Dylan premieres A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall at Carnegie Hall
Twenty-one-year-old Bob Dylan stepped onto the Carnegie Hall stage on September 22, 1962, for a Pete Seeger-organized hootenanny and sang A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall in public for the first time, according to Bob Dylan's official site.
Seeger later called it the song that would outlast everything else Dylan wrote, and its warning landed with real weight just weeks before the Cuban Missile Crisis made the lyric feel prophetic, a defining early moment for folk rock.
September 22 at a Glance
Tap any event to jump straight to its full card below.
| Category | Event |
|---|---|
| 1969 | |
| release | The Band release their self-titled second album |
| broadcast | The Music Scene premieres on ABC with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young |
| 1968 | |
| broadcast | BBC airs Louis Armstrong's Show of the Week special |
| 1967 | |
| concert | Janis Ian plays Carnegie Hall at 16 |
| 1966 | |
| chart | Jim Reeves tops the UK chart from beyond the grave with Distant Drums |
| 1965 | |
| industry | The Supremes begin recording I Hear a Symphony |
| 1964 | |
| culture | Fiddler on the Roof opens on Broadway |
| 1963 | |
| broadcast | Frank Ifield yodels his way through The Ed Sullivan Show |
| 1962 | |
| concert | Dylan premieres A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall at Carnegie Hall |
| 1961 | |
| broadcast | Five Star Jubilee airs its final NBC broadcast |
| 1960 | |
| chart | The Twist keeps its grip on the Billboard Hot 100 |
The Band release their self-titled second album
Capitol Records released The Band's self-titled second album, often called the Brown Album, on September 22, 1969, cut largely in a makeshift studio inside Sammy Davis Jr.'s rented Los Angeles pool house, according to Wikipedia.
Songs like The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down and Up on Cripple Creek turned Robbie Robertson's rustic storytelling into a blueprint for Americana that shaped Eric Clapton, George Harrison, and a generation of roots-minded rock musicians.
The Music Scene premieres on ABC with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
ABC's weekly variety series The Music Scene premiered on September 22, 1969, hosted by David Steinberg, and its debut episode put the freshly formed Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young on network television playing Down by the River, per Wikipedia.
James Brown and Three Dog Night filled out the same hour, giving the short-lived show one of the strongest lineups network TV offered folk rock and soul audiences that year.
BBC airs Louis Armstrong's Show of the Week special
BBC Television broadcast Show of the Week: Louis Armstrong on September 22, 1968, built around a concert Armstrong and his All Stars had taped at the BBC's London studios that July, as Universal Music Canada details.
Armstrong reportedly wrote "For The Fans" on the tape box himself, and in 2024 Verve pulled the audio into the live album Louis in London, preserving what turned out to be one of his last great filmed performances, a late highlight of jazz and easy listening.
Janis Ian plays Carnegie Hall at 16
Sixteen-year-old Janis Ian performed a solo concert at Carnegie Hall on September 22, 1967, according to Setlist.fm's dated listing for the show.
The booking came on the heels of Society's Child, her controversial single about an interracial romance, and confirmed her as one of the era's most serious young singer-songwriters.
Jim Reeves tops the UK chart from beyond the grave with Distant Drums
Distant Drums by Jim Reeves reached number one on the UK Singles Chart on September 22, 1966, more than two years after the country singer died in a 1964 plane crash, according to the Official Charts Company.
Producer Chet Atkins had passed on the Cindy Walker song when Reeves first brought it to him in 1961, then added new orchestral backing and released it posthumously, holding the top spot of Nashville Sound country for five weeks.
The Supremes begin recording I Hear a Symphony
Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard opened session work on I Hear a Symphony at Motown's Hitsville U.S.A. Studio A on September 22, 1965, with additional tracking dates running through September 30, per Wikipedia.
The Holland-Dozier-Holland production went on to sell more than two million copies and gave the Supremes their sixth number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, another high point for Motown, Soul & R&B.
Fiddler on the Roof opens on Broadway
Fiddler on the Roof opened at Broadway's Imperial Theatre on September 22, 1964, with Zero Mostel starring as Tevye under Jerome Robbins' direction and choreography, according to IBDB.
