16 February

Pick a Day

16 FEBRUARY

In Music History

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2021 Lauryn Hill's 1998 album The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill is certified Diamond for 10 million sales in America, making her the first female hip-hop artist to earn that certification.

2015 Red Hot Chili Peppers bass player Flea breaks his arm in five places in a gnarly snowboarding accident.More

2015 Lesley Gore, known for the '60s pop hit "It's My Party," dies of lung cancer at age 68.

2013 Guitarist Stanley "Goober Grin" Knight (of Black Oak Arkansas) dies of cancer at age 64.

2011 Rod Stewart, 66, becomes a father for the eighth time when his son Aiden is born.

2004 Doris Troy, who wrote and recorded "Just One Look," dies at age 67.

2002 Billy Ward of the vocal group Billy Ward and his Dominoes dies at age 80.

2001 Country singer Andy Griggs is arrested just before 3 a.m. after taking a joy ride in an ambulance. Griggs and band member Kevin Weaver come upon the vehicle, with keys inside, in the parking lot of a Tallahassee area Days Inn, where they are on a tour stopover. The men take the ambulance for a short ride and return to the lot, where police charge them with grand theft auto. Griggs and Weaver are released after posting $1,000 bail each.

1999 Aretha Franklin responds to a story in the Detroit Free Press claiming that 30 lawsuits have been filed against her seeking payment, calling it "malicious and vicious." Franklin, who handles business affairs herself, refuses to use a manager.

1999 Robbie Williams wins three Brit Awards, taking the trophies for Best Male British Solo Artist, Best British Single ("Angels") and Best British Video ("Millenium"). The Corrs take the trophy for Best International Group and perform "Runaway" and "Haste to the Wedding" at the ceremony.

1998 At the Brit Awards, Chumbawamba drummer Danbert Nobacon dumps a bucket of ice water on UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. Of his stunt, the musician says, "It's a metaphor for the underdog pissing on the steps of Downing Street."

1997 Michael Jackson sings "Elizabeth I Love You," which he wrote for the actress Elizabeth Taylor, at her 65th birthday celebration. The event airs on ABC on February 25th.

1996 Folk singer Walter "Brownie" McGhee dies of stomach cancer at age 80.

1996 With his band Bush on tour in New Orleans, Gavin Rossdale throws a party, hoping to connect with the frontwoman for their opening act, Gwen Stefani of No Doubt. His plan works perfectly: the couple share their first kiss amid the Mardi Gras revelry, and find they still like each other the next day. They get married in 2002, but split up in 2015.

1993 Lynyrd Skynyrd release The Last Rebel, the band's seventh album, on which Kurt Custer appears for his first time and guitarist Randall Hall for his last.

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Bob Dylan Finally Lands A #1 Album

1974

Planet Waves becomes the first Bob Dylan album to reach #1 in the US.


You would think that Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, or perhaps even The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan would have topped the American albums chart, but it takes Dylan's 14th studio release to give him the elusive chart-topper. Beloved collaborators The Band back him on the effort. The album reaches the public two weeks later than planned when Dylan decides at the last minute to change the title from Ceremonies of the Horsemen (which fans recall as a lyric from "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" from 1965's Bringing It All Back Home), to Planet Waves. The cover features Dylan's own artwork, complete with the phrase "Cast-iron songs & torch ballads." The release enjoys massive media coverage since it is Dylan's first true studio effort in three and a half years. It is preceded by 1973's collection of outtakes Dylan, but that album was almost universally derided by the press, and the artist himself was embarrassed by the effort. Before that came the second installment of Dylan's Greatest Hits and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, but that was a movie soundtrack and so not regarded as a true Dylan album. Planet Waves enjoys a much better reception than his 1970 albums New Morning or Self Portrait did, but few Dylan fans consider it on par with the visionary work he showed in the mid-to-late '60s. This might please Dylan, as he states, "I'm not looking to be that new messiah. That's not in the cards for me. That's all over, that's the past." "Forever Young" is the standout track, but Dylan nearly pulled the tune off the album after a friend's girlfriend said it sounded like he was getting "mushy." At a live performance four years later, Dylan introduces a song by saying, "This is off our album called Planet Waves. Sold about four copies."

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