2 APRIL
Featured Events
2006 Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" makes history by becoming the UK's first-ever #1 single to top the chart solely on download sales.More
1977 Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album hits #1 in America for the first time. It spends an astonishing 31 (non-consecutive) weeks at the top spot.
1967 An overzealous audience member throws a smoke bomb onto the stage at The Rolling Stones concert at the Town Hall in Vienna, Austria, leading to a riot and the arrest of 154 fans.
1966 Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass become the first act with four albums in the US Top 10 simultaneously: #2 Going Places #3 Whipped Cream and Other Delights #9 South Of The Border #10 The Lonely Bull It's a record that stands until December 9, 2023, when Taylor Swift charts five albums simultaneously, including "Taylor's Version" reissues of 1989 and Speak Now.
1964 It's a big day for The Beach Boys, who record their first #1 hit, "I Get Around," and also fire their manager, Murry Wilson, who happens to be the father of three of the band members, including leader Brian Wilson, who feels his dad is hindering their progress with unwelcome critiques at their recording sessions.
1939 Marvin Gaye is born Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. in Washington, DC.More
2 APRIL
In Music History
2024 Forbes declares Taylor Swift a billionaire, making her the first musician to hit that mark just with her music and performances, not through investments or other ventures. Rihanna, for instance, is a billionaire largely because of her Fenty beauty line.
2015 Lip Sync Battle debuts on the Spike network. Hosted by LL Cool J, it pits celebrities against each other in miming songs. The performances get more elaborate over the show's five seasons, with the most popular being Tom Holland's re-creation of Rihanna's "Umbrella" video. We also get to see Dwayne Johnson do "Shake It Off," Channing Tatum do "Run the World (Girls)" and Anne Hathaway take on "Wrecking Ball."
2013 Just hours before a show in Calgary, Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora leaves the group, citing personal reasons. Surprisingly, he doesn't re-join the band, although he does perform with them at their 2018 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction. Sambora joined the band in 1983 and co-wrote most of their hits.
2011 LCD Soundsystem play their final ever gig at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The show lasts four hours and features Arcade Fire and Reggie Watts.
2009 Texas-born guitarist Freddie Everett dies at age 49 after a long battle with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).
2003 Soul singer Edwin Starr dies at age 61 of a heart attack while taking a bath at his home near Nottingham, England. Known for his 1970 #1 hit "War," Starr moved from America to England in 1983 and remained a popular performer there until his death.
1998 Robert Pilatus of Milli Vanilli dies at age 32 after overdosing on a combination of drugs and alcohol.
1997 After 32 years, Joni Mitchell is reunited with her first daughter, Kilauren Gibb. Joni gave the child up for adoption at the start of her career.
1996 Blues musician Guitar Gabriel dies at age 70.
1996 Zach Bryan is born Okinawa, Japan, where his mother and father are deployed with the US Navy, but he's raised in Oologah, Oklahoma. Zach serves in the Navy for eight years, releasing two albums independently. When he's discharged in 2021, he signs with Warner Records; the following year he has his first hit with "Something In The Orange."
1993 Roberta Flack guest stars as herself on an episode of ABC-TV's Loving.
1991 The Rolling Stones release Flashpoint, a live album recorded throughout their Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour.
1990 After releasing eight studio albums in her native French, Celine Dion issues her first English-language album, Unison. The lead single, "Where Does My Heart Beat Now," goes to #4, setting the stage for her American breakthrough.
1987 Jazz drummer Buddy Rich dies at age 69 of heart failure after surgery for a malignant brain tumor.
1973 The Beatles release two compilation albums: The Beatles 1962-1966 and The Beatles 1967-1970. Both will land in the Top 10 on the US and UK albums charts, with 1967-1970 hitting #1 in the US.
Lenny Kravitz Releases Mama Said
1991Lenny Kravitz releases his sophomore album, Mama Said, with the hit "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over," a plea for reconciliation to his soon-to-be ex-wife, actress Lisa Bonet.
Kravitz married Bonet, the longtime star of the hit sitcom The Cosby Show, in 1987 and welcomed daughter Zoe a year later. In the meantime, he was putting together his debut album, Let Love Rule, a '60s throwback with peace-themed funk-rock tracks recorded on vintage equipment. The release didn't make a big impression in the US, but it did earn him some high-profile fans, including Madonna, who brought him on tour in Europe as her opening act and invited him to co-write her steamy groove "Justify My Love." It was a good professional move for Kravitz, but a bad personal one. Tabloids suggested there was more than songwriting going on between the married singer and the Material Girl and other rumors of infidelity caused an irreparable rift in his marriage to Bonet. His grief over the split poured out one night in a darkened hotel room in the form of Motown-esque ballad "It Ain't Over Til It's Over." "It was my belief that it ain't over 'til it's over. There's always a chance we can pull this together and make this happen. It didn't go that way, but that was the song," he told Rolling Stone. The single is his first big hit, peaking at #2 on the Hot 100, but it doesn't help his marriage. He and Bonet finalize their divorce in 1993. Mama Said - which also boasts the single "Always On The Run," co-written by Slash of Guns N' Roses - hits #8 on the UK albums chart and lands in the Top 10 in several European countries. But it's a slow burn in the US, where it tops out at #39 and sells more than one million copies by 1995.
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