1995 in music



This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1995.

Specific locations

 * 1995 in British music
 * 1995 in Norwegian music

Specific genres

 * 1995 in classical music
 * 1995 in country music
 * 1995 in heavy metal music
 * 1995 in hip hop music
 * 1995 in jazz

January–February

 * January 1 - Mo Ostin steps down as chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group.
 * January 8 - Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder hosts "Self-Pollution Radio", a four-and-a-half hour radio broadcast with live performances by Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, and others. Any station with a satellite receiver could pick up and carry the program.
 * January 14 - Perry Farrell is arrested for cocaine possession, being under the influence and possession of a syringe at a Los Angeles hotel.
 * January 18 – Jerry Garcia crashes his rented BMW into a guard rail near Mill Valley, California, USA, but is not injured in the accident.
 * January 27 - Live from the House of Blues premieres on TBS.
 * February 1 – Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers band member Richey James Edwards goes missing after leaving the London Embassy Hotel, UK at 7 am.
 * February 7 – Rapper Tupac Shakur is sentenced to one-and-a-half to four-and-a-half years in prison on a sexual abuse charge. He was later released on appeal.
 * February 12 – Iron Butterfly bassist Philip Taylor Kramer disappeared from Highway 101, USA as he tried to get back home from the Los Angeles International Airport. He tried calling his family and 911 for help, but received none.
 * February 14 – Richey Edwards' Vauxhall Cavalier is found abandoned in a service station on the Bristol side of the Severn Bridge in the UK, with evidence that he had been living in it. Although he was near a notorious suicide spot, there is still no evidence to suggest he committed suicide.
 * February 19 – Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee marries Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson on a beach in Cancún, Mexico.
 * February 25 – Lyle Lovett suffers a broken collarbone in an accident while riding his motorcycle in Mexico. The accident prevented Lovett from attending the Grammy Awards (he ended up winning two awards).

March–April

 * March 1 – R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry leaves the stage during a concert in Switzerland after suffering a brain aneurysm. He undergoes successful brain surgery two days later in Switzerland.
 * March 8 – Former Helloween drummer, Ingo Schwichtenberg, commits suicide by jumping under a subway train.
 * March 13 - Radiohead album The Bends is released.
 * March 14 – With the release of Me Against the World, Tupac Shakur became the first male solo artist to have a number one album on the American Billboard 200 chart while in prison. The album remained at the top of the charts for four weeks.
 * March 26 – Rapper Eric Lynn Wright, better known as Eazy-E, dies of complications from AIDS.
 * March 28 – Lyle Lovett and actress Julia Roberts announce their separation after 21 months of marriage.
 * March 31
 * Tejano singer Selena is shot and killed by Yolanda Saldivar, her former personal assistant and former fan club president, who had recently been fired for embezzling money from the fan club. The event was called "Black Friday" by Hispanics worldwide.
 * During a performance in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA, Jimmy Page narrowly escapes being stabbed by a man who rushes the stage with a knife. The man was tackled by security guards who were injured in the brawl.
 * April 17 - Ed Rosenblatt replaces David Geffen as chairman and CEO of Geffen Records.
 * April 29 – Tupac Shakur marries Keisha Morris inside the Clinton Correctional Facility, New York, USA. Shakur was serving a four-and-a-half year jail term on sexual assault charges. They would later divorce.

May–June

 * May 5 – Former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler is arraigned on a felony count of possession of heroin, in addition to two misdemeanor drug charges.
 * May 15 - Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland is arrested outside a motel in Pasadena, California, for possession of heroin and cocaine.
 * May 19 - Sam Phillips makes her motion picture debut in the Bruce Willis action film, Die Hard with a Vengeance. Phillips played one of the main terrorists in the film.
 * June 1 – Alan Wilder leaves Depeche Mode.
 * June 13 - Icelandic singer Björk releases Post, her critically acclaimed second album as a solo artist. The musically diverse album contained some of her most popular work to date, including "Army of Me", "Hyperballad", "I Miss You" and a Betty Hutton cover of "It's Oh So Quiet".
 * June 16 – Michael Jackson released his first double-album HIStory, which became the best-selling multiple-album of all-time, with 35 millions copies (70 million copies) sold worldwide.

