From the MCRFB music calendar:
Events on this date: MARCH 17
1956: Carl Perkins made his television debut on the ABC-TV variety show Ozark Jamboree.
1957: Elvis Presley purchases Memphis’ Graceland mansion, featuring 23 rooms and 10,000 square feet of space on 13.8 acres, for $102,500.
1962: According to today’s edition of Billboard magazine, Ray Charles starts his own artist-owned record label, Tangerine Records.
1968: The Bee Gees make their first U. S. television appearance, performing “To Love Somebody” and “Words” on CBS-TV’s The Ed Sullivan Show.
1975: At the height of her popularity, Cher graces the cover of Time magazine on this date.
1976: Boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter murder case is re-opened, largely due to the attention brought to it by Bob Dylan’s recent hit song, “Hurricane.”
1990: That’s What Friends Are For, an AIDS benefit concert at the Radio City Music Hall that also serves to celebrate 15 years of the Arista record label, features perfomances by the label’s own Barry Manilow, Dionne Warwick, Daryl Hall and John Oates, and Whitney Houston.
2004: Ray Davis of the Kinks is awarded a Commander of the British Empire medal from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.
2006: Beset by legal and financial woes, Michael Jackson closes his Neverland Ranch in California.
2008: Eight years to the day their romance became public, model and activist Heather Mills is awarded $48.6 million in her divorce settlement from Paul McCartney.
And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day . . . . M A R C H 1 7
