17 MAY
In Music History
1996 Blues musician Johnny "Guitar" Watson dies of a myocardial infarction at age 61 after collapsing on stage during a tour in Yokohama, Japan.
1995 Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Little Richard share the stage for the first time ever at a concert in Sheffield, England.
1993 Barry Manilow guest stars on the "One" episode of Murphy Brown as part of a storyline where the lead character can't stand his music but her infant son finds it soothing.
1992 Bandleader and TV host Lawrence Welk dies of bronchial pneumonia at age 89.
1989 Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman opens the Sticky Fingers restaurant in West London. Guest with big appetites can order the Beggars Banquet.
1989 The Doobie Brothers release their reunion album, Cycles, which gets them back on the radio with the hit single "The Doctor."
1985 Dire Straits release their best selling album, Brothers In Arms. It goes to #1 in many territories, but the subsequent tour wipes out the band, which go on an extended hiatus and don't release another album until 1991.
1980 Weeks after being detained in Tokyo on drug charges, Paul and Linda McCartney appear as musical guests on Saturday Night Live.
1979 Billy Joel sings the national anthem before Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals between the New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers lose the game and the series.
1978 The TV special The Carpenters: Space Encounters airs on ABC.
1978 The disco film Thank God It's Friday, starring Donna Summer and Village People, premieres in Los Angeles.
1976 R&B singer-songwriter Kandi Burruss (of Xscape) is born in College Park, Georgia.
1975 Elton John plays "Bennie And The Jets" and "Philadelphia Freedom" on Soul Train, becoming just the third white performer to appear on the show, after Dennis Coffey and Gino Vannelli.
1975 Earth, Wind & Fire's LP That's The Way Of The World hits #1.
1974 The Elton John TV special Say Goodbye To Norma Jean And Other Things airs on ABC.
Monterey Folk Festival Features Early Appearances by Dylan, Joplin and Jerry Garcia
1963The very first Monterey Folk Festival begins at the Monterey Fairgrounds in California. Over the weekend, Bob Dylan makes his first West Coast performance, Jerry Garcia's band wins an amateur competition, and Janis Joplin draws a crowd on the second stage.
Read more17 MAY
Featured Events
2017 After performing with Soundgarden in Detroit, Chris Cornell is found dead from an apparent suicide at the age of 52.More
2013 Eight years in the making, Daft Punk's fourth album, Random Access Memories, features guest appearances from a range of artists including Giorgio Moroder, Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams. It becomes their first US chart topper, propelled by the massive worldwide hit single (and Nile Rodgers collaboration) "Get Lucky."
2012 Donna Summer dies of lung cancer at her home in Naples, Florida, at age 73.
2008 A pregnant Ashlee Simpson marries Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy. The union lasts three years; Simpson gets remarried to Evan Ross (Diana's son) in 2014.
1987 Tom Petty's home in Encino, California, burns to the ground. Petty and his family escape unharmed, but are traumatized by the blaze, which is determined to be arson. The perpetrator is never caught.More
1966 Bob Dylan, who had recently "gone electric" and added rock and roll instruments to his folk music, appears at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England. Just before he begins a version of his latest hit, "Like A Rolling Stone," a member of the audience, a folk purist angry at the move to rock, shouts out, "Judas!" Dylan responds with, "I don't believe you," adding, "You're a liar!" He then proceeds to tell the band to play the song "f--king loud."
1965 The FBI ends its two-year investigation into the Kingsmen song "Louie Louie," determining that the largely indecipherable lyrics are not obscene.
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