Music Almanac: October 17

Birthdays

• 1909 - Cozy Cole (d. 1981)
• 1933 - Jeanine Deckers (Singing Nun) (d. 1985)
• 1934 - Rico Rodriguez (Specials) (78)
• 1941 - Alan Howard (Tremeloes) (71)
• 1941 - Earl Thomas Conley (71)
• 1941 - Jim Seals (Seals & Crofts) (71)
• 1942 - Gary Puckett (Union Gap) (70)
• 1946 - Jim Tucker (Turtles) (66)
• 1946 - Michael Hossack (Doobie Brothers) (d. 2012)
• 1947 - Michael McKean (Spinal Tap) (65)
• 1949 - Bill Hudson (Hudson Brothers) (63)
• 1958 - Alan Jackson (54)
• 1967 - Rene Dif (Aqua) (45)
• 1967 - Allen West (Obituary, Six Feet Under) (45)
• 1968 - Ziggy Marley (44)
• 1969 - Wyclef Jean (Fugees) (43)
• 1971 - Chris Kirkpatrick ('N Sync) (41)
• 1972 - Eminem (born Marshall Mathers III) (40)
• 1978 - Sergio Andrade (Lifehouse) (34)

Deaths

• 1972 - Billy Williams (61)
• 1984 - Alberta Hunter (89)
• 1991 - Tennessee Ernie Ford - Liver failure (72)
• 1996 - Chris Acland (Lush) - Suicide (30)
• 1999 - Thomas Durden (co-writer Heartbreak Hotel) (79)
• 2001 - Jay Livingston (songwriter, Mona Lisa, Que Sera Sera, Silver Bells) (86)
• 2002 - Derek Bell (Chieftains) - Cardiac arrest (66)
• 2002 - Bashful Brother Oswald (Roy Acuff's Smokey Mountain Boys) (90)
• 2007 - Teresa Brewer - Progressive supranuclear palsey (76)
• 2008 - Levi Stubbs (72)

On This Day

• 1960 - Dion & the Belmonts announced they were splitting up.
• 1967 - The musical Hair opened at New York's Public Theater where it would run for 1,758 performances.
• 1967 - A memorial service for Brian Epstein in London was attended by the Beatles.
• 1969 - Paul Kantner of the Jefferson Airplane was arrested for marijuana possession and fined $350.
• 1969 - Led Zeppelin started their fourth North American tour at Carnegie Hall.
• 1969 - The Kinks played their first U.S. show in four years after being banned by the American Federation of Musicians after a 1965 tour where they fought almost nightly on stage.
• 1986 - The movie Sid and Nancy about Sex Pistol Sid Vicious opened.
• 1991 - Sandie Shaw was arrested for refusing a breathalizer test outside her apartment in London.
• 1991 - John Mellencamp was hospitalized after suffering dizzy spells.
• 1995 - Keith Moore, the accountant for Sting, was sentenced to six years in prison after embezzling £6 million from the singer.
• 1995 - The entire Monkees TV series was released on video cassette by Rhino in a 21-tape set, the largest ever.
• 1998 - The Wilkonsons made their Grand Ole Opry debut.
• 1999 - Johnny Cash was admitted to a Nashville hospital for treatment of severe pneumonia.
• 1999 - The new Staples Center in Los Angeles hosts its first music concert with Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band.
• 2000 - The piano on which John Lennon wrote Imagine was auctioned off with George Michael paying the highest bid.
• 2001 - Jay-Z plead guilty to stabbing producer Lance “Un” Rivera in 1999.
• 2004 - Marc Almond of Soft Cell was injured in a motorcycle accident, requiring emergency surgery.

Marriages

• 1975 - Maurice Gibb (Bee Gees) and Yvonne Spencely

Divorces

• 2008 - Madonna and Guy Ritchie (announced)

Recorded

• 1967 - John Wesley Harding - Bob Dylan (first day of recording)

Released

• 1964 - She's Not There - Zombies (single)
• 1968 - The Star Spangled Banner - Jose Feliciano (single of his World Series performance that was booed by fans)
• 1970 - After Midnight - Eric Clapton (single)
• 1977 - Street Survivors - Lynyrd Skynyrd
• 1979 - Tusk - Fleetwood Mac

Broadcasts

• 1962 - People and Places (Grenada TV) - Beatles (TV debut)