Songs like Tradition and If I Were a Rich Man carried the show to a record 3,242 performances and nine Tony Awards, a run that held the title of longest-running Broadway musical for years.
Frank Ifield yodels his way through The Ed Sullivan Show
British-Australian singer Frank Ifield performed his UK number-one hit I'm Confessin' (That I Love You) live on The Ed Sullivan Show on September 22, 1963, sharing the bill with the vocal group the Dallas Boys.
Ifield's trademark yodel break gave American prime-time audiences an early taste of Commonwealth pop-country crossover, right before the British Invasion bands behind him took over the same stage.
Dylan premieres A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall at Carnegie Hall
Twenty-one-year-old Bob Dylan stepped onto the Carnegie Hall stage on September 22, 1962, for a Pete Seeger-organized hootenanny and sang A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall in public for the first time, according to Bob Dylan's official site.
Seeger later called it the song that would outlast everything else Dylan wrote, and its warning landed with real weight just weeks before the Cuban Missile Crisis made the lyric feel prophetic, a defining early moment for folk rock.
Five Star Jubilee airs its final NBC broadcast
Five Star Jubilee, the country music variety series hosted by Red Foley with Slim Wilson's Jubilee Band, aired its final NBC broadcast on September 22, 1961, closing out a run that began that March from the Landers Theatre in Springfield, Missouri, as Wikipedia records.
The show had been one of network television's earliest color broadcasts produced outside New York or Hollywood, carrying the same country music talent pipeline that fed Ozark Jubilee before it.
The Twist keeps its grip on the Billboard Hot 100
Chubby Checker's The Twist held its Billboard Hot 100 number-one spot straight through September 22, 1960, the middle of the single week it topped the chart during its first run, per Wikipedia.
The song returned to number one again in January 1962, making it the only single in Hot 100 history to top the chart during two separate, non-consecutive runs, a feat not matched again until Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You decades later.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened in 1960s music on September 22?
September 22 produced 11 verified music events across the decade, headlined by Bob Dylan's first-ever live performance of A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall at Carnegie Hall in 1962.
The same date saw Fiddler on the Roof open on Broadway in 1964, The Band release their self-titled second album in 1969, and Chubby Checker's The Twist sitting at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960.
When did Bob Dylan first perform A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall live?
Bob Dylan debuted A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall in public at a Pete Seeger-organized hootenanny at Carnegie Hall on September 22, 1962, months before the song appeared on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.
He performed it again around the Gaslight Cafe the same period, but the Carnegie Hall date is the one Dylan's own official site lists as the song's formal live premiere.
Did The Twist really top the Billboard Hot 100 twice?
Yes.
Chubby Checker's The Twist hit number one on September 19, 1960, held the spot through the following week, then returned to number one again on January 13, 1962, remaining the only single in Hot 100 history to top the chart during two separate, non-consecutive runs until Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You matched the feat in 2019.
How did Jim Reeves have a number-one hit two years after he died?
Jim Reeves died in a plane crash in July 1964, but producer Chet Atkins later found the unreleased demo of Distant Drums, which Reeves had recorded years earlier and Atkins had originally passed on.
Atkins added new orchestral backing and released it as a single in 1966, and it topped the UK Singles Chart on September 22 of that year.
What happened on Fiddler on the Roof's opening night?
Fiddler on the Roof opened at Broadway's Imperial Theatre on September 22, 1964, with Zero Mostel starring as Tevye and Jerome Robbins directing and choreographing.
The show went on to run a record 3,242 performances and win nine Tony Awards, holding the title of longest-running Broadway musical in history for nearly a decade.
What was Louis Armstrong's last major filmed performance?
Louis Armstrong and his All Stars taped a full concert for BBC Television in London in July 1968, which the BBC broadcast as Show of the Week: Louis Armstrong on September 22, 1968.
Verve released the restored audio in 2024 as the album Louis in London, and it stands among the last great performances Armstrong filmed before his health declined.