Born on November 2, 1944, in Todmorden, England, Keith Emerson became progressive rock's most audacious keyboardist, first making his name with The Nice before co-founding Emerson, Lake & Palmer in 1970 with bassist Greg Lake, formerly of King Crimson, and drummer Carl Palmer. Emerson pioneered hauling the massive Moog synthesizer out on tour, reshaping it into a rock instrument as expressive as any guitar, and used it to drive the band's ambitious fusions of classical music and hard rock. He arranged Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition into a full album, adapted Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" into a prog anthem, and wrote the sprawling title suite for 1971's Tarkus. ELP's blend of virtuosity and theatrical bombast, cemented further on Brain Salad Surgery, made them one of progressive rock's defining acts.

Born on November 2, 1963, Bobby Dall co-founded what became Poison in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, originally performing as Paris before the band renamed itself and relocated to the Sunset Strip to chase its shot at glam metal stardom. As bassist alongside Bret Michaels, Rikki Rockett, and C.C. DeVille, Dall helped anchor one of the most commercially dominant hard rock acts of the late 1980s, a band that would go on to sell more than 65 million records worldwide. Poison's breakthrough debut Look What the Cat Dragged In set the stage for Open Up and Say... Ahh!, home to the band's only Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, the power ballad "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," alongside party anthems like "Nothin' But a Good Time" and "Talk Dirty to Me" that defined the Sunset Strip's hair metal heyday.

On November 2, 1999, Foo Fighters released There Is Nothing Left to Lose, their third studio album and the first to feature drummer Taylor Hawkins, who joined just before recording began. Dave Grohl, Hawkins, and bassist Nate Mendel tracked the entire record in Grohl's own basement in Alexandria, Virginia, trading major label studio polish for a looser, more personal approach after lineup turmoil had left the band down to a trio. The gamble paid off, yielding the soaring single "Learn to Fly," whose music video, built around an airplane disaster spoof, became a rock radio and MTV staple. The album reached No. 10 on the Billboard 200, went platinum in the US, and earned Foo Fighters their first Grammy Award, for Best Rock Album, in 2001. Produced by Foo Fighters and Adam Kasper.