May 2, 1997 The James Bond spoof Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery hits theaters. The theme is "Soul Bossa Nova," a song by Quincy Jones from 1962 - the same year the first Bond movie appeared. Yeah baby!More
April 14, 1997 Creed release their debut album, My Own Prison, on their own label, Blue Collar Records. When a local radio station in Tallahassee puts the title track in rotation, they earn a deal with Wind-Up Records, which re-issues the album in August.
April 14, 1997 Depeche Mode release their ninth album, Ultra, in the UK. Work on the album had to be stopped in 1996 when lead singer Dave Gahan nearly died of a drug overdose; he spent a lot of time making court appointments and trying to get sober when operations resumed. The band is in no condition to tour to support the album, but it still makes #1 in the UK and sells over 500,000 copies in America.
April 11, 1997 Reprising the Beatles famous rooftop concert, Paul McCartney plays two songs from his upcoming album Flaming Pie from the top of a building he owns in London.
April 11, 1997 After a 20-year absence, Grand Funk re-forms for a tour that benefits the Bosnian-American Relief Fund, which aids victims of the genocide in Bosnia.
April 8, 1997 Singer-songwriter Laura Nyro ("Stoned Soul Picnic," "Wedding Bell Blues," "And When I Die") dies at age 49 of ovarian cancer.
April 2, 1997 After 32 years, Joni Mitchell is reunited with her first daughter, Kilauren Gibb. Joni gave the child up for adoption at the start of her career.
March 25, 1997 Sixteen days after he was shot and killed, The Notorious B.I.G.'s second album, Life After Death, is released.More
March 22, 1997 "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" by Puff Daddy goes to #1, the first of four chart-toppers in 1997 from his Bad Boy label. The others are "Hypnotize" and "Mo Money Mo Problems" by The Notorious B.I.G., and "I'll Be Missing You" by Puff, his tribute to B.I.G., who died on March 9, 1997.
March 21, 1997 The movie Selena debuts in theaters, chronicling the life of the late Tejano singer, who was murdered two years earlier by the former president of her fan club. Jennifer Lopez is lauded for her breakout performance in the title role, which inspires her to pursue a singing career of her own.
March 19, 1997 Gabrielle's ex-boyfriend (and the mother of her child), Tony Antoniou, is sentenced to life in prison for murdering his stepfather. Gabrielle was called as a witness at the trial.
March 11, 1997 Thirty years after being admitted as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), Paul McCartney is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to popular music.More
March 9, 1997 Beloved New York rapper Biggie Smalls (The Notorious B.I.G.) is gunned down in Los Angeles streets just six months after his rival Tupac Shakur met the same fate.More
March 2, 1997 Mexican-American singer/rapper Becky G is born in Inglewood, California. She becomes famous for her 2014 pop hit "Shower" before pivoting her music toward the Latin market with Spanish-language tunes like "Sola," "Mayores," and "Sin Pijama."
February 26, 1997 At 14, LeAnn Rimes becomes the youngest person to win a Grammy Award when she takes the trophies for Best New Artist and Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her debut single, "Blue."
February 26, 1997 Perhaps trying to make amends for giving them just four awards when they were still together, The Grammys give The Beatles three awards: two for "Free As A Bird" and another for their Anthology video.More
February 26, 1997 Bluegrass newcomer Gillian Welch's debut album, Revival, is nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album but loses to Bruce Springsteen's The Ghost of Tom Joad.
February 25, 1997 At Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy party, DMC of Run-DMC meets Sarah McLachlan, whose music he credits with keeping him alive as he fights off depression. Years later, after DMC learns he was adopted, he collaborates with McLachlan on the song "Just Like Me" and learns that she was also adopted.
February 24, 1997 Spice Girls win Brit Awards for Best Single ("Wannabe") and Best Video ("Say You'll Be There"). Geri Halliwell wears a skin-tight Union Jack dress when they perform at the ceremony, introducing her signature look.
February 22, 1997 The Spice Girls conquer America as their debut single, "Wannabe," hits #1.More
February 17, 1997 ABC airs Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees, a one-hour comedy special written and directed by original Monkee Mike Nesmith. From their '60s pad, the group recalls their old shenanigans and sings a medley of their classic hits: "Last Train To Clarksville," "Daydream Believer," "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone," "I'm A Believer" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday."
February 12, 1997 Snoop Doggy Dogg and Sean "Puffy" Combs hold a press conference where they call for an end to the East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry that has claimed the life of Tupac Shakur. "Kids around the world are watching," Long Beach rapper Snoop says. "By calling for a truce we're giving them something to live for." The detente fails to quell the violence: Less than a month later, The Notorious B.I.G. is killed in a shooting.
February 10, 1997 Blur's eponymous fifth album is released. Although the band is huge in Europe, American success has proven elusive. The single "Song 2" becomes the band's biggest US hit, topping out at #55 on the Hot 100.
February 4, 1997 The Offspring return with their fourth studio album, Ixnay on the Hombre - the follow-up to their 1994 breakthrough album Smash and the band's first after signing to Columbia Records in 1996.
January 28, 1997 Pat Boone releases the album In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy, where he covers various hard rock classics, including "Stairway To Heaven," "Enter Sandman" and "Crazy Train."More
January 28, 1997 A day before his 16th birthday, Jonny Lang's major-label debut album, Lie To Me, is released.
January 23, 1997 Tori Amos performs at a benefit concert for RAINN (The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) at Madison Square Garden in New York City. As a rape survivor, the cause is close to Tori's heart (she wrote her debut single, "Me And A Gun," about her rape experience).
January 14, 1997 The Beach Boys guest star on the "Karate Kid Returns" episode of the ABC sitcom Home Improvement.
January 7, 1997 David Bowie's 50th birthday bash takes place at New York City's Madison Square Garden in the form of a charity concert benefiting Save the Children. Bowie's famous pals - including Sonic Youth, Lou Reed, Robert Smith, Billy Corgan, and Foo Fighters, among others - pay tribute with renditions of the singer's tunes. Bowie closes out the event with his 1969 hit "Space Oddity."
January 3, 1997 Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm publish an article called "Nitric Oxide And Inflammation: The Answer Is Blowing In The Wind" in the journal Nature Medicine. The article deals with the detection of mucosal inflammation, and while we can't speak to its medical efficacy, it does reveal a trend of biomedical researchers using Bob Dylan song titles and lyrics in their articles. The Swedish scientists had a friendly bet going to see how many Dylan references they could inject into their published work; a later study reveals hundreds of medical articles that had borrowed from Dylan, with the most popular song being "The Times They Are A-Changin'."
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