July–August

 * July 3 - The members of TLC file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, declaring debts of over $3.5 million.
 * July 9 - The Grateful Dead performs its final show with Jerry Garcia at Soldier Field in Chicago.
 * July 14 - George Michael and Sony Music complete their acrimonious split. In 1994 Michael lost a lawsuit seeking to be released from his Sony contract, but he vowed to never sing for the company again. Michael will now record for the new label DreamWorks Records.
 * July 17 - Robbie Williams announces he is quitting Take That.
 * July 18 - Selena becomes the first Hispanic singer to have an album debut and peak at number-one on the US Billboard 200 chart. She also becomes the first and only female singer to place five albums simultaneously on the Billboard 200 chart.
 * August 9
 * Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead passes away of a heart attack at age 53. In cities all over the United States, deadheads spontaneously gather to mourn his death and celebrate his life.
 * Kiss performs on MTV Unplugged. The band's current lineup is joined by original members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, setting the stage for the band's reunion tour the following year.
 * August 12 – The Offspring's Dexter Holland marries hairstylist Kristine Luna, who co-wrote one of the band's songs "Session".
 * August 22 – Rancid release their third studio album ...And Out Come the Wolves. Along with Green Day's Dookie and The Offspring's Smash (both released a year before), this album helped revive mainstream popular interest in punk rock in the mid-1990s, and becomes one of the best-selling independent records of all time. ...And Out Come the Wolves eventually goes platinum.
 * August 28
 * Oingo Boingo announce that they will break up following a series of Halloween shows in Los Angeles, California, USA. Lead singer Danny Elfman has established a career scoring motion pictures.
 * The official end of Sarah Records is marked with a farewell party featuring live sets by many of the label's acts. It was the last live appearance by The Orchids before they split up.
 * August 29 - Al Jourgensen and Mike Scaccia of Ministry are arrested for heroin possession in two separate incidents in Texas.

September–October

 * September 1 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
 * September 5 – The Luminiş Villa, George Enescu Memorial House, becomes an official memorial to the composer.
 * September 8 - For Squirrels vocalist Jack Vigliatura, bassist Bill White and manager Tim Bender are all killed in a van accident near Savannah, Georgia.
 * September 15 – Alternative-country magazine No Depression publishes its first issue, with Son Volt on the cover.
 * September 27 - Time Warner agrees to sell back its 50 percent share of Interscope Records. The media giant had come under intense fire for the explicit lyrics of rap artists on the label.
 * October 2
 * The first International Guitar Festival is held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
 * Oasis release their second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?. The album spawns several number one singles around the world and eventually becomes the third best-selling album in the UK ever.
 * October 10 – Mariah Carey performed at Madison Square Garden to promote her album Daydream
 * October 11 – Tupac Shakur is released from Clinton Correctional Facility, New York, USA, on US$1.4 million bail which was posted by Suge Knight. In return Tupac signed a three-album deal with Knight's Death Row Records.
 * October 21 - Blind Melon singer Shannon Hoon is found dead of a cocaine overdose at the age of 28.
 * October 23 - Def Leppard enters the Guinness Book of World Records by performing three shows in three continents in the same day, playing Tangier, Morocco, London, England and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
 * October 24 - The Smashing Pumpkins released their album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
 * October 30 - Oasis released their single Wonderwall

