Pick a Day

2 FEBRUARY

In Music History

2019 Marshmello performs a virtual concert inside the online game Fortnite that is seen by an estimated 10 million gamers. To pull it off, he is rigged to a body-motion suit that transfers his movements to the screen. It's the first large-scale integration of a concert within a video game.

2011 Leonard Cohen's first grandchild is born to proud parents Lorca Cohen, Rufus Wainwright and "deputy dad" Jorn Weisbrodt. Little Viva Katherine, named after Wainwright's mother, the folk singer Kate McGarrigle, is born only a year after Cohen reportedly remarked on childhood to both Lorca and Rufus: "You know, it's pretty much the only amazing thing there is."

2007 Joe Hunter, who played piano in the Motown house band The Funk Brothers, dies at age 79.

2007 The Spinners founding member Billy Henderson dies of complications from diabetes at age 67 in Daytona Beach, Florida.

2004 Exodus return after a 12-year hiatus with their sixth studio album, Tempo of the Damned.

2002 Paul Baloff, who sang on Exodus' 1985 debut album, Bonded Blood, dies of a heart attack at age 41.

1999 Freddy Fender is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1992 Todd Rundgren has his third child, a son named Rebop.

1985 "I Want To Know What Love Is" by Foreigner begins a two-week run at #1 in the US, the first song with a gospel choir to top the chart. The song was written by Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones and inspired by the woman who would later become his wife: Ann Dexter-Jones.

1980 The Specials hit #1 in the UK for the first time with "Too Much Too Young," but they're busy touring America, where their ska sound has yet to find much of an audience.

1976 Lynyrd Skynyrd release Gimme Back My Bullets. It's their fourth album, following Nuthin' Fancy and preceding Street Survivors, which is their last release before a fatal plane crash ends the original lineup.

1975 Stevie Wonder's daughter Aisha (heard crying at the beginning of "Isn't She Lovely") is born. Aisha is Wonder's first child, born to Yolanda Simmons.

1975 Billy Mohler, best known as a member of The Calling, is born in Laguna Beach, California.

1973 NBC debuts The Midnight Special rock variety show, its response to ABC's popular In Concert series. The first host: Helen Reddy.

1973 Emerson, Lake and Palmer keyboard player Keith Emerson injures his hands when a rigged piano explodes prematurely during a San Francisco gig, leaving him with minor cuts and a broken fingernail.