1960: The Brothers Four, featuring four fraternity brothers from the University of Washington, records the national hit “Green Fields.”
February 1960: The U.S. House of Representatives begins hearings on payola in the record industry, destroying Alan Freed’s career in the process.
1960: “Bye Bye Birdie,” the first rock musical on Broadway, opens.
1960: Roy Orbison records his first million-seller, “Only the Lonely.”
1960: Guitarist Larry Coryell joins horn-driven Seattle band The Dynamics. The group later records “Come On,” a local standard covered by Jimi Hendrix on “Electric Ladyland.”
1960: Chubby Checker turns the twist into a national dance craze with his hit version of Hank Ballard’s “The Twist.”
1960: Instrumental-rock group The Ventures, founded in the Northwest and first played on KJR, record their debut single, “Walk Don’t Run.”
1960-61: Guitarist Jimi Hendrix polishes his skills while touring with Little Richard, the Isley Brothers, Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke.
1961: With with the hit song “Surfin’ ” the Beach Boys introduce national audiences to the Southern California rock sound.
1961: Guitarist Dick Dale records the instrumental-rock songs “Trippin’ ” and “Miserlou,” which help establish him as the “king of surf guitar.”
1961: The Beatles, formerly the Quarrymen, perform their first show at Liverpool’s Cavern Club.
1961: Bob Dylan performs his first concert at Gerde’s Folk City in New York’s Greenwich Village.
1962: Phil Spector’s “wall of sound” becomes a force on the pop charts, fueled by the success of the Crystals’ “He’s a Rebel.”
1962: Booker T. and the MGs, the quintessential southern soul rhythm section, records the pop instrumental hit “Green Onions.”
1962: “Soul” music gains a foothold with the recordings of Sam Cooke, Soloman Burke, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin and Carla Thomas.
1962: Elvis Presley comes to Seattle to film “It Happened at the World’s Fair.”
1962: Female singers dominate the record charts; those with the biggest hits include Little Eva, Connie Francis, Brenda Lee, Shelley Fabares, Dee Dee Sharp, Patsy Cline, Mary Wells, the Shirelles, the Crystals and the Marvelettes.
October 1962: James Brown’s “Live at the Apollo,” a now-classic soul album, is released on King Records.
August 1963: Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary join Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a rendition of “We Shall Overcome” at a civil rights demonstration in Washington, D.C.
1963: Tacoma band The Sonics record a Northwest classic, “The Witch,” featuring the howling vocals of singer and keyboardist Gerry Roslie. The Sonics open shows for the Byrds, the Kinks and even the Rolling Stones.
1963: Car songs are the rage with the release of “Shut Down” and “Little Deuce Coupe” by the Beach Boys, “Hey Little Cobra” by the Rip Chords and “Drag City” by Jan and Dean.
1963: Berry Gordy’s Motown label, dubbed “Hitsville USA,” has a banner year, with hits by Martha and the Vandellas, Mary Wells, “Little” Stevie Wonder and the Supremes.
April 1963: Northwest group The Kingsmen record a hit version of a Northwest rock favorite, “Louie, Louie,” written by Richard Berry. The indecipherable lyrics prompt the FBI to launch an investigation.
1963-66: The Motown songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland places a dozen No. 1 hit songs on the national charts.
1964: Capitol Records releases “Meet the Beatles” in the United States.
1964: The Kinks, a top British Invasion group, record “You Really Got Me.”
1964: Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions record two anthems of the civil-rights movement, “Keep On Pushing” and “People Get Ready.”
1964: The Beatles tour the United States for the first time, playing the Seattle Center Coliseum (now KeyArena) and causing hysterical fans to mob the Edgewater Inn, one of Seattle’s most popular hotels for touring rock groups.
1964: Crawdaddy, the first magazine devoted exclusively to rock ’n’ roll, makes its debut.
September 1964: ABC-TV’s rock music show, “Shindig,” makes its debut and helps launch the Righteous Brothers.
1964: The Rolling Stones arrive in New York for their first tour of the United States.
February 1964: The Beatles appear on TV’s “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The British Invasion, led by the Beatles, displaces black artists at the top of the record charts.
1964: The Rolling Stones record their first hit, “It’s All Over Now,” a remake of an original Valentinos song.
1965: Bob Dylan records “Like a Rolling Stone,” a breakthrough for the folk-rock genre, as well as the first rock song more than five minutes long.
