Today is our birthday: Pauseandplay.com turns 19
Rewind to Oct. 1, 1997.
The Carolina Hurricanes, formerly the Hartford Whalers, lost their inaugural game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. American Home Products withdrew the anti-obesity medication Fen-phen from the market at the FDA’s request over problems identified with valvular heart disease and pulmonary hypertension.
“The Peacemaker,” “In & Out” and “Soul Food” opened that week in theaters. The Verve’s “Urban Hymns” was released; Mariah Carey’s “Honey” was in its third week atop the Billboard Hot 100, and LeAnn Rimes’ “You Light Up My Life – Inspirational Songs” debuted at No. 1 on the albums chart.
Oh, and Pauseandplay.com was born. Yes, today is our 19th birthday!
Thanks to the Wayback Machine, you can see how we looked back then. Yikes!
We’ve come a long way, baby …
Pauseandplay started out as a place for artist interviews, then grew into the big ol’ home for album release dates (and more) that it is today.
To celebrate our big birthday (wait till we turn 20 next year!), we’ve picked out some of our favorite songs and albums from the first five years of our existence.
1997
- “Urban Hymns,” The Verve (Highlights: “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” “Lucky Man,” “Sonnet”)
- “In Loving Memory Of …,” Big Wreck (Highlights: “The Oaf,” “That Song”)
- “Come On Over,” Shania Twain (Highlights: “You’re Still the One,” “That Don’t Impress Me Much”)
- “In My Lifetime, Vol. 1,” Jay-Z (Highlights: “The City Is Mine,” “Streets Is Watching”)
1998
- “Moon Safari,” Air (Highlights: “Sexy Boy,” “Kelly, Watch the Stars”)
- “Wide Open Spaces,” Dixie Chicks (Highlights: “I Can Love You Better,” “Wide Open Spaces”)
- “Ray of Light,” Madonna (Highlights: “Frozen,” “Ray of Light”)
- “*NSYNC,” *NSYNC (Highlights: “Tearin’ Up My Heart,” “I Want You Back”)
- “This Is Hardcore,” Pulp (Highlights: “This Is Hardcore,” “The Fear”)
- “Bring It On,” Gomez (Highlights: “Get Myself Arrested,” “78 Stone Wobble”)
- “Mezzanine,” Massive Attack (Highlights: “Teardrop,” “Angel”)
- “Mermaid Avenue,” Billy Bragg & Wilco (Highlights: “Walt Whitman’s Niece,” “California Stars”)
- “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road,” Lucinda Williams (Highlights: “Right in Time,” “Greenville”)
- “Hello Nasty,” Beastie Boys (Highlights: “Intergalactic,” “Body Movin'”)
- “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” Lauryn Hill (Highlights: “Doo Wop (That Thing),” “Ex-Factor,” “Everything Is Everything”)
- “This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours,” Manic Street Preachers (Highlights: “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next,” “The Everlasting”)
- “XO,” Elliott Smith (Highlights: “Waltz #2 (XO),” “Baby Britain”)
- “Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too,” New Radicals (Highlights: “You Get What You Give,” “Someday We’ll Know”)
- “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby,” Fatboy Slim (Highlights: “The Rockafeller Skank,” “Praise You,” “Right Here, Right Now”)
1999
- “Apple Venus Volume 1,” XTC (Highlights: “I’d Like That,” “Easter Theatre”)
- “FanMail,” TLC (Highlights: “No Scrubs,” “Unpretty”)
- “The Slim Shady LP,” Eminem (Highlights: “My Name Is,” “Role Model”)
- “Summerteeth,” Wilco (Highlights: “Can’t Stand It,” “A Shot in the Arm”)
- “15 Minutes,” Nik Kershaw (Highlights: “Somebody Loves You,” “What Do You Think of It So Far”)
- “Astro Lounge,” Smash Mouth (Highlights: “All Star,” “Then the Morning Comes,” “Wasted”)
- “The Soft Bulletin,” The Flaming Lips (Highlights: “Race for the Prize,” “Waitin’ for a Superman”)
- “On How Life Is,” Macy Gray (Highlights: “I Try,” “Still”)
