Groovy Photos of the 60’s and 70’s

The 1960s and 70s seem to be a completely different era altogether, as far as music is concerned. No other timeline presented such a diverse array of musical experimentation and extensive choices for music buffs as these two decades offered. We can say that the 60s and 70s were not just about the hippie movement but about exploring the musical horizons to their broadest limits. These years were about redefining music again and again. In an era where legendary musicians like The Beatles, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, and Bee Gees took the local and international music scene by storm, who can deny the fact that the 60s and 70s were the most prolific timeline in music history.

These were the times when modern pop music was as much visual as it was audible. Fans went crazy with the fantastic music and loved their favorite artists’ distinct appearances. At the same time, Brian Jones was able to cast an everlasting impact with his endearing musical contributions, and every new single released by Rolling Stones shattered the record set by their previous outing. Let’s pay homage to the artists who made a mark during the 60s and 70s and played an instrumental role in laying the foundation of modern pop music. Check out some of the most iconic photos from the 60s and 70s to relive the times when music was at its finest.

Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll defined the 1960s. But the decade was also a time of pivotal change — politically, socially, and technologically. Woodstock Music Festival was first held on August 15, 1969. The first-ever festival was organized in a dairy farm located in Bethel, New York. It was intended for about forty thousand attendees, instead nearly half a million people attended this festival. It was a three-day music festival, marketed as an Aquarian

Experience offering three full days of Peace and Music. It used to be a coveted musical extravaganza that became synonymous with the 1960s counterculture movement. Woodstock festival was a hugely successful event, despite that it was hindered by bad weather, last-minute venue changes, and hordes of attendees. It was also criticized for becoming a hub of drugs, sex, and rock and roll. Still, it managed to create waves among the masses, especially music lovers. It remained a peaceful event and earned a place in pop culture history.

It was the brainchild of four young men, namely John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld, and Michael Lang. They all were looking for a profitable and innovative investment opportunity. Given the influential role music played in that era, they considered holding a musical event an incredibly fruitful strategy. Kornfeld was the vice president of Capitol Records. Lang has already organized the Miami Music Festival in 1968, whereas Roberts and Rosenman were New York-based entrepreneurs. The four men came together to form Woodstock Ventures Inc. 

This photo was taken on day 2 of the Woodstock festival of 1969 of two of the most powerful female voices in rock and roll history, Janis Joplin and Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship.

Few bands captured the attention of Martin Scorsese who at the time was a young thirty-seven Indie director and had never directed a music documentary wanted to document The Band’s final performance with an All-Star line-up from Eric Clapton to Bob Dylan. Instead the The Last Waltz wasn’t so much a documentary of each of the members and how together as The Band; the geniuses of Richard Manual, Levon Helms, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson… instead it was a Scorsese man-crush documentary of Robbie Robertson…who’s singing voice was so awful, the tech crew turn off his microphone.

Credited as the BEST music documentary of all times by both music and movie critics, it was nothing but a huge disappointment. The soundtrack is nothing less than phenomenal, from appearance by Muddy Waters, Ringo Starr, Joni Mitchell, Neil Diamond to Neil Young to name some of the greats.. the concert held on Thanksgiving day in 1976 was legendary… the documentary, not so much.

The Beatles have built a legacy in the music industry, which probably seemed unattainable to these boys during this time. However, the person you should focus on in this photo is Stuart Sutcliffe because he was the fifth member of The Beatles. So, the fab four were initially a group of five. But then a tragedy occurred, and this young, highly skilled, and ambitious musical prodigy was taken away too soon.

You may be surprised to know that he started his career as a garbageman and simultaneously attended the Liverpool College of Art. Stuart was a gifted artist who was regarded as one of the best painters in his class. Stuart worked in an abstract expressionist style. While at college, Stuart met John Lennon, a fellow student, and soon became his flat-mate. When one of Stuart’s paintings got sold for a massive £65, which was a huge amount for a beginner painter back then, Lennon convinced him into buying a bass guitar. Stuart didn’t even know how to play it, but Lennon had detected Sutcliffe’s immense talent when it came to music. 

