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Featured Events
2017Bob 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.
1997Yanni 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.
1992Paul 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.
1989Yusuf 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
1966Dolly Parton marries Carl Thomas Dean, the owner of a Nashville asphalt road-paving business. The long-lasting pair celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2016.
1964The Beatles hit #1 in America with "Love Me Do," a song John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote as teenagers.
1909Benny 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
In Music History
2018At 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.
2017Olivia 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.
2017NBC debuts its dance competition series World Of Dance, with executive producer Jennifer Lopez, Ne-Yo, and Derek Hough on the judging panel.
2010Anita Humes, lead singer of The Essex ("Easier Said Than Done") dies at age 69.
2003English 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.
2002Diana Ross enters a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Los Angeles.
2000Tex Beneke (blues singer and saxophonist of The Glenn Miller Orchestra) dies of respiratory failure at age 86.
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.More
1996John Kahn (bass guitarist for The Jerry Garcia Band) dies of a heart attack at age 48.
1994Metallica 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.
1993Jazz composer Sun Ra, a pioneer of free improvisation and modal jazz, dies of pneumonia at age 79.
1990Australian rockers Midnight Oil make headlines when they stage a protest concert outside of the Exxon building in New York City in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill that devastated Prince William Sound in Alaska the year before. Vocalist Peter Garrett says: "We can't treat the world like a garbage dump, and there's more to life than profit and loss."More
1987The Los Angeles Times reports that Michael Jackson has offered $50,000 for the bones of "The Elephant Man," John Merrick, who died in 1890. Said Jackson's manager: "Jackson has a high degree of respect for the memory of Merrick. He has read and studied all material about the Elephant Man, and has visited the hospital in London twice to view Merrick's remains."
1987The Deep Purple House Of Blue Light tour is cancelled when Ritchie Blackmore breaks a finger showboating at a concert in Phoenix, Arizona.
1980Rock bassist Carl Radle (of Derek and the Dominos) dies of a drug-and-alcohol-related kidney infection at age 37.
Eminem Breaks Sales Record With The Marshall Mathers LP
2000Eminem'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.
On his 1999 breakthrough The Slim Shady LP, Eminem introduces himself through his Slim Shady character - a darkly comic ne'er-do-well who says whatever is on his mind. His next album is titled after his real name and is more personal. For the first time, he has to deal with the fallout of fame, and he doesn't like it. Having his life on public display gives him plenty of material for his machine gun mouth. In "Stan," he takes on the voice of a fan who goes off the rails worshiping him; in "The Way I Am," he shuns his celebrity: "I'm so sick of bein' admired that I wish I would just die or get fired." Slim Shady also shows up, going berserk on Christina Aguilera, Tom Green, and anyone else in his lyrical line of fire in "The Real Slim Shady." There's even a song named after his wife called "Kim," but it's not a love song: he raps about getting into an argument and killing her. For every person offended, there are many more who connect with the album, or at least find it amusing enough to buy it. First week sales are staggering, and after a month over 6 million copies are sold in the US. It goes on to become the best-selling rap album of all time in America, provided you don't count two sales of each unit of OutKast's double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. His next album, The Eminem Show, does nearly as well.
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