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October 23, 2026
STORY · Rock
Why Did Supertramp Swap Prog for Drum Machines?
Supertramp released Free as a Bird on October 23, 1987, trading progressive rock for drum machines and synth-pop. It was their final album of new songs for A&M Records.
4 min read
Cover of “Free as a Bird” by Supertramp. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Rock
Elvis Costello's Almost Blue Risked Everything
Elvis Costello's Almost Blue, released on October 23, 1981, found him singing Hank Williams and George Jones songs. Producer Billy Sherrill worked with him in Nashville.
4 min read
Cover of “Almost Blue” by Elvis Costello & the Attractions. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Pop
Why Is Janet Jackson's Dream Street So Hard to Find?
Janet Jackson's Dream Street stalled at number 147 on the Billboard 200 in 1984, and its out-of-print physical copies have made it a genuinely rare record.
4 min read
Cover of “Dream Street” by Janet Jackson. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Hip-Hop
How Gorillaz Built Song Machine While the World Stopped
Gorillaz released Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez on October 23, 2020. The seventh album grew out of a web series of singles that kept running as the pandemic shut down touring.
3 min read
Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, modified: re-encoded
3 min read
STORY · Alternative
How Did My Chemical Romance Survive The Black Parade?
My Chemical Romance released The Black Parade on October 23, 2006 through Reprise Records, a concept album about a dying cancer patient called the Patient.
4 min read
Cover of “The Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Alternative
Why Did Nirvana's First European Show Matter?
Nirvana played its first European concert on October 23, 1989, at the Riverside club in Newcastle, on a double headlining tour with Seattle band Tad.
4 min read
Nirvana, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
4 min read
STORY · Metal
How Incubus Left Nü-Metal Behind on Morning View
Incubus recorded Morning View in a Malibu house in spring 2001, deliberately leaving nü-metal behind for alternative rock. The album came out on October 23, 2001, on Epic and Immortal Records.
4 min read
Cover of “Morning View” by Incubus. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Metal
Coheed and Cambria Close the Saga with No World for Tomorrow
Coheed and Cambria released No World for Tomorrow on October 23, 2007. The album closed the Amory Wars saga with Taylor Hawkins on drums and a title most listeners never saw.
4 min read
Pat Loika, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, modified: re-encoded
4 min read
October 22, 2026
STORY · Rock
How Blue Moves Broke Elton John's Hit Streak
Elton John's Blue Moves arrived on October 22, 1976, as his first Rocket Record Company release and his second double album. It peaked at number 3 in both the US and UK.
3 min read
Cover of “Blue Moves” by Elton John. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Rock
How Led Zeppelin Made a Number One Album on the Run
Led Zeppelin II was recorded in hotel rooms and between gigs. On October 22, 1969, Atlantic released it in the US, where it became the band's first number one.
4 min read
Cover of “Led Zeppelin II” by Led Zeppelin. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Alternative
Kiss Made Hotter than Hell While Everything Fell Apart
Kiss released Hotter than Hell on October 22, 1974. A stolen guitar, a car crash and a collapsed distribution deal turned the Los Angeles sessions into a fight.
4 min read
Cover of “Hotter than Hell” by Kiss. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Pop
Christina Aguilera's Stripped and the $5 Million Refusal
Christina Aguilera turned down a five-million-dollar advance to finish Stripped on the label's schedule. RCA Records released the album on October 22, 2002.
4 min read
Cover of “Stripped” by Christina Aguilera. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Hip-Hop
How Kendrick Lamar Turned Compton Into a Short Film
Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid, M.A.A.D City arrived on October 22, 2012, as a concept album framed as a short film about growing up in Compton among drugs and gangs.
4 min read
Cover of “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City” by Kendrick Lamar. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Rock
Why Did Paul McCartney Re-Record the Beatles for Broad Street?
Paul McCartney's Give My Regards to Broad Street, released on October 22, 1984, rebuilt Beatles and Wings songs for a film soundtrack. George Martin produced the album.
4 min read
Cover of “Give My Regards to Broad Street” by Paul McCartney. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Metal
How Slayer Lost Their Album Title and Captured a Decade
Slayer's first official live album, Decade of Aggression, arrived on Def American Records on October 22, 1991. The band had wanted a different title, but Mötley Crüe had already claimed it.
