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January 17

1927   Cow Cow Davenport releases 78 of "Jim Crow Blues", an anti-apartheid track of it's day.
1931   Harold Miller of the Rays is born.
1940   Muhammad Ali, the greatest, born. Record output includes, "I Am the Greatest"
1943   Pop singer Chris Montez born in LA. "The More I See You"(1966), "Let's Dance" (1962) & "Call Me" ((1966), all on A&M records.
1944   Francoise Hardy (the 'Yeah Yeah" girl), French singer-songwriter born in Paris.

New York's Metropolitan Opera House is host, for the first time, to a jazz concert. Appearing are...

1945   Delfonic William Hart born in Washington, DC. One of the earliest Philly vocal groups.
1948   Mick Taylor, former Rolling Stones guitarist born in Hertfordshire, UK. Mick was first in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, replaced Brian Jones in the Stones in '69, with Jack Bruce in '74, solo afterwards
1953   Major label, Phillips, officially launched in the UK. (At least they have their annual party on this day!)
1955   It's Steve Earle's birthday.
1956   Paul Young born in Luton, UK. Paul was in the R&B/soul outfit the Q-tips before his solo career.
1957   Bangle Susanna Hoffs, born. DayRock/Tobler gives D.O.B. as 1/17/61.
1958   In Luton, UK, Jez Strode of Kaja (originally Kajagoogoo) is born.
1960   John Crawford of Berlin (um, the band) is born.
1964   Vee Jay Records seeks an injunction in New York City against Capitol and Swan Records from manufacturing, distributing or advertising any recordings by the Beatles. Vee Jay, a small Black owned indie label took a chance on the Fab Four and issued their first singles and LP in the US when the US subsidiary of Capitol Records passed on their option when they thought no one here would be interested.
1965   Ode to a High Flying Bird, by Stones' drummer Charlie Watts, is published in the UK. Meant as an homage to sax great Charlie Parker, also known as ''Yardbird' or 'Bird', Watts seems to have little idea who he was. That same day the band records "The Last Time" at Hollywood Studios in Los Angeles. This song will be the first Jagger/Richards composition to appear on an A-side of a single.
1966   After viewing the pilot show, NBC TV buys the Monkees series. 72 hours later, the sponsors Kellogg's and Yardley have been arranged.
1967   The Tea Party, The East Coast's first and largest rock ballroom opens in Boston. Only the Avalon in SF is bigger, but then again this is Boston, and nothing important ever takes place here.
1968   An unreleased Bob Dylan song, "The Mighty Quinn", performed by Manfred Mann, hits #1 in the UK. Dylan's version stays underground until The Basement Tapes are released.
1969   First Led Zeppelin LP released. The eponymous album lingers in the charts 73 weeks without reaching the top.
1970   32 year old Chicago born R&B singer Billy Stewart and three band members die in North Carolina, as their car plunges off a bridge and into the river Neuse. Billy's biggest hit was an unlikely cover of George Gershwin's, "Summertime"

Doors concert at New York's Felt Forum recorded. This is the first of many shows to be included on their Absolutely Live LP.

Billy ("Summertime") Stewart dies.

1972   Highway 51 South in Memphis, TN is renamed Elvis Presley Blvd. The City no longer puts signs up, because they keep disappearing. The devoted claim it's Elvis' ghost, cynics say alien fans, but the city writes it off as collectors and hooligans.
1974   Dino Martin, son of crooner Dean and one time cog in teen combo Dino, Desi & Billy is arrested for possession and attempted sale of two illegal machine guns.
1977   Marshall Tucker & Charlie Daniels Bands perform at the first of a series of benefits for Allman Brothers roadie Scooter Herring. Scoot is looking at 75 years and over a quarter of a million in legal fees for dealing cocaine because Greg Allman squealed like a pig. Only two years earlier the state of Georgia named the group "Outstanding Community Organization of the Year"!
1978   Louise Mandrell records her debut at the Nashville Sound Shop. "Put it on Me" is a flop, while older sister Barbara's single, "Sleeping Single In a Double Bed" is one of the years top sellers.
1979   Singers Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton announce that after talking together at a "week long slumber party", they will record an LP together. Tracks are laid down but the LP does not appear until _______. [as the Trio?]
1982   Tommy Tucker, famous for the '64 R&B hit "Hi Heel Sneakers", dies after being overcome by poisonous fumes (carbon tetrachloride) from the materials he was using to renovate his floors in New York. He was 48.
1989   Axl Rose from Guns & Roses and his brother are arrested for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct in Los Angeles. Won't be the last time!

Patti McCabe Barnes, singer with the early girl group, the Poni-Tails, dies of cancer at 48. Biggest hit of this Cleveland group was "Born Too Late".

1990   This years R&R Hall of Famers are Hank Ballard, The Four Seasons, The Four Tops, The Kinks, Simon and Garfunkel, the Platters and The Who
1992   Veteran saxophonist Charlie Ventura dies at 75 of lung cancer.
1996   David Bowie, Tom Donahue, The Jefferson Airplane, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Little Willie John, Pink Floyd, Pete Seeger, The Shirelles and the Velvet Underground are inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the first time the ceremony takes place in Cleveland, Ohio. By 1998 record execs. grew a little tired of visiting the hinterlands and were back making small talk at the Waldorf in NYC.