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Daily stories about music and vinyl: albums, artists, labels. Read on the web or in the CrateCore app.
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October 12, 2026
STORY · Hip-Hop
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince End with Code Red
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince released Code Red on 12 October 1993. The fifth and final album reached number 64 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold by the RIAA.
5 min read
Cover of “Code Red” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
5 min read
STORY · Rock
The Cult's Raw Confession on Their Self-Titled Album
The Cult's self-titled sixth album arrived in October 1994, trading hard rock swagger for grunge distortion and Ian Astbury's most personal lyrics.
3 min read
Cover of “The Cult” by The Cult. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Metal
Hypocrisy's Osculum Obscenum Turns 33
Hypocrisy recorded Osculum Obscenum at Studio Rockshop in March 1993, and Nuclear Blast released the death metal album on 12 October 1993.
4 min read
Cover of “Osculum Obscenum” by Hypocrisy. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Alternative
How U2 Nearly Split Before October
In the summer of 1981, U2 recorded their second album October while a spiritual crisis threatened to end the band before it began.
3 min read
Cover of “October” by U2. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Rock
How The Orb Built Metallic Spheres Around David Gilmour
The Orb's Metallic Spheres grew out of a 2009 remix of David Gilmour's charity single. Youth helped turn it into a full album, released on Columbia Records on 12 October 2010.
4 min read
Cover of “Metallic Spheres” by The Orb. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Rock
John Denver Died at the Controls of His Own Plane
John Denver died on 12 October 1997 when his Rutan Long-EZ ran out of fuel near Monterey Bay. The singer behind Take Me Home, Country Roads was alone at the controls of a plane he had built himself.
4 min read
John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, modified: re-encoded
4 min read
STORY · Rock
How Chicago Returned to the Stage with Chicago XXVI
On 12 October 1999, Chicago released Chicago XXVI: Live in Concert, their first US live album in 27 years and their twenty-sixth record overall.
3 min read
ANTONI SHKRABA production, Pexels License, via Pexels
3 min read
STORY · Alternative
How a Glasgow Golf Club Basement Sparked Rattlesnakes
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions wrote two songs in a Glasgow golf club basement. Their debut album Rattlesnakes was recorded in about a month at a Shoreditch studio.
3 min read
Cover of “Rattlesnakes” by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Pop
How Enhypen Turned a Dilemma Into a Million-Selling Debut
On 2 September 2021, five members of the South Korean group Enhypen tested positive for COVID-19. Heeseung, Jay, Jake, Sunghoon and Jungwon were all confirmed o…
3 min read
Dmitry Demidov, Pexels License, via Pexels
3 min read
STORY · Rock
How Poison's Every Rose Has Its Thorn Became a Hit
Poison's Every Rose Has Its Thorn topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks starting December 24, 1988, becoming the band's only US number one.
3 min read
Cover of “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” by Poison. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Soul
Konstrakta: The Architect Who Outweirded Eurovision
Serbian architect Ana Ignjatović, known as Konstrakta, turned a hand-washing routine about health insurance into a Eurovision moment in 2022. She finished fifth in Turin with 'In corpore sano'.
4 min read
Gmihail, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, modified: re-encoded
4 min read
October 11, 2026
STORY · Alternative
Evanescence Scrapped an Album and Made a Number One
Evanescence's third album was rejected by its label and rebuilt with a new producer. It arrived on 11 October 2011 through Wind-up Records.
3 min read
Cover of “Evanescence” by Evanescence. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Pop
ABBA's Arrival: The Boogaloo That Became Dancing Queen
ABBA's fourth album Arrival, released on 11 October 1976, grew out of a disco experiment called 'Boogaloo' that became 'Dancing Queen'.
3 min read
Cover of “Arrival” by ABBA. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Rock
How 20 Greatest Hits Split The Beatles in Two
20 Greatest Hits arrived in autumn 1982 as two different records, because the Beatles scored US number ones that were never UK singles. The British and American editions each told a different story.
4 min read
Cover of “20 Greatest Hits” by The Beatles. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Rock
Why Did Freudiana End The Alan Parsons Project?
Freudiana came out on 11 October 1990 as the eleventh Alan Parsons Project album. Creative disagreements between Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons turned it into their final joint work.
