Rock
This section gathers album stories, birthdays, and anniversaries tied to the artists and bands who shaped rock, along with notes on new vinyl reissues as they surface. Rock grew up alongside the LP: gatefold sleeves and a running order built around two sides of a record were part of how the genre presented itself from the start, and a large share of its catalog keeps coming back through official reissue programs. Expect the human side of the records here: the sessions, the lineup changes, the decisions that turned into landmark albums, and why particular pressings matter to collectors.
521 STORIES
How David Bowie Made Heroes by the Berlin Wall
David Bowie recorded 'Heroes' at Hansa Studio 2 in Berlin in the summer of 1977, five hundred yards from the Berlin Wall. Producer Tony Visconti and a core band worked on the album there.
· 4 min read
Why Did Jethro Tull's War Child Lose Its Movie?
Jethro Tull planned War Child as a double album and a feature film. The movie was abandoned when financing failed, and the songs were released as a single disc in 1974.
· 3 min read
Why Did Yngwie Malmsteen Record Only Covers on Inspiration?
Released on 14 October 1996 through Music for Nations, Inspiration was Yngwie Malmsteen's ninth studio album and his first recorded at his own Studio 308.
· 3 min read
Kings of Leon's Walls: A Number One That Fell Fast
Kings of Leon's seventh album Walls, released on 14 October 2016, debuted at number one in America. A week later it fell to twentieth on the Billboard 200.
· 4 min read
Why Did The Beatles Ballads Get a Cover Nobody Wanted?
In 1980, The Beatles Ballads compiled the group's softer songs for a single LP released outside the US. Its cover by artist Patrick was often mistaken for a rejected White Album design.
· 3 min read
The Beatles Take Over the London Palladium
Fifteen million people sat down to watch a variety show on a Sunday evening on October 13, 1963. The programme was Sunday Night at the London Palladium, broadca…
· 4 min read
Bob Dylan's Misnamed Live Album Turns 28
Bob Dylan's The Bootleg Series Vol. 4, released on Columbia Records on October 13, 1998, preserves a 1966 concert that was famously mislabeled as taking place at London's Royal Albert Hall.
· 3 min read
How Joe Satriani Built a Time Machine from Leftovers
Joe Satriani released Time Machine on 13 October 1993 on Relativity Records. The double album gathered nine years of recordings, from 1984 to 1993, into 139 minutes of music.
· 3 min read
How AC/DC Turned a Cancelled Hits LP into Live Blood
AC/DC scrapped a planned studio compilation and instead released If You Want Blood You've Got It. It was the only live album issued while singer Bon Scott was alive.
· 4 min read
Why Olivia Newton-John Almost Said No to Physical
Olivia Newton-John nearly turned down the song that became her biggest hit. The demo was written for a rock singer but landed with the Australian pop star instead.
· 4 min read
Kiss: Creatures of the Night, the Heavy Last Stand
Kiss released Creatures of the Night in 1982 as their heaviest record and their last for Casablanca, with Ace Frehley on the cover but not on the album.
· 4 min read
Why Did Prince Name an Album Love Symbol?
Prince released his fourteenth studio album on October 13, 1992, with The New Power Generation. Its title was an unpronounceable glyph registered as Love Symbol #2.
· 3 min read
How Beck Turned a Four-Year Delay Into Colors
Beck's thirteenth studio album Colors arrived on October 13, 2017, four years after recording began with producer Greg Kurstin in a Los Angeles studio.
· 4 min read
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
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
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
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
Why Did Fleetwood Mac Bet Everything on Tusk?
Fleetwood Mac's Tusk, released on 12 October 1979, was a double album that cost 1.4 million dollars and sold four million copies, far below Rumours.
· 5 min read
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
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
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
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
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
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