Pop Music Events

1957 Jul 6 John Lennon meets Paul McCartney
In March 1957 John Lennon formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen. McCartney met Lennon on 6 July 1957, and agreed to join the group a few days later.
1957 Jul 9 The first official Quarry Men performance
The first "official" public, albeit unsuccessful, performance by The Quarry Men - they failed to impress when they auditioned before the promoter Carroll Levis who was looking for new tal...
1958 Feb 6 Paul McCartney invited George Harrison to watch the Quarrymen
According to George Harrison, the first time he saw the Quarry Men was at the Wilson Hall, opposite the bus depot in Garston, Liverpool. According to Beatles scholar Mark Lewisohn, the da...
1958 Jun 7 Prince Rogers Nelson is Born
1958 Aug 16 Madonna is Born
Madonna (born Madonna Louise Ciccone; August 16, 1958), is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, she ...
1958 Aug 29 Michael Jackson Born
Michael Joseph Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana (an industrial suburb of Chicago, Illinois) to a working-class family on August 29, 1958. The son of Joseph Walter "Joe" and Katherine Est...
1960 May 10 The Quarry Men become The Silver Beats
The well-known British impresario Larry Parnes is looking for musicians and backing acts for his "stars", including, for example, Billy Fury, and others, whom they will accompany on a tou...
1960 Aug 12 Pete Best joins the Beatles
The group invited Pete Best to become their drummer on 12 August 1960. Four days after hiring Best, the group left for Hamburg. The Beatles began a 48-night residency in Hamburg at Bruno ...
1961 Apr The Beatles visit Hamburg for a second time
The Beatles returned to Hamburg in April 1961, performing at the Top Ten Club again. They were recruited by singer Tony Sheridan (who also had a residency at the club) to act as his backi...
1962 Aug 18 Ringo Starr joins The Beatles
The Beatles asked Richard Starkey, known as Ringo Starr, to join the band; Starr was the drummer for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and had performed occasionally with The Beatles in Hamb...
1963 Love (band) forms
Lee, who had lived in Los Angeles since the age of five, had been recording since 1963 with his bands, the LAG's and Lee's American Four. He'd also produced a single, "My Diary", for Rosa...
1963 Mar 22 The Beatles release Please Please Me
Please Please Me is the first album recorded by The Beatles, rush-released on 22 March 1963 in the United Kingdom to capitalise on the success of singles "Please Please Me" (#2) and "Love...
1963 Nov 22 The Beatles release With the Beatles
With The Beatles is The Beatles' second UK album, recorded four months after the band's first album and released on 22 November 1963, the same day President John F. Kennedy was assassinat...
1963 Dec 1 Madonna's Mother Dies
Madonna was raised in the Detroit suburbs of Pontiac and Avon Township (now Rochester Hills). Her mother died of breast cancer at age 30 on December 1, 1963. Then her father married the f...
1964 Jun 10 The Beatles release A Hard Day's Night
A Hard Day's Night is the third UK album by The Beatles, released on 10 July 1964 as the soundtrack to their first film of the same name on Parlophone in mono (catalogue number PMC 1230) ...
1964 Dec 4 The Beatles release Beatles for Sale
Beatles for Sale is The Beatles' fourth album, released in late 1964 and produced by George Martin for Parlophone, released on mono (catalogue number PMC 1240) and stereo (PCS 3062). The ...
1965 Aug 6 The Beatles releases Help!
Help! is the fifth UK album and tenth US album by The Beatles, and the soundtrack album from their film of the same name. Produced by George Martin for EMI's Parlophone Records, the album...
1965 Dec 3 The Beatles release Rubber Soul
Rubber Soul is the sixth UK studio album and the eleventh US release by the British rock band The Beatles. Produced by George Martin and released in December 1965, Rubber Soul had been re...
1966 Aug 5 The Beatles release Revolver
Revolver is often cited as one of the greatest albums in rock music history. In 1997, it was named the 3rd greatest album of all time in a Music of the Millennium poll conducted in the Un...
1967 Jun 1 The Beatles release Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by British rock band The Beatles. Released 1 June 1967, it became a defining album in the emerging psychedelic rock style;...
1967 Nov 27 The Beatles release Magical Mystery Tour
Magical Mystery Tour is the name of the 11-song album and 6-song double EP by the English rock band The Beatles, first released as an LP on 27 November 1967 and on 8 December 1967 as a do...
1968 Oct 17 Ziggy Marley is born
David Nesta "Ziggy" Marley (born October 17, 1968, Trenchtown, Jamaica) is a four time Grammy-winning Jamaican musician and leader of the band Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. He is th...
1968 Nov 22 The Beatles release the White Album
The Beatles is the ninth official British album and the fifteenth American album by The Beatles, a double album released in 1968. It is more commonly known as The White Album as it has no...
1969 The Jackson Five debut
In August 1969, shortly before Michael turned 11, the Jackson 5 opened for Diana Ross at the L.A. Forum, and in December, they issued their debut album, Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5....
1969 Jan 17 The Beatles release Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine is a soundtrack album released by The Beatles corresponding with the film of the same name released on Apple Records (catalogue number PCS 7070 in the United Kingdom and ...
1969 Sep 26 The Beatles release Abbey Road
Abbey Road is the eleventh official U.K. album and seventeenth U.S. album released by The Beatles. Though work on Abbey Road began in April 1969, making it the final album recorded by the...
