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
1997 The Spice Girls conquer America as their debut single, "Wannabe," hits #1.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
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.
Styx Run Off Tommy Shaw With Kilroy Was Here
1983Styx release Kilroy Was Here, a concept album about a dystopian future where rock and roll is banned and technology has run amok.
The album is the brainchild of keyboard player Dennis DeYoung, who along with Brian Gibson, writes a screenplay to a 10-minute film starring members of the band as rebels fighting the oppressive regime and their Crusaders For Musical Morality. The film serves as the concept, and is shown before concerts on the subsequent tour. In the movie, "robotos" are the robots that serve the regime; DeYoung's character, Robert Kilroy, takes one out of commission and escapes wearing its shell. DeYoung writes a piece called "Mr. Roboto" to play each night when the film ends and the concert starts. The transition happens when in the last scene of the film, Kilroy takes off his mask and reveals himself to Tommy Shaw's character. The action then picks up on stage, with Shaw and DeYoung picking up the story as the song plays. They engage in some dialogue before the concert continues. The song, which DeYoung wrote using a spanking-new Roland synthesizer with an arpeggiator, becomes a huge hit, climbing to #3 in the US. Two other DeYoung songs, "Don't Let It End" and "High Time," are also released as singles, but none of the songs written by other members get much attention. Shaw, never a fan of the concept to begin with, grows frustrated as the tour goes on, and when it's over, he leaves the band. This essentially breaks up Styx, as DeYoung and James Young put it on the back burner and work on solo albums. In 1990, they return (sans Shaw) for the album Edge of the Century. Shaw returns to the fold in 1996, but three years later, DeYoung begins suffering from debilitating fatigue and can't tour. When the band hits the road without him to support their album Brave New World, it's without DeYoung, who files a lawsuit. DeYoung continues on as a solo artist when his health improves and never returns to the band. The lawsuit is eventually settled, but the hard feelings remain. Most DeYoung songs (especially "Mr. Roboto") are left out of Styx setlists. Says Young, "This is a rock band. This is not a band that does show tunes."
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