Rick Allmen opened the Café Bizarre in 1957, one of the first Beat Generation clubs in Greenwich Village. Odetta was the opening night headliner. Jazz acts followed and Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg had readings there. Larry Love, the Singing Canary, landed his first paid engagement at the Bizarre in 1962. Love later changed his name to Tiny Tim.

Janis Ian was 14 when she wrote her 1967 hit single “Society’s Child,” a controversial song about how social pressure doomed an interracial romance. “I was sitting on a bus in East Orange, NJ, where I was living with my parents, and I saw it happening around me,” Ian told Songwriter Universe.

Nils Lofgren is best known for his solo work as a singer-songwriter and as a guitarist in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and Neil Young’s band, Crazy Horse. But in 1968, Lofgren was 17, a struggling musician who’d left Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, MD, and headed for New York City.

The Anderson Theater at 66 Second Avenue was named after theatrical agent Phyllis Anderson. The hall opened in 1957 and presented Yiddish plays through the 1960s. In 1968 Crawdaddy magazine sponsored a series of rock shows that featured the Yardbirds, Traffic, Procol Harum, Moby Grape, and Big Brother & the Holding Company with Janis Joplin.

1. “Barbara Ann” was first recorded by A. The Regents B. The Beach Boys C. The Cadillacs

As a budding musician, Richard Lloyd, the former guitarist, singer, and songwriter of the band Television attended many Fillmore East shows without buying a ticket. In this excerpt from the book Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever, Lloyd recalls his ploys to get the best seat in the house: backstage at Fillmore East.

The Shangri-Las have been cited as an influence on 1970s punk rockers Blondie and the New York Dolls. The group set itself apart from the girl groups of the 1960s by wearing skin-tight slacks and spike-heeled leather boots to promote a tough-girl image. Their first hit, “(Remember) Walking in the Sand,” reached the Top 5 in 1964. Its follow-up, “Leader of the Pack,” was a №1 hit later that year.

“Some people may not realize it but the Rascals were the first rock band in the world … in the center of the universe, New Jersey, the Rascals were the first band.” – Steven Van Zandt, 1997 Induction of the Rascals into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Enjoy this opening chapter of the mini book, Hendrix: An Illustrated Look at the Life of Jimi Hendrix.

“Spanish Harlem” was Ben E. King’s first hit after leaving the Drifters. Written by Jerry Leiber and Phil Spector, the song was a №15 hit on the R&B chart in 1960. The song’s arrangement by Stan Applebaum features Spanish guitar and marimba to suggest the neighborhood’s Latino population and cultural heritage.

Opened in the 1880s, the Chelsea Hotel has been a temporary home for many writers, artists, and actors. Years of disrepair earned the hotel its seedy reputation, which did nothing to discourage scores of musicians from visiting.

Before Steppenwolf formed, singer John Kay and guitarist Mars Bonfire were members of the Sparrows. Canadian-born Dennis McCrohan first changed his name to Dennis Edmonton and later to Mars Bonfire. The Sparrows broke up in 1967, leaving Bonfire time to drive into the mountains and deserts of Los Angeles in his used Ford Falcon.

When the Yardbirds formed in 1963, they called themselves Blue-Sounds; their repertoire was American blues and R&B. The Yardbirds name was inspired by Jack Kerouac’s classic novel On the Road. Kerouac described people he met as he traveled across the US, including those who hung around rail yards. He called them “rail yard hobos.” Another influence was jazz great Charlie Parker, often nicknamed “Yardbird” or “Bird.”

“Harper Valley PTA” was Jeannie C. Riley’s only pop hit but it made her the first woman to reach №1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Country Singles charts with the same song.

“The God of Hellfire,” Arthur Brown, is noted for his dynamic performances in a flaming metal helmet. Brown is one of the acknowledged pioneers of theatrical rock. The frontman of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown performed his incendiary hit “Fire” at promoter Bill Graham’s Fillmore East over two nights in 1968.

'Rock Quiz: 1000 Questions Classic Rock Challenge!' Book Excerpt

“Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud” was written by James Brown and his bandleader, Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis. Released as a two-part single in August 1968, four months after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the black pride anthem reached №1 on the R&B chart and was a №10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

When “Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie” was released, the band’s name was changed to Jay & the Techniques without their knowledge. “I think Jerry changed it because there was Smokey Robinson & the Miracles and Martha & the Vandellas, and he just didn’t like that single-name thing,” said Proctor. “It wasn’t that I was the leader of the group, just the lead singer on the song. Then it didn’t make sense to change it back after the song was a hit.”

Bill Graham, founder of the rock palaces Fillmore East and West among many accomplishments, was born January 8, 1931. In this excerpt from New York Groove: An Inside Look at the Stars, Shows & Songs That Make NYC Rock, we look back on Graham’s life.

Despite their robes and headdress, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs were part of the Tex-Mex musical tradition of Doug Sahm and Freddy Fender. Sam is Domingo Samudio, a Dallas, Texas rocker whose first and biggest hit was 1964’s “Wooly Bully.”