1967 in Music - Events

Events

• January 8 - Elvis Presley turns 32. His January recording session, in Nashville, is "Guitar Man" with Jerry Reed on guitar.
• January 13 - Stephen Foster Memorial Day is observed for the first time in the United States (on the 103rd anniversary of the composer's death).
• January 15 – The Rolling Stones appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. At Ed Sullivan's request, the band change the lyrics of "Let's Spend the Night Together" to "Let's spend some time together".
• January 16 – The Monkees begin work on Headquarters, the first album to give them complete artistic and technical control over their material.
• January 17 - The Daily Mail newspaper reports 4,000 potholes in Blackburn, Lancashire; and Guinness heir Tara Brown is killed in a car wreck. These articles inspire lyrics for The Beatles song "A Day in the Life".
• January 22 – Simon & Garfunkel give live concert at Philharmonic Hall in New York City. Some of this concert is released on October 4, 1997, on their box set Old Friends, but most is not released until July 2002.
• January 30 – The Beatles shoot a promotional film for their forthcoming single "Strawberry Fields Forever" at Knole Park in Sevenoaks.
• February 3 – UK record producer Joe Meek murders his landlady and then commits suicide by shooting himself in the head at Holloway, North London.
• February 6 – Michael Nesmith and Micky Dolenz of the Monkees fly into London. Dolenz sees Till Death Us Do Part on British TV and uses the term "Randy Scouse Git" from the programme for the title of The Monkees' next single release "Randy Scouse Git", not realising it is an offensive term. British censors force the title to be changed to "Alternate Title" in the UK.
• February 7 – Micky Dolenz meets Paul McCartney at his home in St John's Wood, London, and they pose together for the press. His impressions of the visit feature in the lyrics of "Randy Scouse Git".
• February 10 - Abbey Road Studio 2 session with Michael Nesmith in attendance as The Beatles record "A Day in the Life" with the London Philharmonic Orchestra performing an "orgasm of noise" featured twice in the song.
• February 12 – British police raid 'Redlands', the Sussex home of Keith Richards in the early hours of the morning following a tip-off about a party from the News of the World; although no arrests are made at the time, Richards, Mick Jagger and art dealer Robert Fraser are subsequently charged with possession of drugs.
• February 14 – Aretha Franklin records "Respect" at the New York based Atlantic Studios.
• February 16 – "Aretha Franklin Day" is declared in Detroit, Michigan.
• February 24 – The Bee Gees sign a management contract with Robert Stigwood.
• March 3 – Eric Burdon & The Animals refuse to perform a show in Ottawa, Ontario, unless they are paid in advance. The audience of 3000 riots, causing $5000 in damages to the auditorium.
• March 11 – A taped appearance by The Beatles on American Bandstand includes their new music video for the songs "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever"
• March 25 – The Who perform their first concert in the United States, in New York.
• March 27 – John Lennon and Paul McCartney are awarded the Ivor Novello award for "Michelle", the most performed song in Britain in 1966.
• March 30 – The Beatles pose with a photographic collage and wax figures from Madame Tussaud's famous museum for the cover artwork of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album at Chelsea Manor Studios in London.
• March 31 – Kicking off a tour with The Walker Brothers, Cat Stevens and Engelbert Humperdinck at The Astoria London, Jimi Hendrix sets fire to his guitar on stage for the first time. He is taken to hospital suffering burns to his hands. The guitar-burning act would later become a trademark of Hendrix's performances.
• April 8 – The 12th Eurovision Song Contest is held in the Hofburg Imperial Palace, Vienna, Austria. The United Kingdom wins the contest for the first time with the Bill Martin/Phil Coulter song "Puppet on a String", sung by Sandie Shaw.
• May – Paul McCartney reveals that all four members of the Beatles have "dropped acid".
• May 1 – Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu at the Aladdin, Las Vegas.
• May 2 – In the United States, Capitol Records pulls the plug on the Beach Boys' mysterious Smile project. Brian Wilson, who had taken more than a year to compose and produce the album, could not bring himself to finish it.
• May 12
  • Pink Floyd stage the first ever rock concert with quadraphonic sound at Queen Elizabeth Hall, England
  • The debut album of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced is released in the UK.
• May 15 – Paul McCartney meets American photographer Linda Eastman at a club called "Bag O' Nails".
• May 19 – Linda McCartney (her maiden name, Eastman), photographs The Beatles at the London Press Party for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band held at the Chapel Street home of Brian Epstein. Media there were perplexed by the band's fashion statements and the music itself. *May 30 – BBC Radio broadcasts "Where It's At" featuring The Beatles interviews, and John Lennon's comedy intro to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. BBC refuse to air A Day in the Life for alleged "drug references" in the lyrics.
• June 1
  • Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles is released in Mono and Stereo LPs.
  • Greece's military junta issues "Army decree No 13", which bans playing or listening to the music of Mikis Theodorakis.
• June 4– Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, Denny Laine and his Electric String Band, Procol Harum and The Chiffons, perform a two-hour "Sunday Special" at Saville Theatre in London.
• June 10 – June 11 – The KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival at Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California features The Miracles, The Byrds, Wilson Pickett, The Seeds, Blues Magoos, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Country Joe and the Fish and others on the bill for a charity concert attended by 15,000; considered the first rock festival in some histories, but eclipsed in attendance and stature by the Monterey Pop Festival the following week.
• June 16 – Barbra Streisand performs live concert "A Happening in Central Park" in New York's Central Park.