November–December

 * November 6
 * Cher releases her first album in four years, It's A Man's World, her first original recording for Warner Music Group. The album would get its U.S. debut in June 1996.
 * Queen releases their final studio album that includes contributions from all original members following Freddie Mercury's death four years earlier. It goes on to be a huge success, selling 20 million copies worldwide.
 * November 21
 * dc Talk release their 4th studio album "Jesus Freak". It was a departure from their previous hip hop albums taking on a rap rock sound. It achieved the biggest 1st week sales for a Christian album selling more than 80,000 copies in its first week and entering the Billboard Top 200 at #16. It is known as one of the most important Christian albums of all time.
 * The Offspring release their self-titled debut album (which originally six years earlier) on CD for the first time. This proves to be the band's final release on Epitaph Records, as they left Epitaph and signed with Columbia Records the next year.
 * Enrique Iglesias releases his debut album recorded in Spanish. The record tops the Latin album charts and would go on to win a Grammy and produce five No. 1 singles on Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart.
 * December 4 – The Beatles release "Free As A Bird" as their first new single in over 20 years.
 * December 21 – Madonna is subpoenaed to testify on January 3, 1996, against her stalker, Robert Hoskins, at the Criminal Courts Building in Los Angeles, California, USA. Hoskins was shot by a security guard outside her estate in Los Angeles in May 1995 for trespassing on her property and threatening to marry or kill her.
 * December 31 - The twenty-fourth annual New Year's Rockin' Eve special airs on ABC, with appearances by Brandy, Goo Goo Dolls, Kool & The Gang, Martin Page and The Rembrandts.

Also in 1995

 * In Flames hires Björn Gelotte & Anders Fridén.
 * Three members of R.E.M., Bill Berry, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe, fall ill while on the band's "Monster Tour". Berry suffers an aneurysm which required immediate surgery, Stipe suffers a hiatal hernia and Mills undergoes an appendectomy.
 * Paul D'Amour leaves Tool.
 * John Denver – The Wildlife Concert (US single: "For You")
 * Kid 'n Play disbands.

Bands formed

 * See * Musical groups established in 1995

Bands disbanded

 * See Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1995

Bands reformed

 * The Misfits (hiatus since 1983)
 * Journey (since 1987)
 * E Street Band (1995 Reunion Tour; officially reformed in 1999)

Biggest hit singles
The following songs achieved the highest aggregated positions in the charts of 1995.

Births

 * January 8 - Victoria Duffield, singer and actor
 * January 20 - Joey Bada$, American rapper
 * January 27 - Raz Fresco, Canadian rapper and producer
 * April 11 - Dodie Clark, Youtuber and musician
 * May 4 - Shameik Moore, American actor, singer, and dancer
 * May 10 - Yoan Garneau, Canadian singer-songwriter
 * June 26 - Reema Major, Sudanese-Canadian rapper
 * July 11 - Tyler Medeiros, Canadian singer-songwriter and dancer
 * August 8 - Malin Reitan, Norwegian singer
 * August 24 - Wenwen Han, Chinese child actress and violinist

