“My Man Rocks Me (with One Steady Roll).” Recorded by vaudeville Blues singer Trixie Smith, it’s probably the first record to conjoin “rock” and “roll.” It’s not Rock ‘n’ Roll, but makes it clear that Rock ‘n’ Roll is a euphemism for sex.

Bill Haley born. Highland Park, Detroit, Michigan.

Chuck Berry born. Charles Edward Berry, St. Louis, Missouri.

Fats Domino born. Antoine Domino, New Orleans, Louisiana.

The electric guitar. Adolph Rickenbacker and steel guitarist George Beauchamp figure out how to translate the strings’ vibration into an electrical current. Hawaiian guitarists are early adopters.

Carl Perkins born. Tiptonville, Tennessee.

Little Richard born. Richard Penniman, Macon, Georgia.

Elvis Presley born. Tupelo, Mississippi.

Jerry Lee Lewis born. Ferriday, Louisiana.

Electric bass patented. Inventor, Paul Tutmarc, makes models to be played vertically and horizontally, but the instrument doesn’t catch on until Fender introduces its first model in 1951.

Roy Orbison born. Vernon, Texas.

Buddy Holly born. Charles Hardin Holley, Lubbock, Texas.

Record Rendezvous opens in Cleveland. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, store owner Leo Mintz sees young African Americans and young white kids are listening to Rhythm ‘n’ Blues, and reportedly adopts the phrase “Rock ‘n’ Roll” to escape the stigma of “Rhythm ‘n’ Blues” when he sponsors dee-jay Alan Freed on WJW. Later, Mintz co-produces Freed’s Moondog Coronation Balls.

First recording with an electric hollow-body guitar. Jazz guitarists George Barnes and Eddie Durham make the first electric guitar recordings a few days apart.

First electric Blues guitar solo: Floyd Smith records “Floyd’s Guitar Blues” with Andy Kirk’s “Clouds of Joy.” Chuck Berry later records it as “Blues for Hawaiians.”

First Hillbilly Boogie record. Johnny Barfield’s “Boogie Woogie.”

John Lennon born. Liverpool, England.

Ringo Starr born. Richard Starkey, Liverpool, England.

Les Paul develops a solid-body electric guitar. To this point, all electric models have been hollow-bodied.

Bob Dylan born. Robert Zimmerman, Hibbing, Minnesota.

Paul McCartney born. Liverpool, England.

“Cow Cow Boogie.” A prophetic blend of Jazz, Boogie Woogie, Hillbilly, and Pop, Ella Mae Morse’s record sells over one million copies for newly launched Capitol Records.

George Harrison born. Liverpool, England.

Mick Jagger born. Dartford, England.

Keith Richards born. Dartford, England.

Billboard magazine launches its first Country chart. Country music is called Folk (Even when Elvis Presley’s second LP is released in October 1956, the liner notes say, “Of commercial folk music, Presley is perhaps the most original singer since Jimmie Rodgers.”)

Rhythm & Blues reaches the nation from Nashville. At a time when most music on radio is still “live,” disc jockey Gene Nobles begins all-night broadcasting on Nashville’s WLAC. Some students bring some R&B records to him. They elicit so much mail, he continues. The following year, Ernie Young starts Ernie’s Record Mart in Nashville to sell records on Nobles’ show. Two years later, Randy Wood in nearby Gallatin, Tennessee begins advertising on Nobles’ show and ships packages of R&B records throughout the nation from Randy’s Record Shop. Gene Nobles, Randy Wood, Ernie Young, WLAC’s daytime R&B dee-jay, John. R. (Richbourg), and Hoss Allen are all white, and so are some of their listeners and customers.

“Guitar Boogie.” Country guitarist Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith records the prototypical Rock ‘n’ Roll instrumental. It becomes a Rock ‘n’ Roll hit in 1959 for the Virtues; that same year, the Rock-a-Teens add words to create “Woo Hoo.” Smith’s record ushers in a craze for Hillbilly Boogie records; some of them very close to what became known as Rockabilly.

Duane Allman born. Nashville, Tennessee.

