Curated playlist
Geffen Records artists
- John LennonJohn Lennon was ordered to leave the United States in 1973. His anti-war activities had alarmed President Nixon.
- Elton JohnElton John sang "Candle in the Wind 1997" live only once, at Princess Diana's funeral. He wrote it days before.
- Blink-182Blink-182, the American rock band formed in Poway, California, in 1992, owes the number in its name to a deadline it nearly ignored. When the debut album Cheshire Cat caught the attention of an Irish band also called Blink, the trio chose…
- Guns N' RosesGuns N' Roses, the hard rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1985, owes its breakthrough to a single airing in the dead of night. The video for "Welcome to the Jungle" first ran on MTV at 4 a.m. on a Sunday, and it was played only once.…
- Large ProfessorLarge Professor turned down an executive producer credit on Nas's Illmatic. He still produced three of its ten songs.
- Neil YoungIn April 2026, Neil Young announced a new studio album called Second Song, and three of its tracks were songs he had written in 1963. They had remained unreleased ever since. That detail suits a man who has spent his career refusing to…
- Siouxsie and the BansheesSiouxsie and the Banshees first played with Sid Vicious on drums. It was a 20-minute improvisation in 1976.
- Joni MitchellAfter a 2015 brain aneurysm, Joni Mitchell relearned guitar at living room jam sessions. Brandi Carlile organized them.
- Eagles (band)The Eagles, an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1971, spent the 31st of July 1980 promising to beat each other up. The trouble began before the concert in Long Beach, California. Guitarist Don Felder said 'You're welcome - I…
- Yoko OnoYoko Ono hung a magnifying glass atop a white ladder in a London gallery. Climbers read one tiny word: YES.
- The WhoThe Who played the Valley, the home ground of Charlton Athletic, on the 31st of May 1976. The Guinness Book of Records listed that show as the world's loudest concert, at over 120 dB. The English rock band had formed in London in 1964. Its…
- Peter GabrielOn the 19th of June 1971, Peter Gabriel took a running jump off a stage and expected the audience to catch him. They moved aside instead. He landed on the floor and broke his ankle, then performed the next several Genesis shows with a…
- AerosmithSteven Tyler joined Aerosmith only after refusing to play drums.
- CherCher, the American singer and actress born Cheryl Sarkisian, first reached radio in 1964 with a record that programmers misjudged. The single was “Ringo, I Love You,” produced by Phil Spector and released under the name Bonnie Jo Mason.…
- Don HenleyDon Henley told interviewer Charlie Rose in March 2001 that "rock bands work best as a benevolent dictatorship." He knew the arrangement from the inside. Henley is a drummer, singer and songwriter, and a founding member of the Eagles. In…
- AviciiAvicii, the stage name of the Swedish producer Tim Bergling, is best known for one song's remarkable run. His track Wake Me Up held the title of most-streamed song on Spotify for 506 days, until Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud overtook it…
- Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVI was born Joseph Alois Ratzinger on Holy Saturday, the 16th of April 1927, and was baptised the same day. For years as a cardinal, he said what he wanted most was a quiet life in his house in Pentling, a Bavarian village…
- Olivia RodrigoOlivia Rodrigo was a teenager when one of her songs drew more than 15.7 million streams around the world in a single day, on the 11th of January 2021. The next day, the total passed 17 million. Looking back, she described it this way:…
- Travis BarkerTravis Barker learned a 20-song setlist in 45 minutes. It was early 1998, he had no time to rehearse with the band, and he played every song flawlessly at the first show. The band was Blink-182, and he was only meant to be a stand-in.…
- Slash (musician)Slash, the guitarist born Saul Hudson in Hampstead, London, on the 23rd of July 1965, owes his famous name to a restless child. The actor Seymour Cassel gave him the nickname because the boy was "always in a hurry, zipping around from one…
- Kurt CobainKurt Cobain turned 14 on the 20th of February 1981, and his uncle put a choice in front of him. He could have a bicycle or a used guitar. Kurt took the guitar. Soon afterward he was attempting Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," then…
- Bill CosbyBill Cosby holds the record for the most Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Album, with seven wins. To a vast television audience, he was also Cliff Huxtable, the father at the center of The Cosby Show. That role earned him a reputation as…
- Sigur RósSigur Rós took their name from Jónsi's baby sister, born days before the band formed in 1994.
- Kylie MinogueKylie Minogue's hit "I Should Be So Lucky" was written in under 40 minutes.
- KatseyeMore than 120,000 people applied to join Katseye, a girl group based in Los Angeles, and only six of them made the final lineup. The group did not form the usual way, through old friends or a single audition room. It was assembled over…
- Lil JonLil Jon, the yelling voice of crunk, later made two albums of guided meditation.
- Olivia Newton-JohnDame Olivia Newton-John sold more than 100 million records, a total that makes her the highest-selling female Australian recording artist of all time. She was born in Cambridge, England, in 1948 and raised in Melbourne. Her career…