30 MAY
Featured Events
2017 Bob Seger's Greatest Hits album, released in 1994, is certified Diamond for sales of 10 million copies. His music was kept off streaming services until 2017, which helped boost sales, at least half of which came after 2002.
2000 Eminem's second major-label album, The Marshall Mathers LP, becomes the fastest-selling rap album ever when it sells 1.76 million copies in its debut week.More
1997 Yanni becomes the first Western artist in modern times to perform at the Forbidden City in Beijing. Despite strict regulations (including a 40-decibel sound limit), the show is a success as the Chinese welcome the Greek musician.
1992 Paul Simon marries Edie Brickell, a singer known for her song "What I Am," at a small ceremony in Montauk, Long Island. Simon, who was previously married to Carrie Fisher, is 26 years older than Brickell.
1989 Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) appears on a British TV show called Hypotheticals, where he addresses the fatwa issued against the author Salman Rushdie. Islam seems to support the fatwa - when asked if he would attend a protest where a Rushdie effigy is burned, he replies, "I would have hoped that it'd be the real thing."More
1966 Dolly Parton marries Carl Thomas Dean, the owner of a Nashville asphalt road-paving business. The long-lasting pair celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2016.
1964 The Beatles hit #1 in America with "Love Me Do," a song John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote as teenagers.
1909 Benny Goodman is born in Chicago. At just 12 years old, he begins performing professionally as a clarinetist; by 14, he joins a musicians union. He records his first solo in 1926 and by 1934 he is the leader of a 12-piece big band.
30 MAY
In Music History
2025 Taylor Swift buys the master recordings to her first six albums from the private equity firm that bought them in 2020. Swift's former label, along with her masters, was sold to her nemesis Scooter Braun in 2019, grinding her gears so badly that she started re-recording those albums, releasing four "Taylor's Versions" that all went to #1 and far outstreamed the originals.
2025 Miley Cyrus releases her ninth studio album, Something Beautiful, featuring the singles "End Of The World" and "Easy Lover." The singer describes the accompanying musical film of the same name as being in the same vein of Pink Floyd's 1982 surrealist film The Wall "but with a better wardrobe and more glamorous and filled with pop culture."
2024 Lola Young releases "Messy," her breakthrough hit. She says it's about "not being able to make someone you love happy when you're just being you, which actually sucks."
2020 The remix of Megan Thee Stallion's "Savage" featuring Beyoncé goes to #1 in America, giving Megan her first chart-topper. The song got a huge boost on TikTok, where it soundtracked a viral dance challenge during the pandemic.
2018 At FivePoint Amphitheatre in Irvine, California, Styx return "Mr. Roboto" to their setlist for the first time since their 1983 Kilroy Was Here tour, which caused enough discord to break up the band for seven years.
2017 NBC debuts its dance competition series World Of Dance, with executive producer Jennifer Lopez, Ne-Yo, and Derek Hough on the judging panel. It runs for four seasons.
2017 Olivia Newton-John postpones her US and Canadian tour to fight a recurrence of breast cancer, which has spread to her back. The 68-year-old singer had been in remission since 1992.
2010 Anita Humes, lead singer of The Essex ("Easier Said Than Done") dies at age 69.
2003 English record producer Mickie Most, who issued hits from The Animals, Herman's Hermits, and Hot Chocolate on his RAK Records label, dies of peritoneal mesothelioma at age 64.
2002 Diana Ross enters a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Los Angeles.
2000 Tex Beneke (blues singer and saxophonist of The Glenn Miller Orchestra) dies of respiratory failure at age 86.
1996 John Kahn (bass guitarist for The Jerry Garcia Band) dies of a heart attack at age 48.
1994 Metallica start their S--t Hits the Sheds tour, with Danzig, Suicidal Tendencies and Candlebox supporting. Alice in Chains is supposed to be one of the opening acts, but has to bow out due to Layne Staley's drug problem.
1993 Jazz composer Sun Ra, a pioneer of free improvisation and modal jazz, dies of pneumonia at age 79.
Luke Raises The Roof To #26
1998Former 2 Live Crew leader Luther "Luke" Campbell's "Raise The Roof" peaks at #26 on the Hot 100. Also a #1 rap hit, it spawns a dance craze.
In the music video, Luke enlists ESPN sportscaster Stuart Scott to emcee his "big booty party" and explain how exactly to "raise the roof." The get-down-and-party phrase has been around in music for a long time, showing up in the 1967 hit "Little Bit O' Soul" by The Music Explosion, "All Night Long (All Night)" by Lionel Richie, and finally finding a home in hip-hop with "Raise The Roof" by Public Enemy. But Luke's song introduces a simple gesture – thrusting open palms towards the ceiling - that becomes a dance craze. "Look, it's not that difficult," Scott explains. "You just get up, take one hand, the other hand, and just… raise the roof!"
Categories
©2026 Songfacts®, LLC
Comments
send your comment