Tonight:
Cheap Trick, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Everything But The Girl, Specials, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, Journey, Neil Young, Heart, Korn, Def Leppard, Metallica, Roy Orbison, Radiohead, Who, Harry Chapin, Carole King, Sara Bareilles, Nils Lofgren, Steve Winwood, Eagles, Rolling Stones with Ike and Tina Turner, Doobie Brothers, Queen
Are You Experienced is the debut studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Released May 12, 1967, the LP was an immediate critical and commercial success, and it is widely regarded as one of the greatest debuts in the history of rock music. The album features Jimi Hendrix’s innovative approach to songwriting and electric guitar playing which soon established a new direction in psychedelic and hard rock music.
By mid-1966, Hendrix was struggling to earn a living playing the R&B circuit as a backing guitarist. After being referred to Chas Chandler, who was leaving the Animals and interested in managing and producing artists, Hendrix was signed to a management and production contract with Chandler and ex-Animals manager Michael Jeffery. Chandler brought Hendrix to London and began recruiting members for a band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, designed to showcase the guitarist’s talents.
In late October, after having been rejected by Decca Records, the Experience signed with Track, a new label formed by the Who’s managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp. Are You Experienced and its preceding singles were recorded over a five-month period from late October 1966 through early April 1967. The album was completed in 16 recording sessions at three London locations, including De Lane Lea Studios, CBS Studios, and Olympic Studios.
Released in the UK on May 12, 1967, Are You Experienced spent 33 weeks on the charts, peaking at number two. The album was issued in the US on August 23 by Reprise Records, where it reached number five on the US Billboard Top LPs, remaining on the chart for 106 weeks, 27 of those in the Top 40. The album also spent 70 weeks on the US Billboard Hot R&B LPs chart, where it peaked at number 10. The US version contained some of Hendrix’s best known songs, including the Experience’s first three singles, which, though omitted from the British edition of the LP, were top ten hits in the UK: “Purple Haze”, “Hey Joe”, and “The Wind Cries Mary”.
In 2000, it was voted number 63 in Colin Larkin’s All Time Top 1000 Albums. Rolling Stone ranked Are You Experienced 30th on its 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2010, the magazine placed four songs from the album on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time: “Purple Haze” (17), “Foxy Lady” (153), “Hey Joe” (201), and “The Wind Cries Mary” (379). In 2005, the record was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress in recognition of its cultural significance to be added to the National Recording Registry. Writer and archivist Reuben Jackson of the Smithsonian Institution wrote: “it’s still a landmark recording because it is of the rock, R&B, blues … musical tradition. It altered the syntax of the music … in a way I compare to James Joyce’s Ulysses.”
Jimi Hendrix – guitars, vocals; piano on “Are You Experienced?”
Noel Redding – bass guitar (except on “Red House”); backing vocals on “Foxy Lady,” “Fire,” and “Purple Haze”; rhythm guitar on “Red House”
Mitch Mitchell – drums; percussion on “Stone Free” and “Can You See Me”; backing vocals on “Fire”
The Breakaways – backing vocals on “Hey Joe”
Feature Year 1970 – Part II
January 3 – Former Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett releases his first solo album The Madcap Laughs.
January 4 – The Who drummer Keith Moon fatally runs over his chauffer with his Bentley trying to escape a mob outside a pub. The death is later ruled an accident.
January 7 – Max Yasgur, owner of the New York farm where the 1969 Woodstock Festival was held, is sued for $35,000 in property damages by neighboring farmers.
January 14 – Diana Ross and the Supremes perform for the last time together at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas.
January 16 – John Lennon’s London art gallery exhibit of lithographs, Bag One, is shut down by Scotland Yard for displaying “erotic lithographs”
January 24 – James Shep Sheppard, of The Heartbeats and Shep and the Limelites, is found murdered in his car on the Long Island Expressway
January 26 – Simon & Garfunkel release their final album together, Bridge Over Troubled Water. The title track and album stay #1 on the Billboard charts for six weeks and go on to win a record six Grammys at the 13th Grammy Awards, including “Record of the Year”, “Song of the Year”, and “Album of the Year.” In Britain it tops the album chart at regular intervals over the next two years, and becomes the best-selling album in Britain during the 1970s.
