1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music

January

1

The Beatles’ “I Feel Fine” holds the top spot for the second of three weeks with the first intentional use of feedback on a record.

4

President Lyndon Johnson announces plans for Great Society government programs such as Medicare to create “abundance and liberty for all.”

11–12

The Rolling Stones record their version of the Staple Singers’ gospel (“The Last Time”) and baroque chamber pop (“Play with Fire”).

13–15

Dylan records
Bringing It All Back Home
, fusing psychedelic folk lyrics with rock and roll.

16

Connie Smith’s “Once a Day” ends its eight-week run at the top of the country chart, the record for a female artist until 2012.

20

Lyndon Johnson’s inauguration draws the largest crowd until Barack Obama’s in 2009.

20

The Byrds record “Mr. Tambourine Man,” matching the Beatles’ jangling guitar and beat with Dylan’s surreal lyrics and an intro inspired by Bach.

February

1

John Coltrane releases his magnum opus,
A Love Supreme
, in February (exact date unknown).

1

James Brown records “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” in one hour, inventing the funk genre.

6

“You Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” becomes the longest No. 1 record to date, at 3:45.

10

Martha and the Vandellas release “Nowhere to Run,” a future anthem to soldiers and rioters, and inspiration for the riff of “Satisfaction.”

18

While demonstrating for the right to vote, a black man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, is fatally shot in the stomach by a state trooper in Selma, Alabama.

20

Buck Owens’s “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail” tops the country chart, epitomizing the Bakersfield sound.

21

Malcolm X is assassinated.

March

2

President Johnson orders the Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign against North Vietnam.

6

The Temptations’ “My Girl” (co-written/co-produced by Smokey Robinson) tops the charts.

6

Sam Cooke’s civil rights anthem “A Change Is Gonna Come” peaks at No. 31.

7

ABC interrupts the Sunday Night Movie (
Judgment at Nuremberg
) to broadcast images of civil rights demonstrators being beaten by Alabama state troopers, an incident that will be dubbed “Bloody Sunday.”

8

The Deacons for Defense and Justice, an armed civil rights organization, incorporates in Louisiana.

8

The first combat troops arrive in Vietnam. Thirty-five hundred marines land at China Beach, joining twenty-three thousand American military advisers training the South Vietnamese.

8

Brian Wilson’s precursor to
Pet Sounds
,
The Beach Boys Today!
, is released, boasting a stunning array of instrumentation.

15

President Johnson vows “We Shall Overcome” in a televised speech supporting protestors in Selma.

16

Eighty-two-year-old activist Alice Herz sets herself on fire in Detroit to protest U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

24–25

Thirty-five hundred people attend a teach-in about Vietnam held at the University of Michigan and organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

25

The March from Selma to Montgomery concludes with twenty-five thousand gathered at the Alabama State Capitol. Martin Luther King Jr. gives his “How Long? Not Long!” speech.

27

Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions’ civil rights anthem “People Get Ready” peaks at No. 14. Bob Marley and the Wailers rework it into “One Love” in Jamaica later in the year.

27

Dylan’s
Bringing It All Back Home
is released.

27

John Lennon and George Harrison are dosed with LSD without their consent for the first time by Harrison’s dentist.

April

3

Solomon Burke’s “Got to Get You Off My Mind,” inspired by the death of his friend Sam Cooke, tops the R&B charts.

4

The Staple Singers record “Freedom Highway,” about the Selma-to-Montgomery March, at Chicago’s New Nazareth Church (on an undetermined Sunday during April).

13

Guitarist Eric Clapton leaves the Yardbirds because he considers the harpsichord-laden “For Your Love” too pop. The band tries to recruit Jimmy Page, who declines and suggests Jeff Beck.

20

The Pawnbroker
is released in American movie theaters, featuring the first bare breasts approved by the U.S. Production Code.

May

1

The civil rights anthem “We’re Gonna Make It,” by Little Milton, tops the R&B charts.

5

The Grateful Dead (under the name the Warlocks) debut at Magoo’s Pizza, in the San Francisco Bay Area.

6

James Brown recuts “I Got You (I Feel Good)” in Miami, Florida, in his new funk style.

