Pick a Day

4 FEBRUARY

In Music History

2026 Sabrina Carpenter is the guest star on a Muppet Show special that reunites Kermit and the gang to celebrate their 50th anniversary. She performs "Manchild" to some of the more dimwitted monsters, and has beef (or would it be pork?) with Miss Piggy.

2024 Taylor Swift wins the Album Of The Year Grammy for Midnights, making her the first artist to win that award four times. Miley Cyrus gets Record Of The Year for "Flowers" and Billie Eilish takes Song Of The Year for "What Was I Made For?" from the movie Barbie.

2017 Black Sabbath play the final concert of their farewell tour at the Genting Arena in their English home city of Birmingham. Their final song of the night, "Paranoid," is streamed live on Facebook so fans around the world can witness the historic moment onstage.

2016 Earth, Wind & Fire founder Maurice White dies at age 74 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.

2015 Post Malone, 19, uploads a demo of his song "White Iverson" on SoundCloud. It takes off, landing him a record deal and launching his career.

2013 Reg Presley (lead singer The Troggs) dies of lung cancer, coupled with a series of strokes, at age 71.

2013 R&B singer Darlene McCrea (of The Cookies) dies.

2013 Jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd (of The Blackbyrds) dies at age 80.

2009 Lux Interior (of The Cramps), real name: Erick Lee Purkhiser, dies of aortic dissection at age 62.

2008 With digital delivery transforming the industry, some record companies package releases with additional goodies. The Virgin-owned Astralwerks label issues Laura Marling's debut album, Alas, I Cannot Swim, in what they call a "songbox" format, which includes a concert ticket and souvenirs representing each song along with the CD.

2008 John Mellencamp becomes the first of many artists to accuse soon-to-be-Republican presidential nominee John McCain of using their music without authorization. McCain had been using the song "Our Country," and while he had the legal rights to do so, Mellencamp makes it clear he does not support McCain and asks that he refrain from using his music.

2008 Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and Mickey Hart resurrect Grateful Dead for a benefit concert in support of presidential hopeful Barack Obama in San Francisco.

2007 Razorlight members Johnny Borrell and Carl Dalemo clash onstage at a gig in Lyon. The concert is halted, but the band returns to finish the set.

2002 On the occasion of civil-rights activist Rosa Parks' 89th birthday, Stevie Wonder sings his song "Happy Birthday" to her at the premiere of her TV-movie biography The Rosa Parks Story. The song had originally been written by Wonder to help bring about a national Martin Luther King holiday.

1999 In a daring move, Rykodisc becomes the first music label to give its stamp of approval to MP3, the controversial Internet-based music distribution format that struck fear into the hearts of many music industry executives.