Pick a Day

Music History Events: Recordings

December 17, 1926 Ben Pollack and His Californians record "He's the Last Word."

April 6, 1925 Eddie Cantor records "If You Knew Susie."

January 30, 1917 The Original Dixieland Jazz Band records "The Darktown Strutters' Ball."

May 26, 2016 Gucci Mane gets out of jail after serving three years on gun charges. He goes home and records vocals for "1st Day Out tha Feds," which is released the next day.

September 30, 2008 Disney releases Nightmare Revisited, a cover album of songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas. The new album commemorates the fifteenth anniversary of the film's original 1993 release and features new arrangements by KoRn, Amy Lee of Evanescence, and Marilyn Manson.

December 10, 2006 A demo called KO At Home by Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O is accidentally leaked on the internet. The recording was meant to be a gift to friend Dave Sitek from TV on the Radio but it was stolen from Sitek's suitcase. Karen O shrugged off the leak, saying "s--t happens."

April 23, 2001 Metallica start recording their album St. Anger, which turns into some kind of monster: Frontman James Hetfield ends up in rehab during the sessions, and the band only complete it with the help of a psychologist who talks them through their issues in group therapy.

August 17, 1993 Jeff Buckley performs at the Sin-é café in New York City. A few months later, recordings from the show become his first release, an EP called Live at Sin-é.

February 7, 1993 Neil Young records a live set on MTV's Unplugged. Fraught with trouble due to Young's displeasure over the performances of his backing band, it's still released as an album later that year.

March 11, 1991 Pearl Jam begin recording their debut album, Ten, at London Bridge Studios in Seattle.

September 13, 1990 Eddie Vedder does some surfing, writes some lyrics, and adds his vocals to three instrumental tracks recorded by the guys he would later join in Pearl Jam. The songs become "Alive," "Once" and "Footsteps."

January 23, 1988 Seattle producer Jack Endino oversees the first recording session of an unknown, unnamed grunge band soon to be called Nirvana. The session takes place at Reciprocal Recording, where many of the genre's pioneers - including Soundgarden, Mudhoney, and Green River - cut their seminal albums. Nirvana returns to the studio a few months later to work on their debut album, Bleach.

March 9, 1986 Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith go to Magic Ventures Studios in New York, where they record parts of their song "Walk This Way" so Run-D.M.C. can transform it into a hip-hop jam. Neither act is thrilled about the collaboration (Run-D.M.C.'s producer Rick Rubin spearheaded the effort), but the resulting track is a huge hit, revitalizing Aerosmith's career and delivering a new (mostly white) audience to the rappers.

August 1, 1985 Tom Waits releases Rain Dogs, widely considered one of his most important and innovative works. Synthesizers and samples - very common in the 1980s - are deliberately absent as Waits develops the unique approach he began on Swordfishtrombones.

March 1, 1984 Two days after losing to Michael Jackson at the Grammy Awards, Prince records "When Doves Cry," programming the drums and playing every instrument himself (including the bass, which he decides to take out).

September 1, 1983 Encouraged by his wife, Kathleen Brennan, Tom Waits releases Swordfishtrombones, the first album the songwriter produced himself. The album represents a significant break from mainstream norms, both musically and lyrically.

March 25, 1983 The Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever special is recorded at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium; it is broadcast on NBC in May. Highlights of the show include Michael Jackson's Moonwalk and a The Supremes reunion. A lowlight is no mention of the label's house band, The Funk Brothers. Bass player James Jamerson, who played on many of the hits performed this evening, has to buy his own ticket. He dies a few months later.

August 11, 1976 With the help of some weed and tequila, Neil Young records an album's worth of songs in a single evening at Indigo Ranch Recording Studio in Malibu, California. Featuring "Pocahontas" and "Powderfinger," the album is buried by record executives until September 8, 2017, when it's released under the title of Hitchhiker.

November 10, 1975 Queen shoot the video for "Bohemian Rhapsody," which according to director Bruce Gowers, takes about four hours. It airs repeatedly on the British show Top Of The Pops and helps the song become one of the most popular in UK history.

October 15, 1973 Neil Young releases the live album Time Fades Away.

August 26, 1973 Neil Young and the Santa Monica Flyers record "Mellow My Mind," "Speakin' Out," "World on a String," "Tired Eyes," and "Tonight's the Night." All five recordings are included on the final cut of Tonight's the Night.

August 25, 1973 Todd Rundgren puts on a free concert at Wollman Rink in Central Park, where he records the song "Sons Of 1984" for his upcoming album, Todd. The audience is given lyric sheets so they can sing along in the chorus.

March 28, 1973 Neil Young performs "Don't Be Denied" at the Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona. A few months later a recording of the performance appears on Time Fades Away.

March 1, 1973 Neil Young performs "L.A." at the Myriad in Okalhoma City. A few months later a recording of the performance is included on Time Fades Away.

June 17, 1972 The Spinners, recently signed to Atlantic after a decade on Motown, record at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia for the first time with producer Thom Bell. The session is very productive, yielding "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love," "I'll Be Around," and "How Could I Let You Get Away."

December 6, 1971 Deep Purple record the track to "Smoke On The Water" at a Montreux nightclub called the Pavilion, where they've been relocated after the Montreux Casino, where they planned to record, burned down. They get kicked out the next day because of noise complaints and complete the Machine Head album at their hotel, using the Rolling Stones' mobile unit to record.

January 30, 1971 Neil Young performs "The Needle and the Damage Done" at UCLA's Royce Hall. The song is recorded and released on the Harvest album a year later.

November 17, 1970 Elton John plays live in a recording studio, accompanied by just two musicians: Dee Murray on bass and Nigel Olsson on drums. Broadcast on WABC-FM (which would later become WPLJ), it's the first live FM broadcast from a music studio. The recording is later released as 17-11-70, Elton's first live album.

September 10, 1970 B.B. King plays for inmates at Cook County Jail in Chicago. The show is released the following year as the album Live at Cook County Jail.

May 21, 1970 At the Record Plant in Los Angeles, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young record "Ohio," a song Neil Young wrote about the Kent State Shootings from two weeks earlier.