Stuart Sutcliffe joined the band with Paul McCartney and George Harrison. When he joined the band, they were yet to decide its name. Sutcliffe and Lennon tried many different names, from Beetles to Silver Beetles, and then the Silver Beatles. Finally, they all decided to keep it simple- The Beatles.  

Sutcliffe, the Beatle’s drummer Pete Best, and other band members traveled to Hamburg in Germany, and there Stuart fell in love with Astrid Kirchherr. The two got engaged after two months. Kirchherr gave Stuart Sutcliffe the iconic mop-top haircut, which later became the identity of the entire band. In 1961, Stuart left The Beatles to focus on his artwork and life with Astrid. He even won a postgraduate scholarship at the Hamburg College of Art to study under renowned sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi. But, unfortunately, he died unexpectedly due to cerebral hemorrhage in 1962, when he was just 21.

Few people know that rock legend Brian Jones is remembered as the man who formed The Rolling Stones. Pat Andres, the ex-girlfriend of Brian Jones, believes he was the victim of a money-motivated murder. Jones was found dead in a swimming pool in July 3,1969 in the same house, known as Cotchford farm, that Princess Margaret was at at the time. Did Brian Jones drown or was it really a homicide. Eras are marked by the famous people lost, and, in a dark irony, Brian would become the earliest recognized member of the 27 Club a decade later. Other members are Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison joined him before Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse in more recent years.

London’s Marquee Club was where the Rolling Stones played their first-ever gig on July 12, 1962. Dick Taylor was the bassist for the first show of Rolling Stones, but he left the group very soon and formed his own group. Along with other band members, Jagger auditioned many new bassists, and eventually, they all settled on Bill Wyman. Later, the Stones admitted that they gave Wyman the job just because he owned an amplifier, which was a big deal for them. Early on, the group also had a piano player on board, which many of us aren’t aware of. The name of the piano player was Ian Stewart. However, the band’s manager Andrew Loog-Oldham felt that a piano player didn’t fit the image of a rock’n’roll band. Hence, Stewart was asked to step aside and become The Rolling Stones’ road manager. However, Stewart remained an integral part of all the band’s recording sessions until he died in 1985.

The Beatle’s Abbey Road cover was photographed by freelance photographer Iain Macmillan, a friend of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. On August 8th, 1969, Iain used a Hasselblad camera with a 50mm wide-angle lens, aperture f22, at 1/500 seconds. Macmillan stood on a stepladder in the middle of the road and snapped six shots of the group as they walked across the road outside the studio.

John, Paul, George, and Ringo, who collectively made The Beatles literally made the world go round not just back then, but they even hold a sacred position in music lover’s hearts. There was something about The Beatles that not only music buffs but everyone from the royalty to politicians were in awe of them, fans were crazy about their music, and in every part of the western world, even where the English language was relatively less popular, their songs topped the charts, such as Holland, Scotland, and Germany. There was a time when The Beatles were famous as The Silver Beetles. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, The Beatles’ album Abbey Road is the group’s most widely sold album in the USA. Sadly, the group couldn’t stay together for long as it was in August 1969 when all four original members of the Beatles recorded together for the last time. It was the song “I Want You.” 

Joining activists and political leaders like Martin Luther King at the March in Washington were folk singers like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. Artists like these had come to represent the voice of both the younger generation and highlight the plight of the nation’s oppressed through verse — a trend that would only grow as the decade went on.

Not many of their fans are aware that Baez and Dylan shared a romantic relationship for many years. The pair jointly performed at events throughout the 1960s. However, their affair ended in 1965. Later Baez marries journalist and anti-war activist David Harris. Harris was a prominent leader in the national movement against the Vietnam War Draft proposed in 1968. 

Baez’s song Diamond & Rust, the singer later revealed, was dedicated to her former lover Bob Dylan. She frequently reminisced about their affair and missed him badly. The song was released as a single before the album with the same title was released. The track became her second Top 40 hits in the USA, and her all-time biggest self-composed hit.

