17 MARCH
Featured Events
2010 Big Star lead singer Alex Chilton dies of a heart attack at age 59. Three days later, the group's scheduled performance at SXSW is turned into a tribute to Chilton.
2008 Heather Mills is awarded 23.7 million pounds (about $47 million) in her divorce from Paul McCartney, substantially more than the $32 million Paul offered. Throughout the ordeal, Mills is vilified in the British press as being opportunistic.More
1992 After reuniting at their ex-manager's funeral, Spinal Tap issue their 17th album, Break Like The Wind.More
1987 Reacting to a Beastie Boys concert three weeks earlier where the group used a giant inflatable penis as a stage prop and encouraged girls in the crowd to bare their breasts, the city of Columbus, Georgia passes an anti-lewdness law prohibiting nudity, simulated sex, and objectionable language at any show attended by minors.More
1968 Mick Jagger joins a demonstration at Grosvenor Square in London to protest the Vietnam War. When the group, estimated at 25,000, marches to the American embassy, they are met with police resistance and rioting ensues. Jagger leaves the protest before it reaches the embassy, but uses the events as inspiration for the Rolling Stones song "Street Fighting Man."
1958 "Tequila" by The Champs hits #1 in America, becoming one of the most popular saxophone instrumentals of all time.More
1958 The first "Greatest Hits" compilation is released, and it's by Johnny Mathis. It's a huge hit, and the format catches on quickly. The Mathis album stays in the Billboard 200 album chart for over nine years, a record not broken until Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon.More
17 MARCH
In Music History
2023 Taylor Swift launches her Eras tour in Glendale, Arizona. The three-hour show is divided into 10 acts dedicated to the music and looks of each of her previous albums. It's her first trek since her Reputation Tour five years and four albums earlier.
2020 A federal judge rules in favor of Katy Perry, overturning a verdict that her song "Dark Horse" infringed on the song "Joyful Noise" by Flame. The jury had ordered $2.78 million in damages.
2020 With St. Patrick's Day festivities shut down due to the coronavirus, Dropkick Murphys livestream a free concert from an empty venue in Boston. Over the next few weeks, many other artists follow suit, using livestreaming as a way to perform for fans during lockdown.More
2018 At their St. Patrick's Day concert in Brussels, The Script buy everyone in the audience of 8,000 a drink, setting a Guinness World Record for "world's biggest round."
2017 Popular World War II-era singer Vera Lynn releases Vera Lynn 100 to celebrate her 100th birthday. The album debuts at #3 on the UK chart, making her the oldest living artist to have an album on the tally.
2016 Prince's ex-wife Mayte Garcia puts a collection of his memorabilia up for auction.More
2012 After getting pelted with cans and other trash at their SXSW performance, Rocky and the rest of A$AP Mob launch into the crowd, punching fans and igniting a brawl.
2011 Ferlin Husky dies of congestive heart failure at age 85.
2009 Instead of getting boozed up on the streets like most people on St. Patrick's Day, Amy Winehouse gets sloppy at her court hearing in London to face charges that she attacked a fan at a charity event in 2008.
2009 Chicago blues harmonicist Lester "Mad Dog" Davenport dies of prostate cancer at age 77.
2009 Belinda Carlisle is the first person eliminated on Season 8 of Dancing With The Stars.
2006 Professor X (founder of the hip-hop group X Clan) dies of complications from spinal meningitis at age 49.
2005 Robert Plant is presented with his lifetime achievement Grammy award at SXSW in Austin, Texas.
2003 Country musician Bill Carlisle dies at age 94.
2003 Cliff – The Musical opens at The Prince of Wales Theatre in London. The show, which is based on the life of Cliff Richard, closes three months later.
Justin Timberlake Gets Punk'd
2003On the very first episode of MTV's practical joke show Punk'd, host Ashton Kutcher stages a prank involving the IRS that makes Justin Timberlake cry.
Timberlake returns home from a game of golf to find federal agents swarming his property. With Kutcher and his crew watching behind the scenes, the former *NSYNC star learns he owes more than $900,000 in back taxes and watches as the agents, led by Kutcher's sidekick Dax Shepard, confiscate everything he owns - including his beloved dogs. In what becomes a classic moment in the show's 10-season run, the "Cry Me A River" singer calls his mom and breaks down in tears. The hidden camera show was conceived as a way to play practical jokes on ordinary people, but MTV retooled the concept when one couple filed a lawsuit over a prank involving a fake dead body. Instead, Kutcher, then known for playing the dimwitted Kelso on That '70s Show, would use the series as a vehicle to humiliate his celebrity pals. Timberlake can hardly be blamed for falling for the joke so easily, being the first victim and all. He's embarrassed - at first blaming his reaction on smoking too much weed - but takes the self-deprecating route at the MTV Video Music Awards. After host Chris Rock mocks Timberlake's breakdown ("'Dude, I'm broke, I don't know what to do! Mommy, mommy'."), Timberlake admits he was "the Punk'd bitch." Despite the show's enormous popularity, Kutcher manages to punk unsuspecting celebs again and again, including Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, and Drake. Timberlake even turns accomplice to help rile Kelly Osbourne over a proposed pop-princess makeover. Says the singer: "I've been Punk'd and now it's my duty to pass the punk on." The original series ends in May 2007 but is revived in 2012 with celebrity hosts filling in for Kutcher each week, starting with Justin Bieber. In 2013, Season 10 premieres on BET hosted by King Bach and DeStorm Power.
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