Roy Brown’s “Good Rockin’ Tonight.” Brown returns from Texas to his home town, New Orleans. At his first New Orleans session, he records the anthemic “Good Rockin’ Tonight.”

Birth of the Long-Playing record. Columbia Records’ engineers introduce the LP, the first significant new sound-carrier since the 78 fifty years earlier.

Les Paul creates a multi-track tape recorder.

Billboard magazine coins a neologism “Rhythm & Blues.” Applied to commercial Blues, it replaces previous industry labels, such as Race Music and Sepia Music. It also acknowledges that R&B is distinct from Blues. Louis Jordan, originally from Brinkley, Arkansas, becomes the first R&B star. Bridging Jazz, Blues, and Pop, he influences Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, and many others.

R&B saxophonist Wild Bill Moore releases “We’re Gonna Rock, We’re Gonna Roll.” Alan Freed features it when he starts his R&B show in 1951.

Bill Haley begins recording. He starts as a yodeling cowboy singer.

The 45 RPM single introduced. In response to Columbia’s introduction of the LP, RCA Victor introduces the 45 RPM single. Throughout the 1950s, Jazz, Classical, and Easy Listening Pop will be experienced on LP; Blues, Country, and Rock ‘n’ Roll on 45 RPM. Unlike 78s, LPs and 45s are more-or-less unbreakable.

Beginning of Black Radio. In Memphis, a Country and Pop station, WDIA, becomes the first station to exclusively program African American music and talk shows. B.B. King signs on as an on-air musician and dee-jay. In response to WDIA’s immediate success, WHBQ programs Dewey Phillips’ Red Hot and Blue show in the evening after WDIA goes off the air. Phillips becomes a pioneering disc jockey, playing Elvis Presley’s first record repeatedly and creating a white teenage audience for R&B.

Fats Domino begins recording in New Orleans. His first single, “The Fat Man,” is based closely on a local drug song, “Junker Blues,” recorded by New Orleans singer Champion Jack Dupree in 1941. Domino’s record becomes an R&B hit.

Bruce Springsteen born. Long Branch, New Jersey.

Memphis Recording Service opens. Studio owner Sam Phillips initially supplies Country and Blues masters to other labels before starting Sun.

Arkie Shibley’s “Hot Rod Race.” A proto-rockabilly and pioneering hot rod record, “Hot Rod Race” is a hillbilly talking blues.

Rocket 88. Sam Phillips leases Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88” (featuring Ike Turner on piano) to Chess Records. Although based on an earlier song, its explosiveness leads some to call it the first Rock ‘n’ Roll record. Bill Haley records the first cover version.

Sixty Minute Man. The Dominoes’ “Sixty Minute Man” eclipses “Rocket 88” as the best-selling R&B record of 1951. The lyrics include the line “I’ll rock ‘em, roll ‘em all night long,” underscoring that Rock ‘n’ Roll is a synonym for sex.

Alan Freed’s Moondog show begins on WLW, Cleveland. Freed begins saying “Let’s Rock ‘n’ Roll with the Rhythm ‘n’ Blues.”

Birth of Top 40. KOWH in Omaha, Nebraska becomes the first Top 40 station, playing only hits in rotation.

Little Richard begins recording. He is produced by RCA’s Steve Sholes, who later signs Elvis Presley to RCA.

Johnnie Ray’s “Cry.” Ray, who records for Columbia’s R&B subsidiary OKeh, is a white Pop singer but his theatrically over-the-top delivery and heavier-than-usual backbeat are cloned from R&B. “Cry” reportedly sells two million copies.

Bill Haley covers “Rock the Joint.” A little known R&B record, it attracts more attention when Haley covers it. Those seeing Haley at the time report that he plays at unusually high volume. His music fuses sleek R&B, notably the Treniers and Louis Jordan, with east coast Country music, and Haley begins tailoring for music to teenage hops instead of the Country audiences.

“Bandstand” begins as a local show in Philadelphia. Several different formats are tried until WFIL settles on teenagers dancing to records.

First Rock ‘n’ Roll riot. Alan Freed’s Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland provokes a teenage riot.

Sun Records launches in Memphis. The label began one year earlier with one release, but went into abeyance while Phillips secured financing and distribution.

