25 OCTOBER
Featured Events
2017 Nashville stages a star-studded farewell concert for Kenny Rogers, who has decided to retire after a 60-year music career. A range of acts salute the singer with covers of some of his most memorable songs, with Chris Stapleton taking on "The Gambler," Lionel Richie singing "Lady," and Don Henley performing the Eagles' "Desperado," which Rogers covered. The highlight of the evening is when Rogers takes the stage with his duet partner Dolly Parton, as the two close out the night with "Islands in the Stream."More
2006 Forbes declares Kurt Cobain the top-earning dead celebrity, beating out Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Johnny Cash, George Harrison, Ray Charles, and Bob Marley.More
1999 As bluegrass music starts to take off in America, Dolly Parton releases The Grass Is Blue. The album gives her career a boost and wins the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.More
1993 Time magazine puts Eddie Vedder on the cover with the headline "All The Rage." Both Vedder and Kurt Cobain refused to speak with the magazine for the story, but they run it anyway in an attempt to explain why young people are listening to such angry music.More
1986 Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors," written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, hits #1 in America. The song becomes an anthem of acceptance and is reinterpreted many times over the years.
1985 One of the first rap movies, Krush Groove, is released in American theaters. Featuring Run-DMC, New Edition and Sheila E., the film is based on the life story of Russell Simmons, co-founder of the hip-hop label Def Jam.
1977 Elton John appears on The Muppet Show, where he performs "Crocodile Rock," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart." Elton is one of the inspirations for Dr. Teeth of the Muppets' house band, The Electric Mayhem.
1975 Paul Simon issues his fourth solo album, Still Crazy After All These Years. "Gone At Last," "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover," and the title track all reach the US Top 40, and the album hits #1, Simon's first to do so. Emancipated from Simon & Garfunkel, fans stop shouting "Where's Artie?" at his shows.
1961 Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who haven't seen each other since primary school, run into each other at the Dartford train station in England - Keith is on his way to Sidcup Art College; Mick is headed to the London School of Economics. Noticing the Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry albums Mick is carrying, Keith strikes up a conversation. They later form The Rolling Stones.
25 OCTOBER
In Music History
2014 Taylor Swift applies to trademark several phrases related to her album 1989, including "Party Like It's 1989," "This Sick Beat" and "Cause We Never Go Out Of Style." When granted, this would give her exclusive rights to use the phrases on an array of items, including pot holders, ornaments and removable tattoos.
2014 Jack Bruce, bassist and founding member of Cream, dies at age 71.
2011 Steven Tyler of Aerosmith falls in a shower during a stay in a Paraguay hotel, knocking out two teeth. A local dentist repairs the famous mouth, and Tyler performs the next day.
2010 Taylor Swift releases her third album, Speak Now. One of the more confessional songs is "Mean," where she takes aim at her critics, including industry insider Bob Lefsetz, who wrote that Swift was "too young and dumb to understand the mistake she made" in performing with Stevie Nicks at the Grammy Awards.
2010 Reggae musician Gregory Isaacs dies of lung cancer in London, England, at age 59.
2009 For their last US tour date in 2009, U2 broadcast live on U2.com. Almost 100,000 see the show at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
2006 Diddy scores his first #1 album on the Billboard 200 since 1997 with Press Play.
2004 Renowned BBC DJ John Peel dies of a heart attack in Cusco, Peru, at age 65.
2003 Ludacris becomes the first "Dirty South" rapper to land a #1 album when Chicken-N-Beer hits the top spot, powered by the #1 hit "Stand Up."
2002 Actor/singer Richard Harris dies of Hodgkin's disease in London, England, at age 72. He portrayed Professor Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies.
2002 Aretha Franklin's 12-bedroom home outside of Detroit is destroyed by fire, which is later determined to be arson. The building was unoccupied at the time, as Franklin used the home mainly for storage.
2000 Mounds of pending litigation against it notwithstanding, embattled music file-swapping service Napster continues to expand with the release of a Macintosh-friendly version available for download. The new Mac version comes complete with exclusive features such as file search logs, "drag and drop" capability, and a color scheme that matches the hues on Apple's new iMac models.
2000 SoundScan announces first-week sales of 1,054,000 for Limp Bizkit's album Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water. It's the last rock studio album to sell a million copies in a week.
2000 Billy Ray Cyrus lends his support to Second Harvest Food Bank when his tour bus stops in 16 different locations on Nashville's Music Row throughout the day to collect food for Harvest 2000; later the same night, he headlines a concert benefiting the charity.
2000 Billy Bennett (drummer for Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs) dies of a heart attack in Sykesville, Maryland, at age 56.
Britney Spears Makes A Comeback With "Womanizer"
2008Britney Spears returns to the top of the Hot 100 with "Womanizer," her first #1 on that chart since her debut single, "...Baby One More Time," in 1999.
It's quite a comeback for Spears, whose mental health issues were on display throughout 2007 following her divorce from Kevin Federline and her fight to gain custody of their two children. She released an album that year, Blackout, but it underperformed, in large part because Spears couldn't promote it. Spears is just 27 when her Circus album is released in 2008, but she has been in the game for a decade and is now fighting for airplay with upstarts like Katy Perry and Rihanna. She needs a hit to stay relevant, and "Womanizer" delivers. The first single from the album, it's drenched in Auto-Tune, which gives her voice a digital sound that stands up to the EDM-influenced track. The music video shows that Spears has re-gained her form following her disastrous performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. Directed by Joseph Kahn (who did her video for "Toxic," it shows Spears in various guises seducing, and then tormenting, a womanizing man. The album follows the single to #1, and in 2009 Spears launches her Circus tour, one of the highest-grossing of the year.
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