13 OCTOBER
Featured Events
2023 Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour opens in theaters, blowing away box office records to become the top-grossing concert film of all time. The film documents her wildly popular Eras Tour using footage shot during three Los Angeles shows in August.More
2000 Eddie Vedder, Ani DiFranco, Ben Harper and Patti Smith all take part in a Madison Square Garden rally for US presidential candidate Ralph Nader. George Bush eventually wins the election, with Nader taking key votes from his Democratic challenger Al Gore.
1998 The Frasier Fair, a male version of the Lilith Fair, begins in San Diego. The tour is organized by Rugburns member Steve Poltz, and features John Doe and Pete Droge. The festival is named after the character Frasier Crane from the shows Cheers and Frasier. The character spent a lot of time on the shows involved with a frigid woman named Lilith.
1986 Neil Young headlines the first Bridge School benefit concert in support of the non-profit institution that provides education for children with verbal and physical disabilities. Young and his wife Pegi co-founded the school when their son, Ben, was born with cerebral palsy. The all-acoustic concert - featuring performances by Bruce Springsteen, Don Henley, Tom Petty, and a reunited Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - turns into an annual event that adds many more big-name acts to the roster, including regular guests Pearl Jam.More
1984 Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called To Say I Love You" tops the Hot 100, Adult Contemporary, R&B and UK Singles charts.More
1978 Queen release their "Fat Bottomed Girls"/"Bicycle Race" single, featuring a cover photo that combines imagery from both songs.More
1941 Paul Simon is born in Newark, New Jersey. He meets his longtime music partner, Art Garfunkel, when they both perform in a school production of Alice in Wonderland for their sixth grade graduation. They would become Simon & Garfunkel.
13 OCTOBER
In Music History
2018 Paul Simon, having completed his farewell tour, appears as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live for the ninth time on his 77th birthday.
2017 Dolly Parton donates $1 million to the Vanderbilt University Children's Hospital in Nashville, which helped her niece battle leukemia. She announces the donation on a visit to the facility, where she performs songs from her children's album I Believe in You.
2016 Jon Sudano posts a video on YouTube where he sings the lyrics to Smash Mouth's "All Star" over the music to John Lennon's "Imagine." It takes off, and he racks up millions of views with similar videos where he sings "All Star" over other famous songs, including "Y.M.C.A.," "Under the Bridge" and "Wonderwall."More
2016 Bob Dylan is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "For having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." Previous winners in this category include William Golding, John Steinbeck, and William Faulkner. He's the first American to win since Toni Morrison in 1993.
2009 Jazz crooner Al Martino, also known for his role as Johnny Fontane in The Godfather, dies in Springfield, Pennsylvania, at age 82.
2008 Five months after marrying Jay-Z, Beyoncé releases the sassy "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)." It goes to #1 in America for four weeks and win the Grammy for Song of the Year.
2007 T.I. is arrested just hours before he is scheduled to perform at the BET Hip Hop Awards. According to police, the rapper paid $12,000 to a bodyguard to buy three guns for him. Police take him into custody on weapons charges and place him in federal custody over the weekend.
2002 The Spanish sisterly act Las Ketchup scores a UK #1 hit with the strangely infectious "The Ketchup Song." In the US, the song stalls at #54.
1997 Billy Joel plays his new classical compositions on National Public Radio's Performance Today show.
1997 Matchbox 20 (which in early 2000 changes its name to Matchbox Twenty) embarks on its first headlining tour in Las Vegas with opening act Lila Haydn & Her Band.
1992 Linda McCartney releases Linda McCartney's Sixties: Portrait of an Era, a collection of her most memorable works as a rock photographer. The book includes photos of The Rolling Stones, The Beatles (including husband Paul McCartney), The Who, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison (The Doors), Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Ray Charles, and Otis Redding.
1987 Sting releases his second solo album, ...Nothing Like the Sun.
1986 Joni Mitchell's Ladies Of The Canyon is certified Platinum by the RIAA.
1980 Ashanti is born Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas in Glen Cove, New York.
1980 George Jones wins Single of the Year at the Country Music Association awards for "He Stopped Loving Her Today," starting a career resurgence for the country legend.
Prince Introduces His Symbol On New Album
1992Prince releases an album with a symbol on the cover that later becomes his name.
This isn't the first time a major act has issued an album with no lettering (Led Zeppelin had four symbols representing each band member on their fourth album), but for Prince, it signals a shift in identity, as the following year, he changes his name to the symbol. The album is generally referred to as either The Symbol Album or Love Symbol Album. It's the first release under Prince's new contract with Warner Bros., which is heralded as a $100 million deal, but that's only if he can sell 5 million copies of each album. This album doesn't approach that, and in 1993, Prince announces his name change after a contentious dispute with the label - Prince wants to release lots of material, but Warners doesn't want to flood the market. Prince had been using a similar symbol - a combination of the male and female signs - for about a decade, but these uses were typically elements within a larger design. For the album, Prince wants it to be the focal point, which means it needs more distinction. He hires a local design firm, HDMG in Minneapolis, to embellish it. Using the same male/female overlay, they add a swirly horn, creating the "Love Symbol." The designers have no idea that it will become Prince's moniker. Even after he changes his name back to Prince when his Warner Bros. deal ends in 2000, he continues to use the symbol as part of his visual presentation. It works especially well for his guitars, giving him an instantly recognizable profile that he shows off during his 2007 Super Bowl performance.
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