1970 Apr The Bee Gees release Cucumber Castle
Cucumber Castle is the Bee Gees' seventh album (and fifth international release), released in 1970 and produced by Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb, and Robert Stigwood. It consists of songs from...
1970 May 8 The Beatles release Let It Be
Let It Be is the twelfth and final studio album by the English rock band The Beatles. It was released on 8 May 1970 by the band's Apple Records label shortly after the group's announced b...
1970 Dec Love releases False Start
False Start is the sixth album by the American rock band Love, released in December 1970. The second and final Love album for Blue Thumb Records saw bandleader Arthur Lee heavily influ...
1971 Sep
to 1971 Nov
The Bee Gees release Trafalgar
Trafalgar is the Bee Gees' ninth album (seventh internationally), released in September 1971. The album was a moderate hit in the United States, and peaked at #34. The lead single "How Ca...
1972 Michael Jackson's first solo hit “Ben” reaches No. 1
"Ben" is a number-one hit song recorded by the teenaged Michael Jackson for the Motown label in 1972. The song, the theme of a 1972 film of the same name, spent one week at the top of the...
1972 May 19 Rohan Marley is born
Rohan Anthony Marley (born 1972) is the son of late reggae artist Bob Marley and Janet Hunt. He is a member of the Rastafari movement. Marley and musician Lauryn Hill met in 1996. Hill...
1972 Oct The Bee Gees release To Whom It May Concern
To Whom It May Concern is the Bee Gees' tenth studio album (eighth internationally), released in October 1972. It was the follow-up , and continued the melancholic and personal sound of i...
1973 Karen Marley is born
Karen Marley, second daughter of Bob Marley, was born in England in 1973 but grew up in Jamaica. Karen has always had a passion for fashion and interior design influenced by her great gra...
1974 Michael Jackson introduces "The Robot"
In 1974, during a performance on "Soul Train," Jackson introduced a dance called the robot, made of moves that were mimicked on dance floors across the country.
1974 Jun The Bee Gees release Mr. Natural
Mr. Natural is the Bee Gees' twelfth album (tenth worldwide), released in July 1974. It was the first Bee Gees release to be produced by Arif Mardin, who was partially responsible for lau...
1975 Love releases Reel to Real
Reel to Real is the seventh album by the American rock band Love, released in 1975. The first Love album in four years and the final Love album for nearly twenty years, Reel to Real ha...
1975 Jun
to 1975 Aug
The Bee Gees release Main Course
Main Course is the Bee Gees' thirteenth album (eleventh worldwide), released in 1975 for the RSO label, and their last album to be released by Atlantic Records in the U.S. under its distr...
1976 Sep The Bee Gees release Children of the World
Children of the World is the Bee Gees' fourteenth album (twelfth internationally), released in September 1976. The first single, "You Should Be Dancing", went to number one in the US and ...
1977 Madonna Leaves College to Dance
Her ballet teacher persuaded her to pursue a career in dance, so she left the college at the end of 1977 and relocated to New York City. Madonna had little money at that time and hence li...
1979 Madonna Performs as a Dancer on Tour
While performing as a dancer for the French disco artist Patrick Hernandez on his 1979 world tour, Madonna became romantically involved with the musician Dan Gilroy, with whom she later f...
1979 "Off the Wall" solo album catapults Michael Jackson to superstar status
Off the Wall is the fifth studio album by pop musician Michael Jackson, released August 10, 1979 on Epic Records. The album follows Jackson's critically well received theatrical performan...
1982 Apr 24 Madonna Releases "Everybody"
Madonna signed a singles deal with Sire Records, a label belonging to Warner Bros. Records. Her first release was "Everybody" on April 24, 1982. Her debut album, Madonna was primarily pro...
1983 Red Hot Chili Peppers are formed
Red Hot Chili Peppers (originally Tony Flow and the Majestic Masters of Mayhem) were formed by Fairfax High School alumni Anthony Kiedis, Hillel Slovak, Jack Irons and Michael "Flea" Balz...
1983 Jan 2 Michael Jackson releases "Billie Jean"
"Billie Jean" is a dance-pop R&B song by late American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was written by Jackson and produced by Quincy Jones for the singer's sixth solo album, Thriller...
1983 Feb 14 Michael Jackson releases "Beat It"
"Beat It" is a song by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was written by Jackson and co-produced by Quincy Jones for the singer's sixth solo album, Thriller (1982). Jones had w...
1983 Mar 25 Michael Jackson popularizes the moonwalk
The moonwalk or backslide is a dance technique that presents the illusion that the dancer is stepping forward while actually moving backward, giving the appearance of a person moving alon...
1983 Jul 27 Madonna Releases Self-Titled Debut
Madonna is the debut album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on July 27, 1983 by Sire Records. The album was re-released in 1985 for the European market and re-packaged as M...
1984 Jan 27 Michael Jackson burns hair during Pepsi commercial
While filming a Pepsi Cola commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, he suffered second degree burns to his scalp after pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire. Happening...
1984 Aug 10 Red Hot Chili Peppers release self-titled first album
The Red Hot Chili Peppers is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on August 10, 1984 on EMI. The album was produced by Gang of Four gui...