6

The Rolling Stones write “Satisfaction” at a hotel pool in Clearwater, Florida, as a Dylanesque folk song.

8

The British Invasion of the United States peaks as eight of the U.S. Top 10 singles are English (and one Australian).

12

The Rolling Stones rework “Satisfaction” with the beat of the Four Tops’ “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch).”

21–23

Between ten thousand and thirty thousand people attend an antiwar teach-in in Berkeley, California.

21

The Who release “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere,” with an avant-garde feedback instrumental.

22

Marvin Gaye’s “I’ll Be Doggone” (produced/co-written by Smokey Robinson) tops the R&B charts with a riff influenced by the Searchers’ proto-folk-rock “Needles and Pins.”

22

The Beatles top the charts with the jangle pop of “Ticket to Ride.”

22

Van Morrison and Them’s garage rock anthem “Gloria” peaks in the United States at No. 93.

June

1

Bob Marley and the Wailers release the ska anthem “Rude Boy” (approximate date).

2

James Brown’s “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” is released; starting on August 14, it will top the R&B charts for eight weeks.

5

Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs’ “Wooly Bully” reaches No. 2.
Billboard
later determines it the best-selling song of the year.

6

“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” is released. Starting July 10, it will top the pop charts for four weeks.

7

The U.S. Supreme Court decides in
Griswold v. Connecticut
that states cannot outlaw the birth control pill (a.k.a. the Pill) because the Constitution guarantees “marital privacy.”

12

The Supremes and production team Holland-Dozier-Holland score their fifth consecutive No. 1 with “Back in My Arms Again.”

19

Phil Ochs performs “I Ain’t Marching Anymore” at the New York Folk Festival.

20

Three members of the Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.) give their last performance for twenty-three years.

21

The Byrds release their
Mr. Tambourine Man
album with a psychedelic cover shot taken using a fish-eye camera lens.

23

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles release “The Tracks of My Tears.”

26

The Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man” single hits No. 1.

28

The Red Dog Saloon opens in Virginia City, Nevada, with a performance by the Charlatans and LSD provided by Owsley Stanley, kick-starting the San Francisco psychedelic scene.

July

4

The East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO) protests at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. It becomes a yearly event for the rest of the decade as the “Annual Reminder” for gay rights.

8

Nina Simone’s “I Put a Spell on You” peaks in the United Kingdom at No. 49. Later in the year, the Beatles adapt the song’s “I love you” bridge for “Michelle.”

15

Barry McGuire records “Eve of Destruction” in one take.

17

Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions’ civil rights anthem “Meeting Over Yonder” peaks at No. 48.

19

The Beatles release John Lennon’s confessional single “Help!” Their film of the same name premieres ten days later.

20

Dylan releases “Like a Rolling Stone,” which reaches No. 2 in September. At 6:13, it’s by far the longest single to hit the pop charts, with the most expressionistic and jaded lyrics heard on AM radio to date.

20

The Lovin’ Spoonful debuts with their folk-rock anthem “Do You Believe in Magic.”

23

Paul Simon performs “I Am a Rock” solo on the British television program
Ready Steady Go!
in London.

24

Jackie DeShannon hits No. 7 with Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s idealistic anthem “What the World Needs Now Is Love.”

25

Bob Dylan is booed at the Newport Folk Festival for playing an electrified “Maggie’s Farm.”

26

John Coltrane performs
A Love Supreme
live for the only time, at Festival Mondial du Jazz Antibes, in France.

26

The
New York Times
proclaims model Edie Sedgwick Andy Warhol’s latest star.

28

President Johnson doubles the number of men per month to be drafted to Vietnam, boosting the figure from seventeen thousand to thirty-five thousand.

30

As part of the Great Society and the War on Poverty, Johnson signs into law Medicare and Medicaid.

30

The Kinks release “See My Friends,” imitating the music and vocals they heard while in India.

August

5

The
CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite
airs footage of American soldiers burning the huts of Vietnamese villagers. An outraged Johnson complains to the network’s president.

6

President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law in the Capitol Rotunda with Martin Luther King Jr. in attendance.

7

Herman’s Hermits top the charts with “I’m Henry VIII, I Am,” a cover of a 1910 music hall song. Soon other British bands will rediscover the genre, akin to American vaudeville.