The Beach Boys make their debut on Ed Sullivan
The Beach Boys headlined the season premiere of The Ed Sullivan Show on September 27, 1964, making their national television debut with live performances of I Get Around and Wendy in front of millions of viewers.
It stands as one of Brian Wilson's last live TV appearances before he stepped back from touring the next year, proof that American rock could hold its own against the British Invasion acts then dominating the charts, according to the Ed Sullivan Show's own archive.
September 27 at a Glance
Tap any event to jump straight to its full card below.
| Category | Event |
|---|---|
| 1969 | |
| concert | The Grateful Dead play a stacked early set at Fillmore East |
| 1968 | |
| industry | Led Zeppelin track Babe I'm Gonna Leave You at Olympic Studios |
| concert | Pink Floyd boat themselves to a gig in Dunoon, Scotland |
| 1967 | |
| industry | The Beatles record the orchestra for I Am the Walrus |
| 1965 | |
| broadcast | The Animals and the Beau Brummels rock Hullabaloo |
| 1964 | |
| broadcast | The Beach Boys make their debut on Ed Sullivan |
| concert | The Rolling Stones spark chaos at Birmingham's Hippodrome |
| 1963 | |
| broadcast | The Dillards bring bluegrass to The Judy Garland Show |
| 1962 | |
| chart | Sherry holds its grip on the Billboard Hot 100 |
| 1961 | |
| chart | Take Good Care of My Baby reigns over the Hot 100 |
| 1960 | |
| concert | Miles Davis brings Sonny Stitt to Manchester's Free Trade Hall |
The Grateful Dead play a stacked early set at Fillmore East
The Grateful Dead played an early show at Bill Graham's Fillmore East in New York City on September 27, 1969, opening with Morning Dew and working through Casey Jones and a China Cat Sunflower into High Time before closing with Dire Wolf, per the taped setlist archived at Dead.net.
The show captured the band mid-transition from the free-form psychedelic rock jams of their early Fillmore years toward the tighter, country-inflected songwriting that would define Workingman's Dead just months later.
Led Zeppelin track Babe I'm Gonna Leave You at Olympic Studios
Led Zeppelin worked through their debut album at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London, on September 27, 1968, cutting the version of Babe I'm Gonna Leave You that guitarist Jimmy Page had first heard on a Joan Baez record.
Page and manager Peter Grant self-financed the entire album out of pocket, and the roughly 30 hours of studio time across these sessions cost just £1,782 total, according to Wikipedia.
Pink Floyd boat themselves to a gig in Dunoon, Scotland
A storm had canceled every ferry to Dunoon on September 27, 1968, so when Pink Floyd's delayed flight north made them miss the boat too, the band loaded their gear into a rented boat and crossed the water themselves rather than cancel the show at Queen's Hall.
They played to just 400 fans off that year's A Saucerful of Secrets, a landmark psychedelic rock record the band was touring behind that autumn, per Wikipedia.
The Beatles record the orchestra for I Am the Walrus
The Beatles brought in a 16-piece orchestra and the Mike Sammes Singers at EMI Studios on September 27, 1967, recording George Martin's chaotic string and choral arrangement for John Lennon's I Am the Walrus across an afternoon orchestral session and an all-night vocal session that ran past 3am.
The arrangement's harsh cello scrapes and swooping violins turned the song into one of the Beatles' most avant-garde recordings for the Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack, according to The Beatles Bible.
The Animals and the Beau Brummels rock Hullabaloo
NBC's Hullabaloo, hosted that week by The Man from U.N.C.L.E. star David McCallum, aired a September 27, 1965 episode built around live performances from the Animals, the Beau Brummels, Peter and Gordon, and Brenda Lee.
The episode aired weeks after We Gotta Get Out of This Place turned into a transatlantic hit for the Animals, pairing Eric Burdon's British Invasion blues-rock with San Francisco's homegrown Beau Brummels on the same American stage.
The Beach Boys make their debut on Ed Sullivan
The Beach Boys headlined the season premiere of The Ed Sullivan Show on September 27, 1964, making their national television debut with live performances of I Get Around and Wendy in front of millions of viewers.
