Music History Events: Releases
January 8, 2013 Enigmatic pop icon David Bowie releases the single "Where Are We Now?," from his upcoming album The Next Day. The date of the release also coincides with his birthday. It is his first release in over a decade.
January 8, 2013 Twenty One Pilots release their breakthrough album, Vessel.
November 19, 2012 Rihanna releases the single "Nobody's Business," featuring the man who assaulted her three years earlier, Chris Brown.
November 13, 2012 RCA Records releases a greatest hits album to commemorate the late Whitney Houston, who died in February 2012. The album, titled I Will Always Love You - The Best of Whitney Houston, includes all 11 of her #1 Billboard charting hits.
November 13, 2012 Soundgarden release their sixth album, King Animal, their last with Chris Cornell.
September 21, 2012 No Doubt release the album Push and Shove, their first release in 11 years. Lead singer Gwen Stefani explains that they "made the record of their lives," so why rush it?
September 19, 2012 The Dave Matthews Band sees their album Away From the World debut at #1 on the Billboard albums chart. This continues the band's unbroken winning streak of six #1 albums on the Billboard 200.
August 21, 2012 Lynyrd Skynyrd release Last of a Dyin' Breed, their 14th studio album. Guitarist John Lowery, better known by stage name "John 5," contributes to a couple of the tracks.
June 19, 2012 Fiona Apple releases her fourth album, The Idler Wheel..., her first since Extraordinary Machine in 2005.More
June 12, 2012 Rush release a concept album titled Clockwork Angels, their 20th (and last) studio effort. On the album Neil Peart uses a new method in which producer Nick Raskulinecz "conducts" Peart's drumming during recordings.
May 27, 2012 On his 90th birthday, actor Christopher Lee announces the release of his Heavy Metal single "Let Legend Mark Me as the King."
May 8, 2012 Fiona Apple releases "Every Single Night," her first new song since 2005. The song is a visceral expression of her internal struggle, as she sings about how every single night is a fight with her brain.
March 26, 2012 Madonna releases her dance-heavy 12th album, MDNA, the title a play on her name and also the club drug ecstacy. It goes to #1 in America, giving Madonna her eighth chart-topper.
February 22, 2012 Five months after debuting the song in her native Canada, Carly Rae Jepsen releases the single "Call Me Maybe" in America. With help from a video of Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and other tween celebs lip-syncing to the song, it rises up the charts and becomes a worldwide hit. In the US, it is the song of the summer, topping the Hot 100 on June 23 and staying until August 25.
October 21, 2011 Tom Waits releases Bad as Me, his 16th studio album and his first in five years to feature entirely new material (the last being 2006's Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards).
October 10, 2011 Lana Del Rey releases her first single, "Video Games," a song inspired by two fractured relationships.
September 13, 2011 After an eight-year absence, Anthrax release their 10th studio album, Worship Music. Joey Belladonna, who hasn't been with the band since 1992, returns to handle lead vocals.
September 12, 2011 Ed Sheeran's debut album, +, is released in the UK, where it tops the albums chart.
July 26, 2011 Eric Church releases his breakthrough album, Chief, with the hits "Springsteen" and "Drink In My Hand." The album cover is his first where he's wearing his signature Aviator sunglasses.
July 19, 2011 Rebecca Black, the world's most ironic celebrity, cashes in on her worldwide viral Internet fame by launching her own record label, RB Records, and her first single on the label, "My Moment." The song fails to get the same attention as her breakout hit, "Friday."
June 28, 2011 Bluegrass duo Gillian Welch and David Rawlings release The Harrow & The Harvest, their first album in eight years.More
June 21, 2011 Justin Vernon's group Bon Iver release their second album, which is self-titled. Vernon, who keeps a low profile, is shocked when it earns the group the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
June 21, 2011 Crossfade return after five years with We All Bleed - the band's first album after being dropped by Columbia Records in 2008.
June 7, 2011 Def Leppard release their first ever live album: Mirrorball.
February 22, 2011 Adele releases her second album, 21, in the US. The record becomes the best-selling album of 2011, shifting a total of 5.82 million copies. Many of the songs, including "Rolling In The Deep" and "Set Fire To The Rain," are about the devastating breakup with her ex-boyfriend.
January 7, 2011 Ed Sheeran releases what will be his final independent EP, No.5 Collaborations Project, in the UK. The EP goes on to reach #2 on the UK's iTunes chart, despite Ed having no label.
December 10, 2010 Michael Jackson's first posthumous album, Michael, is released.
November 30, 2010 Seven months after being released from jail after serving three years for tax evasion, Ronald Isley of The Isley Brothers releases the album Mr. I, with contributions from Lauryn Hill and T.I.
November 26, 2010 Duffy releases her second album, Endlessly, in the UK. Unlike her breakthrough debut Rockferry, it gets little attention, with no hit singles.More
November 22, 2010 On their fourth and final album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, My Chemical Romance cast themselves as post-apocalyptic outlaws fighting corruption on the mean streets of California. More
©2026 Songfacts®, LLC