Deaths

 * January 1 - Ted Hawkins, soul blues singer-songwriter, 58
 * January 24 – David Cole, producer (C+C Music Factory), 32
 * January 31 – George Abbott US librettist and director, 107
 * February 6 - Art Taylor, jazz drummer, 65
 * February 12 – Tony Secunda, Marc Bolan's former manager, 54 (heart attack)
 * February 18
 * Bob Stinson, guitarist (The Replacements), 35 (complications caused by drug and alcohol abuse)
 * Denny Cordell, English record producer, 51
 * February 23 – Melvin Franklin, The Temptations, 52 (brain seizure)
 * March 5 – Vivian Stanshall, eccentric British musician, 51 (house fire)
 * March 9 – Ingo Schwichtenberg, Helloween, 29 (suicide)
 * March 16 – Heinrich Sutermeister, Swiss composer, 84
 * March 17 - Sunnyland Slim, blues pianist, 88
 * March 26 – Eazy-E, rapper and record producer, 31 (AIDS)
 * March 29
 * Jimmy McShane, singer (Baltimora) (AIDS)
 * Roland Wolf, keyboardist (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Einstürzende Neubauten), 29 or 30 (car accident)
 * March 30 - Paul A. Rothchild, American record producer, 59
 * March 31 – Selena, singer, 23 (murdered)
 * April 4 – Priscilla Lane, US singer and actress, 79 (lung cancer)
 * April 6 – Delroy Wilson, reggae artist, 46 (cirrhosis of the liver)
 * April 14 – Burl Ives, singer and actor, 85
 * April 25 – Ginger Rogers, US actress, dancer and singer, 83
 * May 6 – Barbarito Diez, Cuban singer and bandleader, 85
 * May 8 – Teresa Teng, singer, 42
 * May 16 – Lola Flores, Spanish singer and dancer, 72
 * May 25 – Dick Curless, country singer. 63
 * June 4 – Ernest Bornemann, jazz musician and critic, 80
 * June 12 – Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli pianist, 75
 * June 14 – Rory Gallagher, Irish blues/rock guitarist, 47 (complications from liver transplant)
 * June 30
 * Phyllis Hyman, R&B, soul and jazz singer, 45 (suicide by overdose of barbiturates)
 * Nazariy Yaremchuk, Ukrainian singer, 43
 * July 1 - Wolfman Jack, disk jockey, 57
 * July 2 – Zdeněk Košler, conductor, 67
 * July 8 – Günter Bialas, composer, 87
 * July 23 – Miklós Rózsa, film score composer, 88
 * July 25 – Charlie Rich, country singer and musician, 62
 * July 28 - Eddie Hinton, songwriter and session musician, 51
 * August 9 – Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead, 53 (diabetes-related)
 * August 11 – Allan McCarthy, Canadian singer of Men Without Hats, 38
 * August 16 – Bobby DeBarge, lead singer of Switch, 39 (AIDS)
 * August 18 – Alan Dell BBC Radio 2 disc jockey, 71
 * August 19
 * Pierre Schaeffer, composer and pioneer of Musique concrète, 85
 * John Gilmore, jazz saxophonist, 63
 * August 23 – Dwayne Goettel, (Skinny Puppy), 31 (drug overdose)
 * August 26 – Ronnie White, the Miracles, co-writer of the Temptations hit "My Girl" (with Smokey Robinson), 57 leukemia.
 * August 30 – Sterling Morrison, The Velvet Underground guitarist, 53 (Non-Hodgkin lymphoma)
 * September 5 - Salil Chowdhury, Indian film composer and poet, 71
 * September 27 - Alison Steele, American disc jockey, 58
 * October 19 – Don Cherry, jazz trumpeter, 58
 * October 21
 * Maxene Andrews, singer, member of The Andrews Sisters, 79
 * Shannon Hoon, lead singer of group Blind Melon, 28 (drug overdose)
 * Hans Helfritz, German composer, 93
 * October 26 – Gorni Kramer, Italian bandleader and songwriter, 82
 * October 31 – Erika Morini, violinist, 91
 * November 2 - Florence Greenberg, music executive and producer, 82
 * November 3 - Isang Yun (Yun I-sang), composer, 78
 * November 7 – Jerry Daniels, The Ink Spots, 79
 * November 8 – Ion Baciu, conductor, 64
 * November 17 – Alan Hull, singer-songwriter and founder of Lindisfarne, 50 (heart thrombosis)
 * November 21
 * Peter Grant, manager of The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, 60 (myocardial infarction)
 * Matthew Ashman, guitarist of Adam and the Ants, Bow Wow Wow, 35
 * November 23 – Junior Walker, R&B and soul musician, 64
 * November 26 - David Briggs, record producer, 51
 * December 10 - Darren Robinson, rapper (The Fat Boys), 28
 * December 25
 * Dean Martin, singer and actor, 78 (cancer)
 * Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian-born conductor and composer, 101
 * December 27 – Shura Cherkassky, American classical pianist, 86
 * December 29 – Hans Henkemans Dutch composer, 82

Awards

 * The following artists are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: The Allman Brothers Band, Al Green, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Martha and the Vandellas, Neil Young and Frank Zappa
 * Inductees of the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame include Charles Wesley (writer of "Hark The Herald Angels Sing")
 * Udit Narayan wins the Filmfare Best Male Playback Award.
 * Tetsuya Komuro (producer) & trf win the Japan Record Award for "Overnight Sensation"t the 37th Japan Record Awards.

Grammy Awards

 * Grammy Awards of 1995

Eurovision Song Contest

 * Eurovision Song Contest 1995

Mercury Music Prize

 * Dummy – Portishead wins.

MTV Video Music Awards

 * 1995 MTV Video Music Awards

Charts
Triple J Hottest 100

Main article: Triple J Hottest 100, 1995