January 27 – Miles Davis makes the final recordings for his experimental album Circle in the Round, featuring sitar and tabla.
January 28 – The newly formed Band of Gypsies breaks up when guitarist Jimi Hendrix walks out after playing just two songs, telling the audience “I’m sorry we just can’t get it together”.
February 11 – The film The Magic Christian, starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr, is premiered in New York City. The film’s soundtrack album, including Badfinger’s “Come and Get It” (written and produced by Paul McCartney), is released on Apple Records.
February 13 – Black Sabbath release their self titled debut album in England.
February 14 – The Who records Live At Leeds in Yorkshire, England. The Grateful Dead plays an equally historic concert on the same date at the Fillmore East, New York City.
February 17 – Joni Mitchell announces that she is retiring from live performances, following her show at London’s Royal Albert Hall. She would be back performing concerts within a year.
February 23 – Ringo Starr appears on the television show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.
February 27 – Jefferson Airplane is fined $1,000 for using profanity during a concert in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
February 28 – Led Zeppelin perform in Copenhagen under the pseudonym The Nobs, to avoid a threatened lawsuit by Count Eva von Zeppelin, descendant of airship designer Ferdinand von Zeppelin.
March 4 – Janis Joplin is fined $200 for using obscene language during a concert performance in Tampa, Florida.
March 6 – Cult leader and suspected murderer Charles Manson releases an album titled Lie: The Love and Terror Cult to help finance his defense.
March 15 – West German pavilion at Expo ’70 in Osaka features 5½ hours’ daily live performances of the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen (to September 13).
March 19 – David Bowie marries model Angela Barnett.
March 21 – In Amsterdam, Dana wins the 15th annual Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland with the song “All Kinds of Everything”. She is elected to the European Parliament some 29 years later.
March 25 – José José gives a masterful performance of the song “El Triste” at the “Latin Song Festival II”, predecessor of the OTI Festival.
March 26 – Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary) pleads guilty to “taking immoral liberties” with a 14 year old girl in Washington, D.C., on August 31, 1969
April 2 – The London Magistrate’s Court hears arguments on John Lennon’s indecency summons for his exhibition of erotic lithographs during his art exhibit on January 16.
April 3 – Minneapolis nightclub the Depot opens, eventually renamed to First Avenue.
April 10 – Paul McCartney publicly announces the break-up of The Beatles.
April 14 – Michael Nesmith announces he has left The Monkees
April 17 – Johnny Cash performs at the White House at the invitation of President Richard M. Nixon.
April 20 – Paul McCartney’s first solo album, McCartney, is released.
April 24 – Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane is invited to a tea party at the White House by Tricia Nixon, daughter of U.S. President Richard Nixon. Slick arrives at the party with Abbie Hoffman, who is on trial for conspiring to riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The pair planned to spike Nixon’s tea cup with a heavy dose of LSD. Slick is recognized (although Hoffman is not) and told to leave because she is on the FBI list.
May 4 – Charles Wuorinen, 32, becomes the youngest composer ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
May 8 – The Beatles’ last LP, Let It Be, is released.
May 16 – Randy Bachman leaves The Guess Who to start up Bachman–Turner Overdrive.
May 20 – The Beatles’ film Let It Be premières in London and Liverpool. None of the four band members are in attendance at either screening.
May 23 – 24 – Grateful Dead make their first British appearance at Hollywood Festival, Newcastle-under-Lyme, on a bill also featuring Black Sabbath, Free, and Jose Feliciano. Everyone is completely upstaged by the previously unknown Mungo Jerry, whose debut single “In the Summertime” becomes the best-selling hit of the year.
