See also:
1967 in music,
other events of 1968,
1969 in music, 1960s in music and the
list of 'years in music'
Events
- January 4 - Guitarist Jimi Hendrix is jailed by Stockholm police, after trashing a hotel room during a drunken fist fight with bassist Noel Redding.
- January 6 - Gibson Guitar Corporation patents its Gibson Flying V electric guitar design
- January 21 - Simon and Garfunkel release album The Graduate Original Soundtrack
- January - The Beatles launch Apple Corps, Ltd., a disastrously mismanaged entertainment company that included a recording studio, a record label, and clothing store
- February 1 - Priscilla Presley gives birth to Elvis' only child, Lisa Marie at the Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
- February 1 - Universal Studios offers the Doors $500,000 to star in a feature film. The film is never made.
- February 10 - The Beatles shut down "Beatles U.S.A.", their fan club and business office in the United States. The band also fires their US press agents and withdraw from Brian Epstein's NEMS Enterprises. The band then turns all business affairs over to the newly formed record company, Apple
- February 12 - Jimi Hendrix is given an honorary high school diploma from Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington. Hendrix is also given the key to the city.
- February 16 - The Beatles, Mike Love, Mia Farrow, Donovan and others travel to India to visit the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at Rishikesh
- February 18 - David Gilmour joins Pink Floyd, replacing founder Syd Barrett, who checked himself into a psychiatric hospital
- February 21 - McGraw-Hill, Inc. outbids eight other publishers and pays $150,000 for the U.S. rights to Hunter Davies' authorized biography of the Beatles
- February 28 - Frankie Lymon dies.
- March 8 - Bill Graham opens the Fillmore East in an abandoned movie theater in New York City.
- March 25 - The 58th and final episode of The Monkees airs on television.
- March 30 - The Yardbirds record their live album Live Yardbirds at the Anderson Theater
- April 3 - Simon and Garfunkel release the critically acclaimed album Bookends.
- April 4 - James Brown appears on national television, in an attempt to calm feelings of anger in the United States following the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
- April 6 - The Beatles' new record company, and management and publishing firm, Apple Corps Ltd., opens offices in London
- April 29 - The rock musical Hair opened on Broadway at the Biltmore Theater
- May 4 - Mary Hopkin performs on the British TV show Opportunity Knocks. Hopkin catches the attention of model Twiggy, who recommends her to Beatle Paul McCartney. McCartney would soon sign Hopkin to Apple Records.
- May 5 - Buffalo Springfield performs together for the last time in Long Beach, California
- August 23 - Simon and Garfunkel give live concert at the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, California. Recording is later released on CD in 1994 by Australian company Vigotone Records as Voices Of Intelligent Dissent
- August - Blind Faith is formed, which includes Eric Clapton, and Ginger Baker from Cream and Steve Winwood from Traffic.
- Summer - Simon and Garfunkel, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin and John Sebastian give live concert at Shea Stadium in New York City as campaign benefit for Democratic presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy
- September 14 – The two small sons of singer Roy Orbison, Roy DeWayne Orbison age 10, and Anthony King Orbison age 6, die in a house fite in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
- October - The "Paul Is Dead" Beatles rumours begin
- November 8 - John Lennon and his wife Cynthia divorce.
- November 15 - 500,000 people march in Washington DC for peace, which becomes the largest anti-war rally in U.S. history. In attendance: Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, John Denver, Mitch Miller, touring cast of Hair
- December 1 - Jimi Hendrix's manager Chas Chandler quits over differences with Hendrix during the recording of Electric Ladyland
- New Jersey Police confiscate 30,000 copies of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Two Virgins album at Newark Airport, saying that the cover, which features a nude photo of the two artists, is "pornographic." In Chicago, Illinois, police officers shut down a record shop for displaying the album cover.
- Elvis Presley's 1968 Comeback Special airs on NBC.
- Led Zeppelin is formed after the breakup of The Yardbirds
- Rush is formed in Toronto
- The Band's musical career begins
- James Taylor's musical career begins
- Joni Mitchell's musical career begins
- Carpenters' musical career begins
- Warren Zevon's musical career begins
- Deep Purple/Roundabout's musical career begins
- Nazareth's musical career begins
Albums released
Top hits on record
Other singles
Published popular music
Births
- January 11 - Tom Dumont, No Doubt
- January 12 - Heather Mills McCartney
- January 14 - L.L. Cool J.
- January 27 - Mike Patton, Faith No More
- January 27 - Tricky, rapper
- January 28 - Sarah McLachlan
- February 1 - Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis Presley
- February 5 - Chris Barron, Spin Doctors
- February 7 - Sully Enra, Godsmack
- February 12 - Chynna Phillips, Wilson Phillips, daughter of John & Michelle Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas
- February 22 - Brad Nowell, Sublime (d. 1996)
- March 4 - Patsy Kensit, actress and singer
- March 8 - Shawn Mullins
- March 11 - Lisa Loeb
- March 15 - Mark McGrath, Sugar Ray
- March 23 - Damon Albarn, Blur
- March 26 - James Iha, Smashing Pumpkins
- March 30 - Céline Dion
- April 3 - Sebastian Bach, Skid Row
- April 29 - Carnie Wilson, Wilson Phillips, daughter of Brian Wilson
- May 1 - D'Arcy Wretzky, The Smashing Pumpkins
- May 28 - Kylie Minogue, Australian actress and singer
- June 12 - Bobby Sheehan, Blues Traveler
- July 16 - Olga Souza ("Corona"), singer
- July 22 - Rhys Ifans, actor and former vocalist with Super Furry Animals
- August 10 - Michael Bivins, New Edition, Bell Biv Devoe
- August 11 - Charlie Sexton
- September 10 - Big Daddy Kane
- September 11 - Kay Hanley, Letters To Cleo
- September 12 - Larry LaLonde, Primus
- September 25 - Catherine Zeta-Jones
- October - Shaggy, reggae singer
- October 1 - Kevin Griffin, Better Than Ezra
- October 6 - Dominique A, singer-songwriter
- October 7 - Toni Braxton
- October 7 - Thom E. Yorke, Radiohead
- October 11 - Jane Krakowski, actress and singer
- October 12 - Hugh Jackman, actor and singer
- October 17 - Ziggy Marley
- October 31 - Vanilla Ice, rapper
- November 15 - Ol' Dirty Bastard, rapper (d. 2004)
- November 21 - Alex James, Blur
- November 28 - Dawn Robinson, En Vogue
- November 29 - Martin Carr, Boo Radleys
- December 2 - Nate Mendel, Foo Fighters
- December 9 - Brian Bell, Weezer
- December 29 - Glen Phillips, Toad The Wet Sprocket
Deaths
- January 18 - Gribouille, French songstress
- February 5 - Luckey Roberts, ragtime composer and pianist
- February 15 - Little Walter, blues singer and harmonica player
- February 28 - Frankie Lymon, American singer
- March 16 - Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, composer
- May 19 - Coleman Hawkins, jazz musician
- June 26 - Ziggy Elman, US trumpet player
- August 18 - Arthur Marshall (ragtime composer)
- September 19 - Red Foley, country singer
- October 30 - Pops Foster, jazz musician
- date unknown - Billy Pigg, bagpiper
Awards
sv:Musikåret 1968
