17 APRIL
In Music History
1943 Teen idol Bobby Curtola (1962's "Fortune Teller") is born in Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada.
1943 Bass guitarist Roy Estrada (Captain Beefheart, Mothers of Invention, Little Feat) is born in Santa Ana, California.
1940 Singer-songwriter Billy Fury is born Ronald William Wycherley in Liverpool, England. A fixture on the UK chart throughout the '60s, his hit singles include "Halfway to Paradise" and "Jealousy," among others.
1936 "Robbin' the Cradle" (1959) singer Tony Bellus is born Anthony J. Bellusci in Chicago, Illinois.
1934 Record producer and songwriter Don Kirshner (The Monkees, The Archies, Kansas) is born in The Bronx, New York City.
1882 Classical pianist Artur Schnabel is born in Lipnik, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now part of Bielsko-Biala, Poland).
"Planet Rock" Introduces Electro And 808s To Hip-Hop
1982Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force release "Planet Rock," the first hip-hop hit with electronic elements and a rhythm powered by a Roland TR-808 drum machine. It's just the third rap song to reach the Hot 100, following "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang and "The Breaks" by Kurtis Blow.
Read more17 APRIL
Featured Events
2008 With Spirit, Leona Lewis becomes the first British woman to go straight to the top of the Billboard 200 album chart with a debut album.
2006 A big-budget Coke commercial with a new song by Jack White called "Love Is The Truth" hits YouTube, then quickly goes away.More
1998 Linda McCartney, Paul McCartney's wife and Wings bandmate, dies at age 56 after a three-year battle with breast cancer.More
1983 Felix Pappalardi (bassist, vocalist for Mountain), age 43, is shot and killed by his wife, Gail, in their East Side Manhattan apartment. Gail claims it was an accident and the charge of second-degree murder is lessened to criminally negligent homicide, which lands her a brief stint in prison.
1983 Joe Strummer of The Clash runs the London Marathon, finishing with a time of 4 hours 13 minutes. He claims that his training included 10 pints of beer the night before.
1982 Denison University freshman Laura Carter is killed when a bullet from a gunfight a block away strikes her in the chest while she is riding in a car with her parents. Christopher Cross, who is dating her best friend, writes "Think Of Laura" in her honor.
1971 Each of the four ex-Beatles has a solo single on the UK chart: John Lennon - "Power to the People" Paul McCartney - "Another Day" Ringo Starr - "It Don't Come Easy" George Harrison - "My Sweet Lord"
1967 Liz Phair is born in New Haven, Connecticut; she is raised by her adoptive parents in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Winnetka, Illinois. She becomes a '90s indie-rock icon with her debut album, Exile In Guyville, a feminist treatment of the Rolling Stones' Exile On Main St.More
1960 "Summertime Blues" singer Eddie Cochran dies in England when the taxi he is riding in crashes. He is just 21.
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