Pick a Day

28 JANUARY

In Music History

1994 Latin pop singer/rapper Maluma is born Juan Luis Londoño Arias in Medellin, Colombia. His breakthrough sophomore album, Pretty Boy, Dirty Boy (2015), showcases his dual personality as a pretty boy who sings romantic ballads and a dirty boy who sings reggaeton songs with seductive lyrics. "Borro Cassette," "El Perdedor," and "Sin Contrato" all reach the Top 10 on the Billboard Latin Songs chart.

1990 Aaron Neville performs the US national anthem at Superbowl XXIV in New Orleans, Louisiana. Halftime entertainment is a salute to the city, with local marching bands performing along with Pete Fountain, Irma Thomas and Doug Kershaw.

1985 J. Cole is born Jermaine Cole on an American military base in Frankfurt, Germany. He's raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In 2009 he becomes the first artist signed to Jay-Z's Roc Nation label.

1985 Lionel Richie hosts the American Music Awards, where he wins five of the eight awards he's nominated for, including Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist. He can't slow down: After the show, he heads to A&M Recording Studios to record "We Are The World," which he wrote with Michael Jackson.

1985 Jimmy Buffett opens his first Margaritaville retail store, named for his 1977 hit, in Key West. It sells beach-inspired apparel like Caribbean Soul t-shirts and flip-flops.

1984 Thanks to a ban by the BBC, "Relax," the debut single from Frankie Goes to Hollywood, hits #1 in the UK. In America, the #1 song is "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" by Yes. Both songs are produced by Trevor Horn, making him the first producer with #1s simultaneously in both territories with different acts.

1984 The legendary Nina Simone tells NME she was forced to record her 1978 album Baltimore under duress when she was kidnapped by five men and held in a basement for three days without food or water. She retracts the statement later.

1983 English pop singer Billy Fury, known for hit singles like 1961's "Halfway to Paradise," dies of a heart attack at age 42. Fury's heart was damaged when contracted rheumatic fever as a child.

1982 Jackson Browne's second child - a son named Ryan - is born. The mother is Lynne Sweeney, an Australian model and Browne's second wife. Ryan becomes a musician, performing in the band Sonny & the Sunsets.

1980 Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys is born in Jamestown, New York. He is just 13 when he joins the boy band in 1993.

1978 By request, Ted Nugent carves his autograph into the arm of a fan using his bowie knife.

1977 Buzzcocks release the their EP Spiral Scratch on their own independent label, distributing it at live shows, via mail order and at record stores around their stomping grounds of Manchester, England. It sells over 15,000 copies, proving it's possible to succeed without a major label and leading a wave of DIY UK punk bands.

1977 Joey Fatone (of 'N Sync) is born in Brooklyn, New York, where he grows up in the Bensonhurst neighborhood.

1976 R&B singer Raphael "Tweet" Brown (of Next) is born in Minnesota.

1969 Stevie Wonder releases "My Cherie Amour."