Bill Haley cracks the Pop charts with the first Rock ‘n’ Roll hit, “Crazy, Man Crazy.” He changes the name of his group from the Saddlemen to the Comets.

Writing in Cash Box magazine, Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records talks about the Blues renaissance in the South. “Distributors there about two years ago began to report to white high school and college kids were picking upon the Rhythm & Blues records, primarily to dance to. From all accounts, the movement was initiated by youthful hillbilly fans rather than pop bobby-soxers.”

Bill Haley records “Rock around the Clock” and covers “Shake, Rattle and Roll.” “Rock around the Clock” isn’t a hit until it’s featured in the 1955 movie Blackboard Jungle, but Haley’s cover of Big Joe Turner’s “Shake, Rattle and Roll” becomes the first Top 10 Rock ‘n’ Roll hit. In 1955, “Rock around the Clock” becomes the first No.1 record of the Rock ‘n’ Roll era.

Alan Freed moves from Cleveland to WINS, New York. At a time when Pop singers are covering Rhythm ‘n’ Blues songs, Freed makes a policy of only playing the original versions. His shows on Cleveland’s WJW are carried on WNJR, Newark, New Jersey before he’s hired by WINS, New York. Shows he promotes at the Newark Armory and then at the St. Nicholas Arena, New York and the Brooklyn Paramount are all-star revues that set the format for Rock ‘n’ Roll package shows.

Sam Phillips signs Elvis Presley to Sun Records. Presley’s first record has one song by Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup (“That’s All Right”) and another by Bill Monroe (“Blue Moon of Kentucky”). By the end of the year, Presley is appearing regularly on the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport.

England: the beginning of the Skiffle craze. The rhythm section of Chris Barber’s New Orleans revivalist Jazz band records some “skiffle” songs with banjoist Lonnie Donegan singing lead. “Skiffle” was a 1920s term for a rent party, but the revivalists, who slavishly re-create early New Orleans Jazz, latch onto “skiffle” as shorthand for Folk and Blues songs sung with home-made or low-cost instruments, like washboards and kazoos. The first recorded Skiffle songs in England include Huddie Ledbetter’s “Rock Island Line,” later a hit in England and the United States.

Pat Boone and Pop cover versions. Randy Wood at Dot Records in Gallatin, Tennessee signs a local high school student, Pat Boone.

Fats Domino records “Ain’t That a Shame” aka “Ain’t It a Shame” in New Orleans. His record is played on some Pop stations, but Pat Boone covers him and scores the bigger pop hit.

Little Richard records “Tutti Frutti” in New Orleans. Again, Pat Boone covers the song and scores the Pop hit.

Chuck Berry records “Maybellene” for Chess Records in Chicago. His record eclipses the cover versions to become a Pop hit. The guitar establishes itself as the lead instrument of “Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

Elvis Presley creates Rockabilly. His Sun records, coupling a Blues song with a Country song, create a new style, later dubbed Rockabilly. Heard every week on the Louisiana Hayride, his records sell well in the South and Southwest, prompting many younger Country singers, including Buddy Holly, Buck Owens, George Jones, and Conway Twitty, to copy his style.

Sam Phillips sells Elvis Presley’s contract to RCA Victor for $35,000. Elvis has very little presence outside the South and Southwest, and he is signed to RCA’s Country division. Meanwhile, Phillips has just signed Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins.

In its year-end review of music Encyclopedia Britannica is supposed to have described the advent of Rock ‘n’ Roll as “jungle music.”

Elvis Presley becomes a sensation. With RCA’s national promotion, he sells unprecedented quantities of records, including five No.1 hits in 1956. He also stars in a movie, and makes appearances on CBS-TV’s Stage Show, The Steve Allen Show, The Milton Berle Show, and The Ed Sullivan Show. It is the year that rock ‘n’ roll explodes into the national consciousness, with Presley as a lightning rod for adulation and criticism.

Blue Suede Shoes. Carl Perkins scores an era-defining hit on Sun with “Blue Suede Shoes,” and appears to be running a close second behind Presley for a month or two, but can never find the elusive follow-up. His music influences the Beatles, who record three of his songs.