It stands as one of Brian Wilson's last live TV appearances before he stepped back from touring the next year, proof that American rock could hold its own against the British Invasion acts then dominating the charts, according to the Ed Sullivan Show's own archive.
The Rolling Stones spark chaos at Birmingham's Hippodrome
The Rolling Stones played two shows at the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre on September 27, 1964, touring behind It's All Over Now, their first UK number one, at the height of their early beat-mania fame.
Birmingham Mail critic Fred Norris called the crowd's reaction "the wildest scenes I've ever seen in a theatre," a review that captured just how far the Rolling Stones had already pushed British audiences past typical theater decorum, per rollingstonesdata.com.
The Dillards bring bluegrass to The Judy Garland Show
Judy Garland taped episode eight of her CBS variety series on September 27, 1963, bringing on bluegrass group The Dillards alongside actors George Maharis and Jack Carter for a segment that aired the following month.
The pairing dropped raw acoustic string-band picking, a sound gaining ground through the era's wider folk rock revival, into the middle of a prime-time network variety hour built around Garland's big-band standards.
Sherry holds its grip on the Billboard Hot 100
Sherry by the Four Seasons was in the middle of its five-week run atop the Billboard Hot 100 on September 27, 1962, the doo-wop quartet's first of four number-one singles.
Frankie Valli's falsetto lead turned a song Bob Gaudio reportedly wrote in about 15 minutes into one of the biggest pop and Brill Building era hits of the decade, per Wikipedia.
Take Good Care of My Baby reigns over the Hot 100
Bobby Vee's Take Good Care of My Baby held its three-week run at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 through September 27, 1961, a Gerry Goffin and Carole King composition that gave the 18-year-old singer his only chart-topping hit.
Its clean teen-pop production became a blueprint for the pop and Brill Building sound that dominated American radio just before the British Invasion arrived, per Wikipedia.
Miles Davis brings Sonny Stitt to Manchester's Free Trade Hall
The Miles Davis Quintet, with saxophonist Sonny Stitt filling John Coltrane's chair, played the Free Trade Hall in Manchester on September 27, 1960, part of a Norman Granz-organized European tour later documented on the live album Free Trade Hall, Manchester 1960.
Stitt's harder-edged bebop attack gave the jazz and easy listening group a different flavor than Coltrane's, a brief but well-preserved chapter between Kind of Blue and Coltrane's return to the band the following year, per the Miles Ahead session archive.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened in 1960s music on September 27?
September 27 produced eleven verified music events across the decade, headlined by The Beach Boys making their national television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.
The same date saw the Beatles record the orchestra for I Am the Walrus, the Rolling Stones play two riotous shows in Birmingham, and Led Zeppelin track their debut album.
When did the Beach Boys first appear on The Ed Sullivan Show?
The Beach Boys made their national television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show on September 27, 1964, headlining the season premiere with I Get Around and Wendy.
It was one of Brian Wilson's last live TV appearances before he stepped back from touring.
When did the Rolling Stones play the Birmingham Hippodrome?
The Rolling Stones played two shows at the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre on September 27, 1964, touring behind their first UK number one, It's All Over Now.
A local critic described the crowd's reaction as the wildest scenes he had ever seen in a theatre.
What song were the Beatles recording on September 27, 1967?
The Beatles recorded George Martin's orchestral and choral arrangement for I Am the Walrus at EMI Studios on September 27, 1967, using a 16-piece orchestra and the Mike Sammes Singers.
The session ran from an afternoon string date into an all-night vocal session.
When did Led Zeppelin record their debut album?
Led Zeppelin recorded most of their self-titled debut album at Olympic Studios in London in late September and early October 1968, including a session on September 27 that produced Babe I'm Gonna Leave You.
The whole self-financed album cost about £1,782 to make.
Who played at Fillmore East on September 27, 1969?
The Grateful Dead played an early show at Fillmore East on September 27, 1969, opening with Morning Dew and running through Casey Jones, China Cat Sunflower, High Time, and Dire Wolf.
The tape of the show is archived at Dead.net.