Curated playlist

Warner Records artists

Frank SinatraFrank Sinatra was dropped by his record label in 1952. A movie role then brought him back to the top.
MadonnaMadonna arrived in New York in 1978 with thirty-five dollars. It was her first plane ride and first taxi.
MetallicaIn 1986, a tour bus overturned in Sweden and killed Metallica bassist Cliff Burton.
Deep PurpleDeep Purple began as a plan for a band that rotated like a carnival roundabout.
The White StripesThe White Stripes, a rock duo from Detroit, Michigan, gave their first concert at a bar called the Gold Dollar on Bastille Day in 1997. Meg White had started learning the drums just two months earlier, and she struggled to keep the tempo…
Sex PistolsThe Sex Pistols never made a second studio album. Yet the punk band reshaped British music in about two years.
Prince (musician)Prince once changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol to protest his record label.
Fleetwood MacPeter Green picked the name Fleetwood Mac to lure bassist John McVie into his new band. McVie first refused.
Wu-Tang ClanWu-Tang Clan made one label deal that let every member sign solo deals elsewhere.
Paul SimonPaul Simon, the American singer-songwriter and guitarist, nearly gave one of his best-known songs the wrong name. While writing music for the film The Graduate, he toyed with calling a new song "Mrs. Roosevelt." Art Garfunkel passed the…
Earth, Wind & FireEarth, Wind & Fire began as a small team writing commercials in Chicago. They later sold more than 90 million records.
Clint EastwoodPresident Reagan quoted Clint Eastwood's line "Go ahead, make my day" to Congress.
Miles DavisMiles Davis called jazz dead near the end of his life. He had spent five decades helping define it.
GorillazGorillaz performed at the Grammy Awards, though no band member ever existed. The four are cartoon characters.
Red Hot Chili PeppersThe Red Hot Chili Peppers played their first show on the 16th of December 1982, at the Grandia Room, a club on Hollywood Boulevard, in front of roughly 30 people. They did not yet have that name. The poster billed them as Tony Flow and the…
The Beach BoysThe Beach Boys had a teenager in the band who had never surfed. Only Dennis Wilson did.
Bing CrosbyBing Crosby had to re-record "White Christmas" in 1947 because the 1942 master had worn out.
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…
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…
Linkin ParkLinkin Park formed in 1996 in Agoura Hills, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, and went on to sell more than 100 million records worldwide. Its founders were high school friends with a bedroom studio and no record deal. Years of…
Grateful DeadIn August 1991, a television crew from PBS watched the Grateful Dead play at Shoreline Amphitheatre, and guitarist Jerry Garcia offered a strange confession about his own band. "We didn't really invent the Grateful Dead, the crowd invented…
Dua LipaIn the week beginning the 15th of May 2020, Dua Lipa's album Future Nostalgia sat at number one on the UK chart with only 7,317 sales. No chart-topping album this century has sold fewer copies in a single week. That modest number belongs…
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.…
Paris HiltonParis Hilton became so inescapable in 2007 that parts of the American press tried to stop mentioning her. The Associated Press attempted to leave her out for the week of the 19th of February 2007. On the 26th of June 2007, host Mika…
Jane FondaJane Fonda sat on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun during a 1972 visit to Hanoi, and a photograph of that moment outraged a large number of Americans. It earned her a nickname that has followed her for decades: Hanoi Jane. For many…
Bee GeesA broken record forced the Bee Gees to sing live at a Manchester cinema in 1957.
Dire StraitsA London DJ played a rejected Dire Straits demo, and two months later the band had a record deal.
My Chemical RomanceMy Chemical Romance, an American rock band from New Jersey, began with an act of witnessing. Gerard Way watched the World Trade Center towers fall during the attacks of the 11th of September 2001. The sight changed his life so thoroughly…
Eric ClaptonEric Clapton got the nickname Slowhand from a broken guitar string. Fans clapped slowly while he replaced it.
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…
Rod StewartRod Stewart, the British singer with the raspy voice, stood on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro on the 31st of December 1994 and sang to 3.5 million people. Nobody paid to get in. That crowd earned him an entry in the Guinness Book of…
KeshaKesha's big break in 2009 came from walking into a recording session by accident.
Frank ZappaAs a boy, Frank Zappa spread mercury across his bedroom floor with a hammer. His father brought it home from work.
Carly SimonCarly Simon, an American singer, songwriter and author, recorded a line that strangers still sing back at her: "You're so vain, I bet you think this song is about you." Listeners have argued about the target of that accusation ever since.…
Joe WalshJoe Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980 on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone." He promised that if he won, "Life's Been Good" would become the new national anthem. He was only 32, three years short of the 35 the office…
James TaylorJames Taylor, the American singer-songwriter and guitarist, was the last act on the bill at the Newport Folk Festival on the 20th of July 1969. Thousands of fans had stayed through the rain just to hear him. He got through only 15 minutes.…
KraftwerkKraftwerk did not own a computer when recording Computer World. The 1981 album was about computers.
Kylie MinogueKylie Minogue's hit "I Should Be So Lucky" was written in under 40 minutes.
Petula ClarkPetula Clark's photo was plastered on British Army tanks as a good-luck charm. She was a child singer during the Blitz.
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…
David ByrneDavid Byrne was turned away from his middle school choir, which judged him "off-key and too withdrawn". That boy grew up to be an American musician, writer, visual artist and filmmaker. Over his career he has received an Academy Award, a…
Alice CooperAlice Cooper summed up his early band with one boast: "We were into fun, sex, death and money when everybody was into peace and love." Alice Cooper is both the name of a rock band that began in Phoenix, Arizona, and the legal name of its…
Chicago (band)In 1978, the band Chicago lost guitarist Terry Kath to an accidental gunshot.
Idina MenzelIn 1992, a young singer named Idina Menzel recorded a demo of a song called "In Your Eyes" and was paid $75 for the job. The song went on to win the Eurovision Song Contest in 1993, sung by the Irish performer Niamh Kavanagh. That story…
Mac MillerBlue Slide Park, an album released on the 8th of November 2011, sold 144,000 copies in its first week and landed at the top of the US Billboard 200. No debut album distributed outside the major label system had done that since Tha Dogg…
Quincy JonesQuincy Jones taped a sign to the entrance of a recording studio in 1985, and it read "Check Your Ego at the Door." Behind that door waited most of the major American recording artists of the day. Jones needed every one of them to work as…
Danny ElfmanDanny Elfman retired his rock band Oingo Boingo on Halloween night in 1995, after five sold-out concerts at the Universal Amphitheatre. The band had made him a name in Los Angeles new wave. Yet the career waiting for him afterward was…