Pick a Day

Music History Events: Releases

July 5, 2004 On the 50th anniversary of the day he recorded the song, Elvis Presley's first single, That's Alright, is re-released. In the UK, it's a hit, going to #3.

February 24, 2004 After EMI refuses to let DJ Danger Mouse release his Grey Album, a mash-up of Jay-Z's Black Album with samples from The Beatles' White Album, the DJ makes the album available as a download, for free, on his website for one day.

February 10, 2004 The string band Old Crow Medicine Show release "Wagon Wheel," a song based on a Bob Dylan outtake from 1973 called "Rock Me Mama." The song becomes a bluegrass standard, most famously recorded by Darius Rucker, whose 2013 version is a #1 Country hit.

November 18, 2003 Blink-182, the pop-punk purveyors of gross puns with album titles like Enema Of The State and Take Off Your Pants And Jacket, prove they're all grown up when they choose to leave their fifth album, an experimental art project, untitled.More

November 17, 2003 Tori Amos releases her first compilation album, Tales Of A Librarian.

November 17, 2003 Let It Be... Naked, a stripped-down version of The Beatles' Let It Be album, is released. Phil Spector produced the original, and the new release removed his lavish strings and other accoutrements.

November 10, 2003 The paperback version of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain's Journals is released, sparking renewed interest in the dead rock star. A disorganized collection of his writings and drawings, the front cover warns, "if you read, you'll judge."

October 14, 2003 Barbra Streisand releases The Movie Album.

September 29, 2003 "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne is released. The music video stars model/actress Rachel Hunter, who plays Stacy's mom - the obsession of her teenage daughter's friend.

September 16, 2003 Joss Stone, 16, releases her debut album, a covers collection called The Soul Sessions. The first single is "Fell In Love With A Boy," her take on "Fell In Love With A Girl" by The White Stripes.

September 15, 2003 Madonna's first children's book is published in 42 languages in more than 100 countries. The release of The English Roses by Callaway Editions and Penguin Group, in association with various publishers around the world, is touted as the largest simultaneous worldwide release of a book in history.

September 14, 2003 The Australian band Jet release their debut album, Get Born, which includes the hit "Are You Gonna Be My Girl," used in a popular iPod commercial. The band is part of a wave of young rock acts with a back-to-basic sound that includes The Strokes and The White Stripes.

July 22, 2003 Yellowcard release Ocean Avenue, their major-label debut album and a pop-punk landmark. It's named for Ocean Boulevard in their hometown of Jacksonville, with the name changed because it's a lot harder to rhyme "boulevard."

November 12, 2002 Missy Elliott releases her most popular album, Under Construction. Most of the tracks, including the hits "Gossip Folks" and "Work It," she produced along with her fellow beatmaker Timbaland.

November 5, 2002 Johnny Cash releases American IV: The Man Comes Around, his last album before his death 10 months later. Like the previous three in the series, it's produced by Rick Rubin and made up mostly of home recordings. His cover of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt" gets a startling video that shows Cash looking back at his life knowing he's nearing the end.

October 22, 2002 Christina Aguilera releases her album Stripped, asserting a creative control she didn't have when he issued her self-titled debut as an 18-year-old in 1999. The first single, "Dirrty," sets fire to her image as a wholesome pop starlet, but the most enduring track is "Beautiful," a powerful song about self-acceptance written by Linda Perry.

October 8, 2002 Jennifer Love Hewitt releases her fourth studio album, BareNaked.

September 30, 2002 The Rolling Stones release Forty Licks.

August 27, 2002 Queens Of The Stone Age release their third album, Songs For The Deaf, touted as being so heavy even deaf people can hear it. The drummer is Dave Grohl, taking some time away from Foo Fighters.

August 16, 2002 Twenty-five years after the death of Elvis Presley, an album containing 30 of his #1 hits is released with "A Little Less Conversation" as a bonus track - a remix of that one went to #1 UK in June.

July 30, 2002 Bruce Springsteen releases The Rising.

July 16, 2002 After unfinished tracks from their shelved project The Lillywhite Sessions are leaked on the internet, Dave Matthews Band reworks the songs and release them as Busted Stuff.More

July 14, 2002 The Australian rock band The Vines release their debut album, Highly Evolved, earning raves from both NME and Rolling Stone, which put them on their covers and compare them to Nirvana.

June 25, 2002 Maroon 5 release their debut album, Songs About Jane, Jane being lead singer Adam Levine's ex-girlfriend. It slowly finds and audience and becomes a surprise hit over a year later thanks to the songs "Harder To Breathe," "She Will Be Loved" and "This Love."

June 4, 2002 Avril Lavigne, 17, releases her debut album, Let Go, which goes to #1 in her native Canada and sells over 7 million copies in America.More

May 21, 2002 Little Big Town release their disastrous self-titled debut through Sony's Monument Records. Although the album produces a couple minor hits on the Country chart, the group is denigrated by critics as a fake country band, devoid of substance. LBT proves them wrong with their acclaimed 2005 album, The Road to Here.

April 23, 2002 Nine months after the album was rejected by Reprise Records, Wilco release Yankee Hotel Foxtrot on Nonesuch Records. It earns nearly universal acclaim from critics and goes Gold, earning the group a legion of new fans.

March 26, 2002 Celine Dion releases the album A New Day Has Come, her first as a mom (son René-Charles was born a year earlier). I goes to #1 in many territories, including the US, UK, and Canada.

January 22, 2002 Bad Religion release their 12th full-length studio album, The Process of Belief. It is their first recording with Brett Gurewitz on guitar since 1994's Stranger Than Fiction and their debut with current drummer Brooks Wackerman. It's also their first studio album released on Epitaph Records since 1993's Recipe for Hate.

November 20, 2001 Deana Carter releases Father Christmas.