2007 For the first time, country(ish) artists occupy the top three spots on the US albums chart: 1) Carrie Underwood - Carnival Ride 2) Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand 3) Gary Allan - Living Hard
2002 Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, Lenny Kravitz, and Brian Setzer guest star on The Simpsons in an episode where they run a rock and roll fantasy camp. The first rule of the camp: There are no rules! Second rule: No outside food.More
1992 Ween's major-label debut, Pure Guava, is released on Elektra records. The album features the single "Push th' Little Daisies," which gets them attention on MTV after being featured on the channel's animated series Beavis and Butt-head. During the clip, Butt-head quips, "These guys have no future."More
1988 After a 6-year hiatus where he waits out the '80s, Steve Miller starts touring again, kicking off with a show in Burlington, Vermont.
1979 "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang becomes first rap song to hit the Billboard Hot 100, entering the chart at #84.More
1969 Sesame Street debuts on American public television. Many of the lessons are taught with songs, and in later seasons, musicians drop by to help out: Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Ray Charles, Dixie Chicks and Alicia Keys are among the many to appear on the show. The two big names that turn down offers: Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand.More
1938 On her radio show, Kate Smith sings the Irving Berlin song "God Bless America" for the first time, introducing it to the country. Berlin composed the song for a 1918 musical he wrote, but decided not to use it.More
2017 Outsider her home in Nashville, Carrie Underwood takes a nasty fall, breaking her wrist and mangling her face. She doesn't appear in public again until April 15, 2018, when she performs "Cry Pretty" - a song partly inspired by the incident - at the ACM Awards.
2013 At the MTV Europe Awards, Miley Cyrus smokes a joint while accepting her Best Video award for "Wrecking Ball." The ceremony is held in Amsterdam, so it's legal.
2012 No longer an item: Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez. The pair announce their break-up after dating for about a year. Bieber plays an acoustic version of "Cry Me A River" at his show in Boston. A decade earlier, Justin Timberlake wrote the song about his split with Britney Spears.
2006 R&B singer-songwriter Gerald Levert, age 40, dies of acute intoxication after taking various prescription painkillers combined with Xanax and antihistamines. The death is ruled accidental.
2003 The paperback version of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain's Journals is released, sparking renewed interest in the dead rock star. A disorganized collection of his writings and drawings, the front cover warns, "if you read, you'll judge."
2003 An emotional tribute to the recently deceased Johnny Cash is held at Nashville's famous Ryman Auditorium, featuring classic Cash songs performed by Sheryl Crow, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Kid Rock, and Steve Earle, among others.
2003 David Bowie is forced to cancel the remainder of his gig in Nice, France, when laryngitis causes his voice to give out in the middle of "Ziggy Stardust." Doctors assign Bowie three days rest.
2002 Johnny Griffith dies of a heart attack at age 66. As a keyboardist for Motown's in-house band, The Funk Brothers, he played on several of the label's hits, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Stop! In the Name of Love."
2001 Country singer Chalee Tennison and guitarist Mark Gillespie marry following a three-year courtship. The marriage is Tennison's fourth and Gillespie's first.
2000 Singer-songwriter Billy Yates makes his Grand Ole Opry debut, performing his single "What Do You Want From Me Now."
1998 On their way to perform at the 1998 MTV Europe Music Awards at Milan's Fila Forum, British girl group All Saints are held up for six hours in London by a walkout of Milan airport employees.
1997 Hollywood session guitarist Tommy Tedesco dies of lung cancer at age 67. Aside from playing on classic TV themes such as The Twilight Zone, Batman, and M*A*S*H, he recorded with a number of artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, and Elvis Presley.
1994 Jazz singer Carmen McRae dies at age 72, a month after suffering a stroke.
1994 Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Robert Plant perform an all-acoustic version of "Stairway To Heaven" while visiting a Japanese talk show.
Following a publicity campaign where she purges her social media accounts and posts video of a hissing snake, Taylor Swift releases her sixth album, Reputation.
Swift, who signed her first record deal at 15, quickly developed a reputation for being sensitive and kind, as well as preternaturally talented. But in 2016 she made some enemies, notably Kanye West, who betrayed her trust by rapping "I made that bitch famous" in his song "Famous" and putting a naked Swift lookalike in the video. This after Swift presented him with the 2015 MTV Video Vanguard Award, where she said, "Kanye West has had one of the greatest careers of all time." And it wasn't just the famous people who were trolling Taylor: social media teemed with posts accusing her of duplicity and likening her to a snake. All of this informed the first Reputation single, "Look What You Made Me Do," where she buries the "old Taylor" and blasts her haters. Turning the "snake" comments upside down, Swift uses a giant, inflatable cobra (named Karyn) on her Reputation tour. It serves as a warning: she will bite if stepped on. It ends up being her last album with Big Machine Records, the label she first signed with. In 2018 she moves to Republic Records, and a year later releases Lover, an album that puts the ordeals that inspired Reputation behind her.
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