• June 16 – June 18 – The Monterey Pop Festival, the world's first large scale outdoor rock music festival, is held in Monterey, California. Stars include the Who, Simon and Garfunkel, Eric Burdon & The Animals, The Byrds, The Association, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and The Holding Company with Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. Otis and the MG's take the stage at 1:00 am after Jefferson Airplane and bring down the house; 55,000 are in attendance. Ravi Shankar is among the performers at the festival.
• June 19 – During his stay in California on a houseboat in Sausalito, while listening to the Beatles' Sgt Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band, Otis Redding is inspired to compose "Sitting On the Dock of the Bay".
• June 25 – The Beatles perform "All You Need Is Love" for the Our World television special, the first worldwide television broadcast. Backing singers include Eric Clapton and members of The Rolling Stones and The Who.
• June 28
  • The Supremes perform for the first time as Diana Ross & the Supremes at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. Florence Ballard is fired from the group after the first night, and on-hand stand-in Cindy Birdsong permanently takes Ballard's place in the group.
  • The Monkees fly in to London at the start of their concerts at the Empire Pool, Wembley.
• June 29 – Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are sentenced to jail for drug possession. They later appeal successfully against the sentences.
• June/July - Shortly after the end of the Six-Day War, conductor Leonard Bernstein leads the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra on a tour to the Sinai desert, the site of fighting only days before.
• July 1 – William Rees-Mogg, editor of The Times, uses the phrase "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" in his editorial criticizing the prison sentences given to Mick Jagger and Keith Richard two days earlier.
• July 2 – Jeff Beck and John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers perform a two hour "Sunday Special" at Saville Theatre in London.
• July 3 – The Beatles host a party at the Speakeasy Club for The Monkees on the completion of their concerts in London.
• July 18 – The Jimi Hendrix Experience is thrown off a tour of The Monkees after complaints from the conservative Daughters of the American Revolution. (Hendrix's manager Chas Chandler later admitted it was a publicity stunt.)
• July 29 – Motown Records releases "Reflections," the first single by the group's new billing, "Diana Ross & The Supremes" and after firing founding member Florence Ballard; Ballard, nevertheless, sings on the record and appears on the vinyl's cover alongside group members Ross and Wilson because the song was recorded before her dismissal.
• August 14 – The Marine Broadcasting Offences Act becomes law in the United Kingdom, and most offshore radio stations (including Wonderful Radio London) have already closed down. Only Radio Caroline North & South on 259 would continue. As Radio Caroline International.
• August 21 - Mikis Theodorakis is arrested by the Greek military authorities and jailed for five months.
• August 23 – Brian Epstein's last visit to a Beatles' recording session, at the Chappell Recording Studios on Maddox Street, London. The last new Beatles song he lived to hear was "Your Mother Should Know".
• August 27 – The Beatles, in Bangor, Wales, with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, are informed of the death of their manager Brian Epstein, and they return to London at once.
• August 31 - Paul McCartney calls a band meeting to discuss his TV movie idea about a psychedelic bus ride.
• September 7 – Eric Burdon marries Angie King.
• September 17 – The Doors appear on The Ed Sullivan Show and perform "Light My Fire". Despite having agreed to Sullivan's request that the line "Girl we couldn't get much higher" be changed for the show, Jim Morrison performs it the way it was written and The Doors are banned from the show.
• September 30 – The BBC replaces the Light Programme with two new radio stations: a pop music channel, Radio 1, and the more MOR-orientated Radio 2. The Third Programme is renamed Radio 3, and the Home Service becomes Radio 4.
• October 14 – Tammi Terrell faints and collapses into duet partner Marvin Gaye's arms onstage during a performance at the Hampton University homecoming in Virginia. She was later diagnosed with a brain tumor, and would die from brain cancer in 1970 at the age of 24.
• October 18 – The first issue of Rolling Stone rolls off the press at about 5:30pm, with a cover dated November 9 and featuring a photo of John Lennon in the film How I Won the War. The original inspiration for the magazine was "Bomp!" Magazine based in California, which preceded the existence of Rolling Stone.
• November – Oricon is founded by Sōkō Koike and begins publishing a singles chart.
• November 22 – Otis Redding records "(Sittin' On) the Dock of the Bay".
• December – George Harrison begins recording tracks for Wonderwall Music, his first solo album, in London; he continues the recording in Mumbai.
• December 5 – The Beatles open the Apple Boutique in London. Party guests include Eric Clapton and movie director Richard Lester.
• December 8 – Otis and the Bar-Kays play at a popular nightclub, Leo's Casino. This was to be Otis's last performance. Two days later he and four of the six Bar-Kays die in a plane crash in Lake Monona (Madison, Wisconsin). One of the worst air tragedies in entertainment history, and the worst since the Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper air crash, 8 years earlier, in 1959.
• December 26 – First telecast of The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour on BBC1. Shown in black & white upsets McCartney because it ruined the intended psychedelic color effects.
• Pickwick Records releases LP collection of ten 1950s A- and B-sides of singles by Simon & Garfunkel, recorded under their pseudonym Tom & Jerry, and tries to pass it off as current material by the duo. Simon and Garfunkel file a legal challenge, and the record is swiftly withdrawn from the market.
• The Who destroy their instruments during a performance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
• Toots & the Maytals releases "54-46 That's My Number", one of the first reggae songs
• The Savonlinna Opera Festival is re-launched in Savonlinna, Finland, after a gap of fifty years.
• The first LP recording of traditional Estonian music, Eesti rahvalaule ja pillilugusid, is released.
• The International Society of Bassists is founded by Gary Karr.
• Narsaloo Ramaya becomes leader of the Naya Zamana.
• Ali Akbar Khan founds a school of music in California.