While talking to The Huffington Post, Baez stated that she wrote this song herself after Dylan called her from a phone booth and sang his song’s lyrics to her, which were “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts.” According to Baez, this phone call inspired her to write Diamonds & Rust. But, she lied to Dylan and told him that this song was an ode to her husband, Harris. On the other hand, Dylan revealed that his track “Queen Jane Approximately” was dedicated to Baez.

Yes, this is Willie Nelson back in the days when he was starting out… suited up and clean-shaven. Willie Nelson became one of the most well-known musicians of the Outlaw Country genre after making a splashing debut. Nobody knew him initially, and he did not have any major connection, but he made it big on the basis of hard work and talent.

Born Willie Hugh Nelson, he is one of the most celebrated American singer, musician, songwriter, poet, author, actor, and activist today. He shot to fame with the massive success of his album Shotgun Willie, released in 1973, but that was just the starting point of his phenomenal career. Most of his albums were massively successful, including Red Headed Stranger in 1975 and Stardust in 1978. Because of such mind-blowing music that he created, he became the most critically acclaimed artist in country music. Willie was among the main figures of the outlaw country. For your information, it is a subgenre of country music that mainly developed during the late 1960s, by and large, due to the Nashville sound’s conservative restrictions. Willie Nelson appeared in more than 30 movies, has co-authored several books, and has been actively involved in the legalization of marijuana and the use of biofuels. Nelson is known for creating a unique blend of country music, in which he blended folk, rock, jazz, and pop. This hybrid genre of country music and his extraordinary, nasal voice added a broader appeal to his songs.

It’s safe to say that Pink Floyd isn’t just one of the biggest and best bands from the 1960s but one of the most influential bands of all time. The band was called “The Pink Floyd” when it was initially formed, but by the end of the 60s, “The” was dropped from the band’s name. The British band was formed back in 1965 by Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright, with David Gilmour joining later in 1967 and Barrett leaving the group in 1968. Their two best-selling albums were ‘The Dark Side of the Moon and ‘The Wall’. 

Not many people know that the band’s name Pink Floyd was conceived by their original frontman Syd Barrett, a huge fan of blues artists Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. So, Barrett took one name from each of them and formed the name of the band. Pink Floyd recorded their first ever single in 1967. The song was titled, Arnold Layne. It was about an eccentric who steals clothing from people’s washing lines. Later, the band revealed that this person was a semi-fictional figure as the character was based on a real-life person whom Roger waters had known for a long time. The band was signed by EMI Records just one month after recording this song, and the rest is history. Pink Floyd employed several unique methods to develop their signature music style. They used an Azimuth Co-Ordinator quadrophonic sound system to record their music. Hence, Pink Floyd is the first-ever rock band to “pioneer live surround sound.” So far, the band has sold over 118 million records worldwide and is allegedly the 7th best-selling recording band/artist of all time.

Led Zeppelin transformed the history of music through his talent and hard work. He could not have achieved that without Jimmy Page, who provided him with large platforms and breakthroughs. But before Jimmy Page gave the world his legendary guitar skills, he wanted to be something else entirely. James Page, as he was then known, and his friends play skiffle. Page, who would find fame with the Yardbirds and stardom as the lead guitarist and producer for Led Zeppelin, is asked by Weldon what he’d like to do when he leaves school. James Page says he’d like to do “biological research into germs.”

Rock band Led Zeppelin founder James Patrick Page OBE is a renowned English musician, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. Page started his career in London in the early 1960s as a studio session musician. By the mid-60s, he was one of the most famous and sought-after session guitarists alongside Big Jim Sullivan. Page was associated with Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, and after the band broke up, he founded Led Zeppelin, which remained active from 1968 to 1980. The band became immensely popular due to its unconventional heavy metal music. Initially, Led Zeppelin was named The New Yardbirds, but they decided to switch to the current name. In fact, Jimmy Page wanted to name his band Lead Zeppelin. However, he changed his mind as he thought Americans would pronounce it Leed and there will be unnecessary confusion. So, to avoid any complication, Jimmy decided to keep it Led.

