Yesterday gives the Beatles their fifth No. 1 of the year
Paul McCartney's solo acoustic ballad Yesterday reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, backed only by his own guitar and a string quartet George Martin arranged, a stark departure from the Beatles' usual sound.
It began a four-week run at the top and went on to become the most covered song in recording history, cementing the Beatles' reputation for pushing pop songwriting forward even on a track none of the other three played on.
October 9 at a Glance
Tap any event to jump straight to its full card below.
| Category | Event |
|---|---|
| 1969 | |
| release | Carpenters release their debut album, Offering |
| broadcast | BBC's Top of the Pops airs an instrumental stand-in for the banned Je t'aime moi non plus |
| 1968 | |
| industry | Paul McCartney tracks Why Don't We Do It in the Road? on John Lennon's 28th birthday |
| industry | The Rolling Stones open rehearsals at a new London warehouse studio |
| 1967 | |
| concert | The Jimi Hendrix Experience play the Olympia in Paris |
| 1966 | |
| culture | John Lennon turns 26 while filming in Almería, Spain |
| 1965 | |
| chart | Yesterday gives the Beatles their fifth No. 1 of the year |
| 1964 | |
| industry | The Beach Boys cut Dance, Dance, Dance with Glen Campbell sitting in |
| 1962 | |
| industry | Bobby Vee records The Night Has A Thousand Eyes |
| 1961 | |
| chart | Ray Charles starts a two-week run at No. 1 with Hit the Road Jack |
| 1960 | |
| birth | Jazz saxophonist Kenny Garrett is born in Detroit |
Carpenters release their debut album, Offering
The Carpenters released their debut album, Offering, on A&M Records, built around Richard Carpenter's arrangements and Karen Carpenter's vocals and drumming.
Its closing track, a slowed-down ballad reading of the Beatles' Ticket to Ride, was distinctive enough that A&M reissued the whole album the following year under that song's title instead.
BBC's Top of the Pops airs an instrumental stand-in for the banned Je t'aime moi non plus
With Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg's explicit duet Je t'aime moi non plus banned from BBC airwaves, Top of the Pops broadcast an instrumental version by the show's in-house orchestra instead of the original.
The workaround let the BBC acknowledge the record's run to No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart, the first French-language single to top the British chart, without ever playing its actual vocal.
Paul McCartney tracks Why Don't We Do It in the Road? on John Lennon's 28th birthday
While George Harrison and John Lennon worked on other songs elsewhere at Abbey Road, Paul McCartney booked Studio One with engineer Ken Townsend and cut five solo takes of Why Don't We Do It in the Road? on acoustic guitar and vocals, overdubbing piano onto the last one.
Ringo Starr added drums the next day to finish the track for the Beatles' White Album, a spontaneous, almost private session that fell, by coincidence, on Lennon's 28th birthday.
The Rolling Stones open rehearsals at a new London warehouse studio
The Rolling Stones began working out of a newly acquired warehouse rehearsal space in London, the band's first dedicated rehearsal room instead of booked commercial studio time.
The sessions came weeks after finishing Beggars Banquet and fed straight into The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, the all-star television special the band filmed that December.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience play the Olympia in Paris
The original lineup, Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, played a French radio broadcast set at the Olympia theatre in Paris for Musicorama, tearing through Stone Free, Fire, Foxy Lady and Purple Haze.
The tapes stayed locked away for decades until Dagger Records finally released the full show as Paris 67, and since no official film of the gig survives, Purple Haze from the same era stands in for the fuzzed-out psychedelic rock sound Hendrix brought to the stage that night.
John Lennon turns 26 while filming in Almería, Spain
John Lennon marked his 26th birthday on location in Almería, six weeks into shooting Richard Lester's How I Won the War in the supporting role of Private Gripweed.
The quiet stretch away from touring and the Beatles gave Lennon room to sketch the earliest ideas for Strawberry Fields Forever, the song that opened the band's next creative chapter.
Yesterday gives the Beatles their fifth No. 1 of the year
Paul McCartney's solo acoustic ballad Yesterday reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, backed only by his own guitar and a string quartet George Martin arranged, a stark departure from the Beatles' usual sound.
It began a four-week run at the top and went on to become the most covered song in recording history, cementing the Beatles' reputation for pushing pop songwriting forward even on a track none of the other three played on.
The Beach Boys cut Dance, Dance, Dance with Glen Campbell sitting in
The Beach Boys re-recorded Dance, Dance, Dance at RCA Studios in Hollywood after Brian Wilson scrapped an earlier attempt from a Nashville session two weeks prior, with session player Glen Campbell adding 12-string guitar.
The song became the group's twelfth U.S. Top 40 hit, reaching No. 8, and the session helped cement Campbell's ties to the band months before he briefly joined as Wilson's touring replacement.
Bobby Vee records The Night Has A Thousand Eyes
Bobby Vee spent the day at United Recorders in Hollywood tracking The Night Has A Thousand Eyes under producer Snuff Garrett and arranger Ernie Freeman.
Released that December, the single spent fourteen weeks on the Hot 100 and peaked at No. 3, though no official upload of it survives on YouTube, so the clip here is Take Good Care of My Baby, Vee's No. 1 hit from the same Liberty Records run.
Ray Charles starts a two-week run at No. 1 with Hit the Road Jack
Ray Charles and Raelettes singer Margie Hendrix traded the song's tart call-and-response vocal as Hit the Road Jack, written by Percy Mayfield, began a two-week stay atop the Billboard Hot 100.
The record won the Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording, one of the defining hits of Charles's crossover run from R&B into mainstream pop.
Jazz saxophonist Kenny Garrett is born in Detroit
Kenny Garrett, who would go on to play alongside Miles Davis, Art Blakey and the Duke Ellington Orchestra, was born in Detroit, Michigan.
He didn't turn professional until joining the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1978, but his birth placed him squarely in Detroit's deep jazz lineage during the same years the city's Motown sound was reshaping American pop.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened in 1960s music on October 9?
October 9 saw 11 verified music events across the decade.
They're headlined by the Beatles' Yesterday hitting No. 1 in 1965, Ray Charles topping the chart with Hit the Road Jack in 1961, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience playing the Olympia in Paris in 1967.
When did the Beatles' Yesterday hit No. 1?
Yesterday reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 9, 1965, beginning a four-week run at the top.
Paul McCartney recorded it alone with acoustic guitar and a string quartet, making it the first Beatles single without the other three members playing on it.
Why is October 9 significant for Ray Charles?
On October 9, 1961, Ray Charles's Hit the Road Jack began a two-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The record, featuring Margie Hendrix of the Raelettes, later won the Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording.
What was Jimi Hendrix doing on October 9, 1967?
The Jimi Hendrix Experience played a French radio broadcast concert at the Olympia theatre in Paris on October 9, 1967, for the Musicorama series.
The recordings were eventually released decades later by Dagger Records as Paris 67.
When was Kenny Garrett born?
Jazz saxophonist Kenny Garrett was born on October 9, 1960, in Detroit, Michigan.
He went on to perform with Duke Ellington's Orchestra, Art Blakey and Miles Davis.
Why was Je t'aime moi non plus banned by the BBC?
Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg's 1969 duet Je t'aime moi non plus was banned from BBC radio for its explicit content, despite reaching No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart.
On October 9, 1969, Top of the Pops aired an instrumental cover instead of the original.