MARCH 17

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
1919 - Nat "King" Cole, pianist, singer, bandleader, motion picture actor, radio and television variety show host, father of Capitol Records artist Natalie Cole, husband of Capitol Records artist Maria Ellington Cole, and Capitol Records artist as part of The King Cole Trio and as a solo artist, is born (according to census data) Nathaniel Adams Coles in Montgomery, Alabama
1932 - Dick Curless, singer, songwriter, and Capitol Records artist, is born Richard William Curless in Fort Fairfield, Maine

ON THIS DAY IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1970 - John Ono Lennon's Apple Records album "Plastic Ono Band - Live Peace In Toronto", distributed by Capitol Records in the United States, is certified Gold by the R.I.A.A., becoming Lennon's first solo album to do so
1987 - Anne Murray's Capitol Records album "Country" is certified Gold by the R.I.A.A.

ON THIS DAY NOT QUITE IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1962 - Rick Nelson's Imperial Records single "Young World", with "Summertime" on the flip side, enters the top 40 of Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart
1967 - Billy Corgan, singer, guitarist, songwriter, son of guitarist William Patrick Corgan, Sr., and member of the Virgin Records America group Smashing Pumpkins, is born William Patrick Corgan, Jr. in Elk Grove, Illinois
1979 - Blondie's Chrysalis Records single "Heart Of Glass" with "11:59" on the flip side, enters the top 40 of Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart

ON THIS DAY NOT IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1895 - Shemp Howard, Vaudeville, Broadway and motion picture actor and original member of Ted Healy and His Stooges, who after a fairly successful solo career will rejoin the group, now known as The Three Stooges, after his successor and brother Jerome Horowitz (aka "Curly" Howard) suffers a stroke, is born Samuel Horwitz in Brooklyn, New York
1916 - Ray Ellington (aka Ray Brown), singer, drummer, songwriter, and radio actor as part of the BBC Radio show "The Goon Show", is born in Kennington, London, England
1936 - Future Capitol Records artist Joe DiMaggio plays his first game with the New York Yankees