Curated category
Columbia Records artists
- Louis ArmstrongLouis Armstrong borrowed his stepfather's gun without permission on the 31st of December 1912, fired a blank into the air, and spent the night at New Orleans…
- Bob DylanBob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman on the 24th of May, 1941, at St. Mary's Hospital in Duluth, Minnesota. His Hebrew name was Shabtai Zisl ben Avraham.
- David BowieDavid Bowie was born David Robert Jones on the 8th of January 1947 in Brixton, London, and he died two days after releasing his final album, on the 10th of…
- Frank SinatraFrancis Albert Sinatra weighed 13.5 pounds when he was born on the 12th of December 1915, in a tenement at 415 Monroe Street in Hoboken, New Jersey.
- Katy PerryKaty Perry grew up in a household where the word "luck" was banned because it reminded her mother of Lucifer. Deviled eggs were called "angeled eggs".
- Billie HolidayBillie Holiday, born Eleanora Fagan on the 7th of April, 1915, died with seventy cents in the bank. She had made a quarter of a million dollars in the three…
- Aretha FranklinAretha Franklin heard Otis Redding's reaction to her own version of his song "Respect": "That little girl done took my song away from me." She had added a…
- Prince (musician)Prince Rogers Nelson arrived at Mount Sinai Hospital in Minneapolis on the 7th of June, 1958, and for the next 57 years he operated at a pitch that most…
- Marvin GayeOn the 1st of April 1984, in a house in the Western Heights area of West Adams in Los Angeles, Marvin Gaye was shot twice by his own father.
- Metro Station (band)Metro Station came together not in a recording studio or a garage, but on the set of a television show. In 2005, singer Mason Musso and guitarist Trace Cyrus…
- Wu-Tang ClanWu-Tang Clan formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992, and within two years had rewritten the rules of how a hip-hop group could operate.
- AdeleAdele Laurie Blue Adkins was born on the 5th of May 1988 in Tottenham, London, and by the time she turned 23, she had already done something no solo artist…
- Duke EllingtonDuke Ellington wrote his first composition in the summer of 1914, working as a soda jerk at the Poodle Dog Cafe in Washington, D.C.
- George MichaelGeorge Michael died on Christmas Day 2016, at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. He was 53. His partner, Fadi Fawaz, found him in bed in the early…
- Earth, Wind & FireEarth, Wind & Fire formed in Chicago in 1969, and over the next five decades they sold more than 90 million records worldwide.
- Paul McCartneyPaul McCartney wrote his first song, "I Lost My Little Girl", on a £15 Framus Zenith acoustic guitar he had traded for a nickel-plated trumpet his father…
- Miles DavisMiles Dewey Davis III was born on the 26th of May 1926 in Alton, Illinois, to a family that owned a 200-acre estate in Arkansas with a profitable pig farm.
- Jim MorrisonJim Morrison was found dead in a Paris bathtub on the morning of Saturday, the 3rd of July, 1971. He was 27 years old. No doctor had been called.
- Bing CrosbyBing Crosby's recording of "White Christmas" has sold over 50 million copies worldwide, making it the bestselling single of all time.
- Johnny CashJohnny Cash began his concerts the same way for decades, walking to the microphone and saying four words: "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash." The man who said them was…
- Will SmithWill Smith was born on the 25th of September 1968 in Philadelphia, and before he turned thirty, he had already won Grammy Awards as a rapper, anchored a hit…
- Kate BushKate Bush was born on the 30th of July 1958 in Bexleyheath, Kent, and by the time she was nineteen she had done something no woman in pop history had ever…
- BTSBTS stepped onto a television stage on the 13th of June, 2013, performing their debut single "No More Dream" on M Countdown before a country that had barely…
- Muhammad AliMuhammad Ali walked into the ring on the 25th of February 1964, a 22-year-old from Louisville, Kentucky, facing Sonny Liston, the menacing heavyweight…
- Mariah CareyMariah Carey walked into a music executive's party in December 1988 as an unknown backup singer and left without speaking to anyone important.
- AerosmithAerosmith formed in Boston in 1970, and by the time they retired from touring more than five decades later, they had sold more than 150 million records…
- Aaron CoplandAaron Copland grew up above a Brooklyn shop at 628 Washington Avenue, in a family of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants who had traveled through Scotland just to…
- John WilliamsJohn Williams played two notes for Steven Spielberg, alternating, low and ominous, and Spielberg laughed because he thought it was a joke. The film was Jaws.
- Paul McCartney and WingsPaul McCartney and Wings formed in London in 1971, a band born from one of the strangest creative moments in rock history.
- Depeche ModeDepeche Mode formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980, and within a decade they were filling the Pasadena Rose Bowl with more than 60,000 people.
- Julie AndrewsJulie Andrews stood on a beer crate to reach the microphone. She was not yet ten years old, performing spontaneously in wartime variety shows alongside her…
- Robin WilliamsRobin McLaurin Williams was voted "Most Likely Not to Succeed" by his high school classmates in 1969. Within a decade, he was on the cover of Time magazine…
- Petula ClarkPetula Clark was performing for troops during the Blitz when she was still a child, her photo plastered on British Army tanks as a good-luck mascot.
- Roger McGuinnJames Joseph McGuinn III arrived in Chicago on the 13th of July 1942. His parents worked in journalism and public relations during his childhood years.
- Chicago (band)Chicago, the band, first gathered on the 15th of February 1967, when saxophonist Walter Parazaider called together a handful of musicians in the city that…
- Carl PerkinsCarl Lee Perkins grew up in the cotton fields of Tiptonville, Tennessee, dragging a homemade guitar fashioned from a cigar box and a broomstick.
- Breathe CarolinaBreathe Carolina got its name from a dream David Schmitt had in 9th grade, about calming down a woman named Carolina. That dream eventually became a band, a…