Finding the “Next Elvis.” Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins are initially perceived as Country artists because they started on the Country circuit. Record labels instruct their Nashville divisions to find the “next Presley.” Buddy Holly, Johnny Burnette, Conway Twitty, Gene Vincent, and many others are brought to Nashville to record Rockabilly or, as Billboard magazine dubs it, “trick warbling.” None, except Vincent, is successful at the time, although Johnny Burnette’s recordings with the Rock ‘n’ Roll Trio are later viewed as the apogee of Rockabilly, and introduce distorted fuzz-tone guitar. Roy Orbison, another Country singer who’d gone Rockabilly, signs with Sun and scores his first hit, “Ooby Dooby.”

Rockabilly. Coined by music industry trade papers, the first known use is in a press release for Gene Vincent’s “Be Bop a Lula.” A few weeks later, it’s in a Billboard review of Ruckus Tyler’s “Rock Town Rock.” The word doesn’t catch on until the late 1960s when European record dealers begin using “Rockabilly” to describe records modeled on Presley’s Sun recordings.

“All market smash.” For the first time, five singles appear in both Billboard’s R&B and Pop Top 10. They are: “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” Frankie Lymon’s “Why Do Fools Fall in Love,” Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally,” and the Platters’ “Magic Touch.” Additionally, “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Heartbreak Hotel” are in the Country chart.

England: the Skiffle craze hits its shortlived peak. Lonnie Donegan’s success with “Rock Island Line” and several more reinvented American Blues and Folk songs sparks a shortlived craze for Skiffle bands. Among those who join Skiffle bands are Van Morrison, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Jimmy Page, members of the Who, the Kinks, the Animals, and many others. At one point, there are an estimated thirty thousand Skiffle bands in England, but Skiffle is soon overtaken by Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Jerry Lee Lewis arrives. Sun Records’ newest star, Jerry Lee Lewis, makes an epochal appearance on The Steve Allen Show singing “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.”

The birth of the Nashville Sound. Country Music changes in response to Rock ‘n’ Roll. Hard country instruments, such as the steel guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and banjo are de-emphasized in favor of the electric guitar, piano, and chorus. Singers who can sing without regionalism are preferred to those with “hillbilly” intonation. The top country songs of 1957 include Marty Robbins’ “A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation),” Sonny James’ “Young Love,” and Jim Reeves’ “Four Walls.” The Everly Brothers become the first Rock ‘n’ Roll act produced and managed out of Nashville.

Bill Haley in Europe. Haley brings Rock ‘n’ Roll to Europe, and remains a star there. Back home, his records have disappeared from the upper reaches of Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart.

Little Richard renounces Rock ‘n’ Roll. On a tour of Australia, Richard throws his jewelry into Sydney Harbor and plans to enter the seminary after he returns to the United States.

Bandstand goes coast-to-cast. Looking for a 3:30PM show, ABC-TV picks up Bandstand from WFIL in Philadelphia, bringing the show and its new host, Dick Clark, to the network and changing the title to American Bandstand. By 1959, it has a national audience of 90 million. It runs until 1989.

Stereo is standardized after years of experimentation. From this point, nearly all major label recordings are made in stereo.

Gold records. The Recording industry Association of America begins auditing sales, issuing Gold Records when sales top one million. The first certified Gold Record is Elvis Presley’s “Hard Headed Woman.”

Jerry Lee Lewis’s career implodes. On a tour of England, Jerry Lee is accompanied by his thirteen year-old cousin, who is revealed to be his third wife.

Elvis Presley inducted into the Army. He serves a two-year hitch.

Birth of the Power Chord. Link Wray’s “Rumble” and Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” bring the power chord to Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Rock ‘n’ Roll speaks the language of the teenager. Songs like “Summertime Blues” and Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen” speak directly to the teenage audience.

The Day the Music Died. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper die in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

Payola scandal. Paying for airplay passed more or less unnoticed when it was prevalent in R&B radio in the early 1950s, but the major labels pressure Congress because the R&B indies are using the same tactics to promote Rock ‘n’ Roll. The result in Alan Freed’s dismissal from his television and radio shows in New York, but Dick Clark emerges unscathed, although he owns record labels and promotes his own product on Bandstand.