June 13 – “The Long and Winding Road” becomes the Beatles’ last U.S. Number 1 song, though it is never released as a single in Britain. The Stooges play at the Cincinnati Pop Festival.
July 4 – The music countdown show American Top 40 debuts.
July 17 – The Guess Who perform at the White House for President Nixon and his guest The Prince of Wales. At Pat Nixon’s request, they do not play their breakthrough hit “American Woman” due to the song’s supposed anti-American lyrics.
July 26 – Guitarist Jimi Hendrix plays at his hometown of Seattle at Sicks Stadium where, under the influence of drugs, he starts verbally abusing members of the audience.
August 3 – Janis Joplin makes her final TV appearance, on the Dick Cavett Show.
August 26 – August 30 – The Isle of Wight Festival 1970 takes place on East Afton Farm off the coast of England. Some 600,000 people attend the largest rock festival of all time. Artists include Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Doors, Chicago, Richie Havens, John Sebastian, Joan Baez, Ten Years After, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Jethro Tull.
August 30 – The Rolling Stones open their European tour in Malmö, Sweden.
September 6 – During his final European tour, guitarist Jimi Hendrix is greeted by booing and jeering by German fans as a result of his late appearance on stage and incoherent stage performance. Bassist Billy Cox quits the tour and returns to the United States.
September 17 – Jimi Hendrix makes his last appearance, with Eric Burdon & War jamming at Ronnie Scotts Club in London. Hendrix, aged 27, dies the following day from a barbiturate overdose at his London hotel.
October 4 – Janis Joplin is found dead in her bedroom. She died from a heroin overdose, at the age of 27.
October 10 – Newly-independent Fiji adopts God Bless Fiji as its national anthem.
October 30 – Jim Morrison of The Doors, found guilty of indecent exposure and profanity because of his behavior during a March 1, 1969 concert, is sentenced to eight months of hard labor and a $500 fine.
November 23 – The Electric Factory concert venue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’ closes its doors.
December 8 – John Lennon conducts a lengthy and intensely candid interview with Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone magazine. He discusses his new solo album and the influence of primal therapy on its creation, as well as his personal traumas dating back to childhood. He also makes many revelations about his time in The Beatles, including his account of the group’s breakup. Dalida, still unable to cut a UK record deal, leaves Barclay Records for Orlando Records. Derek Bailey and Evan Parker found Incus Records, specialising in releasing free improvised music and said to be the first independent artist-owned record label. Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew is widely considered the first successful full-fledged fusion of rock and roll and jazz, as well as being one Davis’s best-known albums.
James Marshall “Jimi” Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. His mainstream career lasted only four years, but he is widely regarded as one of the most influential guitarists in history and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as “the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music”.
Born in Seattle, Washington, Hendrix began playing guitar at age 15. In 1961, he enlisted in the US Army and trained as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division, but he was discharged the following year. He moved to Clarksville, Tennessee soon after and began playing gigs on the Chitlin’ Circuit, earning a place in the Isley Brothers’ backing band and later with Little Richard, with whom he continued to work through mid-1965. He played with Curtis Knight and the Squires before moving to England in late 1966 after being discovered by Linda Keith, who interested bassist Chas Chandler of the Animals in becoming his first manager. Within months, Hendrix earned three UK top ten hits with the Jimi Hendrix Experience: “Hey Joe”, “Purple Haze”, and “The Wind Cries Mary”. He achieved fame in the US after his performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and his third and final studio album Electric Ladyland reached number one in the US in 1968; it was Hendrix’s most commercially successful release and his only number-one album. He was the world’s highest-paid performer, and he headlined the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. He died from barbiturate-related asphyxia on September 18, 1970, at age 27.
Join Dominic Forbes with a discussion with Sheb Gordon.
Shep E. Gordon (born 1946) is an American talent manager, Hollywood film agent, and producer. Gordon is featured in a 2013 documentary, Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon, which was directed by Mike Myers. He is known for his pleasant personality and friendliness. He has developed a close friendship with the 14th Dalai Lama and accompanied him to a visit at UB in 2006.
