17 NOVEMBER
In Music History
1979 John Glascock (bass guitarist for Jethro Tull) dies at age 28 of a congenital heart valve defect paired with an infection from an abscessed tooth.
1978 During Bob Dylan's show at the San Diego Sports Arena, an audience member throws a silver Christian cross onstage, which the singer picks up and pockets. Perhaps coincidentally, Dylan enters his "Christian period" the next year.
1976 Olivia Newton-John's first TV special, A Very Special Olivia Newton-John, is broadcast on ABC.
1975 Tommy Bolin's debut solo album, Teaser, is released. The album runs the gamut stylistically, and spawns the rocking title track, which Mötley Crüe covers years later.
1974 ABBA play their first gig outside Sweden, opening at the Kalkonerteater in Copenhagen on their first European tour.
1971 Laura Nyro releases Gonna Take A Miracle, a tribute to '50s and '60s soul music, with Labelle as her backup singers. The R&B trio, formerly known as Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles, will release their defining hit a few years later: "Lady Marmalade."
1971 Bob Dylan releases Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 2.
1971 The Faces release A Nod Is As Good As A Wink... To A Blind Horse.
1970 Elton John plays live in a recording studio, accompanied by just two musicians: Dee Murray on bass and Nigel Olsson on drums. Broadcast on WABC-FM (which would later become WPLJ), it's the first live FM broadcast from a music studio. The recording is later released as 17-11-70, Elton's first live album.
1967 Davy Jones of The Monkees opens a boutique called Zilch I, named after a Monkees song, in New York's Greenwich Village.
1967 Ben Wilson (keyboardist for Blues Traveler) is born in Chicago, Illinois.
1967 Ronnie DeVoe (of New Edition, Bell Biv Devoe) is born in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
1963 Headmaster John Weightman of Surrey Grammar School in Guildford, England, bans the popular Beatle "moptop" haircuts, explaining that "this ridiculous style brings out the worst in boys physically. It makes them look like morons."
1963 Singer Tommy Sands joins his wife, Nancy Sinatra, to perform "Old Straw Hat" and "Hey Good Lookin'" on CBS-TV's Ed Sullivan Show.
1959 Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos dies in Rio de Janeiro at age 72.
Lou Reed Song Released As Charity Single With Bono, Bowie, Elton John
1997An all-star rendition of Lou Reed's 1972 song "Perfect Day" featuring Reed, Elton John, David Bowie, Tammy Wynette, Joan Armatrading and several other stars, is released as a single in the UK, with proceeds going to the BBC's Children In Need charity. It debuts at #1 on the UK singles chart and raises over £2 million for the appeal.
Read more17 NOVEMBER
Featured Events
2007 Twenty-eight years after their last #1 album (The Long Run), the Eagles return to the top spot in America with Long Road Out Of Eden, a double album initially sold only at Walmart for the bargain price of $11.88. The group released the album on their own label, allowing them to keep a hearty chunk of the profits.
2000 Cher makes her first appearance on the TV show Will and Grace, in the episode "Gypsies, Tramps and Weed."
1988 Unable to deny his sexual orientation any longer, Elton John divorces from German recording engineer Renate Blauel, whom he married in 1984.
1988 Guns N' Roses get the cover of Rolling Stone with the headline, "Hard-Rock Heroes." The magazine compiled the story that summer when the band was on tour as the opening act for Aerosmith. Aerosmith assumed they were getting the cover, but by the end of the tour, their opening act had become much more popular.More
1979 The Guinness Book of World Records verifies ABBA as the biggest-selling recording group in history.
1966 Jeff Buckley, known as Scott "Scottie" Moorhead to his family, is born in Los Angeles, California.More
1962 The Four Seasons' "Big Girls Don't Cry" hits #1 in the US. It holds the top spot for five weeks.
1960 TV personality RuPaul, known for the hit "Supermodel (You Better Work)" is born RuPaul Andre Charles in San Diego, California.
©2024 Songfacts®, LLC