Market Share: Rock ‘n’ Roll’s share of the recorded music market is estimated at 42.7%.

Tamla-Motown. Berry Gordy launches the Tamla and Motown labels in Detroit.

Elvis Presley returns to Memphis after two years in the Army. His singles are more varied (mid-tempo Rock songs like “Make Me Know It,” a reimagined Neapolitan ballad, “O Sole Mio” (“It’s Now or Never”), and a 1920s Pop song, “Are You Lonesome Tonight.”) Later in the year, he records a Southern Gospel LP, His Hand in Mine.

Roy Orbison reinvents the Pop song. After a brief career as a Rockabilly singer on Sun, Orbison employs his dramatic range and newfound flair for writing quasi-operatic ballads into a new career. His records such as “Only the Lonely,” “In Dreams,” and “It’s Over” influence Bruce Springsteen and many others.

The Girl Group era. The Shirelles’ “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” inaugurates the Girl Group era in Sixties pop. The Ronettes, the Crystals, the Shangri-Las, the Marvelettes, the Chiffons, and many others follow.

The dance craze. Inspired the moves of mostly African American dancers on Bandstand, there are new dances almost weekly. The most successful is the Twist, popularized by Chubby Checker on Dick Clark’s Saturday night television show and then on Bandstand.

Walk Don’t Run. The Ventures’ recording of a Jazz guitar tune, “Walk Don’t Run,” inaugurates Surf guitar.

The Beatles make their first records. They back singer Tony Sheridan on recordings made in Germany.

The Beach Boys make their first record. “Surfin’” on Candix Records sells sufficiently well for Capitol to sign the group. Their first Capitol single, “Surfin’ Safari,” is a Top 20 hit in 1962.

Bob Dylan makes his first LP. It sells fewer than five thousand copies and mostly comprises non-originals.

The Rolling Stones make their first appearance. As a Chicago-style Blues band, they appear at London’s Marquee Club, and are signed to Decca Records (UK)/London (US) in 1963. Their first British single is a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Come On.”

The Beatles’ first Parlophone single charts in England.

Tamla Motown breakthrough. The label scores Top 10 Pop hits with the Contours and Mary Wells. The Miracles charted “Shop Around” in 1960 and continue to score hits.

Wolfman Jack begins broadcasting on XERF. After a chill descends on radio following the payola investigations, stations located just south of American-Mexican border broadcast with megawattage into the United States and bring back some of the freewheeling spirit of early R&B/Rock ‘n’ Roll radio.

Northwest garage rock. With an amateur-punk-rockabilly style, groups like the Wailers and the Kingsmen emerge from Portland-Seattle. The Kingsmen score with a garage version of an R&B-calypso song, “Louie, Louie,” and the Wailers also score with “Tall Cool One.” Playing old R&B together with self-composed Rock songs, they’re ahead of the British Invasion.

Beatlemania in England. The group scores one No.2 and two No.1 hits on Parlophone, but label’s American affiliate, Capitol, refuses to release the singles and they’re picked up by Vee-Jay and Swan Records without success.

Surf music explodes. The Beach Boys, who chart seven songs, and Jan & Dean, who chart four, lead the way. Surf guitar records by the Ventures and others also sell well.

Peter, Paul & Mary score with two Bob Dylan songs. “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” help to publicize Dylan’s second LP.

Beatlemania. Picked up by Capitol, thirty of their songs enter the Billboard Pop chart, including the old Vee-Jay and Swan singles, and six of them reach No.1. In March, Billboard announces that sales of Beatles records make up 60 percent of all singles sold.

British Invasion second wave. Pop bands like Freddie & the Dreamers and Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas are supplanted by Blues and R&B-based bands like the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and the Kinks.

Motown hits its stride. The Temptations, Four Tops, Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells, Martha & the Vandellas, the Miracles, Stevie Wonder all score hits.

TAMI—the First Rock Concert Movie. Steve Binder, who later directs Elvis Presley’s comeback television special, films a concert at the Santa Monica Coliseum with the Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Lesley Gore, Jan & Dean, Billy J. Kramer, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Rolling Stones, and the Supremes.

