Editing 1969 in music (section)

===Major events===
*[[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 is released.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wall |first=Mick |title=When Giants Walked the Earth|page=141|year=2008 |publisher=Orion Books |isbn=978-90-488-4619-1}}</ref>
*[[January 18]] – [[Pete Best]] wins his defamation lawsuit against [[The Beatles]]. Best had originally sought $8 million, but ends up being awarded much less.
*[[January 30]] – [[The Beatles' rooftop concert]]: [[The Beatles]] perform for the last time in public, on the roof of the [[Apple Corps|Apple]] building at [[Abbey Road Studios|3 Savile Row]], London. The performance, which is filmed for the ''[[Let It Be (1970 film)|Let It Be]]'' movie, is stopped early by police after neighbors complain about the noise.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lewisohn |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Lewisohn |orig-year=1992 |year=2010 |title=The Complete Beatles Chronicle: The Definitive Day-by-Day Guide to the Beatles' Entire Career |publisher=Chicago Review Press |isbn=978-1-56976-534-0|pages=306–7}}</ref>
*[[February 3]] 
**[[The Animals|Eric Burdon & The Animals]] disband.
**[[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 McCartney|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 is so convincing that nobody in the audience asked for a refund.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Maysh |first1=Jeff |date=July 2018 |title=The Counterfeit Queen of Soul |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/counterfeit-queen-soul-180969340/ | journal=Smithsonian Magazine |access-date=22 April 2020}}</ref>
*[[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 (singer)|Lulu]] and [[Maurice Gibb]] are married in the UK. Maurice's twin brother [[Robin Gibb]] is best man. Three thousand guests, most of them uninvited, turn out for the affair.
*[[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 2]] – [[John Lennon]] performs publicly outside The Beatles for the first time, with [[Yoko Ono]] at an improvised concert in [[Cambridge]], England.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Dorian|last=Lynskey|title=Reel to Reel|journal=Cam|issue=91|year=2020|page=28}}</ref>
*[[March 7]] – The Who release "[[Pinball Wizard]]" as a single with a B-Side of "Dogs (Part Two)."
*[[March 12]]
**The [[Grammy Awards of 1969|11th Grammy Awards]] are presented in [[Chicago]], [[Los Angeles]], [[Nashville]] and [[New York City|New York]]. [[Glen Campbell]]'s ''[[By the Time I Get to Phoenix (Glen Campbell album)|By the Time I Get to Phoenix]]'' wins [[Grammy Award for Album of the Year|Album of the Year]], [[Simon & Garfunkel]]'s "[[Mrs. Robinson]]" wins [[Grammy Award for Record of the Year|Record of the Year]] and [[Roger Miller]]'s "[[Little Green Apples]]", performed by Miller and [[O. C. Smith]], wins [[Grammy Award for Song of the Year|Song of the Year]]. [[José Feliciano]] wins [[Grammy Award for Best New Artist|Best New Artist]].
**[[Paul McCartney]] marries [[Linda McCartney|Linda Eastman]] in London.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/12/newsid_3607000/3607215.stm |title=1969: Paul McCartney weds Linda Eastman |work=BBC News|access-date=June 9, 2011 |date=March 12, 1969 |archive-date=March 19, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110319044715/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/12/newsid_3607000/3607215.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>
**[[George Harrison]] and his wife [[Pattie Boyd|Pattie]] are arrested in the UK on charges of [[hashish]] possession.
*[[March 15]] – [[Judy Garland]] marries [[Mickey Deans]] in London.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Pathé|first=British|title=Judy Garland Wedding To Mickey Deans|url=https://www.britishpathe.com/video/judy-garland-wedding|access-date=2022-12-31|website=www.britishpathe.com|language=en-GB}}</ref>
*[[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 [[Music publisher (popular music)|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 (album)|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 1969|Eurovision Song Contest]] held at the [[Teatro Real]], Madrid, Spain, the final result is a four-way tie for first place between [[Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest|Spain]] (''"[[Vivo cantando]]"'' – [[Salomé (singer)|Salomé]]); [[United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest|United Kingdom]] (''"[[Boom Bang-a-Bang]]"'' – [[Lulu (singer)|Lulu]]); [[Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest|Netherlands]] (''"[[De troubadour|De Troubadour]]"'' – [[Lenny Kuhr]]) and [[France in the Eurovision Song Contest|France]] (''"[[Un jour, un enfant]]"'' – [[Frida Boccara]]). As there is no tie-break rule in force at 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 (band)|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 (promoter)|Bill Graham]].
*[[April 20]] – The L.A. Free Festival in [[Venice, California]] ends before it even starts, following a riot of audience members, 117 of which are arrested. None of the performers scheduled to play appear.
