By Dale
Where were you in 1969? I thought it might be fun to take a short trip down memory lane and talk about music and who was and what was in the record industry in 1969.
The top 20 singles for the entire year of 1969 according to Billboard Magazine were:
1. Sugar Sugar – The Archies
2. Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In – 5th Dimension
3. I Can’t Get Next to You – The Temptations
4. Honky Tonk Women – The Rolling Stones
5. Everyday People – Sly and The Family Stone
6. Dizzy – Tommy Roe
7. Hot Fun in The Summertime – Sly and The Family Stone
8. I’ll Never Fall in Love Again – Tom Jones
9. Build Me Up Buttercup – The Foundations
10. Crimson and Clover – Tommy James and The Shondells
11. Hair – The Cowsills
12. Too Busy Thinking About My Baby – Marvin Gaye
13. Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet – Henry Mancini
14. Get Together – The Youngbloods
15. Grazing in The Grass -The Friends of Distinction
16. Suspicious Minds – Elvis Presley
17. Proud Mary – Creedence Clearwater Revival
18. What Does It Take to Win Your Love – Jr Walker and The All Stars
19. Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond
20. Jean – Oliver
A lot went on in and around the music industry in that year. Here are a few of the things that were interesting to me and may just be to you as well:
Two of the now infamous musical events of that year were the Rolling Stones concert in December at Altamont, California where it was reported that the Stones had hired some of the Hells Angels as security for the event despite that this concert was best known for a lot of violence, including the stabbing death of Meredith Hunter by a member of the Hells Angels who was later acquitted of a murder charge as Hunter had a pistol, two more deaths by a hit and run and one more by LSD induced drowning in an irrigation canal. Many people were injured and a number of cars were stolen and then abandon, plus there was extensive property damage.
It was reported that 300,000 attended the concert to hear Santana, The Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Grateful Dead and The Rolling Stones. The Grateful Dead refused to play because of all the violence. Some people thought that this violence had signaled an end to the hippie movement of the sixties.
The other and even more famous event of 1969 was the Woodstock Festival set for August 15th through 17th but ran over into the 18th. . That festival is still considered one of the largest concerts in the history of the World. The promoters of the event had a permit for an attendance they thought would be near 50,000. Once it was all said and done it was estimated that the crowd was very close to 500,000.
Here is a list of the entertainers that performed during that huge four-day festival:
Richie Havens
Sweetwater
Bert Sommer
Tim Hardin
Ravi Shankar
Melanie
Arlo Guthrie
Joan Baez
Quill
Country Joe McDonald
Santana
John Sebastian
Keef Hartley Band
The Incredible String Band
Canned Heat
Mountain
Grateful Dead
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Janis Joplin with the Kozmic Blues Band
Sly and the Family Stone
The Who
Jefferson Airplane
Joe Cocker and the Grease Band
Country Joe and the Fish
Ten Years After
Blood Sweat and Tears
The Band
Johnny Winter
Cosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Sha Na Na
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Jimi Hendrix
At least 24 more acts were asked to be part of this festival but for what ever reason declined. The story has it that the promoters were having some difficulty signing any big names until in April of 1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival one of the hottest acts that year agreed to sign a contract for the four day event. They agreed to play for $10,000, once Creedence signed, everyone else seemed to get in line to come on board.
After location problems the festival promoters came to an agreement with Max Yasgur who owned a Dairy Farm near Bethel, New York. Billed as “An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music”, it was held at Max Yasgur’s 600-acre dairy farm near White Lake in Bethel, New York, 43 miles southwest of Woodstock. The promoters obtained a permit to hold the festival assuring the town that no more that 50,000 would show up. In the end this little festival drew near 500,000 people and will go down in history as a once in a lifetime event.
Some of the other events were:
David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” became a huge hit that year, being released at the time that our astronauts first landed on the moon.
Johnny Cash’s at San Quentin album included his top ten hit, “A Boy Named Sue” was a sequel released from his 1968 release of At Folsom Prison.
Creedence Clearwater Revival made their success rock solid following their number 11 single from 1968 of “Suzie Q”, they released their second, third and fourth studio album all in 1969. First came Bayou Country which gave them the US number 2 hit “Proud Mary”. In 1969 they had Proud Mary, Green River and Bad Moon Rising all of which were number two hits. They also had Down On The Corner and Fortunate Son that were number three hits
Elvis Presley went back to live performances at the International Hotel in Las Vegas; he went on to break all attendance records in a 57-concert tour. He also had great success with In the Ghetto and Suspicious Minds that year. Suspicious Minds hit #1 in 1969.
Pete Best won his defamation lawsuit against The Beatles. He sought 8 million dollars but ended up settling for much less and about that same time Led Zeppelin released their debut album.
On January 30th of 1969 the Beatles performed for the last time in public on the roof of the Apple building in London. In February Eric Burdon and the Animals disbanded.
Jim Morrison of the Doors was arrested for allegedly exposing himself during a show at Miami’s Dinner Key Auditorium in March and the WHO released Pinball Wizard as a single and Paul and Linda McCartney were married in London. Also in March John Lennon and Yoko Ono were married in Gibraltar while George Harrison and wife Pattie were arrested in the UK on charges of hashish possession.
1969 also found The Beach Boys filing a lawsuit against their record label, Capital Records for over two million dollars in unpaid royalties and producer’s fees for Brian Wilson. Capitol then deleted most of its Beach Boys catalog putting a huge dent in the bands income.
The Who’s rock opera Tommy had its first complete performance in Dolton, Devon, UK and Chicago released their debut album, The Chicago Transit Authority.
Jimi Hendrix was arrested by Canadian Mounties at Toronto’s International Airport for possession of narcotics (heroin). He was released on $10,000 bail.
Sly & the Family Stone released their breakthrough album Stand. The album became one of the best selling albums of the decade and rocketed the group to being one of the most popular rock and soul acts at the time. The Who released their rock opera, Tommy.
In July, Brian Jones was found dead in the swimming pool at his home in Sussex, England, almost a month after leaving The Rolling Stones. The Stones proceeded with a free concert in Hyde Park, London as a tribute to Brian Jones and that was their first concert with guitarist Mick Taylor.
On August 9th of 1969 Charles Manson’s family as they were called murdered film star Sharon Tate and others in Tate’ Home.
Janis Joplin released “I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!” which was her first solo album since leaving Big Brother and the holding Company and just a couple of days later John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band perform at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival a 12 hour music festival featuring such notables as Eric Clapton, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Klaus Voormann, Bo Diddley, Alan White and up and coming Chicago.
Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra perform the Concerto for Group and Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in London and that was the first elaborate collaboration between a rock band and an orchestra.
The very next month saw the release of the final single by Diana Ross & The Supremes, “Someday We’ll Be Together” that went to number 1.
On November 7th that year The Rolling Stones opened their US tour in Fort Collins, Colorado.
In 1969 a reported 500,000 people marched on Washington, D.C. for peace, which was marked as the largest anti-war rally in US history. Some who attended Pete Seeger, Peter Paul and Mary, John Denver, Mitch Miller and Arlo Guthrie.
Billboard magazine changed its policy of charting the A and B sides of 45 singles on its pop chart this year. The original policy charted the two sides separately, but the new policy was to consider both sides as one chart entry. The Beatles were the first beneficiary of that policy as their current hit Come Together and Something garnered enough combined points to make the single a #1 pop hit. The same thing happened for Creedence Clearwater Revival with the 45 of Fortunate Son and Down On The Corner it gathered enough combined points to reach number 3.
Enjoy the memories—many more to come
Let me know in the comments what you remember most about 1969!
Dale
dalescollectibles.com
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