November 17th
1971 The Faces released their third and best album; “A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse.” The LP includes The Faces’ biggest hit, “Stay With Me,” plus a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Memphis, Tennessee.”
1980 John Lennon and Yoko Ono deliver “Double Fantasy.”
Following Lennon’s murder three weeks later, the album jumps to #1 on the Billboard chart and wins the ‘81 Grammy for Album of the Year.
1998 The Offspring unfurl their fifth studio album, “Americana.”
With the singles “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy),” “Why Don’t You Get A Job?,” “The Kids Aren’t Alright” and “She’s Got Issues,” the set sells over 15 million copies worldwide.
2008 Nickelback’s sixth studio effort, “Dark Horse” is released.
Vocalist Chad Kroeger reflects on the difficulty of creating a follow-up to “All The Right Reasons.” “There’s a mountain sitting behind us,” says Kroeger. “We’ve got to . . . put something out now that’s going to stand up to that.”
“Dark Horse” sells 3 million in the U.S. and 5 million worldwide (“All The Right Reasons” sold twice that).
MORE TODAY IN ROCK…
1941 The Byrds’ vocalist Gene Clark enters the world.
1957 Jim Babjak, guitarist for the Smithereens, has a birthday.
1966 Guns N’ Roses guitarist Richard Fortus has a birthday.
1970 Elton John performs a live concert for a New York radio station, W-P-L-J. The show is released as “11-17-70.” The best tracks are “Take Me To The Pilot” and “Burn Down The Mission” (hot piano work).
1973 Ike & Tina Turner’s rousing “Nutbush City Limits” misses the Top 20 (#22) in the U.S. but hits #4 in the U.K.
1978 Queen plays New York’s Madison Square Garden. During the song “Fat Bottomed Girls” they have semi-nude female cyclists ride around the stage.
1979 Jethro Tull bassist John Glasscock dies of a heart attack in London. He had a history of heart troubles.
1984 “Run To You” (Bryan Adams) is #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.
1988 Guns N’ Roses appear on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine with the headline “Hard Rock Heroes” following their trek as Aerosmith’s opening act.
1993 Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder is arrested in New Orleans. The charges, later dismissed, are public drunkenness and disturbing the peace.
2003 The Beatles release “Let It Be… Naked,” a remastered version of the original ’69 album with Phil Spector’s production removed. Spector was hired to salvage the project and added strings to several tracks – much to Paul McCartney’s displeasure.
2003 Meat Loaf collapses during a performance at London’s Wembley Arena. The 52-year-old singer undergoes heart surgery four days later.
2005 Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Kinks, Pink Floyd, Ozzy Osbourne, and Black Sabbath are inducted into the U.K. Music Hall of Fame in London. Ozzy lightens the mood by mooning the audience while performing with Sabbath. “I thought they needed livening up a bit,” says the Prince of Darkness.
2006 Peter Gabriel (former Genesis vocalist and solo performer) receives the annual Man Of Peace honor in Rome from the Gorbachev Foundation, an organization founded by the former USSR. leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Gabriel is recognized for his human-rights activism and promotion of peace.
2006 Green Day partnered with the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council to launch “Move America Beyond Oil,” a campaign calling for clean, renewable energy. “People are sick of our oil addiction and feel like nobody is doing anything about it,” says guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong. “The solutions are there, the support is there, but the leadership is not. Our message is that it’s OK… to take on that responsibility.”
2006 The James Bond movie “Casino Royale” opens in the U.S. The soundtrack includes the theme song “You Know My Name,” performed by Audioslave’s Chris Cornell.
2006 Six years down the drain. Citing irreconcilable differences, Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson files for divorce from actress Kate Hudson. The divorce becomes final the following year.
2007 The Eagles are #1 on the Billboard 200 with “Long Road Out Of Eden,” their first studio effort since ‘79.
2007 Seether’s “Fake It” is #1 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks. The song has a 14-week run at the top. 2007
2008 John McCain may have lost the ’08 presidential race but he’s still swinging. During the campaign Jackson Browne sued the candidate for using “Running On Empty” in a commercial without permission. Now, McCain’s lawyer files two lengthy motions claiming that the candidate was within his rights to use the song, and the other seeks damages from Browne for apparently “interfering with the politician’s free speech.” It all gets settled in Browne’s favor.
2009 John Mayer unveils his fourth studio album, “Battle Studies,” featuring “Who Says.”
2014 Billy Joel and Stevie Wonder receive the first ASCAP Centennial Awards in celebration of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ 100th anniversary.
2015 The Killers’ Brandon Flowers says musicians should “try not to be afraid” following the Paris terrorist attacks just days earlier. One of the targets was an Eagles Of Death Metal concert where 89 people died. U2 and Foo Fighters are among the artists cancelling concerts in the wake of the attacks. “To think that people will be afraid to go to concerts now is a shame,” says Flowers. “I hope we don’t let what happened get the better of us.”
2016 Metallica visits London’s Maida Vale Studios to lay down their first-ever BBC session. The heavy metal legends delivered a five-song in-studio performance; that includes “Atlas, Rise!” and “Hardwired,” for BBC Radio 1’s Rock Show With Daniel P. Carter.
2016 Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones publishes his autobiography, “Lonely Boy,” in the U.K. Jones covers his childhood in West London and the founding of the Sex Pistols.
2016 An angry letter from John Lennon to Paul McCartney and his then-wife Linda following the breakup of The Beatles sells at auction for just under $30,000. The two-page typed draft letter with hand-written annotations by Lennon illustrates the acrimony surrounding The Beatles break-up.
2018 The Beatles’ self-titled record, aka the “White Album,” returns to the Billboard 200 landing at #6 with opening week sales of 63,000 units – 50 years after its initial release. The remixed album also contains demos and additional session recordings. When it was originally released in ’69 the “White Album” was #1 for nine weeks.
2022 Tom Petty’s estate strenuously objects to Kari Lake using Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” in her attempt to overturn her Arizona gubernatorial loss. Her team placed the song in a commercial implying she’s not done yet.
2022 Skid Row performs “The Gang’s All Here” at Avicii Arena in Stockholm as part of a special event celebrating 100 years of Swedish ice hockey. The title track of the band’s ‘22 album is the first song to feature frontman Erik Grönwall who replaced ZP Theart’s after his dismissal from the band earlier in the year.
2023 A Kurt Cobain guitar goes for $1,587,500 during the “Played, Worn And Torn: Rock N’ Roll Iconic Guitars And Memorabilia” auction. The “Skystang I” guitar was played by the late Nirvana frontman during his final public performance on band’s ’93 – ’94 “In Utero” tour.
2023 Former Dream Theater vocalist Charlie Dominici passes away. He sang on the band’s debut album, “When Dream And Day Unite,” released in ’89.