- “The Writing’s on the Wall,” Destiny’s Child (Highlights: “Bills, Bills, Bills,” “Say My Name”)
- “Lost and Gone Forever,” Guster (Highlights: “Barrel of a Gun,” “Fa Fa”)
2000
- “Voodoo,” D’Angelo (Highlights: “Untitled (How Does It Feel),” “Left & Right”)
- “Like Water for Chocolate,” Common (Highlights: “The Light,” “Nag Champa (Afrodisiac for the World)”)
- “Lost Souls,” Doves (Highlights: “The Man Who Told Everything,” “Catch the Sun”)
- “Return of Saturn,” No Doubt (Highlights: “Simple Kind of Life,” “Ex-Girlfriend,” “New”)
- “The Marshall Mathers LP,” Eminem (Highlights: “The Real Slim Shady,” “The Way I Am,” “Stan”)
- “Rated R,” Queens of the Stone Age (Highlights: “The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret,” “Feel Good Hit of the Summer”)
- “Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1,” Jill Scott (Highlights: “A Long Walk,” “The Way”)
- “Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia,” The Dandy Warhols (Highlights: “Bohemian Like You,” “Godless”)
- “Sing When You’re Winning,” Robbie Williams (Highlights: “Rock DJ,” “Kids”)
- “Kid A,” Radiohead (Highlights: “Optimistic,” “How to Disappear Completely”)
- “Warning,” Green Day (Highlights: “Warning,” “Waiting”)
- “Stankonia,” OutKast (Highlights: “B.O.B,” “Ms. Jackson,” “So Fresh, So Clean”)
- “Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars,” Fatboy Slim (Highlights: “Weapon of Choice,” “Star 69”)
- “Lovers Rock,” Sade (Highlights: “By Your Side,” “King of Sorrow”)
2001
- “Little Sparrow,” Dolly Parton (Highlights: “Little Sparrow,” “My Blue Tears”)
- “Discovery,” Daft Punk (Highlights: “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,” “One More Time”)
- “Gorillaz,” Gorillaz (Highlights: “Clint Eastwood,” “19-2000,” “Rock the House”)
- “Acoustic Soul,” India.Arie (Highlights: “Video,” “Brown Skin”)
- “All for You,” Janet Jackson (Highlights: “All for You,” “Someone to Call My Lover,” “Son of a Gun”)
- “Songs in A Minor,” Alicia Keys (Highlights: “Fallin’,” “A Woman’s Worth,” “Girlfriend”)
- “White Blood Cells,” The White Stripes (Highlights: “Fell in Love with a Girl,” “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” “We’re Going to Be Friends”)
- “No More Drama,” Mary J. Blige (Highlights: “No More Drama,” “Dance for Me,” “Family Affair”)
- “The Blueprint,” Jay-Z (Highlights: “Izzo (H.O.V.A.),” “Girls, Girls, Girls,” “Jigga That Nigga”)
- “Fever,” Kylie Minogue (Highlights: “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” “In Your Eyes”)
2002
- “Come Away With Me,” Norah Jones (Highlights: “Don’t Know Why,” “Feelin’ the Same Way”)
- “Original Pirate Material,” The Streets (Highlights: “Let’s Push Things Forward,” “Weak Become Heroes,” “Don’t Mug Yourself”)
- “About a Boy,” Badly Drawn Boy (Highlights: “Something to Talk About,” “Silent Sigh”)
- “The Last Broadcast,” Doves (Highlights: “There Goes the Fear,” “Pounding,” “Caught By the River”)
- “The Eminem Show,” Eminem (Highlights: “Without Me,” “Cleanin’ Out My Closet,” “Superman”)
- “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,” The Flaming Lips (Highlights: “Do You Realize??,” “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1”)
- “The Rising,” Bruce Springsteen (Highlights: “The Rising,” “Lonesome Day,” “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day”)
- “A Rush of Blood to the Head,” Coldplay (Highlights: “In My Place,” “The Scientist,” “Clocks”)
- “Sea Change,” Beck (Highlights: “Lost Cause,” “Sunday Sun,” “The Golden Age”)
About the Author
Gerry Galipault Gerry Galipault debuted Pause & Play online in October 1997. Since then, it has become the definitive place for CD-release dates — with a worldwide audience.
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