Folk Rock. Protest and social commentary songs, largely the preserve of underground Folk singers, enter the charts as Folk-Rock. The Byrds issue “Hey Mr. Tambourine Man” and Bob Dylan goes electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Barry McGuire tops the charts with “Eve of Destruction.”

The Beatles meet Elvis. Their only meeting is at Presley’s Bel-Air mansion.

Alan Freed dies. Although his radio career didn’t end with the payola investigations, he worked on ever smaller stations and dies an alcoholic aged 43.

Blues Rock. As the African American audience for the Blues declines, white Rock musicians begin using Blues as the basis of a new style that draws heavily on Chicago Blues, but with increasingly long and harmonically complex solos. Canned Heat, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, the Yardbirds, and the Pretty Things, are joined by Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown, Cream, Al Kooper, Johnny Winter, and many others. Jimi Hendrix, one of the few African Americans to root his style in Blues, begins his solo career in London in 1966 with a Folk song, “Hey Joe.”

The Rock era. Rock ‘n’ Roll’s simplicity gives way to music of increasing complexity, in part because studio technology permits more overdubs with the advent of half-inch eight track tape (earlier recording tape held between one and four tracks). The Beatles’ Rubber Soul and the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds are among the first LPs to take advantage of layered recording and studio technology.

Psychedelic Rock. The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High” and Count Five’s “Psychotic Reaction” were hits in 1966, but explicit drug references go mainstream with the dawn of the San Francisco scene. The Human Be-In is held at Golden Gate Park in January 1967, and features many Bay Area bands, including the Grateful Dead.

Monterey Pop Festival. The first large scale outdoor rock music festival held in June. Stars include The Who, Simon & Garfunkel, Eric Burdon & The Animals, The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and The Holding Company with Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.

Rock music becomes the voice of the counter-culture. The Summer of ’67 is dubbed the Summer of Love and Rock music is its soundtrack. Some groups from the mid-1960s, including The Beatles, the Beach Boys, and The Rolling Stones, adapt to the volatile, changing time; others do not and are replaced by groups like The Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Seeds, The Doors, Vanilla Fudge, etc.

Rolling Stone magazine launches. Together with Creem (1969), Rolling Stone (named for the group and thus the Muddy Waters song) brings long-form journalism to Rock music, mixing music coverage with politics. The magazine, says founder Jann Wenner, “is not just about the music, but about the things and attitudes that music embraces.”

The Wild Angels. The first Rockabilly Revival band forms in London. Members of the Beatles and The Rolling Stones attend their gigs, and they back Gene Vincent on his tours of England.

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. The LP by Iron Butterfly becomes the first to have one complete side consumed with just one song.

Country Rock. Called “Longhair Country” at first, Country Rock fuses the lyrical concepts of Rock music with traditional Country instrumentation and song structure. The first Country Rock LPs are the International Submarine Band’s Safe at Home and The Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo, both of them featuring Gram Parsons. In Nashville, John Hartford’s “Gentle on My Mind” begins to change the way Country songs are written.

The Band. In a parallel reaction against the self-absorption and self-indulgence of Rock music, Bob Dylan’s former backing group call themselves The Band and record back-to-basics LPs rooted in Country, Soul, and vintage Rock ‘n’ Roll. Creedence Clearwater Revival find greater commercial success with the same approach.

Elvis. After spending the years since his return from the Army largely consumed with making forgettable movies, Elvis stars in a television special, Elvis, dubbed the Comeback Special. His single, “In the Ghetto,” becomes his first Top 3 hit since 1963.

Hair. The first Rock musical opens on Broadway. Several songs from the show become hits, including “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine in,” “Hair,” “Easy to Be Hard,” and “Good Morning Starshine.”

The Allman Brothers’ first LP: a landmark in Southern Rock. After recording as the Allman Joys and Hour Glass in Nashville and Los Angeles, Duane Allman works as a session musician in Muscle Shoals before assembling a new band in Florida with his brother, Gregg. They’re signed to Capricorn Records in Macon, Georgia, and the label soon signs many first-generation Southern Rock acts, including Wet Willie (from Mobile, Alabama) and The Marshall Tucker Band (from Spartanburg, South Carolina).

