25 FEBRUARY
Featured Events
2002 The Avalon Ballroom in Boston hosts "virtual band" Gorillaz on their first show in the USA. The band members, who appear as animated characters in music videos, play behind a giant projector screen. Their 9-date tour of North America ends on March 8 at the Palladium, Los Angeles.
1998 Strange things are afoot at the Grammy Awards. A shirtless dude with "Soy Bomb" written on his chest intrudes on Bob Dylan's performance, and when Shawn Colvin wins Song Of The Year (for "Sunny Came Home"), Ol' Dirty Bastard of Wu-Tang Clan rushes the stage, commandeering the microphone and talking about how his group should have won the Best Rap Album award over Puff Daddy because "Wu-Tang is for the children."More
1995 Frank Sinatra performs in public for the last time. On the last day of the Frank Sinatra Desert Classic golf tournament in Palm Springs, Ol' Blue Eyes sings a handful of songs to a VIP invitational audience: "I've Got the World On a String," "You Make Me Feel So Young," "Fly Me to the Moon," "Where or When," "My Kind of Town," and "The Best is Yet to Come."
1992 TLC release their debut album, Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip. Their first single, "Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg," hits the Top 10 on both the Hot 100 and R&B charts.
1992 Tori Amos releases her debut solo album, Little Earthquakes, in the US. The piano-based collection allows the singer-songwriter to truly express herself for the first time on confessional tracks like "Me And A Gun" and "Silent All These Years."More
1991 Director Cameron Crowe brings members of the cast and crew of his movie Singles to the Off Ramp in Seattle, where Pearl Jam, who appear in the film, are playing. Matt Dillon and Campbell Scott hang out with the band all night, but the real Seattle scene is a little too grungy for the other actors, who leave early.
1984 Van Halen's "Jump" hits #1 in the US, where it stays for five weeks. The song embraces the keyboard-driven sound of the era with a synthesizer played by their guitarist, Eddie Van Halen.
1970 Ernie sings "Rubber Duckie" on Sesame Street. It goes over so well that the song is released as a single, which in September reaches #16 on the Hot 100.More
1968 The Jimi Hendrix Experience play two shows at the Civic Opera House in Chicago. Between shows, Hendrix gets "casted" by the inventive groupie Cynthia Plaster Caster, who makes a mold of his love gun.More
1943 George Harrison is born in Liverpool, England. He becomes lead guitarist of The Beatles, a successful solo artist, and a member of The Traveling Wilburys.
25 FEBRUARY
In Music History
2019 Mark Hollis of Talk Talk dies at 64.
2015 Madonna falls down a set of stage stairs during her performance of "Living For Love" at the Brit Awards when the cape she is wearing doesn't release properly when pulled by a dancer. She gamely gets up and finishes the performance, later reassuring fans that she is fine, and that "love really lifted me up."
2014 Kelis' Saucy and Sweet show premieres on The Cooking Channel. The singer trained part-time as a chef in the late 2000s, eventually graduating from Le Cordon Bleu culinary school.
2012 Bluesman Louisiana Red (real name: Iverson Minter) dies after suffering a stroke in Hanover, Germany, at age 79. Known for his 1975 song "Sweet Blood Call."
2011 Rick Coonce (drummer for The Grass Roots) dies of heart failure in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, at age 64.
2009 Memphis bluesman Mark Sallings (Mark Sallings and the Famous Unknowns) dies in a car accident in Arkansas at age 56.
2008 Stephen "Static Major" Garrett, who co-wrote Ginuwine's "Pony," Lil Wayne's "Lollipop" and many tracks for Aaliyah, dies at age 32 after contracting a rare autoimmune disorder.
2004 Estelle Axton, co-founder of Stax Records, dies at age 85.
2003 Having recently signed with Columbia Records, Switchfoot release The Beautiful Letdown, their major-label debut album.
2002 New York City rock band The Strokes are named Band of the Year and Best New Act at the NME Awards (founded by the titular British music magazine). Their debut, Is This It, is also awarded Best Album.
1999 Prince, who is now using an unpronounceable symbol for his moniker, sues nine websites to prevent unauthorized downloads. He takes another stand in 2007 when he sues other sites to remove images of him.
1998 Future spouses Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood win the Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration With Vocals for "In Another's Eyes." Yearwood also wins Best Female Country Vocal Performance for "How Do I Live" (besting LeAnn Rimes' version).
1998 Bo Diddley and Roy Orbison receive Lifetime Achievement Awards at the Grammys.
1997 At Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy party, DMC of Run-DMC meets Sarah McLachlan, whose music he credits with keeping him alive as he fights off depression. Years later, after DMC learns he was adopted, he collaborates with McLachlan on the song "Just Like Me" and learns that she was also adopted.
1995 Madonna's "Take A Bow" hits #1 on the Hot 100 and stays for seven weeks. The song is produced by Babyface.
Tears For Fears Release Songs From The Big Chair
1985British synthpop duo Tears For Fears release their sophomore album, Songs From The Big Chair, featuring the hits "Shout" and "Everybody Wants To Rule The World."
"Everybody Wants To Rule The World" is the album's lead single in the US and becomes a near-instant pop classic, despite its dark subject matter. "The concept is quite serious," says the group's Curt Smith. "It's about everybody wanting power, about warfare and the misery it causes." The follow-up, "Shout," which boasts the benefits of primal screaming to relieve emotional pain, also rockets to #1. The success of Songs From The Big Chair makes Tears For Fears a household name across the world and throws a figurative middle finger to their homeland's critics. The duo already established themselves as hitmakers in their native UK. Two years earlier, their debut album, The Hurting, was a #1 hit and the single "Mad World" climbed to #3 on the pop chart. But detractors were vocal about their distaste for the album's themes of repressed pain and childhood trauma (inspired by primal therapy founder Arthur Janov), with NME calling the album the "useless sort of art that makes self pity and futility a commercial proposition." Tears For Fears clapped back when choosing the title for their sophomore album, which was inspired by the 1976 TV movie Sybil, about a woman with multiple personalities who reveals her true self from the safety of her psychiatrist's big chair. Smith says the title is "kind of an 'up yours' to the English music press who really f--ked us up for a while. This is us now – and they can't get at us anymore."
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