. Green Day have a huge hit in 1997 with the introspective "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)," and get very political after George W. Bush is elected president in 2000. Their 2004 album American Idiot is largely about him.

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