Of Jewish descent, Gordon practices Buddhism. Even though he is now a devout Buddhist, Shep continues the tradition of celebrating the Jewish holiday Passover with his cousin, Jesse Shapiro. He obtained his B.A. in 1968 from the State University of New York at Buffalo (UB) in sociology. He then moved to Los Angeles, California.
He first gained connections in Hollywood by meeting Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Alice Cooper in 1968. He quickly became Cooper’s agent, and subsequently was able to do work for other celebrities such as Anne Murray, Blondie, Teddy Pendergrass, and the late Luther Vandross. – Wikipedia
Today we feature six hours of Hits and Music from 1969.
January 4 – Guitarist Jimi Hendrix is accused of arrogance by British television producers after playing an impromptu version of “Sunshine of Your Love” past his allotted timeslot on the BBC1 show Happening for Lulu.
January 12 – Led Zeppelin’s eponymous debut album released.
January 18 – Pete Best wins his defamation lawsuit against The Beatles. Best had originally sought $8 million, but ended up being awarded much less.
January 30 – The Beatles perform for the last time in public, on the roof of the Apple building at 3 Savile Row, London. The performance, which was filmed for the Let It Be movie, is stopped early by police after neighbors complain about the noise.
February – Eric Burdon & The Animals disband.
February 3 – John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr hire Allen Klein as The Beatles’ new business manager, against the wishes of Paul McCartney.
February 4 – Paul McCartney hires the law firm of Eastman & Eastman, Linda Eastman’s father’s law firm, as general legal counsel for Apple Records.
February 15 – Vickie Jones is arrested for impersonating Aretha Franklin in a concert performance. Jones’ impersonation was so convincing that nobody in the audience asked for a refund.
February 17 – Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan record together in Nashville, Tennessee. Only one song, “Girl from the North Country”, would be released from these sessions.
February 18 – Lulu and Bee Gee Maurice Gibb are married in the UK.
February 24 – Johnny Cash performs “A Boy Named Sue” at California’s San Quentin State Prison
March 1 – During a performance at Miami’s Dinner Key Auditorium, Jim Morrison of the Doors is arrested for allegedly exposing himself during the show. Morrison is officially charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, indecent behavior, open profanity and public drunkenness.
March 12 – The 11th Grammy Awards are presented. Paul McCartney marries Linda Eastman in London. George Harrison and his wife Pattie are arrested in the UK on charges of hashish possession.
March 20 – John Lennon marries Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.
March 25-31 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono host a “Bed-In” for peace in their room at the Amsterdam Hilton, turning their honeymoon into an antiwar event. Lennon also learns from a morning newspaper that publisher Dick James has sold his shares of Northern Songs to Lew Grade’s Associated Television (ATV).
March 26 -Lotti Golden records her debut LP Motor-Cycle (Atlantic SD 8223) at Atlantic Studios in New York City, featured in Newsweek (July 1969).
March 29 – At the 14th annual Eurovision Song Contest held at the Teatro Real, Madrid, Spain, the final result is a four-way tie for first place between Spain (“Vivo cantando” – Salomé); United Kingdom (“Boom Bang-a-Bang” – Lulu); Netherlands (“De Troubadour” – Lenny Kuhr) and France (“Un jour, un enfant” – Frida Boccara). As there was no tie-break rule in force up to this time, the four entries involved, who each scored 18 points, are declared ex-aequo winners.
April 1 – The Beach Boys file a lawsuit against their record label, Capitol Records, for $2,041,446.64 in unpaid royalties and producer’s fees for Brian Wilson. Capitol retaliates by deleting most of its Beach Boys catalog, severely limiting the band’s income.
April 8 – Opening for Ten Years After at the Fillmore East in New York City, Family perform their first U.S. concert, and the show is an unmitigated disaster. Vocalist Roger Chapman, on his 27th birthday, throws a microphone stand into the audience, unintentionally in the direction of Fillmore East impresario Bill Graham.
