Curated playlist

Virgin Records artists

David BowieDavid Bowie died two days after releasing his final album. He planned Blackstar as a parting gift while privately dying.
Kate HudsonKate Hudson reached the end of a long awards season in 2025 with a striking comparison. Her first brush with acclaim, she said, had felt like a "shock entrance, or invitation, into this world." This time was different. When you have been…
Janet JacksonJanet Jackson was seen at the 1983 American Music Awards wearing a hoop earring with a key attached to it. She has worn variations of that earring in music videos and live shows ever since. The pair she wore between 1987 and 1990 is now on…
Sex PistolsThe Sex Pistols never made a second studio album. Yet the punk band reshaped British music in about two years.
Spice GirlsThe Spice Girls fired their manager the morning they won an MTV award. They then ran their own tour.
Monty PythonMonty Python's surviving members staged a 2014 reunion to pay a legal bill.
Keith RichardsKeith Richards, guitarist of the Rolling Stones, began his musical life by stretching toward an instrument he could not reach. His maternal grandfather, Augustus Theodore "Gus" Dupree, toured Britain with a jazz big band called Gus Dupree…
KornKorn's backward R comes from the Toys R Us logo, a store where several members once worked.
George MichaelGeorge Michael refused to appear in his own music videos, so five supermodels lip-synced in his place.
Tina TurnerTina Turner crossed a Texas freeway on foot on the 1st of July 1976 with 36 cents and a Mobil credit card in her pocket. She had slipped out of a hotel suite in Dallas after a fight, while her husband slept. Her destination was a nearby…
GorillazGorillaz performed at the Grammy Awards, though no band member ever existed. The four are cartoon characters.
AaliyahAaliyah signed her first record deal at twelve. By 22 she had three albums and two films behind her.
Blur (band)Blur's 1995 chart battle with Oasis became a story on national news. Both bands released singles on the same day.
Daft PunkDaft Punk ended with a short video and no explanation. On the 22nd of February 2021, the French electronic duo posted a clip called Epilogue to their YouTube channel. In it, one robot explodes while the other walks away into the sunset. A…
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…
Mariah CareyMariah Carey handed her demo tape to a record boss at a party in December 1988. He turned his car around.
Iggy PopIggy Pop, born James Newell Osterberg Jr., built a reputation on rolling around in broken glass while a crowd watched. Admirers eventually called him the "Godfather of Punk". His first band sold few records, yet its songs outlasted much of…
D'AngeloD'Angelo, born Michael Eugene Archer, released only three studio albums in his lifetime. Rolling Stone still placed him 75th on its 2023 list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. The same magazine ranked his second album, Voodoo, 28th…
Alice in ChainsAlice in Chains formed in Seattle in 1987 around four musicians: guitarist Jerry Cantrell, drummer Sean Kinney, singer Layne Staley and bassist Mike Starr. They rose alongside Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, and the world filed them…
Depeche ModeDave Gahan won a place in Depeche Mode by singing one Bowie song. He performed "Heroes" at a local Scout hut.
Robbie WilliamsRobbie Williams walked onto a stage at Knebworth on the 1st of August 2003 and faced a crowd of 125,000 people. He then did it again on the 2nd and the 3rd. Three consecutive nights, with that many people each time, made it the biggest…
Roy OrbisonRoy Orbison died weeks after finishing the best-selling album of his career. He never heard Mystery Girl released.
Phil CollinsPhil Collins is the only artist who performed at both Live Aid concerts on the 13th of July 1985. He crossed between London and Philadelphia by helicopters and a Concorde to do it. Born Philip David Charles Collins, he went on to sell an…
Joan BaezJoan Baez was singing at a music festival called Bratislavská lýra in Communist Czechoslovakia in May 1989 when someone cut off her microphone. From the stage, she had just greeted members of Charter 77, a dissident human-rights group.…
Melanie CIn 1994, Melanie Jayne Chisholm, known as Melanie C, joined around 400 women answering an advertisement in The Stage magazine. The advertisement came from two managers hoping to form a new girl group. That group became the Spice Girls, and…
Victoria BeckhamOn the 8th of July 2000, Victoria Beckham performed alone in public for the first time. The setting was London's Hyde Park, where a crowd of 100,000 had gathered for a Prince's Trust charity concert. She sang "Out of Your Mind", her first…
Lenny KravitzLenny Kravitz won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance four years in a row, from 1999 to 2002. That run broke the record for wins in the category. It also set a record for consecutive wins in one category by a male…
Damon AlbarnDamon Albarn was due to speak at a rally in Hyde Park in February 2003. A million people had taken to the streets of London to protest the coming war in Iraq. He never gave the speech, because he was too emotional. Afterwards he explained…
Meat LoafMeat Loaf was born Marvin Lee Aday in Dallas, Texas, and by his own account he was bright red for days afterward. His father took one look at the baby and said he resembled "nine pounds of ground chuck." The father then talked hospital…
Ice-TIce-T got his stage name when friends heard him recite novels by Iceberg Slim.