Pop
Here you'll find album stories, birthdays, and anniversaries from pop artists across the decades, along with news of vinyl reissues as titles return to print. Pop built much of its early history on the 7-inch single, the format that carried hit songs into homes and jukeboxes long before albums became the main event, and that legacy still shows up in picture sleeves, colored pressings, and singles boxes collectors look for today. The stories here follow how specific songs and albums came together, the writers and producers behind them, and why a particular reissue or pressing still catches a collector's eye.
379 STORIES
Mariah Carey's Dreamlover: How a Song Became a Lifeline
Mariah Carey's 'Dreamlover' began an eight-week run atop the US chart on September 11, 1993. That same day, her album Music Box hit number one in Britain.
· 5 min read
Harry Connick Jr.: How a Child Prodigy Became a Vinyl Icon
From performing Beethoven with the New Orleans Symphony at age nine to multi-platinum records and Grammys, Harry Connick Jr. became one of jazz's most recognizable figures.
· 6 min read
Moby: How a Baby Named After a Whale Built Play
Richard Melville Hall, born in 1965 and nicknamed Moby, travelled from food stamps and punk to the 1999 album Play. The record pushed his sales toward twenty million.
· 5 min read
José Feliciano: Blind Virtuoso of the Cracker Tin
A tin cracker can, a blind five-year-old, and the Spanish Harlem air of 1950 — that’s where José Feliciano’s sound begins. Born José Montserrat Feliciano García…
· 4 min read
Dara: The Folk Voice That Took Bulgaria to the Top
The word sounds like a spell. Bangaranga. In May 2026, a stadium audience and millions of television viewers watched a Bulgarian singer deliver a performance th…
· 4 min read
Bastille: 19 Songs Hidden Worldwide in a Day
In August 2016, Bastille leaked their second album's tracklist through Snapchat geofilters at specific coordinates worldwide. It turned a routine announcement into a global scavenger hunt.
· 5 min read
The Beatles Hit No. 1 Twice in One Day — With a B-Side
On September 9, 1963, The Beatles' "She Loves You" hit No.1 on the UK singles chart the same day "Please Please Me" sat at No.1 on the album chart—a dual coronation that had never happened before.
· 4 min read
44 Years of Francesco Gabbani
From a childhood in his father's instrument shop to winning Sanremo twice, Francesco Gabbani built a career that rejected every convention of Italian pop.
· 5 min read
The Sky Blue Album That Took Lennon Beyond the Beatles
John Lennon's second solo album Imagine arrived on September 9, 1971. With a sky-blue Andy Warhol portrait on the cover, it took him beyond the Beatles.
· 3 min read
How Michael Bublé Learned From Grandpa's Vinyl
Three independent albums before anyone was listening. The first wasn't cut for radio programmers or label executives — it was a gift wrapped for his grandfather…
· 4 min read
Slim Thug: The Boss Hogg Voice That Outgrew Houston
Stayve Thomas traded a basketball scholarship for a microphone and became Slim Thug. His verse on 'Still Tippin'' in 2004 pulled him far beyond Houston.
· 4 min read
Fedde Le Grand: A Detroit Salute That Toppled the UK
A disembodied voice commands a crowd to put their hands up for one American city, and a Dutch producer who hadn’t yet released an album suddenly rules the Briti…
· 4 min read
Gracie Abrams at 27: Two Grammys, One Director Father
The daughter of a blockbuster filmmaker writes songs so intimate they sound like voice memos never meant to leave her bedroom. That collision of Hollywood pedig…
· 4 min read
The Night Chic Got Kicked Out of Studio 54
Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards turned a 1977 snub at Studio 54 into 'Le Freak.' The single made Chic one of the defining acts of the late 1970s disco era.
· 4 min read
The Milkman, the Soul Song, and the Ban That Made It Big
Craig Douglas, a former milkman from the Isle of Wight, took Sam Cooke's "Only Sixteen" to number one in the UK for four weeks in 1959. Radio bans for its frank lyrics only boosted its popularity.
· 3 min read
Avril Lavigne: The Best Damn Tour Live in Toronto
Avril Lavigne's The Best Damn Tour: Live in Toronto captured a sold-out Air Canada Centre show on April 7, 2008, and arrived on DVD in September 2008.
· 4 min read
Caroline Sunshine: Disney Channel to White House
Caroline Mohr Sunshine went from Disney Channel's Shake It Up to the White House briefing room in three years. Her IMDb page now reads like a prologue to an entirely different biography.
· 4 min read
Pet Shop Boys: Elysium's Los Angeles Gamble
In 2012, inside a Los Angeles studio, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe were chasing a sound they'd never captured before. The Pet Shop Boys had spent decades definin…
· 4 min read
Dado Topić: When a Voice Outlives Its Band Twice
Born Adolf Topić on September 4, 1949, he became Dado — the voice of Korni Grupa and Time. He later represented Croatia at Eurovision 2007, turning 77 with a 57-year career behind him.
· 4 min read
Steve Harwell: The Garage Rapper Who Bought a BMW at 27
Steve Harwell, the voice of Smash Mouth, died three years ago in Boise at 56. His 27-year run began in a San Jose garage with a kid who once thought his future was in hip-hop.
· 5 min read
Roll the Bones: The Rush Album That Dared to Rap
Rush's fourteenth album Roll the Bones arrived on September 3, 1991. It cracked the Billboard top five and went platinum despite a rap interlude no sensible band would attempt.
· 3 min read
Iza: The Ad Executive Who Sang Beyoncé Into a Record Deal
Iza spent her twenties torn between an advertising degree and a Warner Music Brasil contract. She built a pop career from YouTube covers of Beyoncé and Rihanna.
· 4 min read
Tinkara Kovač: Flute Player Who Sings With Led Zeppelin
A classically trained flautist trading riffs with Ian Anderson on a European tour shouldn't make sense, yet it defines Tinkara Kovač. Born 3 September 1978, she turns forty-eight today.
· 3 min read
How Jason McCaslin Became Sum 41's Backbone
Jason McCaslin got his nickname in an Ajax high school cafeteria. He became the bassist who held Sum 41 together through platinum records, lineup changes, and a quarter-century of pop-punk history.
· 4 min read