April 20 – The L.A. Free Festival in Venice, California ends early following a riot of audience members, 117 of which were arrested.
April 22 – The first complete performance of The Who’s rock opera Tommy during a performance in Dolton, Devon, UK John Lennon officially changes his name from John Winston Lennon to John Winston Ono-Lennon.
April 24 – The Beatles make a $5.1 million counter offer to the Northern Songs stockholders in an attempt to keep Associated TV from controlling the band’s music.
April 28 – Chicago releases its debut album, The Chicago Transit Authority.
May 3 – Sly & the Family Stone release their breakthrough album, Stand!, which became one of the top-selling albums of the decade and made the band one of the most popular acts in rock and soul music.
Jimi Hendrix is arrested by Canadian Mounties at Toronto’s International Airport for possession of narcotics. Hendrix is released on $10,000 bail.
May 6 – In London, representatives of Warner Brothers-Seven Arts discuss the purchase of fifteen percent of The Beatles’ Northern Songs.
May 10 – The Turtles perform at the White House. Singer Mark Volman falls off the stage five times.
June 2 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono host a “Bed-In” at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Canada. The couple records the song “Give Peace a Chance” live in their suite with Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary, and several others.
June 12 – 25 – First Annual Rock & Roll Revival fifth estate Performers include amongst others MC5, Johnny Winter, Chuck Berry, Dr. John, Sun Ra, David Peel, The Stooges, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band
June 13 – Mick Taylor joins the Rolling Stones.
June 29 – Bass player Noel Redding announces to the media that he has quit the Jimi Hendrix Experience, having effectively done so during the recording of Electric Ladyland.
July 3 – Brian Jones is found dead in the swimming pool at his home in Sussex, England, almost a month after leaving The Rolling Stones.
July 5 – The Rolling Stones proceed with a free concert in Hyde Park, London, as a tribute to Brian Jones; it is also the band’s first concert with guitarist Mick Taylor. Estimates of the audience range from 250,000 to 400,000.
July 31 – Elvis Presley returns to live performances in Las Vegas. The engagement ends on August 28.
August 9 – Members of would-be folk singer Charles Manson’s “family” murder film star Sharon Tate and others, in Tate’s home.
August 15-17 – The Woodstock Music and Art Festival is held at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, New York, near Woodstock, New York. Performers include Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, Joan Baez, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Country Joe and the Fish, Ten Years After, and Sly & the Family Stone.
August 21-24 – The Bilzen Jazz and Pop Festival is held in Bilzen, Belgium. Performers include Deep Purple, Shocking Blue, The Moody Blues, Soft Machine, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, The Move and The Blossom Toes.
August 30-31 – The Isle of Wight Festival is held in Wootton Bridge. Performers include amongst others The Band, Blodwyn Pig, Edgar Broughton Band, Joe Cocker, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, Bob Dylan, Family, The Who, Free, Mighty Baby, The Moody Blues, The Nice, The Pretty Things, Third Ear Band.
September 13 – John Lennon and Plastic Ono Band perform at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival 12-hour music festival, backed by Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Alan White. Other performers on the bill include Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and up-and-comers Chicago. It is Lennon’s first-ever public rock performance without one or more of The Beatles since meeting Paul McCartney in 1957. He decides before returning to the UK to leave The Beatles permanently.
September 24 – Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra perform the Concerto for Group and Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in London, in the first elaborate collaboration between a rock band and an orchestra.
October 14 – The final single by Diana Ross & The Supremes, “Someday We’ll Be Together”, is released. The single becomes the final #1 hit of 1969 (and of the 1960s). After a farewell concert in January 1970, Diana Ross leaves the Supremes for a solo career.
October 18 – Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band Live at the Fillmore East, NY
November – Simon & Garfunkel give live concert at Iowa State University, where they record the track “Bye, Bye Love” for their upcoming album, Bridge Over Troubled Water.
November 1 – After seven years off the top of the charts, Elvis Presley hits No. 1 on the Billboard chart with “Suspicious Minds”.
