Pick a Day

12 SEPTEMBER

In Music History

2025 Spinal Tap II: The End Continues hits theaters, documenting the group's one-off reunion concert in New Orleans, where they're joined by Elton John on "Stonehenge." Unfortunately, Elton is hospitalized after the stone monument lowered onto the stage falls and crushes him.

2022 The Jennifer Hudson Show debuts in syndication. The first guest on the daytime talk show is Simon Cowell, a judge when Hudson competed on American Idol.

2017 Stevie Wonder, Demi Lovato and Dave Matthews are among the performers at the "Hand in Hand" telethon, which benefits victims of hurricanes Harvey and Irma.More

2016 The #HotInHerreStreamingParty hashtag takes off as Nelly fans try to help him out of a $2.4 million tax debt by repeatedly streaming his hit "Hot In Herre." Based on an estimated Spotify royalty of $0.007 per stream, it will take about 342,857,142 listens to play off the debt.

2014 Joe Sample (pianist of The Jazz Crusaders) dies of mesothelioma at age 75.

2013 Ray Dolby (sound engineer who invented the noise-reduction system which bears his name) dies of leukemia in San Francisco, California, at age 80.

2012 After years of mainstream popularity, considerable airplay, and being nominated for numerous awards, Matchbox Twenty finally get their due on the charts with a #1 debut on the Billboard albums chart. North is their first top-charting album and their fifth studio album in the 16 years the band has been together.

2011 Suffering from Alzheimer's disease, Glen Campbell performs "It's Your Amazing Grace" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Campbell's memory is shot, but on stage he's able to perform, reading the lyrics from a teleprompter. He had just started his Goodbye Tour, which continues for more than a year, until his condition deteriorates to the point where he can no longer perform.

2011 Ed Sheeran's debut album, +, is released in the UK, where it tops the albums chart.

2010 Lady Gaga wears a dress made of raw meat to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, where she wins Video Of The Year for "Bad Romance."More

2009 The Christian rock band Skillet charts on the Hot 100 for the first time when their single "Awake and Alive" ekes in at #100. The track is from their hit crossover album Awake, which debuts at #2 in the US.

2008 Metallica release Death Magnetic, produced by Rick Rubin.

2007 Bobby Byrd, a singer known for his work with James Brown (he does the "get on up!" retort in "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine") dies of cancer near Atlanta, Georgia, at age 73.

2006 Toby Keith makes his first appearance on Stephen Colbert's talk show. Despite their political differences, they become good friends, and in 2015 Colbert inducts Keith into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

2006 Marianne Faithfull announces she has breast cancer (seven weeks later she says she has made a "full recovery").