It’s August 17th and these are some of the things that happened on this day in pop music history:
- In 2002, Nelly’s “Dilemma” ft. Kelly Rowland started a seven-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, replacing Nelly’s seven-week run at the top of the chart. This made Nelly only the fifth artist ever to replace himself at No. 1.
- In 1995, Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after slashing his wrist. The singer later explained that he had consumed a bottle of wine and taken a handful of Valium before and that he wasn’t trying to kill himself.
- In 1968 The Rascals started a five-week run at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with the anthem “People Got To Be Free.”
- In 1958, Belinda Jo Carlisle was born in Hollywood. Later, as Dottie Danger, she was a drummer in a the punk band Germs before co-founding what became The Go-Go’s. The band had hits like “We Got the Beat” and “Our Lips Are Sealed.” Carlisle also had solo success with “Mad About You” and “Heaven Is a Place on Earth.”
- In 1974, Eric Clapton started a four-week run at the top of the Billboard 200 album chart with 461 Ocean Boulevard. The title referred to the house in Golden Beach, Florida where the singer lived while making the album, which included Clapton’s cover of “I Shot the Sheriff.”
- In 2015, Boyzone singer Ronan Keating married model Storm Uechtritz in Scotland. Keating was previously married to Yvonne Connolly, with whom he has three children. He and Uechtritz welcomed a son in 2017.
- In 1991, Nirvana shot the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit” on a soundtrack in Culver City, California using fans recruited at a concert a few days earlier. Directed by Samuel Bayer, the video was inspired by the 1979 film Over the Edge and 1979’s Rock ’n’ Roll High School.
And that’s what popped on this day.