November 7 – The Rolling Stones open their US tour in Fort Collins, Colorado.
November 8 – Simon & Garfunkel, on tour for the first time with a band, give live concert in Carbondale, Illinois, presumably at Southern Illinois University. The concert is not released until 1999 as part of a recording compiled by Head Records, called Village Vanguard.
November 11 – Simon & Garfunkel give live concert at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. The recording is later released in the 1990s as Back to College on Yellow Dog Records and A Time of Innocence on Bell Bottom Records.
November 15 – Musik für die Beethovenhalle in Bonn, a multi-auditorium retrospective concert of the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen, with the world premiere of his Fresco presented in four different foyer spaces continuously over a span of four-and-a-half hours.
November 29 – Billboard Magazine changes its policy of charting the A and B sides of 45 singles on its pop chart. The former policy charted the two sides separately, but the new policy considers both sides as one chart entry. The Beatles are the first beneficiary of the new policy as their current 45 single featuring “Come Together” on one side, and “Something” on the other, accrue enough combined points to make the single a #1 pop hit. Similarly, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” and “Down On The Corner” accrue enough combined points to reach #3 three weeks later.
November 30 – Simon & Garfunkel air TV special Songs of America, ostensibly an hour-long show that is anti-war and anti-poverty featuring live footage from their 1969 tour.
December – The Jackson 5 release their debut album, Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5.
December 6 – Altamont Free Concert
Zubin Mehta marries Nancy Kovack.
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash perform together on The Johnny Cash Show.
Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker & Steve Winwood form Blind Faith.
Brian Eno’s musical career begins as a member of Cornelius Cardew’s Scratch Orchestra.
January 4 – Guitarist Jimi Hendrix is jailed by Stockholm police, after trashing a hotel room during a drunken fist fight with bassist Noel Redding.
January 6 – The Gibson Guitar Corporation patents its Gibson Flying V electric guitar design.
January 13 – Johnny Cash performs his famous concert at Folsom State Prison in California.
February 1 – Universal Studios offers the Doors $500,000 to star in a feature film, which is never made.
February 4 – The Bee Gees make their American television debut on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
February 12 – Jimi Hendrix is given an honorary high school diploma from Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington. Hendrix is also given the key to the city.
February 16 – The Beatles, Mike Love, Mia Farrow, Donovan and others travel to India to visit Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at Rishikesh.
February 18 – David Gilmour joins Pink Floyd, replacing founder Syd Barrett, who had checked himself into a psychiatric hospital.
February 21 – McGraw-Hill, Inc., outbids eight other publishers and pays $150,000 for the U.S. rights to Hunter Davies’ authorized biography of the Beatles.
February 22 – Florence Ballard of the Supremes is released from her contract with Motown.
March 1 – Johnny Cash and June Carter are married in Franklin, Kentucky, with Merle Kilgore as best man.
March 8 – Bill Graham opens the Fillmore East in an abandoned movie theater in New York City.
March 25 – The 58th and final new episode of The Monkees airs on NBC.
March 30 – The Yardbirds record their live album Live Yardbirds at the Anderson Theater.
April 4 – James Brown appears on national television, in an attempt to calm feelings of anger in the United States following the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
April 6 – The 13th Eurovision Song Contest is held in the Royal Albert Hall, London. The winning song, Spain’s “La, la, la” is sung by Massiel, after Spanish authorities refused to allow Joan Manuel Serrat to perform it in Catalan. The UK finish in second place, just one point behind, with the song “Congratulations” sung by Cliff Richard, which goes on to outsell the winning Spanish entry throughout Europe.
April 7 – Singer/pianist/songwriter Nina Simone’s performance at Westbury Music Fair is dedicated to the late Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. The song “Why? (the king of love is dead)” by Gene Taylor is performed for the first time. the show was partially released on the Emmy nominated album Nuff Said (1968).
April 29 – The rock musical Hair opens on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre.
