Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today July 22
1941
George Clinton is born, commander of the funk mothership
On July 22, 1941, George Clinton was born in North Carolina — the brain of Parliament and Funkadelic. His P-Funk empire mixed science fiction, acid guitars inherited from Hendrix and endless grooves that would feed nearly all of West Coast hip-hop decades later. Few musical universes are so recognizable: if it sounds like a spaceship that smells of funk, it's Clinton.
George Clinton
Parliament-Funkadelic
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1947
Don Henley is born, the melancholy voice of the Californian dream
On July 22, 1947, Don Henley was born in Texas — the Eagles' drummer, lead voice and lyrical conscience. He sang 'Hotel California' and 'Desperado' with his signature blend of smoothness and disenchantment, and solo he delivered 'The Boys of Summer', perhaps American rock's finest song about growing older. A relentless chronicler of California's lost paradise.
Don Henley
Eagles
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1961
Keith Sweat is born: the stock exchange clerk who invented new jack swing
On July 22, 1961, Keith Sweat was born in Harlem. He worked at the New York Stock Exchange and recorded at night. In 1987 he released "Make It Last Forever" with a young producer named Teddy Riley, and out of it came new jack swing: rhythm and blues ballads built on programmed hip-hop beats. It sold three million copies and defined how Black American music would sound for the next ten years.
Keith Sweat
1977
An office clerk in glasses changes the rules: 'My Aim Is True' comes out
On July 22, 1977, Stiff Records released 'My Aim Is True' in the UK, Elvis Costello's debut, recorded while he was still working as a data clerk in an office. Produced by Nick Lowe, the album condensed punk rage, classic songwriter craft and a sharp tongue into songs like 'Alison' and 'Less Than Zero'. At the height of the punk explosion, Costello proved the new wave could also be written with thick-rimmed glasses and surgical lyrics. It was the start of one of rock's smartest and most chameleonic careers.
Elvis Costello
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2025
Ozzy Osbourne dies, seventeen days after his last concert
On July 22, 2025, Ozzy Osbourne died at 76. He had founded Black Sabbath in Birmingham in 1968 with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward, and with "Black Sabbath" and "Paranoid" invented a good part of what is now understood as heavy metal. He was thrown out of the group in 1979 and built a solo career that sold even more. He said goodbye on July 5 of that same year, seated on a throne, at a reunion concert in his home city.
Ozzy Osbourne
Black Sabbath
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1937
Chuck Jackson is born: the baritone who opened the door for Burt Bacharach
On July 22, 1937, Chuck Jackson was born in South Carolina — a singer with a deep, elegant voice who in 1962 recorded "Any Day Now", one of the first Burt Bacharach songs to become a rhythm and blues hit. He was a central figure at the Wand label, and his way of singing ballads with an orchestra marked a whole generation. Decades later Elvis Presley and Ronnie Milsap cut his songs without anyone recalling where they came from.
Chuck Jackson
1944
Rick Davies is born, the earthbound half of Supertramp
On July 22, 1944, Rick Davies was born in Swindon, England — co-founder, keyboardist and one of the two voices of Supertramp. His Wurlitzer electric piano and low register were the perfect counterweight to Roger Hodgson's falsetto on classics like 'Goodbye Stranger' and 'Bloody Well Right'. That tension between two opposite writers shaped 'Breakfast in America', one of 1979's best-selling albums. After Hodgson's departure, Davies kept the band alive for decades.
Rick Davies
Supertramp
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1949
Alan Menken is born: the composer who revived Disney with eight Oscars
On July 22, 1949, Alan Menken was born in New York. With lyricist Howard Ashman he wrote the songs for "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast" when the animation studio was all but bankrupt. Those films changed everything. Ashman died of AIDS in 1991, before the second one opened, and Menken carried on alone. He has collected eight Academy Awards, more than any living person in the music categories.
Alan Menken
Howard Ashman
1954
Al Di Meola is born: the nineteen-year-old guitarist who joined Chick Corea's band
On July 22, 1954, Al Di Meola was born in New Jersey. At nineteen, still a student, he got a call from Chick Corea to join Return to Forever, the most demanding group in fusion. His trademark was clean speed, a precision that split opinion between awe and coldness. In 1980 he recorded "Friday Night in San Francisco" with Paco de Lucía and John McLaughlin, an acoustic guitar album that sold millions.
Al Di Meola
Return to Forever
1962
Steve Albini is born: the engineer who refused royalties his whole life
On July 22, 1962, Steve Albini was born in California. He recorded the Pixies' "Surfer Rosa", PJ Harvey's "Rid of Me" and Nirvana's "In Utero", and always insisted on being called an engineer rather than a producer. He charged a flat fee and refused percentages on principle: taking royalties from someone else's record, he said, was taking the artist's money. He recorded more than two thousand albums under that rule and died in 2024 without ever breaking it.
Steve Albini
Nirvana
1966
The 'Beano Album' founds a religion: Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton is released
On July 22, 1966, Decca released 'Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton' in the UK, the John Mayall record fans nicknamed the 'Beano Album' after the comic Clapton reads on the cover. Its combination of a Les Paul and a Marshall amp pushed to the limit defined the guitar tone entire generations would chase. The album consecrated the 'Clapton is God' legend painted on London's walls and set the standard for British blues-rock. Few recordings have shaped the sound of an instrument so profoundly.
John Mayall
Eric Clapton
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2019
A 1975 music video reaches one billion views on YouTube
On July 22, 2019, the video for "Bohemian Rhapsody" passed one billion views on YouTube, becoming the oldest clip ever to manage it. Queen had shot it in 1975 in four hours and for a practical reason: they did not want to travel to a television studio to mime along. That emergency solution ended up being regarded as the first modern music video. The band marked the milestone by releasing a remastered version.
Queen
Freddie Mercury
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