List of notable events in music that took place in the year 1968.
Specific locations 1968 in British music 1968 in Japanese music 1968 in Norwegian music
Specific genres 1968 in country music 1968 in heavy metal music 1968 in jazz 1968 in progressive rock
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 13 – Johnny Cash records At Folsom Prison live at Folsom State Prison, California. January 20 – The Who and the Small Faces start a tour of Australia and New Zealand. January 24 – Inaugural concert of the London Sinfonietta under David Atherton at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, including the premiere of John Tavener's dramatic cantata The Whale. 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. He 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 has 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. February 27 – Doo-wop singer Frankie Lymon is found dead at his grandmother's house in Harlem, New York, of a heroin overdose. February 29 – The 10th Annual Grammy Awards are held in Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville and New York, hosted by Stan Freberg. The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band wins Album of the Year (the first rock LP to receive the award), while The 5th Dimension's "Up, Up and Away" wins both Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Bobbie Gentry wins Best New Artist. 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 5 – James Brown appears on national television in an attempt to calm feelings of anger in the United States following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. April 6 Pink Floyd announces that Syd Barrett, who was replaced two months earlier amid deteriorating mental health, has officially left the group. 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 refuse 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. The Open Pibroch Competition of the Scottish Piping Society of London is held at the London Scottish headquarters at Buckingham Gate. First place is won by Robert Brown, for the ninth time in ten years, with a performance of The King's Taxes. Second prize goes to Seamus McNeill of the College of Piping, Glasgow, with The Bells of Perth, third prize to Pipe Major Angus MacDonald of the First Battalion, Scots Guards, with Macfarlane's Gathering, and fourth prize to John MacFadyen with The Battle of Auldern. MacFadyen, however, wins narrowly over Brown in the second big competition, that for the Bratach Gorm, the blue banner of the MacCrimmons.Iverach McDonald, "Ninth Win for Piper Brown", The Times, issue 57221 (Monday 8 April 1968): 10. 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 is 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 who will soon sign Hopkin to Apple Records. May 5 – Buffalo Springfield perform 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., an entertainment company that includes a recording studio, a record label and a 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 will span over 4 months, ending on October 14. June 20 David Ruffin is fired from The Temptations due to his ego and his inquiries into the Temptations' financial records, demanding an accounting of the group's money. Martha Reeves and The Vandellas make their debut at the Copacabana in New York City, winning a rave review in The New York Times. The engagement is recorded but remains in the Motown vaults. July – Release in Brazil of the album Tropicália: ou Panis et Circencis by Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and others, with arrangements by Rogério Duprat, inaugurates the Tropicália movement in music, which lasts in Brazil only for this year. July 7 – The Yardbirds perform for the last time before disbanding. July 9–14 – The International Eisteddfod takes place in Llangollen, North Wales 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 release their album Truth. A seminal work of heavy metal, it incorporates blues and hard rock and introduces the talents of Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood. August 4 – Yes perform for the first time, at a summer camp. August 5–10 – The Royal National Eisteddfod takes place in Barry, Wales. August 21 – Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. Protests are heard at this evening's performance of The Proms in London when the USSR Symphony Orchestra plays, with Mstislav Rostropovich as soloist in Dvořák's Cello Concerto. 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 perform for the first time, billed as The New Yardbirds (the Yardbirds had disbanded two months earlier, and guitarist Jimmy Page has subsequently formed this new group). The Banana Splits Adventure Hour premieres on NBC. September 14 – 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, Wesley, is miraculously saved by Roy's parents. 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 in the UK. PocketDiscs are released in several test markets in the United States. September 19 – The Who begin recording Tommy, a rock opera that tells the story about a deaf, dumb and blind boy, including his experiences with life and the relationship with his family. October 7 – José Feliciano at Tiger Stadium for the 1968 World Series in Detroit sings a personal and controversial soul version of "The Star-Spangled Banner", the first time for the U.S. national anthem in a different style. October 8 – The soundtrack for the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet is released, containing the popular "What Is a Youth" theme. November 8 – John and Cynthia Lennon are divorced. November 11 – Three days after his divorce, John Lennon and Yoko Ono's experimental album Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins is released in the United States. Noted for its cover photographs of the couple naked, it ends up being a flop. 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 in London. 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. December 3 – The 50-minute television special Elvis (sponsored by sewing machine manufacturer The Singer Company), taped in June with a live audience in Burbank, California, airs on NBC in the United States marking the comeback of Elvis Presley after 7 years during which the legendary rock and roll musician's career has centered on the movie industry. Concluding with the premiere of "If I Can Dream", it is not only the highest rated television show for the week of broadcast, but the highest rated television special of the year. December 6 – The Rolling Stones release Beggars Banquet, which contains the classic song "Sympathy for the Devil." December 9 A political confrontation at the Planten un Blomen Hall in Hamburg results in cancellation of the scheduled premiere of Hans Werner Henze's oratorio Das Floß der Medusa, a score dedicated to Che Guevara. 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 is filmed. Acts include The Rolling Stones, The Who, Taj Mahal, Jethro Tull, The Dirty Mac and Marianne Faithfull. This is 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. December 31 – Small Faces break up when Steve Marriott storms off the stage.
Bands formed
Amon Düül II Bearsden Choir (founded) Black Sabbath (as Earth) The Brooklyn Bridge Can Colosseum Crosby, Stills & Nash Deep Purple Fitzwilliam Quartet Free Henry Cow Jacula King Crimson Led Zeppelin (as The New Yardbirds) Nazareth Rush UFO Yes
Bands disbanded
Buffalo Springfield Cream Freddie and the Dreamers Los Speakers The Righteous Brothers The Seekers The Shangri-Las The Yardbirds (Reformed in 1992) The Zombies (Reformed in 1991)
Albums released
In the US, 6,540 pop singles and 4,057 albums were released.Encyclopedia of recorded sound, Volume 1 | Frank W. Hoffmann, Howard Ferstler
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