This Date In Music History- August 17

Birthdays:

Boston drummer Sib Hashian was born in 1949.

New Kid on the Block Donnie Wahlberg was born in Dorchester, Mass in 1969.

Belinda Carlisle (Go-Go's) was born in 1958.

Born on this day in 1944, John Seiter of Spanky And Our Gang.

History:

In 2004, Jimi Hendrix memorabilia went on display at London`s Marquee Club. Valued at more than $27 million, the massive exhibit included 50 hours of unreleased music, live film footage and Hendrix instruments. The collection later went on the auction block.

Nat King Cole recorded "Unforgettable," which reached #12 in 1951. Forty years later, Natalie Cole overdubs her voice onto the original, creating a father-daughter duet that nearly charted as high.

In 1960, a quartet comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Pete Best (later replaced by Ringo Starr) performs as "the Beatles" for the first time in Hamburg, Germany.

Paul Williams of The Temptations, died of a self inflicted gunshot wound on August 17, 1973 at the age of 34. Williams had left the Temptations in 1971 because of poor health, although he continued to supervise their choreography. At the time of his death, he owed $80,000 in taxes and his celebrity boutique business had failed.

In 1974, Nottingham England's Paper Lace had Billboard's top tune with a song about a gangster shootout called "The Night Chicago Died". After the song became a hit, the band's manager contacted Chicago's mayor Richard Daley, hoping for a civic reception. What they got instead was 'a rather rude letter', ending in ...are you nuts?

In 1995, Microsoft bought the rights to use the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up" to advertise their Windows 95 software.

Today in 1968, the song "People Got to Be Free" by the Rascals topped the charts and stayed there for 5 weeks.

The Newport Jazz Festival kicked in 1954 with headliners Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald.

In 2004, after thirteen years, General Motors stopped using Bob Seger's "Like A Rock" in their ads for the Chevy Silverado pickup. About time.

1999- Led Zeppelin topped a chart of Britain's most bootlegged musicians, compiled by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), after identifying 384 bootleg titles featuring Led Zeppelin performances. The bootleg chart was complied from the BPI's archive of some 10,000 recordings seized over the past 25 years. The Beatles, came in second with 320 entries, other acts listed included The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd.

In 1977, the day after the day Elvis died, President Jimmy Carter commemorates the Memphis Flash "Elvis Presley's death deprives our country of a part of itself. He was unique and irreplaceable. More than twenty years ago, he burst upon the scene with an impact that was unprecedented and will probably never be equaled. His music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture. His following was immense and he was a symbol to people the world over, of the vitality, rebelliousness and good humor of his country." Florists Transworld Delivery says it had delivered more flowers to Graceland than for any other event in the company's history.

Classic vocalist Pearl Bailey ("Takes Two to Tango") died in 1990 at age 72, from a heart attack.

1979 - The New York post reported that Anita Pallenberg (the wife of Keith Richards) was linked to a witches coven in South Salem, New York where Richards owned a house. A policeman claimed he was attacked by a flock of black-hooded, caped people and a local youth claimed he had been invited by Pallenburg to take part in ‘pot smoking sex orgies’. Locals also claimed they found ‘ritualistic stakes’ and small animals that had been ‘sacrificed’ near the house.

Gladys Knight appears on ABC-TV's "Dating Game" in 1972.

Police in Los Angeles began an investigation into child abuse allegations against Michael Jackson in 1993. The investigation began after the son of a Beverly Hills dentist told his therapist that Jackson sexually abused him. Jackson's security staff claimed the allegations followed a failed attempt to blackmail the singer for 20 million dollars. Although no criminal charges were ever laid, lawyers for the 13 year-old filed a civil suit a month later claiming damages for sexual battery, seduction and other allegations. The suit was settled out of court in January 1994 for somewhere between $5 to $24 million.

Isaac Hayes hits #1 with "Theme From Shaft" in 1971.

Famed artist Rick Griffith died in 1991. He designed album sleeves for Jimi Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane.