1968 in Music - Events

Events

  • 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 – David Ruffin is fired from The Temptations
  • 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 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.
  • 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 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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