3 min read
Cover of “Decade of Aggression” by Slayer. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Pop
Pet Shop Boys Behaviour: The Analog Turn That Changed Them
On October 22, 1990, Pet Shop Boys released Behaviour on Parlophone, hiring producer Harold Faltermeyer to swap digital sheen for warm analog synthesizers.
4 min read
Cover of “Behaviour” by Pet Shop Boys. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Alternative
Lana Del Rey's Blue Banisters, the Album She Didn't Want You to Hear
Lana Del Rey released Blue Banisters on October 22, 2021, with almost no promotion after deleting her social media accounts a month earlier.
4 min read
Cover of “Blue Banisters” by Lana Del Rey. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Rock
How Neil Young Made War Audible on Weld
Neil Young released Weld with Crazy Horse on October 22, 1991, a live double album recorded during the Gulf War with CNN playing in the background.
4 min read
Cover of “Weld” by Neil Young. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Rock
How Bad Company Rebuilt Itself for Fame and Fortune
Bad Company returned in October 1986 with Fame and Fortune, its seventh studio album and first with Brian Howe replacing Paul Rodgers on vocals.
4 min read
Cover of “Fame and Fortune” by Bad Company. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Alternative
How Foo Fighters Scrapped a Million Dollars and Made One by One
Foo Fighters spent over a million dollars on sessions for One by One, then scrapped 29 songs. The band re-recorded the album in twelve days at Dave Grohl's home studio in Virginia.
3 min read
Cover of “One by One” by Foo Fighters. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Rock
The Cranberries Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
The Cranberries released Wake Up and Smell the Coffee on October 22, 2001, their only album on MCA Records and their last before a six-year break.
4 min read
Cover of “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee” by The Cranberries. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Alternative
Pulp's We Love Life: The Album That Almost Wasn't
Pulp's seventh album We Love Life arrived on Island Records on October 22, 2001, after stalled sessions and a producer change nearly ended the record.
4 min read
Cover of “We Love Life” by Pulp. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Classical
How Franz Liszt Walked Away From the Piano at 35
Franz Liszt gave his last paid concert in September 1847, at age 35. He walked away from the stage at the height of the frenzy Heinrich Heine had named Lisztomania.
4 min read
Schenck, Carl ((photogr.)). Fonction indéterminée, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, modified: re-encoded
4 min read
STORY · Rock
How Culture Club Kept the House Burning with Their Third Album
Culture Club released Waking Up with the House on Fire on October 22, 1984. The third album still went platinum in Britain and America despite a cooler US chart showing.
4 min read
Cover of “Waking Up with the House on Fire” by Culture Club. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Hip-Hop
Drukqs: The Aphex Twin Album That Was Never Meant to Exist
Aphex Twin's Drukqs began as 180 unreleased tracks on an MP3 player left on a plane, and Richard D. James rushed it out on Warp Records in October 2001.
3 min read
Cover of “Drukqs” by Aphex Twin. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Alternative
Why Did Kylie Minogue Risk Everything on Impossible Princess?
Kylie Minogue kept the raw demos of Limbo and Too Far as finished songs and took creative control for Impossible Princess. The album, her sixth, was released on October 22, 1997.
4 min read
Cover of “Impossible Princess” by Kylie Minogue. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
October 21, 2026
STORY · Rock
Why Did Lady Gaga Name an Album After a Dead Aunt?
Lady Gaga released Joanne on October 21, 2016, naming her fourth solo album after her father's sister, Joanne Stefani Germanotta, who died in 1974.
4 min read
Cover of “Joanne” by Lady Gaga. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Jazz
How Tom Waits Built a Jazz Club in a Studio
Tom Waits turned a Los Angeles recording studio into a fake nightclub for two nights in July. The result became Nighthawks at the Diner, released on Asylum Records.
3 min read
Cover of “Nighthawks at the Diner” by Tom Waits. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read
STORY · Rock
How The Strokes Almost Lost Room on Fire
The Strokes released Room on Fire on October 21, 2003, after scrapping sessions with Nigel Godrich. The band finished the album with Gordon Raphael in three months.
4 min read
Cover of “Room on Fire” by The Strokes. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
4 min read
STORY · Rock
Why Did Simple Minds' Once Upon a Time Top the UK Chart?
Simple Minds released Once Upon a Time on Virgin Records on October 21, 1985. The album went straight to number one in Britain and number 10 in America.
3 min read
Cover of “Once Upon a Time” by Simple Minds. Source: Cover Art Archive (coverartarchive.org)
3 min read