17 March

Pick a Day

17 MARCH

In Music History

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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.

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First Ever Greatest Hits Album Released Courtesy of Johnny Mathis

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.


Greatest Hits collections are typically reserved for artists who have been in the industry long enough to build a hefty catalog, but Johnny Mathis was still a fresh-faced balladeer when he released Johnny's Greatest Hits a mere two years into his recording career. Mathis wasn't trying to set a new industry trend; he was trying to keep his label, Columbia Records, at bay. But the real credit, he explained in a Songfacts interview, goes to his producer Mitch Miller: "That was Mitch Miller's idea. That was the first time I had a chance to go out of the country and go to Great Britain. They wanted me to go in the studio and make some more recordings. I had had some success with 'It's Not for Me to Say,' and I wasn't able to record anything new, so he threw the first four recordings that I did - both sides on them - and called them Johnny's Greatest Hits. That was a little flamboyant, because it was not the greatest hits, yet. But that was a great beginning for a lot of people. Even Mozart has a Greatest Hits now. Good idea from Mitch Miller." Aside from "It's Not For Me To Say," the album contains some of Mathis' most enduring songs, including "Chances Are," "The Twelfth Of Never," and "Wonderful! Wonderful!" Just a few days later, Elvis Presley's Elvis' Golden Records, the first of five "Gold Records" compilations, is released and takes the #3 spot on the albums chart. Several other musicians follow suit throughout the years with great success, including the Bee Gees, ABBA, Queen, Elton John, Madonna, Michael Jackson, George Michael, Guns N' Roses, and the Eagles, whose Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) is the best-selling album of the 20th century in the US. Staying on the chart for nearly a decade, Johnny's Greatest Hits holds the record for the longest time spent on the albums chart until Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon celebrates its 10-year anniversary on the tally in 1983.

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Patrick Kenney from Cincinnati Ohio UsaOur own Lady of TV wrote a song for Mr Matis it was didn't summer went so soon

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