Led Zeppelin’s first LP, a landmark in Hard Rock. Guitar-based, riff-driven, often distorted and overpoweringly loud, Hard Rock prefigures Heavy Metal music. Deep Purple, Vanilla Fudge, Iron Butterfly, Black Sabbath, and others release landmark LPs between 1968 and 1970. The sound is taken up by The Rolling Stones and The Who. Also in 1969, MC5 release Kick out the Jams and The Stooges release a self-titled LP; both are prototypical Punk Rock albums.

Woodstock. The concert that symbolizes the era is held in upstate New York and features three days of music. Artists performing include Santana, Canned Heat, Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Sly & the Family Stone, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, The Band, Johnny Winter, Blood Sweat & Tears, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Jimi Hendrix.

Elvis Presley records in Memphis for the first time since leaving Sun. He goes to American Studio and records his comeback hit, “Suspicious Minds” and the From Elvis in Memphis LP. He also returns to live performing for the first time since 1961.

Sam Phillips sells Sun Records to Shelby Singleton in Nashville. Singleton immediately issues LPs and singles by Johnny Cash, whose career is spectacularly reborn following his Folsom Prison album, and Jerry Lee Lewis, who has reinvented himself as a Country star.

First Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival Show. Promoter Richard Nader presents the first Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival show at Madison Square Garden. It features Chuck Berry, The Five Satins, Bill Haley, The Platters, and others. Its overwhelming success shows that the generation who’d grown up on Rock ‘n’ Roll doesn’t like contemporary Rock.

The Beatles break up. As do Folk-Rock duo Simon & Garfunkel.

Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix die of drug overdoses.

Country Rock-Southern Rock. In Nashville, Barefoot Jerry and Area Code 615 become pioneering Southern Rock bands, both led by local session musicians. Neither is successful commercially. In Muscle Shoals, Lynyrd Skynyrd record their first sessions, although the songs aren’t immediately issued.

California Country Rock—The Eagles. Linda Ronstadt assembles a touring band that comprises the group who will become The Eagles, and find a way to successfully fuse Country and Rock.

Duane Allman, aged 24, killed in a motorcycle accident. Gene Vincent, aged 38, dies of a bleeding ulcer.

Lynyrd Skynyrd. Al Kooper, formerly of Blood Sweat & Tears, discovers the band at Funnochio’s in Atlanta and signs them to his Sounds of the South Records.

First Lynyrd Skynyrd LP released. It features the soon-to-be classic “Free Bird.” Another Southern Rock band, ZZ Top, releases its breakthrough album, Tres Hombres, featuring “La Grange.”

Outlaw Country. Bringing Rock instrumentation, Rock dress, attitude and often drugs to Country music, Waylon Jennings, David Allan Coe, Steve Young, Willie Nelson and others create the Outlaw movement. The music is made outside the Nashville studio system, using the artists’ bands instead of session musicians. Strings are very rarely heard. The Outlaws find a market among Rock fans. A 1976 compilation, Wanted—The Outlaws, becomes the first Country LP to sell one million copies.

Rock ‘n’ Roll revival. The revival of interest in Fifties rock gathers momentum with more concerts and the success of the movie American Graffiti and the television show Happy Days. Bill Haley’s “Rock around the Clock” re-enters the chart after it becomes the original theme for Happy Days. It peaks at No.39. In 1975, John Lennon releases an oldies collection, Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Volunteer Jam. Charlie Daniels starts an annual Southern Rock festival, Volunteer Jam. The first is held in Nashville’s War Memorial Auditorium.

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s second LP. It features the classic “Sweet Home Alabama.”

Hank Williams, Jr. & Friends. Hank Williams’ son, Hank, Jr., declares his artistic freedom from Country music with an album recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama in conjunction with Toy Caldwell of The Marshall Tucker Band and surviving members of the Allman Brothers. He is the first Country artist to embrace Southern Rock.

Elvis Presley dies in Memphis, aged 42.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland. Many consider that it should have opened in Memphis, but the city of Cleveland underwrote the building with $65 million. The Hall’s original list of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll is predominated by songs, artists, and styles that originated in the Triangle.