17 OCTOBER
In Music History
1971 Chris Kirkpatrick is born in Clarion, Pennsylvania. He joins 'N Sync, and also makes cameo appearances in music videos for A Day to Remember's "2nd Sucks," and Good Charlotte's "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous."
1970 The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" hits #1 for the first of five weeks.
1969 Led Zeppelin's fourth North American tour opens at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
1969 The Kinks play their first US concert in four years when they open for Spirit at the Fillmore East in New York. They were kept out of the country by a musician's union ban incurred on their 1965 American tour.
1969 Wyclef Jean of Fugees is born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti. When he is 9, his family moves to Brooklyn, New York, where he is raised.
1968 Reggae musician Ziggy Marley is born David Nesta Marley in Kingston, Jamaica.
1967 The musical Hair, a celebration of hippie culture, debuts at the New York Shakespeare Festival. It comes to Broadway in 1968 and to the big screen in 1979.
1967 The Beatles attend a small, quiet memorial service for their manager Brian Epstein, held at the New London Synagogue in St. John's Wood (near the Abbey Road Studios).
1967 Bob Dylan records "Drifter's Escape," "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine," and "The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest."
1967 The songwriting team of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, along with producer Phil Spector, guest star on the "Jeannie, The Hip Hippie" episode of I Dream Of Jeannie, where Jeannie joins a band.
1967 Rene Dif (of Aqua) is born in Frederiksberg, Denmark.
1966 Elvis Presley plays a race-car driver in his 22nd movie, Spinout, which premieres in Memphis, Tennessee.
1964 Manfred Mann's version of "Do Wah Diddy Diddy," written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, hits #1 in America for the first of two weeks. The song was first recorded in 1963 by the female group The Exciters, who took it to #78.
1964 The Rolling Stones release their second American album, 12X5.
1963 The Beatles record the first of their "Christmas Records," spoken word greetings sent out on vinyl to members of their fan club.
Street Survivors Released Three Days Before Skynyrd Plane Crash
1977Lynyrd Skynyrd release Street Survivors, the last album with frontman Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines, as both are killed only three days later after the band's plane goes down en route to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Read more17 OCTOBER
Featured Events
2005 Fats Domino returns to his Ninth Ward home for the first time since Hurricane Katrina to find it utterly destroyed, with his piano and several of his gold records among the ruined items.
2002 The Ronettes lose their case against Phil Spector, claiming they are owed royalties for songs used in movies, TV shows and commercials.More
2000 At a charity auction organized by Mick Fleetwood in London, George Michael pays £1.5 million for the upright piano on which John Lennon wrote the 1971 hit "Imagine."
1998 "One Week" by Barenaked Ladies hits #1 in the US, where it stays for... one week.
1995 Rhino releases all 58 episodes of the The Monkees in a deluxe VHS box set. It's a big box: 21 tapes, making it the largest video release of all time.More
1989 Billy Joel releases the album Storm Front, with his enduring hit "We Didn't Start The Fire."More
1987 "You Win Again" by the Bee Gees hits #1 in the UK, making them the first group with UK chart-toppers in three different decades (the '60, '70s and '80s).
1972 Eminem is born Marshall Bruce Mathers III in St. Joseph, Missouri. He eventually settles in Warren, Michigan.More
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