Pick a Day

13 JANUARY

In Music History

2025 SZA appears on The Drew Barrymore Show, where she breaks down her 2017 song "Drew Barrymore." She tells the host that she inspired the song and was a big influence on her because Drew embraced her imperfections and was "unapologetically yourself."

2023 Iggy Azalea launches an OnlyFans account to promote her upcoming album Hotter Than Hell and post photos that are too racy for Instagram. The album never materializes, but Azalea becomes a top earner during her run on the platform, which lasts about a year.

2022 "Baby Shark" becomes the first video to reach 10 billion views on YouTube.

2022 Ronnie Spector of The Ronettes dies of cancer at 78. The group was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2007 by Keith Richards, who said they "could sing their way right through a wall of sound," referring to the dense production in hits like "Be My Baby" and "Baby, I Love You."

2011 Ed Sheeran announces he has been signed to Atlantic Records.

2008 Over five months after its release, Amy MacDonald's This Is The Life album reaches the top of the UK albums chart.

2003 British police arrest The Who guitarist Pete Townshend as part of their "Operation Ore" sting operation to crack down on child pornography. Townshend admits to having indecent images of children, but insists that he was doing research for an upcoming book dealing with his own experience with sexual abuse. He is placed on the sex offenders' register for five years.

1979 Donny Hathaway commits suicide at age 33 by jumping from the balcony of his 15th floor room at the Essex House hotel in New York City.

1978 Elvis Presley's cover of "My Way" is certified Gold.

1976 Seven employees of Brunswick Records and Dakar Records are tried on charges of withholding more than $184,000 in artist royalties. The case is eventually thrown out, but the reputations of the defendants are irreparably damaged.

1976 Bic Runga is born Briolette Kah Bic Runga at Christchurch, New Zealand.

1973 Carly Simon's album No Secrets, featuring the hit single "You're So Vain," hits #1 in America.

1972 Aretha Franklin performs the first of two concerts at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles that are recorded for her live album Amazing Grace, which sells over 2 million copies when it is released in June. Film footage is also shot, but the documentary doesn't appear until 2019, after Franklin's death.

1970 John Lennon and Yoko Ono have their hair cut and donate it to a charity auction.

1968 Dr. K.C. Pollack of the University of Florida audio laboratory reports that tests have determined rock and roll concerts cause noise damage in teenagers' ears.