May 24, 1969 The Beatles' "Get Back," featuring piano from Billy Preston, hits #1 in America.
May 23, 1969 The Who release their album Tommy, a rock opera about a deaf, dumb and blind boy who plays a mean pinball.More
April 10, 1969 Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin's steamy duet "Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus" hits #1 in the UK, where it's banned by the BBC.More
March 31, 1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold a press conference in Vienna where they announce their "Bagism" project, giving the entire press conference from inside a white bag.
February 15, 1969 Rolling Stone's front cover features an article on "groupies" - introducing a new term to the popular lexicon.More
January 30, 1969 The Beatles stage their famous rooftop concert on the roof of Apple Records in London. After performing a few songs, including "Get Back" and "Don't Let Me Down," the police shut them down as a large crowd gathers. It is The Beatles' last public performance.More
January 22, 1969 Billy Preston arrives at Apple Studios, where he helps The Beatles complete the Let It Be album. Preston gives them a musical jolt but more importantly provides a buffer for their infighting - George Harrison had quit the group 12 days earlier.
January 12, 1969 Led Zeppelin's self-titled debut album is released in America.More
December 28, 1968 Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac, Steppenwolf and the Grateful Dead, land in Hallandale, Florida's Gulfstream Park to entertain 100,000 fans at Miami Pop Festival II, the East Coast's first major rock festival.More
December 26, 1968 Led Zeppelin's first US tour begins in Denver. They're the opening act for Vanilla Fudge.More
December 26, 1968 D.A. Pennebaker's documentary Monterey Pop, which chronicles the 1967 Monterey International Pop Music Festival (where The Who smashed their instruments and Jimi Hendrix set his guitar on fire) opens in theaters.
December 14, 1968 Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" hits #1 in the US, where it stays for seven weeks. The song was recorded by a few different Motown acts before a version by Gladys Knight & the Pips was finally released, reaching #2 in 1967. Gaye's version, released about a year later, became an even bigger hit and the definitive rendition.
December 14, 1968 Motown acts hold the top three spots on the Hot 100: 1) "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye 2) "Love Child" by The Supremes 3) "For Once In My Life" by Stevie Wonder The chart stays the same the next week, and a week later Stevie and The Supremes trade positions.
December 11, 1968 The Rolling Stones record their Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus TV special - and then bury it for nearly 30 years.More
November 12, 1968 Neil Young releases his self-titled debut solo album, featuring one of his most enduring songs, "The Loner." More
November 11, 1968 John Lennon and Yoko Ono release the album Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins with a cover photo of the pair naked. Many record stores stock it in a brown paper wrapper.More
November 9, 1968 Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant marries his first wife, Maureen, in London. The couple holds the wedding reception at the local club "The Roundhouse," where the group plays its first London gig.
November 2, 1968 Jose Feliciano's unique rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner," which he performed on acoustic guitar before Game 5 of the World Series on October 7, enters the Hot 100 at #89, making it the first version of the US National Anthem to chart (it peaks at #50). Many singers start adding their own flavor to the song; the next version to chart is Whitney Houston's Super Bowl performance in 1991, which hits #20.
October 7, 1968 Long before the US National Anthem becomes a performance piece, the Puerto Rican singer Jose Feliciano makes waves when he does a slow, jazzy version of the song before Game 5 of the World Series between the Tigers and Cardinals. Among those joining the uproar are Tigers starting pitcher Mickey Lolich, who complains that the overly long rendition screwed up his pregame routine.More
September 25, 1968 No more whistling "Dixie" for University of Miami students as the school becomes the first university to ban the controversial Confederate anthem from being played at public events.More
September 18, 1968 The Beatles pause their Abbey Road Studios recording sessions for "Birthday" so that they can run back to Paul McCartney's house and watch the British-television premiere of the 1956 American film The Girl Can't Help It, featuring Little Richard and Fats Domino. Suitably inspired, they return to the studio after the viewing and complete the song that night.
September 4, 1968 "Street Fighting Man" by The Rolling Stones is banned in Chicago and some other cities as local officials fear it will incite riots.
July 23, 1968 The Jackson 5 audition for Motown Records, with 9-year-old Michael singing lead and doing some sweet dance moves on James Brown's "I Got The Feelin'." The label signs them three days later.More
June 28, 1968 Jefferson Airplane make the cover of Life magazine under the headline: "Jefferson Airplane, Top Rock Group, With Music That's Hooked the Whole Vibrating World."
May 26, 1968 Little Willie John, known for '50s and '60s R&B hits like "Need Your Love So Bad" and "Fever," dies of a heart attack at age 30 while serving a sentence for manslaughter at Washington State Penitentiary. He was imprisoned in 1966 as a result of a fatal knifing incident after a performance in Seattle.
April 19, 1968 George Harrison and John Lennon, fearing that their instructor, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, is a fraud and has been preying on women at his meditation camp in India, leave the retreat two weeks early and distance themselves from the Maharishi. Harrison though, remains dedicated to the concept of Transcendental Meditation.
April 6, 1968 The Graduate soundtrack hits #1 in America thanks to Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson," which tops the Hot 100 less than two months later.More
April 4, 1968 US civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. is killed after being shot on a Memphis motel balcony. King's life inspires a number of songs, including U2's "Pride (In The Name Of Love)."More
March 23, 1968 Blur frontman Damon Albarn is born in London. The group helps define Britpop in the '90s with songs like "Parklife" and "Song 2," but in the '00s he becomes better known as the main voice and musical architect of Gorillaz, the most popular virtual band ever assembled.
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
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