*[[April 22]]
**The first complete performance of [[The Who]]'s rock opera ''[[Tommy (rock opera)|Tommy]]'' during a performance in [[Dolton, Devon]], UK
**''[[A Garland for Dr. K.]]'', a celebratory collection in honour of the 80th birthday of [[Alfred Kalmus]], consisting of eleven compositions by [[David Bedford]], [[Harrison Birtwistle]],  [[Richard Rodney Bennett]], [[Luciano Berio]],  [[Pierre Boulez]], [[Cristóbal Halffter]], [[Roman Haubenstock-Ramati]],  [[Henri Pousseur]], [[Bernard Rands]], [[Karlheinz Stockhausen]], and [[Hugh Wood]] is performed at the [[Queen Elizabeth Hall]] in the [[Southbank Centre]], London, on a programme that also featured the word premieres of ''[[Eight Songs for a Mad King]]'' by [[Peter Maxwell Davies]] and ''Linoi II'' by Birtwistle.
**[[John Lennon]] changes his middle name from Winston to Ono.
*[[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 (band)|Chicago]] releases its debut album, ''[[The Chicago Transit Authority (album)|The Chicago Transit Authority]]''.
*May – [[The Winstons]] release in the US the track "Amen Brother" as the B-side of R&B single "[[Color Him Father]]" from which drummer [[Gregory C. Coleman]]'s 4-bar [[Break (music)|break]], as the '[[Amen break]]', becomes one of the most widely sampled tracks in history.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2011/12/17/seven-seconds-of-fire|title=Seven seconds of fire|date=2011-12-17|newspaper=[[The Economist]]|access-date=2019-03-20|issn=0013-0613}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32087287|title=Six seconds that shaped 1,500 songs|last=Otzen|first=Ellen|publisher=BBC|date=2015-03-29|access-date=2019-03-20}}</ref>
*[[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 roll|rock]] and [[soul music]].
**[[Jimi Hendrix]] is arrested by Canadian Mounties at Toronto's International Airport for possession of narcotics (heroin). 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.
*[[May 16]] – ''[[HPSCHD]]'', an event conceived by [[John Cage]] and [[Lejaren Hiller]] as a highly immersive multimedia experience, received its premiere performance before an audience of 6000 at the Assembly Hall of the Urbana Campus, [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]]. 
*[[May 23]] – [[The Who]] release their rock opera [[Tommy (The Who album)|Tommy]].
* May 30–31 – First Annual Rock & Roll Revival in Detroit; Performers include among others [[MC5]], [[Johnny Winter]], [[Chuck Berry]], [[Dr. John]], [[Sun Ra]], [[David Peel (musician)|David Peel]], [[The Stooges]], [[Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band]] 
*[[June 2]] – [[John Lennon]] and [[Yoko Ono]] host a "[[Bed-In]]" at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in [[Montreal]], Quebec, Canada. The couple records the song "[[Give Peace a Chance]]" live in their suite with [[Tommy Smothers]], [[Timothy Leary]], and several others.
*[[June 7]] – [[Blind Faith]] make their first live appearance with a free show In Hyde Park. Among the estimated 120,000 in attendance<ref>{{cite book|title=Current Biography Yearbook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yooYAAAAIAAJ|year=1988|publisher=H. W. Wilson Co|page=99}}</ref> are [[Mick Jagger]], [[Mick Fleetwood]], [[Donovan]], [[Chas Chandler]], [[Noel Redding]] and [[Mitch Mitchell]] of the [[Jimi Hendrix]] Experience, [[Jim Capaldi]] and [[Chris Wood (rock musician)|Chris Wood]] of [[Traffic (band)|Traffic]], [[Terry Hicks]] of [[The Hollies]], and [[Mike Hugg]] of [[Manfred Mann]].
*[[June 13]] – [[Mick Taylor]] joins the [[Rolling Stones]].
*[[June 28]] – The [[Stonewall riots]] erupt in New York City, marking the launch of the gay liberation movement.
*[[June 29]]–[[August 24]] – [[Harlem Cultural Festival]] in New York City.
*[[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 1]] – [[Cornelius Cardew]]'s [[Scratch Orchestra]] holds its first meeting. [[Brian Eno]] begins his musical career as a member. 
*[[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 30]] – Columbia records releases ''[[In A Silent Way]]'' by [[Miles Davis]], one of the first jazz/rock fusion albums, featuring [[John McLaughlin (musician)|John McLaughlin]], [[Joe Zawinul]], and [[Chick Corea]].
*[[July 31]] – [[Elvis Presley]] returns to live performances in Las Vegas. The engagement ends on August 28.
