Calendar Search Results: band i
December 7, 1968 The Grateful Dead play "Rosemary" at Bellarmine College in Louisville, Kentucky. Despite the song being one of the most popular among Deadheads, this is the only time the band plays it live.
September 28, 1968 Questioning the band's commitment, Janis Joplin announces (through her manager, Albert Grossman) that she will be leaving Big Brother & the Holding Company. Her new group, The Kozmic Blues Band, doesn't last long, and she eventually records as a solo artist.
August 28, 1968 At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, overzealous police in riot gear brutally beat protestors who are demonstrating against the Vietnam War. The Doors, Graham Nash and Chicago all write songs about it.More
August 5, 1968 Guitarist Luther Perkins, a member of Johnny Cash's backing band, dies two days after being trapped in a house fire in Hendersonville, Tennessee, at age 40.
July 23, 1968 The up-and-coming UK band The Iveys sign to the Beatles' label Apple Records, which rechristens them Badfinger. They become the first signing to generate hits for the label, but their story does not end well as Apple falls apart and Badfinger ends up in a legal hell that drives two members to suicide.
July 17, 1968 The Beatles' fourth film, the animated fantasy Yellow Submarine, premieres in London. Although the four band members in the picture are voiced by professional actors, the band itself makes a cameo in the finale, leading movie audiences through the song "All Together Now."
July 9, 1968 David Ruffin is fired from The Temptations after missing a show. The lead singer on their hits "My Girl" and "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," Ruffin clashes with his bandmates and with Motown head Berry Gordy before he is fired.
July 7, 1968 The Yardbirds disband immediately after a gig in Luton, England. Jimmy Page begins forming what will become Led Zeppelin.
July 1, 1968 The Band release Music from Big Pink, their debut studio album.More
May 7, 1968 On a plane ride returning home from his last gig with the band Bluesology, keyboard player Reginald Dwight looks for a stage name he can use for his burgeoning solo career. In the cabin, he comes across the band's horn player Elton Dean and lead singer Long John Baldry, and asks them if he can appropriate their names to concoct a new one for himself. They agree, and Elton John is born.
May 4, 1968 Steppenwolf make their US television debut, performing "Born to Be Wild" on American Bandstand.
March 26, 1968 Guitarist James Iha is born in Chicago. In 1988 he forms Smashing Pumpkins with Billy Corgan. The band breaks up in 2000 and reforms in 2006, but Iha doesn't rejoin until 2018.
March 25, 1968 The last episode of The Monkees airs on NBC, concluding the show's two-season run. Titled "The Frodis Caper," it's a very sci-fi episode directed by Micky Dolenz. It opens with the band waking up to "Good Morning Good Morning" by The Beatles, one of the first uses of a Beatles song in a non-Beatles production.
March 16, 1968 Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay" hits #1, becoming the first-ever posthumous #1 hit. Redding died in a plane crash on December 10, 1967.More
March 14, 1968 The BBC-TV program Top Of The Pops broadcasts The Beatles new promotional video for "Lady Madonna," which, oddly enough, is made up entirely of clips from the band's recording of "Hey Bulldog."
February 25, 1968 The Jimi Hendrix Experience play two shows at the Civic Opera House in Chicago. Between shows, Hendrix gets "casted" by the inventive groupie Cynthia Plaster Caster, who makes a mold of his love gun.More
February 22, 1968 Sublime lead singer Brad Nowell is born in Long Beach, California. He dies of a drug overdose in 1996 at 28, just months before the band break through with a string of hits that includes "Doin' Time" and "Santeria." Sublime return to action with Brad's son Jakob at the helm in 2023.
February 22, 1968 Genesis release their first single, "The Silent Sun." At this point, the band is a 5-piece fronted by Peter Gabriel with Chris Stewart on drums. Phil Collins joins two years later.
February 2, 1968 After cycling through a number of band names (including Bag 'O Nails and Navy Blue), Ian Anderson's group plays the Marquee Club in London as Jethro Tull, a name that sticks. Their agent suggested the name; Jethro Tull is the inventor of the seed drill.
January 26, 1968 At the University of Southampton, Pink Floyd play their first gig without founding member Syd Barrett, who never returns to the band. The 22-year-old Barrett is an early acid casualty, no longer able to contribute to the group.
January 20, 1968 John Fred and His Playboy Band's "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)" hits #1. The song is a takeoff on The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds."
January 20, 1968 Roughly three months after the death of Woody Guthrie, a tribute concert is put on in the folk hero's name by Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, The Band, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Tom Paxton, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Odetta, and Richie Havens at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
January 16, 1968 Producer, songwriter and musician Atticus Ross is born in London, England. In the early 2000s, Ross begins a long-running collaboration with Nine Inch Nails and the band's frontman, Trent Reznor. He becomes an official member of the group in 2016.
January 4, 1968 Jimi Hendrix spends the night in a Swedish jail after trashing a hotel room, reportedly during a fight with his bandmate Noel Redding.
December 27, 1967 Bob Dylan releases his eighth album, John Wesley Harding, featuring the classic tune "All Along the Watchtower." The Jimi Hendrix Experience later covers the song, which becomes the band's biggest US hit, peaking at #20 in October 1968.
December 10, 1967 Bar-Kays saxophonist Phalon Jones, age 19, dies in a Wisconsin plane crash along with three of his bandmates and Otis Redding.
December 10, 1967 Along with three of his Bar-Kays bandmates, 18-year-old guitarist Jimmie King dies in a Wisconsin plane crash that also takes the life of Otis Redding.
December 10, 1967 The previously unknown San Francisco group The Steve Miller Blues Band signs to Capitol for an unprecedented $750,000, dropping "Blues" from their name in the process.
December 10, 1967 Otis Redding dies at age 26 when his personal Beechcraft plane crashes into Lake Monona near Madison, Wisconsin. Members of his road band The Bar-Kays also die in the crash; the only survivor is the band's trumpet player Ben Cauley. One month later, "Dock of the Bay" is released, becoming the first #1 song issued after the artist's death.
December 10, 1967 Keyboardist Ronnie Caldwell dies in a Wisconsin plane crash along with three of his Bar-Kays bandmates and Otis Redding, one week before his 19th birthday.
©2026 Songfacts®, LLC