A calendar of rock history including birthdays, deaths, milestones, chart toppers, concerts, record releases, and other important events in music history.
Our sources include: Wikipedia, This Day in Music, This Day in Rock, Led Zeppelin.com, Classic Rock Concerts, The Concert Database, Live Music Archive, The Allman Brothers Band, Janis Joplin.net, The Who This Month, Setlist.fm, All The Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release by Jean-Michel Guesdon & Phillipe Margotin (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers,) Echoes – The Complete History of Pink Floyd by Glen Povey (Mind Head Publishing)
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1967, Monkees fans walked from London’s Marble Arch to the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square to protest Davy Jones’ planned call-up to the army. Jones was exempted because he was deemed responsible for supporting his father.
1968, The first date of a twice-nightly UK tour featuring, Amen Corner, Gene Pitney, Status Quo, Simon Dupree & The Big Sound, and Don Partridge kicked off at The Odeon Theatre, Lewisham, London.
1968, … (read more…)
1964, The Beatles held the top five places on the US singles chart, with the fifth place – “Please Please Me,” at number four, “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” while at third was “Roll Over Beethoven.” In the second position, “Love Me Do,” and at the top spot, “Can’t Buy Me Love.” They also had another nine singles on the chart, bringing their total to fourteen singles on the Hot 100.
1966, The Who performed at Top … (read more…)
1964, Bob Dylan made his first entry on the UK charts with “The Times They Are A-Changin.”
1965, Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs release their garage classic “Wooly Bully.”
1966, Peter Tork opened a solo stint in Hollywood at The Troubadour. Tork had already auditioned for The Monkees, who he will join later in the year.
1967, Working on The Beatles Sgt Pepper album at Abbey Road studios in London, … (read more…)
The Beach Boys, 1964
1964, The Beach Boys recorded their next single “I Get Around,” which became their first US number one in the summer of ’64.
1965, The Who made their first radio appearance on the UK BBC’s Joe Loss Pop Show.
1966, a charity concert at The Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, California, took place featuring, Jan and Dean, Sonny & Cher, The … (read more…)
1966, The Troggs recorded “Wild Thing” at Regent Sound Studio in London. The song went on to be a chart topping US and number two UK hit in June the following year.
1966, The Who and The Yardbirds appear together in a live French edition of Ready, Steady GO! called, appropriately, Ready, Steady, Allez! According to producer Vicki Wickham, both groups run out of the studio and into the alley at the end of the show. The cameras chase them only to catch the bands urinating against a wall. The same night The Who perform at La Locomotive Club in Paris, compèred by Ronnie Bird who will soon release “Ne t’en fais pas pour Ronnie,” a French-language re-write of “A Legal Matter.” … (read more…)
1967, Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitar live on stage for the first time when he was appearing at The Astoria in London, England. It was the first night of a 24-date tour with The Walker Brothers, Cat Stevens, and Engelbert Humperdink. The Fender Stratocaster burned on stage by Hendrix sold for £280,000 at a 2008 London auction of rock memorabilia.
1967, Pink Floyd played at the Top Spot Ballroom, Ross-on-Wye, … (read more…)
1967, The cover for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is photographed at a studio on London’s Flood Street, using cardboard cutouts and wax figures to represent the Beatles’ heroes. The effigies featured include Edgar Allan Poe, Lenny Bruce, Vidal Sassoon, Laurel and Hardy, Bob Dylan, and Huntz Hall. After the shoot, The Beatles resumed work at Abbey Road studios on “With a Little Help From My Friends” adding guitars, bass, … (read more…)
1967, During a European tour The Rolling Stones appeared at the Bremen-Stadthalle in Germany. Also on the tour, The Easybeats and The Creation.
1967, Working at Abbey Road studios The Beatles finished recording “Good Morning Good Morning.” They then started work on a new song “With a Little Help From My Friends,” (originally titled “Bad Finger Boogie,”) recording 10 takes of … (read more…)
1967, Working on sessions for the new Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s at Abbey Road studios in London, John Lennon recorded his lead vocal for “Good Morning Good Morning,” and Paul McCartney added a lead guitar solo to the track. Lennon had decided he wanted to end the song with animal sound effects, and asked that they be sequenced in such a way that each successive animal was capable of scaring or eating the preceding one. … (read more…)
1966, The Who appeared at the Central Pier, Morecambe, Lancashire, England.
1966, During an UK tour, Roy Orbison fell off a motorbike while scrambling at Hawkstone Park, Birmingham fracturing his foot. He played the remaining dates sat on a stool and walking on crutches.
1967, Fats Domino played his first ever UK date at London’s Saville Theatre, supported by The Bee Gees and Gerry And The Pacemakers.
1967, John … (read more…)
1965, Mick Jagger, Brian Jones and Bill Wyman all received electric shocks from a faulty microphone on stage during a Rolling Stones show in Denmark. Bill Wyman was knocked unconscious for several minutes.
1966, The Who performed at St. George’s Ballroom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England.
1967, Jimi Hendrix appeared at the Tabernacle Club in Stockport, Manchester, England.
1968, Pink … (read more…)
1966, At a photo session with Bob Whitaker’s studio in London, The Beatles posed in white coats using sides of meat with mutilated and butchered dolls for the cover of their next American album, Yesterday and Today. After a public outcry, the album was pulled from stores and re-issued with a new cover. At the time, some of the Beatles defended the use of the Butcher photograph. Lennon said that it was “as relevant as Vietnam” and McCartney … (read more…)