May 4 – Mary Hopkin performs on the British TV show Opportunity Knocks. Hopkin catches the attention of model Twiggy, who recommends her to Paul McCartney. McCartney would soon sign Hopkin to Apple Records.
May 5 – Buffalo Springfield performs together for the last time in Long Beach, California.
May 7 – Aretha Franklin records her live LP Aretha In Paris at the Olympia Theater. Karlheinz Stockhausen begins composing his fifteen intuitive music works, Aus den sieben Tagen.
May 14 – At a press conference, John Lennon and Paul McCartney introduce the Beatles’ new business concept, Apple Corps, Ltd., a disastrously mismanaged entertainment company that included a recording studio, a record label, and clothing store.
May 26 – Blues artist Little Willie John dies in prison after being convicted of manslaughter.
May 30 – The Beatles begin recording The White Album (officially titled, simply, The Beatles). Sessions would span over 4 months, ending on October 14.
June 1 – David Ruffin is fired from The Temptations
June 20 – Martha Reeves & the Vandellas make their debut at the Copacabana in New York City, winning a rave review in the New York Times. The engagement was recorded but remains in the Motown vaults.
July 7 – The Yardbirds perform for the last time before disbanding.
July 18 – Mina presents her Italian white soul hits “Se stasera sono qui” and “Colpo al cuore”. The performance is transmitted live without playback from the Auditorio A of the Radiotelevisione Italiana regional headquarters in Naples.
August 1 – Jeff Beck Group releases their album Truth. A seminal work of heavy metal, it incorporates blues and hard rock. It introduced the talents of Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood.
August 4 – Yes performs for the first time, at a summer camp.
August 23 – Simon & Garfunkel give a live concert at the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, California. A recording is later released on CD in 1994 by Australian company Vigotone Records as Voices of Intelligent Dissent.
September 7 – Led Zeppelin performs for the first time, billed as The New Yardbirds (the Yardbirds had disbanded two months earlier, and guitarist Jimmy Page subsequently formed this new group).
September 14 – The two sons of singer Roy Orbison, 10-year-old Roy DeWayne Orbison and 6-year-old Anthony King Orbison, die in a house fire in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Orbison’s youngest son is saved.
September 15 – Song of Summer, Ken Russell’s noted TV documentary about Frederick Delius, is shown for the first time as part of the BBC’s Omnibus series. PocketDiscs are released in several test markets in the United States.
October 8 – The soundtrack for the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet is released, containing popular “What Is a Youth” tune.
November 8 – John and Cynthia Lennon are divorced.
November 15 – 500,000 people march in Washington, D.C. for peace, which becomes the largest anti-war rally in U.S. history. In attendance: Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, John Denver, Mitch Miller, touring cast of Hair
November 17 – Diana Ross & the Supremes replace The Beatles’ hugely successful “Hey Jude” at number-one in the U.S. with “Love Child”; this would be the last of five turnovers at number-one between the two most successful music acts in America during the 1960s.
November 22 – The Beatles (also known as “The White Album”) by The Beatles is released. Also released is The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society by The Kinks.
November 26 – Cream plays their farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall. It will be the last time Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker play together until their 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
December 2 – Jimi Hendrix’s manager Chas Chandler quits over differences with Hendrix during the recording of Electric Ladyland. Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company perform their last concert together before Janis goes solo.
Elvis Presley’s 1968 Comeback Special airs on NBC.
December 9 – TCB airs on NBC starring Diana Ross & the Supremes and The Temptations, becoming the first variety special in America to feature an exclusively African American cast. Shinjuku Music Festival is broadcast for the first time by Nippon Cultural Broadcasting.
December 11 – The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus was filmed. Acts included The Rolling Stones, The Who, Taj Mahal, Jethro Tull, The Dirty Mac, and Marianne Faithful. This was the last appearance of Brian Jones as a member of The Rolling Stones.
December 20 – Peter Tork announces he is leaving The Monkees.
December 22 – The Animals reunite for one benefit concert at the Newcastle City Hall while Eric Burdon & The Animals are disbanding.
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