November 17th

 

Musical birthdays today include Gordon Lightfoot (83), Four Seasons keyboardist and songwriter Bob Gaudio (80), Jethro Tull lead guitarist Martin Barre (75), Dead Kennedys guitarist East Bay Ray (63), Primal Fear drummer Randy Black (58), Moldy Peaches singer-songwriter Kimya Dawson (49), rapper Lord Infamous (46), Isaac Hanson (41), and former Girls Aloud vocalist Sarah Harding (40). 

Shoutout to the Great Beond for classical violinist Leonid Kogan, born on this day in 1924... for film & television score composer Robert Drasnin, born in 1928... for original Byrds member Gene Clark, who would have been 77... for Jeff Buckley, who would have been 54... for choral composer Thomas Ford, who died on this date in 1648... for Jethro Tull bassist John Glascock, who died today in 1979 at the age of 28 from a congenital heart defect... and for country singer-songwriter Don Gibson, who left us today in 2003. 

Also on November 17: The Sorceror, Gilbert and Sullivan's first operetta under the aegis of agent and producer Richard D'Oyly Carte, premieres at London's Royalty Theatre (1877)... Jan Paderewski makes his American debut at Carnegie Hall, playing Saint-Saën's Fourth Piano Concerto with the NY Symphony Society Orchestra (1891)... Roberta Peters makes her NY Metropolitan Opera debut in Don Giovanni (1950)... Harry Belafonte is at № 1 on the UK singles chart with 'Mary's Boy Child,' the first 45 RPM to sell over 1 million copies in the country. It will stay in the top spot for seven weeks making it this years Christmas № 1  (1957)... John Weightman, headmaster of a Grammar School in Croydon, Surrey bans all pupils from having Beatle haircuts saying, "This ridiculous style brings out the worst in boys physically. It makes them look like morons" (1963)... A 16-date UK package tour with Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Move, The Nice and Amen Corner stops at the City Hall, Sheffield. A review in the Sheffield Star noted: 'Like an electrified golliwog, Jimi Hendrix threw himself into a live-wire act that featured his intricate guitar interpretation. Quite an Experience'. Pink Floyd also release their third single in Britain, 'Apples And Oranges' (1967)... Slade are at the top of the UK singles chart with 'Coz I Luv You', the group's first of six British Number Ones. Deliberately misspelt song titles become a trademark for Slade, causing a great furore among teachers up and down the country... In America, Bob Dylan releases volume 2 of his Greatest Hits, and Laura Nyro releases Gonna Take a Miracle (1971)... John Lennon releases Double Fantasy (1980)... David Crosby breaks his left shoulder, leg and ankle in a motorcycle crash in Los Angeles (1990)... Bob Dylan tapes his MTV Unplugged performance at Sony Studios in NYC (1994)... Mariah Carey is forced to abandon a performance on Rome's historic Spanish Steps after crowds of tourists overwhelm security and swamp her. She takes shelter in a local shop before being given an escort by riot police to safety (1999)... The NME reports that Andy White, who played drums on The Beatles track 'Love Me Do' which is featured on the new Beatles Greatest Hits album will not earn enough from it to buy his own copy. White is to receive no more than his original session fee of £7 (2000)... Britney Spears announces that her first boyfriend Justin Timberlake was a huge disappointment in the endowment department. Talking during an MTV interview, Spears says  "Forget trouser snake, it's more like a trouser worm" when referring to her ex (2003).