*[[August 8]] – [[Iain Macmillan]] photographs the cover picture for [[The Beatles]]' album ''[[Abbey Road]]'' at a north London [[zebra crossing]] near the [[Abbey Road Studios]].
*[[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]], [[The Band]], [[Joan Baez]], [[Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young]], [[Jefferson Airplane]], [[Santana (band)|Santana]], [[Country Joe and the Fish]], [[Ten Years After]], and [[Sly & the Family Stone]].
*[[August 20]] – Final session for [[The Beatles]]' album ''[[Abbey Road]]'' at [[Abbey Road Studios]] in London, the last time all four members of the band are present in a studio together.<ref name=MacDonald>{{cite book|last=MacDonald|first=Ian|author-link=Ian MacDonald|title=[[Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties]]|edition=1st rev.|year=1997|publisher=Pimlico (Random House)|location=London|isbn=978-0-7126-6697-8|page=322}}</ref>
*[[August 21]]-24 – The [[Jazz Bilzen]] 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 [[Blossom Toes]].
*[[August 30]]-31 – The [[Isle of Wight Festival 1969|Isle of Wight Festival]] is held in [[Wootton Bridge]]. Performers include among others [[The Band]], [[Blodwyn Pig]], [[Edgar Broughton Band]], [[Joe Cocker]], [[Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band]], [[Bob Dylan]] (returning to live music after his motorbike accident in 1966), [[Family (band)|Family]], [[The Who]], [[Free (band)|Free]], [[Mighty Baby]], [[The Moody Blues]], [[The Nice]], [[The Pretty Things]], [[Third Ear Band]].
*[[September 11]] – [[Janis Joplin]] releases ''[[I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!]]'' her first solo album since leaving the group [[Big Brother and the Holding Company]].
*[[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 (Yes drummer)|Alan White]]. Other performers on the bill include [[Chuck Berry]], [[Bo Diddley]], [[Little Richard]], [[Jerry Lee Lewis]] and up-and-comers [[Chicago (band)|Chicago]]. It is Lennon's first-ever large-scale public rock performance (noting his lower-profile 1968 appearance in the Dirty Mac) 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. During the show, a chicken is somehow in a feather pillow that [[Alice Cooper]] normally uses as a stage routine during his band's performance. Cooper, thinking that all birds fly, throws the chicken into the audience and fans tear the chicken and throw it back on stage. The event would be known as "The Chicken Incident" and Cooper develops his reputation as a shock-rocker.
*[[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, although credited to Diana Ross & the Supremes, was actually sung by Ross with session singers "the Andantes", instead of the other two Supremes.<ref name="WilsonRomanowski1990">{{cite book|author1=Mary Wilson|author2=Patricia Romanowski|author3=Patricia Romanowski Bashe|title=Supreme faith: someday we'll be together|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4yQUAQAAIAAJ|date=1 November 1990|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-016290-0|page=9}}</ref> Nonetheless, it becomes the final number 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.
*[[October 22]] – Led Zeppelin's second album is released with the song "[[Whole Lotta Love]]".
*[[October 30]] – [[Richard Nader]] first Rock and Roll Revival concert sells out, setting the stage for [[oldies]] as a commercial category.
*November – [[Simon & Garfunkel]] give a live concert at [[Iowa State University]], where they record the track "[[Bye Bye Love (The Everly Brothers song)|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 magazine|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 a 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 a 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]] 
**500,000 people march in Washington, D.C. for peace, which becomes the largest anti-war rally in U.S. history. Performing on stage: [[Arlo Guthrie]], [[Pete Seeger]], [[Peter, Paul and Mary]], [[Richie Havens]], [[Earl Scuggs]], [[John Denver]], [[Mitch Miller]], touring cast of [[Hair (musical)|Hair]]
**''Musik für die Beethovenhalle'' in [[Bonn]], a multi-auditorium retrospective concert of the music of [[Karlheinz Stockhausen]], with the world premiere of his ''[[Fresco (Stockhausen)|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 (Beatles song)|Something]]" on the other, accrue enough combined points to make the single a #1 pop hit. Similarly, Creedence Clearwater Revival's "[[Fortunate Son (song)|Fortunate Son]]" and "[[Down On The Corner]]" accrue enough combined points to reach number 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 6]] 
**[[The Jackson 5]] release their debut album, ''[[Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5]]''.
**[[Altamont Free Concert]]
**[[Zubin Mehta]] marries [[Nancy Kovack]].
*[[December 13]] - the final episode of [[The Banana Splits Adventure Hour]] airs on NBC as the network cancels the program during a telecast of Rudolph the red nosed reindeer a week later.