This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1994. [edit] Events [edit] January–February - January 29 - The Supremes' Mary Wilson is injured when her Jeep hits a freeway median and flips over just outside of Los Angeles, California, USA. Wilson's 14-year old son is killed in the accident.
- February 1 - Green Day release their breakthrough album Dookie, ushering in the mid-90's punk rock revival. Dookie eventually achieves diamond certification.
- February 7 - Blind Melon's lead singer Shannon Hoon is forced to leave the American Music Awards ceremony for his loud and disruptive behavior. Hoon is later charged with battery, assault, resisting arrest, and destroying a police station phone.[citation needed]
- February 11 - Beginning on February 11 and finishing in March, the three surviving members of The Beatles secretly reunite to record additional music for a few of John Lennon's old unfinished demos, presented to Paul McCartney by Yoko Ono, with Jeff Lynne producing. The track, "Free As A Bird", is released as a single in late 1995 as part of the exhaustive Beatles Anthology project, reaching #2 in the UK and #6 in the United States.
- February 14 - The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia marries Deborah Koons.
- February 17 - Blink 182 release their debut album Cheshire Cat.
- February 23 - Eddie Van Halen, Chris Isaak, and B.B. King attend the ground breaking ceremony for the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
[edit] March–April - March 1
- Nirvana play their final concert in Munich.
- Frank Sinatra receives the Grammy Awards Lifetime Achievement award. Sinatra's acceptance speech is cut short and other artists, upset by this action, criticize the producer's decision during the show, including Billy Joel who takes extra time to perform his song, The River of Dreams, noting that he is wasting valuable air time.
- March 3 - In Rome, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain lapses into a coma after overdosing on Rohypnol and champagne.
- March 5 - Grace Slick is arrested for pointing a shotgun at police in her Tiburon, California home.
- March 8
- March 18
- March 30 - Pink Floyd embarks on what would be their last world tour before their breakup. The record-breaking tour supports their Division Bell album, with the band playing to 5,500,000 people in 68 cities and grossing over £150,000,000.
- March 31 - Madonna appears on The Late Show with David Letterman, making headlines for her foul-mouthed, profanity-laced interview. Robin Williams later describes the segment as a "battle of wits with an unarmed woman."
- April 8
- The body of Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana, is found. Cobain's death three days before, is legally declared to be suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot.
- The Offspring release their third album, Smash, which helps bring the 1990s punk scene into the mainstream and has been credited as the highest selling independent album of all time.
- April 19 - Rapper Nas releases his debut album, Illmatic, which is heralded as a rebirth of East Coast hip hop.
- April 25
- Blur releases Parklife, its first album reaching #1 in UK, where it was certified "quadruple platinum" [1].
- Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys is sentenced to 200 hours of community service for attacking a television cameraman during funeral services for actor River Phoenix in November 1993
- April 26
[edit] May–June - May 6
- Pearl Jam files a complaint against Ticketmaster with the U.S. Justice Department charging that the company has a monopoly on the concert ticket business.
- To help promote his new album, Alice Cooper released a three part comic book that followed the album The Last Temptation.
- May 8
- June 7 - Grace Slick is sentenced to 200 hours of community service and three month's worth of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings after a March 5 incident with police officers.
- June 21 - Rap group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony releases their first major debut album Creepin On Ah Come Up, Which eventually goes multiplatinum and garners critical success.
[edit] July–August - July - The Verbier Festival is launched.
- August - Rich Mullins and "Leave a Legacy" contest winner, 76-year-old Miguel Garcia Massiate, travel to Bogotá, Colombia with Compassion International. The two men visit the Ciudad Sucre Center where Mullins presented them with over $40,000 that was raised on his summer '94 Ragamuffin Band tour.
- August 9 - Machine Head release their first album Burn My Eyes, which was a big success and becomes Roadrunner Records' best selling debut album.
- August 12-August 14 - Woodstock '94
- August 23 - Jeff Buckley releases his single, critically-acclaimed, full-length studio album "Grace;"
- August 30 - Oasis release their debut album Definitely Maybe, it becomes the fastest selling debut album in the United Kingdom at the time until 2006 when it was beaten by the Arctic Monkeys' debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not.
