Rolling Stones show at Royal Albert Hall ends in a riot
The Rolling Stones opened their 1966 UK tour at London's Royal Albert Hall on September 23, 1966, with Ike & Tina Turner and the Yardbirds opening, according to the Royal Albert Hall's own account of the night.
Fans rushed the stage during the opening notes of Paint It Black and broke through the barricades, and the chaos was captured on film and later used in the band's promotional video for Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby.
September 23 at a Glance
Tap any event to jump straight to its full card below.
| Category | Event |
|---|---|
| 1969 | |
| culture | The Paul is Dead rumor breaks nationally |
| 1968 | |
| industry | The Beatles begin recording Happiness Is a Warm Gun |
| 1967 | |
| chart | The Box Tops hit No. 1 with The Letter |
| 1966 | |
| release | The Rolling Stones release Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby |
| concert | Rolling Stones show at Royal Albert Hall ends in a riot |
| 1965 | |
| chart | The Walker Brothers hit UK No. 1 with Make It Easy on Yourself |
| 1962 | |
| culture | Lincoln Center opens with Bernstein and a new Copland premiere |
| concert | The Real Ambassadors premieres at Monterey with Louis Armstrong |
| 1961 | |
| festival | Dizzy Gillespie plays A Musical Safari at Monterey |
The Paul is Dead rumor breaks nationally
Northern Illinois University's student newspaper, the Northern Star, published a story on September 23, 1969, claiming Paul McCartney had died in a 1966 car crash and been secretly replaced, a claim NPR Illinois confirms was later proven false.
Radio DJs and fans raced to find clues in songs like the Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever, and within weeks the rumor had gone international before McCartney himself put it to rest.
The Beatles begin recording Happiness Is a Warm Gun
The Beatles gathered in Studio Two at EMI Studios on September 23, 1968, for a 7pm to 3am session that opened work on John Lennon's Happiness Is a Warm Gun, running through 45 takes of the rhythm track, according to The Beatles Bible's session log.
Lennon had stitched the song together from three unfinished fragments, and the Beatles spent two more sessions splicing takes before finishing the White Album track before dawn on September 26.
The Box Tops hit No. 1 with The Letter
The Box Tops' debut single The Letter reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 23, 1967, driven by sixteen-year-old Alex Chilton's raspy lead vocal, according to Wikipedia.
Producer Dan Penn cut the track at American Sound Studio in Memphis, and the two-minute single held the top spot for four weeks and went on to sell more than four million copies.
The Rolling Stones release Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby
Decca and London Records released the Rolling Stones' single Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow? simultaneously in the UK and US on September 23, 1966, backed with Who's Driving My Plane, per Wikipedia.
Mike Leander's brass arrangement pushed the Rolling Stones toward a harder, more theatrical sound, and the single reached number five in Britain while cracking the American top ten.
Rolling Stones show at Royal Albert Hall ends in a riot
The Rolling Stones opened their 1966 UK tour at London's Royal Albert Hall on September 23, 1966, with Ike & Tina Turner and the Yardbirds opening, according to the Royal Albert Hall's own account of the night.
Fans rushed the stage during the opening notes of Paint It Black and broke through the barricades, and the chaos was captured on film and later used in the band's promotional video for Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby.
The Walker Brothers hit UK No. 1 with Make It Easy on Yourself
The Walker Brothers reached number one on the UK Singles Chart with their cover of Make It Easy on Yourself on September 23, 1965, according to the Official Charts Company, their first chart-topper as a trio.
The Burt Bacharach and Hal David song gave the Southern California transplants their breakthrough overseas, and its orchestral heartbreak became a blueprint the group leaned on for the rest of the decade.
Lincoln Center opens with Bernstein and a new Copland premiere
Leonard Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic's inaugural concert at Philharmonic Hall on September 23, 1962, giving the world premiere of Aaron Copland's Connotations as the centerpiece of Lincoln Center's opening night, according to the New York Philharmonic's own archives.
The concert reached a national CBS television audience, and Copland's stark, twelve-tone score shocked listeners expecting something closer to Appalachian Spring, one of classical music's boldest opening-night gambles.
The Real Ambassadors premieres at Monterey with Louis Armstrong
Dave and Iola Brubeck's jazz musical The Real Ambassadors had its only full live performance at the Monterey Jazz Festival on September 23, 1962, starring Louis Armstrong alongside Carmen McRae and the trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, according to KQED.
The show used satire and vocal jazz to confront segregation and Cold War-era cultural diplomacy, carrying the same spirit Columbia had captured in the studio the year before for jazz and easy listening audiences.
Dizzy Gillespie plays A Musical Safari at Monterey
Dizzy Gillespie led his quintet through a set he introduced as A Musical Safari at the Monterey Jazz Festival on September 23, 1961, with Argentine pianist Lalo Schifrin folding bossa nova into the group's bebop foundation, per Discogs.
The performance later surfaced as a live album, and it remains one of the clearest documents of how deeply Brazilian rhythm reshaped American jazz and easy listening during the early 1960s.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened in 1960s music on September 23?
September 23 produced nine verified music events across the decade, headlined by the Rolling Stones' riot-ending show at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1966.
The same date saw the Box Tops hit No. 1 with The Letter in 1967, the Beatles begin recording Happiness Is a Warm Gun in 1968, and the Paul is Dead rumor break nationally in 1969.
Why did the Rolling Stones' Royal Albert Hall show turn into a riot?
Fans rushed the stage the moment the Rolling Stones launched into Paint It, Black on September 23, 1966, breaking through the venue's barricades in scenes the Royal Albert Hall itself still describes as a mini riot.
The chaos was filmed and later reused in the band's promotional video for Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?
When did the Paul is Dead rumor start?
The rumor traces to a Drake University student paper in mid-September 1969, but it went national when Northern Illinois University's Northern Star ran its own version on September 23, 1969, claiming Paul McCartney had died in 1966 and been replaced.
Fans spent weeks hunting for clues in Beatles songs and album covers before McCartney publicly denied it.
How long did the Box Tops' The Letter stay at No. 1?
The Letter reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 23, 1967, and held the top spot for four weeks.
The Memphis group's debut single, sung by a then-sixteen-year-old Alex Chilton, went on to sell more than four million copies.
What was Aaron Copland's Connotations written for?
Leonard Bernstein commissioned Connotations from Aaron Copland to mark the opening of Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center, and it premiered there on September 23, 1962, with Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic.
The dense, twelve-tone score surprised an audience expecting the folk-inflected sound of Copland's earlier ballets.
What song were the Beatles recording on September 23, 1968?
The Beatles opened sessions for Happiness Is a Warm Gun at EMI Studios on September 23, 1968, working from 7pm to 3am on 45 takes of the rhythm track.
John Lennon had built the song from three separate song fragments, and the band finished the master before dawn on September 26.