1965: The protest song reaches a commercial peak with Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction.”
1965: Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sounds of Silence” takes folk-rock, a new musical hybrid, to the top of the charts.
1965: Bob Dylan, backed by an electric band, riles folk purists during a performance at the Newport Folk Festival.
1965: The Beatles play to a crowd of 60,000 at New York’s Shea Stadium, ushering in an era of mega-rock shows.
1965: Proto-punk band The Velvet Underground makes its formal debut a New Jersey high school. Though never very popular in the ’60s, the underground rock band is influential decades later.
1966: Former UCLA film students Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek form the Doors. A year later, the group releases its self-named debut album featiromg the anthemic song “Light My Fire.”
1966: Future pop superstar Neil Diamond records his first million-selling single, “Cherry, Cherry.”
September 1966: The Monkees’ TV show makes its debut, establishing a new relationship between TV and popular music.
1966: A London newspaper quotes John Lennon as saying the Beatles are more popular than Jesus Christ, causing worldwide hostility toward the group.
1966: The tape cartridge, or cassette (invented in 1954), is introduced commercially.
1966: Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” becomes a No. 1 hit, establishing Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and its renowned recording studio as a mecca for southern soul music.
August 1966: The Beatles perform their final U.S. concert at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park.
November 1966: John Lennon meets his future wife and collaborator, Yoko Ono, at a London art gallery.
1966: The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High” becomes the first “psychedelic” rock hit.
1966: Guitarist Eric Clapton joins Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker to form rock power trio Cream, one of rock’s first supergroups.
1967: Rolling Stone magazine is founded in San Francisco during the heyday of the underground press. John Lennon is on the cover of the first issue.
1967: The multiracial band Sly and the Family Stone takes rock and funk in a new direction.
1967: The Beatles record “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” a milestone concept album.
April 1967: “Underground radio” makes its debut in San Francisco with progressive-rock station KXMX.
1967: An estimated 100,000 people emigrate to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district in the first half of the year, preceeding the “Summer of Love.”
June 1967: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding and Ravi Shankar perform at the Monterey Pop Festival in Monterey, Calif. Hendrix, who sets his guitar on fire, is on his way to stardom.
1967: Scott McKenzie’s “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” becomes an anthem for the Summer of Love.
1967: The Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter Than Air Fair, one of the first outdoor rock festivals in the country, takes place on a raspberry farm near Sultan. The lineup includes The Allman Brothers, Pink Floyd, It’s a Beautiful Day, Santana, the Youngbloods and the Grateful Dead.
December 1967: Soul singer Otis Redding dies in a plane crash. “Dock of the Bay” becomes a posthumous hit in 1968.
1968: Led Zeppelin, a new “heavy blues” band, emerges from the ashes of The Yardbirds.
1968: Creedence Clearwater Revival releases its debut album, featuring a version of Screaming Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You.”
1968: With the releases of The Byrds’ “Sweetheart of the Rodeo,” Bob Dylan’s “John Wesley Harding” and The Band’s “Music From Big Pink,” rock moves from psychedelia to a rootsy country sound.
1968: The controversial rock musical “Hair” opens on Broadway.
1968: Singer Merrilee Rush, who fronts Northwest group The Turnabouts, records her first single, “Angel of the Morning.”
1968: Detroit punk band MC5 plays for demostrators at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
1968: “Bumblegum” groups, among them the 1910 Fruitgum Company, the Ohio Express and Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestra Circus, proliferate on the charts.
1969: Led Zeppelin, featuring singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page, releases its first album, “Led Zeppelin.”
July 1969: The Seattle Pop Festival, at Gold Creek Park in Woodinville, features Chuck Berry, Santana, The Byrds, Ike and Tina Turner, Led Zeppelin, the Guess Who, Chicago Transit Authority, Bo Diddley, the Doors and Seattle group Floating Bridge.
August 1969: The Woodstock Festival draws 400,000 to a 600-acre farm in upstate New York — a milestone event for the peace-and-love generation.
1969: The Rolling Stones’ free concert at the Altamont speedway east of San Francisco ends tragically when a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle group providing security stabs a man to death.
January 1969: While filming the documentary “Let It Be,” the Beatles give their final concert on the rooftop of Apple Studios in London.
1969: The Who’s “Tommy,” the world’s first rock opera, is made into a film by Ken Russell.