February 1
- 1949: RCA Victor introduces the 45 RPM record
- 1963: Neil Young, at age 17, performs his first professional date at a country club in Winnipeg
February 2
- 1979: Ex-Sex Pistol Sid Vicious dies of a heroin overdose in New York City
- 1993: Willie Nelson and the IRS settle their longstanding tax feud
February 3
- 1959: Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and Buddy Holly are killed in an Iowa plane crash
February 6
- 1945: Bob Marley is born Robert Nesta Marley
- 1962: Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses is born William Bruce Rose Jr.
February 7
- 1964: The Beatles land at Kennedy Airport and set foot on American soil for the first time
- 1979: Stephen Stills becomes the first performer to record on digital equipment in L.A.’s Record Plant Studio
February 8
- 1960: The House of Representatives Special Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight opens hearings on disc jockey “payola”
- 1999: Universal Music, Warner Music, BMG, Sony Music and EMI officially unveil Project Madison, a system developed by IBM to permit fast, secure distribution of full-length, CD-quality albums on the internet
February 9
- 1964: The Beatles set new records for television ratings when appearing on “The Ed Sullivan Show”
February 11
- 1972: David Bowie debuts his alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, at a concert in Tollworth, England
February 12
- 2001: The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals orders Napster to stop its users from trading copyrighted material without charge
February 13
- 1972: Led Zeppelin is forced to cancel a concert in Singapore when officials wouldn’t let them off the plane because of their long hair
- 1981: Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon finishes 402 consecutive weeks (more than seven years) on the Billboard charts
February 17
- 1982: Jazz legend Thelonious Monk dies
February 19
- 1980: Bon Scott, vocalist of AC/DC, dies in London after choking on his own vomit
- 2003: In West Warwick, R.I., 99 people are killed when fire destroys the nightclub The Station. The fire started with sparks from a pyrotechnic display being used by Great White. Ty Longley, guitarist for Great White, is one of the victims in the fire
February 20
- 1967: Kurt Cobain of Nirvana is born
- 1996: Snoop Doggy Dogg and his bodyguard McKinley Lee are found not guilty of murder in a shooting death case
- 1997: Ben and Jerry’s introduce the flavor Phish Food.
February 22
- 1989: Jethro Tull is selected over Metallica to win the first Hard Rock/Metal Grammy
February 24
- 1969: The Jimi Hendrix Experience plays its last British concert before breaking up
February 25
- 1943: George Harrison of The Beatles is born
February 26
- 1932: Johnny Cash is born
- 1987: Capitol Records releases the first four Beatles albums on CD
February 28
- 1984: Michael Jackson wins eight Grammy Awards for his album Thriller
- 1942: Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones is born
