2022: Taylor Swift releases Midnights. Her tenth studio album set a Spotify record for the most streams of an album in a single day. Its lead single, “Anti-Hero,” debuted at number one on the Hot 100.
2016: Leonard Cohen releases his final album, You Want It Darker. Produced by his son Adam, the record came out just weeks before Cohen died at 82. The songwriter behind “Hallelujah” had been in poor health while making it.
2006: Bob Seger sings “America the Beautiful” at the World Series in Detroit. The Detroit native performed before Game 1 between the Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals at Comerica Park.
2006: “Weird Al” Yankovic's “White & Nerdy” peaks at number nine. The parody of Chamillionaire's “Ridin'” became the only Top 10 hit of his long career on the Billboard Hot 100.
1995: Blind Melon singer Shannon Hoon dies at 28. Hoon died of a drug overdose. The band was best known for the 1993 hit “No Rain” and its famous “bee girl” video.
1978: Neil Young releases Comes a Time. The folk and country flavored album, with harmonies from Nicolette Larson, went gold about a month after release. Larson later scored her own hit with its song “Lotta Love.”
1977: Meat Loaf releases Bat Out of Hell. Written by Jim Steinman and produced by Todd Rundgren, it went on to sell more than 14 million copies in the US. It includes “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” and “Two Out of Three Ain't Bad.”
1976: Keith Moon plays his last concert with The Who. The show was at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The drummer died less than two years later, in September 1978, at 32.
1972: Chuck Berry scores his only number one hit with “My Ding-a-Ling.” The rock and roll pioneer behind “Johnny B. Goode” finally topped the Hot 100 with a novelty song recorded live in England.
1972: The University of Tennessee band debuts “Rocky Top” at a football game. The Pride of the Southland Band first played it at a home game against Alabama. The bluegrass song, written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, had been recorded by the Osborne Brothers five years earlier.
1970: Minnesota's own Bob Dylan releases New Morning. His 11th album includes “If Not for You,” “Day of the Locusts” and “The Man in Me.” Dylan grew up in Hibbing, Minnesota.
1967: Lulu's “To Sir With Love” hits number one. The theme from the film, in which she also appeared alongside Sidney Poitier, stayed on top in the US for five weeks.
1965: Bassist Bill Black dies at 39. Black played on Elvis Presley's early Sun recordings and later led Bill Black's Combo. He died of a brain tumor.
1958: Buddy Holly holds his final studio session. At the Pythian Temple in New York City he recorded four songs with strings, including “True Love Ways” and “It Doesn't Matter Anymore.” He died less than four months later.
1957: Elvis Presley's “Jailhouse Rock” hits number one. The Leiber and Stoller song, the title track of his movie of the same name, topped the charts in America.
Born on This Day
1995: Doja Cat, American rapper and singer Turns 31. Topped the Hot 100 with “Say So” and “Paint the Town Red.”
1993: Kane Brown, American country singer Turns 33. Broke through with “What Ifs,” his duet with Lauren Alaina, and has had a string of country number ones.
1969: Garfield Bright, American R&B singer (Shai) Sang with the vocal group behind the 1992 hit “If I Ever Fall in Love.”
1957: Steve Lukather, American guitarist and singer (Toto) Turns 69. Played on Toto hits like “Rosanna” and “Africa” and was a top session guitarist in the 1980s.
1953: Charlotte Caffey, American guitarist and songwriter (The Go-Go's) Turns 73. Wrote the Go-Go's hit “We Got the Beat.”
1953: Eric Faulkner, Scottish guitarist (Bay City Rollers) Turns 73. Played with the 1970s teen idols behind the US number one “Saturday Night.”
1952: Brent Mydland, German-born American keyboardist (Grateful Dead) Played keyboards and sang with the Grateful Dead from 1979 until his death in 1990.
1946: Lee Loughnane, American trumpeter (Chicago) Turns 80. A founding member of Chicago's famous horn section, heard on “25 or 6 to 4” and “Saturday in the Park.”
1945: Kathy Young, American singer (Kathy Young and the Innocents) Teen pop star of the early 1960s, best known for “A Thousand Stars.”
1943: Ron Elliott, American guitarist (The Beau Brummels) Lead guitarist and songwriter for the band behind 1960s hits “Laugh, Laugh” and “Just a Little.”
1942: Elvin Bishop, American guitarist and singer Turns 84. The blues rocker is best known for the 1976 hit “Fooled Around and Fell in Love.”
1941: Steve Cropper, American guitarist and songwriter (Booker T. & the M.G.'s) Played on “Green Onions” and co-wrote “(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay” with Otis Redding. He died in 2025.
1940: Manfred Mann, South African-born English keyboardist (Manfred Mann) Turns 86. His bands topped the US charts with “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” and “Blinded by the Light.”
1940: Jimmy Beaumont, American singer (The Skyliners) Lead voice on the doo-wop classic “Since I Don't Have You.”
1935: Mel Street, American country singer Best known for the 1972 country hit “Borrowed Angel.”
1925: Celia Cruz, Cuban-American singer Known as the Queen of Salsa, she won multiple Grammys over a career of more than five decades.
1917: Dizzy Gillespie, American jazz trumpeter and bandleader A founder of bebop, famous for his puffed cheeks and upturned trumpet.