[edit] September–October [edit] Unknown dates [edit] Musicians starting their career [edit] Bands disbanded [edit] Bands reformed [edit] Albums released [edit] January [edit] February [edit] August [edit] September [edit] October [edit] November [edit] December [edit] Release Date Unknown [edit] Biggest hit singles The following songs achieved the highest chart positions in the charts of 1994. | # | Artist | Title | Year | Country | Chart Entries | | 1 | Bruce Springsteen | Streets of Philadelphia | 1994 |  | Austria 1 - Apr 1994, Norway 1 - Feb 1994, Poland 1 - Feb 1994, Germany 1 - Mar 1994, Éire 1 - Mar 1994, Oscar in 1993, UK 2 - Mar 1994, Switzerland 2 - Mar 1994, Italy 3 of 1994, France 4 - Feb 1994, Holland 6 - Feb 1994, RYM 6 of 1994, Sweden 7 - Feb 1994, US BB 9 of 1994, Europe 29 of the 1990s, US BB 30 of 1994, Australia 30 of 1994, US CashBox 49 of 1994, POP 63 of 1994, AFI 68, Germany 74 of the 1990s, WXPN 837 | | 2 | Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart & Sting | All For Love | 1994 |  /  | US BB 1 of 1994, Sweden 1 - Dec 1993, Austria 1 - Feb 1994, Switzerland 1 - Jan 1994, Norway 1 - Jan 1994, Poland 1 - Dec 1993, Germany 1 - Jan 1994, Éire 1 - Jan 1994, Australia 1 for 2 weeks Apr 1994, UK 2 - Jan 1994, Holland 3 - Jan 1994, US BB 9 of 1994, Italy 9 of 1994, Australia 10 of 1994, US CashBox 22 of 1994, POP 25 of 1994, Germany 87 of the 1990s | | 3 | Rednex | Cotton Eye Joe | 1994 |  | UK 1 - Dec 1994, US BB 1 of 1995, Holland 1 - Aug 1994, Sweden 1 - Aug 1994, Austria 1 - Oct 1994, Switzerland 1 - Oct 1994, Norway 1 - Oct 1994, Germany 1 - Jan 1995, New Zealand 1 for 6 weeks Mar 1995, POP 1 of 1995, Germany 18 of the 1990s, US BB 25 of 1995, Australia 41 of 1995, Party 54 of 2007, Scrobulate 72 of party | | 4 | All-4-One | I Swear | 1994 | | US BB 1 of 1994, Holland 1 - Jul 1994, Austria 1 - Aug 1994, Switzerland 1 - Jul 1994, Germany 1 - Jul 1994, New Zealand 1 for 6 weeks Jul 1994, Australia 1 for 5 weeks Nov 1994, UK 2 - Jun 1994, Norway 2 - Jul 1994, Australia 2 of 1994, US CashBox 3 of 1994, Sweden 3 - Aug 1994, US BB 7 of 1994, Poland 14 - Jul 1994, Germany 39 of the 1990s, OzNet 657 | | 5 | Mariah Carey | Without You | 1994 | | UK 1 - Feb 1994, Holland 1 - Feb 1994, Sweden 1 - Feb 1994, Austria 1 - Apr 1994, Switzerland 1 - Apr 1994, Poland 1 - Feb 1994, Germany 1 - Mar 1994, Éire 1 - Feb 1994, New Zealand 1 for 1 weeks Apr 1994, US BB 3 of 1994, Norway 3 - Mar 1994, US CashBox 15 of 1994, Australia 15 of 1994, Germany 25 of the 1990s, POP 37 of 1994 | [edit] Top hits See also: Hot 100 No. 1 Hits of 1994 [edit] Classical music [edit] Musical theater [edit] Musical films [edit] Births [edit] Deaths - January 6 - Harold Sumberg, violinist
- January 15 - Harry Nilsson, 52, singer, songwriter (heart attack)
- January 17 - Georges Cziffra, pianist
- February 7 - Witold Lutosławski, composer
- February 24 - Dinah Shore, singer, actress
- March 6 - Yvonne Fair, 51, African-American singer
- March 16 - Nicolas Flagello, composer
- March 22 - Dan Hartman, 42, singer (brain tumour)
- March 23 - Donald Swann, 70, pianist, composer and entertainer (Flanders and Swann)
- April 5 - Kurt Cobain, 27, singer (self-inflicted shotgun wound) (Nirvana)
- June 11 – Robert Beadell, composer
- June 14 - Henry Mancini, composer
- June 15 - Manos Hadjidakis, composer
- June 16 - Kristen Pfaff, 27, bass guitarist (heroin overdose)(Hole)
- June 25 - DJ Train, producer (smoke inhalation)
- June 29 - Kurt Eichhorn, conductor
- July 31 - Anne Shelton, British singer
- August 6 - Domenico Modugno, 66, Italian singer and songwriter
- September 2 - Roy Castle, 62, musician and all-round entertainer (lung cancer)
- September 13 - John Stevens, jazz musician
- September 20 - Jule Styne, songwriter
- September 24 - Urmas Alender, 40, singer (drowned in MS Estonia sinking)
- September 29 - Cheb Hasni, 26, Algerian Raj musician (murdered)
- October 19 - Martha Raye, singer and comedienne
- October 22 - Shlomo Carlebach, Jewish songwriter
- November 4 - Fred "Sonic" Smith, 45, MC5 guitarist (heart attack)
- November 7 - Shorty Rogers, jazz trumpeter
- November 11 - Elizabeth Maconchy, composer
- November 28 - Vic Legley (Victor Legley), Belgian violist and composer of French birth
- December 8 - Antonio Carlos Jobim, bossa nova composer and songwriter
- December 10 - Garnett Silk, reggae singer
[edit] Awards [edit] Filmfare Awards [edit] Grammy Awards [edit] Country Music Association Awards [edit] Eurovision Song Contest [edit] Mercury Music Prize [edit] Juno Award [edit] Charts [edit] Triple J Hottest 100 [edit] See also [edit] References |
