22 FEBRUARY
Featured Events
2017 Longtime blink-182 frontman Tom DeLonge receives the UFO Researcher Of The Year Award at the International UFO Congress.More
1994 Prince is granted the trademark on the symbol he has been using as his name.More
1992 When the Red Hot Chili Peppers perform "Under The Bridge" on Saturday Night Live, their guitarist John Frusciante sabotages the song, playing unevenly and screaming into the microphone during his background part. His frustrations lead him to quit the band in May.More
1989 The very unheavy Jethro Tull win the first Grammy for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, beating out Metallica.More
1986 MTV, which has bought the rights to 45 episodes of The Monkees TV series, airs them all in the "Pleasant Valley Sunday" marathon in honor of the group's 20th anniversary. The shows launch a Monkees revival, and the group reforms to tour later in the year.More
1983 Styx release Kilroy Was Here, a concept album about a dystopian future where rock and roll is banned and technology has run amok.More
22 FEBRUARY
In Music History
2021 Daft Punk, the electronic music duo that formed in 1993, announce their split via a video called Epilogue, where we learn they have self-destruct buttons.
2012 Five months after debuting the song in her native Canada, Carly Rae Jepsen releases the single "Call Me Maybe" in America. With help from a video of Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and other tween celebs lip-syncing to the song, it rises up the charts and becomes a worldwide hit. In the US, it is the song of the summer, topping the Hot 100 on June 23 and staying until August 25.
2011 Adele releases her second album, 21, in the US. The record becomes the best-selling album of 2011, shifting a total of 5.82 million copies. Many of the songs, including "Rolling In The Deep" and "Set Fire To The Rain," are about the devastating breakup with her ex-boyfriend.
2009 A.R. Rahman wins Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Song for "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire, earning the Bollywood music veteran his first two Oscars. The Pussycat Dolls release an English-language version, "Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)," the same year.
2008 The U2 concert film U2 3D is released worldwide.
2008 After much controversy and debate over whether or not to honor recently deceased musician and Mississippi native Ike Turner, the state legislature compromises and passes a resolution that honors his musical achievements only.
2007 Brad Paisley and his wife, the actress Kimberly Williams, have their first child: a son named Huckleberry ("Huck").
2004 A few songs into a Puddle Of Mudd show in Toledo, Ohio, lead singer Wes Scantlin's bandmates exit the stage because he's too drunk to perform. He sings and rambles for another 30 minutes before heading to his dressing room, where he's arrested for disorderly conduct.
2002 Little Richard gets the NAACP Image Award. The flamboyant singer put his efforts into preaching in his later years.
2001 British newspaper Sunday Mirror reports that The Beatles, who have been broken up for 31 years, are nevertheless the top grossing recording group of the year 2000.
2001 American folk guitarist John Fahey dies at age 61 following a coronary bypass operation.
2000 The recently departed soul legend Curtis Mayfield is honored at a First African Methodist Episcopal Church service in Los Angeles, featuring performances from Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton, and, spontaneously, Lauryn Hill.
1998 Tori Amos marries her longtime sound engineer, Mark Hawley, at a small stone church in West Wycombe in North London. The couple's move to Hawley's native England inspires Amos' tune "Welcome To England."
1994 Blues violinist Papa John Creach (of Jefferson Airplane/Starship) dies of congestive heart failure at age 76.
1993 Lenny Kravitz releases "Are You Gonna Go My Way," a song about God.
Spice Girls Go From Wannabes To Superstars
1997The Spice Girls conquer America as their debut single, "Wannabe," hits #1.
After forming at an open audition in 1993, the group signs to Simon Fuller's management company and cultivates their image as fun-loving, empowered women ready to take on the world. By the time "Wannabe" is released as a single in their native UK in July 1996, the group has already made press appearances and the video has been airing on the British cable network The Box. It breaks big, reaching #1 UK by the end of July; by the end of the year, the Spice Girls have two more #1s: "Say You'll Be There" and "2 Become 1." The group is very English, which doesn't bode well for their fortunes in America, which didn't see the appeal of Oasis, Blur, or Take That. But Girl Power knows no boundaries, and when the song is released in the States on January 7, 1997, it starts a steady climb up the charts as MTV puts the video in hot rotation. It helps that the girls have come to America on a promotional tour and are endearing themselves to the press - something Oasis could never pull off. When the song hits #1, it stays for four weeks. Their follow-up singles don't have nearly as much impact, but reaching the top spot in the US is a milestone the girls cite as one of their biggest accomplishments.
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