17 MARCH
In Music History
2001 Seven Pearl Jam bootleg albums from their North American tour debut in the Billboard 200 albums chart, breaking the record for most appearances on the chart in a single week that the band established the previous year, when five bootlegs from their European tour landed on the chart.More
1999 Sinead O'Connor records the first ever single via the Internet in a BBC studio as part of the Tomorrow's World program. The song is a cover of Bob Marley's "Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)" recorded for the War Child charity.
1998 Van Halen release Van Halen III, their only album with their third lead singer, Gary Cherone. Pushing against the legacies of their lineups led by David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar, it sells poorly and disappoints fans. The band goes on hiatus a year later and returns with Roth in 2007.
1998 Mick Fleetwood joins The Corrs on stage for a St. Patrick's Day performance at Royal Albert Hall in London. Their performance of the Fleetwood Mac song "Dreams" is released as a single and becomes the first hit for The Corrs, going to #6 in the UK.
1996 Country singer Terry Stafford ("Amarillo By Morning") dies of liver failure at age 54.
1991 Seven members of Reba McEntire's band, as well as her road manager and two pilots, are killed when their plane crashes near the Mexican border after a performance in San Diego. McEntire, along with two members of her band and some of her road crew, were on a different plane that took off before the one that crashed.
1990 Ric Grech, bass player in Traffic and Blind Faith, dies of a brain hemorrhage at age 43.
1990 Indie rocker Hozier is born Andrew Hozier-Byrne in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland.
1989 New Orleans R&B singer Bobby Mitchell dies at age 54.
1988 Grimes is born Claire Elise Boucher in Vancouver.
1985 Richard Ramirez kills a man and attacks a woman at a house in Rosemead, California, leaving an AC/DC hat behind at the crime scene. Ramirez continues his killing spree and becomes known as the "Night Stalker." When it becomes clear that AC/DC is his favorite band, the group is accused of encouraging crime and devil worship in their music.
1984 Van Halen's 1984 rises to #2 on the US albums chart, held off by Michael Jackson's Thriller, which has already topped the tally for 31 weeks. 1984 stays one spot behind Thriller for two more weeks before dropping down. Perhaps it would have hit #1 if Eddie Van Halen hadn't done the guitar solo on "Beat It."
1982 Samuel George, Jr. (of The Capitols) is stabbed and killed during a domestic dispute.
1979 Zenon DeFleur (rhythm guitarist for The Count Bishops) dies of a heart attack at age 27 after sustaining severe injuries in a car crash.
1979 Talking Heads make their first major TV appearance, performing "Take Me to the River" on American Bandstand. The lip-synced performance goes well, but the interview is a little awkward.More
First Ever Greatest Hits Album Released Courtesy of Johnny Mathis
1958The 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.
Read more17 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
2003 On 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.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
©2024 Songfacts®, LLC