Music History Today: July 1, 2023

July 1, 2013, 1983: ZZ Top released their video for "Gimme All Your Lovin'," marking the first appearance of Billy Gibbons' 1933 Ford Hot Rod the Eliminator.

Music History Today: January 12, 2023

January 12, 2017: Luis Fonsi released the single "Despacito" featuring Daddy Yankee. Thanks to a Justin Bieber remix, it's the most-watched YouTube music video of all time, with over 8 billion views.

Music History Today: September 20, 2022

September 20, 2011: Carly Rae Jepsen released the single "Call Me Maybe."

“Call Me Maybe,” Carly Rae Jepsen’s crush-anxiety anthem, became a viral hit in 2012. 

Music History Today: April 27, 2021

April 27, 1984: "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister was released as a single.

"We're Not Gonna Take It," by the hair metal act Twisted Sister, was once named among the "Filthy 15" songs singled out for offensive content and brought before Congress by concerned parents in the 1980s. 

Music History Today: November 12, 2020

November 12, 1945: Neil Young is born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

Neil Young arrived in the U.S. in the mid-1960s and co-founded the band Buffalo Springfield. 

Music History Today: September 20, 2020

September 20, 1975: David Bowie had the top tune on Billboard's singles chart with a song co-written by John Lennon, "Fame," Lennon can be heard singing near the end of the record.

Bowie wrote the song alongside Lennon and former James Brown guitarist Carlos Alomar as a direct middle finger to the business of rock and roll and, more notably, the middlemen at Mainman Management—Bowie’s former management company.

Music History Today: August 23, 2020

August 23, 1980: David Bowie's "Ashes To Ashes" tops the UK music chart, giving him his first Number 1 single since "Space Oddity" in 1975.

In 1980, David Bowie was in the middle of a new kind of transformation. After launching himself to stardom in 1969 with his first hit single, "Space Oddity," he spent a decade morphing from Major Tom to Ziggy Stardust to Aladdin Sane to Halloween Jack to The Thin White Duke. 

David Bowie

Music History Today: July 21, 2020

July 21, 1973: Jim Croce scored his first Number 1 song with "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown."

There really was a Leroy Brown. After Jim Croce got done with college, he signed up for the National Guard to avoid getting drafted and sent to Vietnam. At his South Carolina base, Croce met a Leroy Brown.

Jim Corce

Music History Today: July 1, 2020

July 1, 1945: Deborah Ann Harry (lead singer of Blondie) was born in Miami, Florida, but will be raised in Hawthorne, New Jersey.

Debbie Harry met guitarist Chris Stein in the 1970s, and the two started a band that would later become the world-famous Blondie. Categorized as new wave (a genre of music shaped by styles that include punk, electronica, reggae and funk), Blondie eventually met commercial and critical success.