4 min read
Cover of “Freudiana” by Eric Woolfson. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Other
My Dying Bride Turn Loose the Swans at 33
My Dying Bride's second album, Turn Loose the Swans, arrived on 11 October 1993 through Peaceville Records. It stretched doom metal into something slower, sadder and heavier.
4 min read
Cover of “Turn Loose the Swans” by My Dying Bride. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Hip-Hop
Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa and the Hit That Almost Never Got Finished
Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa released "Young, Wild & Free" on October 11, 2011, with Bruno Mars on the hook, and the track became a six-times-platinum hit.
3 min read
Cover of “Young, Wild & Free” by Snoop Dogg. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Pop
Why Did Jean-Jacques Goldman Walk Away?
Jean-Jacques Goldman, born in Paris on 11 October 1951, went from a rejected debut album to rewriting French pop. He walked away from performing after a final concert in 2004.
4 min read
Marvellous Adu, Pexels License, via Pexels
4 min read
STORY · Alternative
Dave Grohl's First Night on Stage with Nirvana
Dave Grohl played his first live show with Nirvana on October 11, 1990, at the North Shore Surf Club in Olympia, Washington. The moment is captured on the DVD in the box set With the Lights Out.
4 min read
Marcelo Mora, Pexels License, via Pexels
4 min read
STORY · Pop
How Did Amr Diab Conquer the World with One Song?
Amr Diab, born in Port Said on 11 October 1961, turned Nour El Ain into the first Arabic pop record to travel far beyond the Arabic-speaking world.
4 min read
Kareem Nour, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, modified: re-encoded
4 min read
September 26, 2026
STORY · Hip-Hop
Thug Life, Volume I: The Album That Wasn't Supposed to Be
Thug Life, Volume I arrived on 26 September 1994 as a ten-track record. It was trimmed down from a much larger project that 2Pac had planned with Interscope Records.
4 min read
Cover of “Thug Life, Volume I” by Thug Life. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
October 11, 2026
STORY · Alternative
How Julia Sanina Traded Pop for The Hardkiss
Julia Sanina, born in Kyiv in 1990, left a Russian-language pop duo in 2011 to front The Hardkiss, the Ukrainian alternative rock band she still leads.
4 min read
JTs, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, modified: re-encoded
4 min read
STORY · Rock
How James Blunt's Back to Bedlam Defied Every Doubt
James Blunt's debut Back to Bedlam arrived on 11 October 2004 to near silence, after British labels rejected him over his aristocratic accent. A single released seven months later changed everything.
4 min read
Cover of “Back to Bedlam” by James Blunt. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Pop
Donna Summer's Four Seasons of Love at 50
In October 1976 Donna Summer released Four Seasons of Love, a four-track concept album made with Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. Each season became a number one dance hit.
3 min read
Cover of “Four Seasons of Love” by Donna Summer. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Rock
Simply Red's Picture Book: The Debut That Topped the US
Simply Red's debut album Picture Book arrived on 11 October 1985 on Elektra, and its single Holding Back the Years went to number one in the US.
4 min read
Cover of “Picture Book” by Simply Red. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Rock
Santana's Caravanserai: The Album Called Career Suicide
Clive Davis told Carlos Santana that Caravanserai was career suicide, but the 1972 album reached number 8 on the Billboard chart and later went platinum.
3 min read
Cover of “Caravanserai” by Santana. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Folk
How Johnny Cash Turned Rejection Into His First Album
In 1955 Sam Phillips rejected Johnny Cash's gospel pitch at Sun Records, sending him back to find the sound that became his debut album two years later.
4 min read
Cover of “With His Hot and Blue Guitar” by Johnny Cash. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Folk
Dolly Parton's Bluegrass Gamble on Those Were the Days
Dolly Parton's Those Were the Days arrived on 11 October 2005. The bluegrass rebuild of 1960s and 1970s folk and pop songs replaced her planned album Blue Smoke.
4 min read
Cover of “Those Were the Days” by Dolly Parton. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Pop
Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down: Five Singles, One Empire
Lionel Richie's second solo album Can't Slow Down, released on Motown on 14 October 1983, turned eight songs into five American top-10 singles.
3 min read
Cover of “Can't Slow Down” by Lionel Richie. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Other
How Jean Cocteau Staged His Own Farewell
On 10 October 1963, the French singer Édith Piaf died. The next day, at his château in Milly-la-Forêt, the poet, playwright, filmmaker and designer Jean Cocteau…
3 min read
Agence de presse Meurisse, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, modified: re-encoded
3 min read