November 24, 1965 NBC airs the musical special Frank Sinatra: A Man And His Music to honor the crooner.
November 19, 1965 At the Glad Rags Ball in London, The Who's lead singer, Roger Daltrey, storms off stage in the middle of a set plagued with PA problems. Rumors of a Who breakup spread quickly throughout London with most of them naming Boz Burrell (ofKing Crimson and Bad Company) as Daltrey's possible replacement.
October 31, 1965 Lead singer Wayne Fontana leaves his group The Mindbenders.
October 26, 1965 The Beatles are awarded Members of the British Empire (MBE) medals from Queen Elizabeth II in a ceremony held at Buckingham Palace. John Lennon claims they smoked marijuana in the bathroom before receiving the awards, although George Harrison said it was just tobacco. Harrison and Paul McCartney put the awards on their jackets for the Sgt. Pepper album cover; Lennon sends his back in 1969.
October 8, 1965 C.J. Ramone (bassist and occasional vocalist for The Ramones) is born Christopher Joseph Ward in Queens, New York City.
September 16, 1965 The Dean Martin Show makes its debut, with Martin using his hit "Everybody Loves Somebody" as the theme song. The popular variety show runs until 1974 and introduces us to a group of backup dancers called The Golddiggers. Martin coins a new nickname for guest Frank Sinatra when he refers to his pal as "Chairman of the Board."
September 15, 1965 Ford offers factory-installed 8-track tape players in its Mustang, Thunderbird and Lincoln models. This marks the first time 8-track players are widely available, so you can only get the tapes in auto parts stores or Ford dealers. The players have a tendency to chew up the tapes, leading to 8-track roadkill as drivers throw the tangled tapes out their windows.More
August 15, 1965 The Beatles play Shea Stadium in New York - home of The Mets - marking the first time a rock band headlines a stadium in America. With Beatlemania in full force, the screaming girls drown out the band in a less-than-intimate, but very memorable performance in front of a sold-out crowd of 56,000.More
July 25, 1965 Dylan plugs in! At the Newport Folk Festival, Bob Dylan plays an electric set for the first time, horrifying folkies everywhere.More
May 21, 1965 Ten years into the Rock Era, it looks like it's here to stay. Time magazine reports on the rock revival with the cover story, "Rock 'n' Roll: The Sound of the Sixties."More
May 6, 1965 At a hotel in Clearwater, Florida, Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones can't sleep because there's a guitar riff running through his head. He rolls a tape, falls asleep and wakes up the next morning to find he's recorded the riff to "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."More
May 6, 1965 James Brown records "I Got You (I Feel Good)" during his first session at Criteria Studios in Miami. It becomes one of his signature songs and introduces his new catch phrase: "I feel good!"
December 23, 1964 Eddie Vedder is born Edward Severson III in Evanston, Illinois (Vedder is his mom's maiden name). He gets the gig fronting Pearl Jam by writing lyrics and singing on an instrumental demo tape his soon-to-be bandmates compiled. Those three songs make it to their debut album, Ten, and one of them, "Alive," becomes one of their best-known songs.
November 6, 1964 The Hank Williams biopic Your Cheatin' Heart premieres in Nashville for the Country Music Association, featuring George Hamilton as the honky-tonk legend and his son, a 15-year-old Hank Williams, Jr., overdubbing his father's singing.
October 24, 1964 The T.A.M.I. show (Teenage Music International Show) concert is held in Santa Barbara, California, featuring Chuck Berry, The Supremes, The Beach Boys, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, The Rolling Stones, The Miracles, Jan & Dean, Lesley Gore and Gerry and the Pacemakers. The concert is released as a movie later in 1964.
September 27, 1964 In their national TV debut, The Beach Boys appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing "I Get Around."
September 5, 1964 British group The Animals hit #1 in America with "The House Of The Rising Sun," a folk song set in New Orleans about either a brothel or a prison.More
August 24, 1964 Taking him up on his telegram invitation to help out in any way he can in America, Beatles manager Brian Epstein meets Elvis Presley manager "Colonel" Tom Parker for the first time when they have lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
June 4, 1964 Chris Kavanagh (drummer for Sigue Sigu Sputnik, Big Audio Dynamite) is born in Woolwich, London, England.
May 30, 1964 Country singer Wynonna Judd is born Christina Claire Ciminella in Ashland, Kentucky. She rises to fame alongside her mom, Naomi Judd, in the duo The Judds.
May 26, 1964 Lenny Kravitz is born in Manhattan, New York, to The Jeffersons actress Roxie Roker and TV executive Sy Kravitz. He releases his debut album, Let Love Rule, in 1989.More
May 4, 1964 Denny Laine, Ray Thomas and Mike Pinder form the M&B Five in Birmingham, England. They later change the name to The Moody Blues.
March 26, 1964 Barbra Streisand opens on Broadway in Funny Girl, two months after landing her first Top 10 hit with the show's number "People." More
January 31, 1964 Prolific music video director Sophie Muller is born in St Pancras, London, England. She'll get her start in the music biz directing several promos for the Eurythmics and their lead singer Annie Lennox before bringing her talent to a wide array of acts, including Sade, No Doubt, Gwen Stefani, Sarah McLachlan, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Birdy, Garbage, Radiohead, Kings of Leon, and many more.More
January 1, 1964 BBC-TV premieres a new musical variety show entitled Top Of The Pops, kicked off by The Rolling Stones' "I Wanna Be Your Man," followed by lip-synced performances from Dusty Springfield, The Dave Clark Five, The Hollies and The Swinging Blue Jeans.More
December 28, 1963 The magazine The New Yorker publishes an interview with Beatles manager Brian Epstein in their "Talk Of The Town" column about the band's upcoming Ed Sullivan gig - the first major press the group has received in the US.
December 27, 1963 London's Sunday Times names Paul McCartney and John Lennon the Outstanding Composers of 1963.
December 24, 1963 Mary Ramsey, who goes on to replace Natalie Merchant as lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs, is born in Washington, DC.
December 8, 1963 Frank Sinatra Jr. is kidnapped in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and freed three days later after his famous father pays the $240,000 ransom. The three men responsible are eventually caught and incarcerated.
November 22, 1963 US president John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The incident inspires several songs, including Connie Francis' "In The Summer Of His Years" and The Beach Boys' "Warmth Of The Sun."
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