This duo became famous as the “Wizards of Guitar.” Even until now, many of their achievements in music haven’t been reproduced by other musicians and guitarists. Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix were very good friends during 1967 and 1968. Both the guitarists were well aware of the other’s mastery over the instrument.

 When it comes to legends of Rock and Roll, the first name that comes to mind is Eric Clapton. Clapton was a solo artist as well as a member of multiple mainstream rock bands. This skilled guitarist made a name for himself as one of the all-time great guitar players within a relatively short timespan. Jimi Hendrix, on the other hand, was America’s most well-known and critically acclaimed guitar player. He was a singer and a songwriter who is regarded as the world’s greatest musician. Hendrix arrived in England in 1966 and immediately took the world of music by storm. Within just two years, he became a hugely famous rock star. While he was in London, he became good friends with Eric Clapton. It was also when he changed his name from Jimmy James to Jimi Hendrix. Jimi was a lucky chap as shortly after he arrived in London, he got the chance to play guitar and share the stage with Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, and of course, Eric Clapton.

We really can’t talk about the sixties and seventies without mentioning The Grateful Dead, a San Francisco band that gave rise to the sixties counterculture. Contrary to popular perception, the birthplace of The Grateful Dead is not San Francisco but Palo Alto. Palo Alto is an upscale town located roughly 35 miles south of San Francisco. It is also known as the birthplace of Silicon Valley. 

Though the band’s founding member Jerome John ‘Jerry’ Garcia was born in San Francisco, he moved to Palo Alto in the 1960s after getting discharged from the military. In 1961, Garcia met Robert Hunter in Palo Alto, who later became his lyricist partner for The Grateful Dead. For a brief period, the duo performed as Bob and Jerry and eventually founded the band. The Grateful Dead members included Jerry Garcia, the lead vocalist, and guitarist, and Bob Weir, the rhythm guitarist. Phil Lesh was the bassist and vocalist while Ron McKernan performed harmonica keyboard, and Bill Kreutzmann held the drums. Together they created excellent rock music. The USP of The Grateful Dead was that their music encompassed folk, jazz, the blues, Americana, bluegrass, country, and even disco. It is commonly perceived that their music boasts endless noodling and psychedelic sounds.

Rolling Stones magazine dubbed David Bowie the “Greatest Rock Star Ever” after his death in 2016. Born Davey Jones, David Bowie changed his name not to be confused with Davey Jones from The Monkees. Very few people knew that David Bowie’s closest childhood friends were Peter Frampton (Peter’s dad was David Bowie’s art teacher) and Elton John. David Bowie’s music career span almost 60 years, from 1962 until his death in 2016.

David Bowie was born in Brixton, London, in 1947. Interestingly both Bowie and Elvis Presley were born on the same date, that is, January 8. His debut album was self-titled David Bowie, which was released in 1967. Before formally releasing an album, Bowie used to play music with pub and club bands. The same year, he released a single, The Laughing Gnome, which fans still regard as his worst song ever. However, during his 1990 world tour, Bowie asked his fans to vote via phone to request songs they wanted him to perform, and The Laughing Gnome was the most requested song. But, Bowie decided not to play it. Space Oddity, released in 1969, was David Bowie’s first hit in the UK. This song became so popular that the BBC used it as a background score while covering the moon landing. In the USA, his first number-one single was Fame, released in 1975. This song was co-written by none other than the legendary John Lennon and featured Lennon on backing vocals.

It won’t be wrong to say that The King never had much competition, but he always liked good music and listened to the music of his colleagues. The world remembers him as the indisputable king of rock and roll. He has sung so many timeless classics, including Hound Dog, Love Me Tender, and Blue Suede Shoes, that if we start listing all of his famous songs, there won’t be enough space left for anything else.

But, a fascinating fact is that the late King of Rock and Roll wasn’t even interested in music. Instead, his favorite subject in High School was woodshop. In fact, on his 11th birthday, Elvis was expecting a bicycle as a birthday gift from his parents, but he received a guitar instead. That’s when he developed some interest in music.

One of the many incredible things Elvis is known for is that he loved collecting and giving away Cadillacs. Reportedly, he gave away expensive Cadillacs to everyone from his band members to a personal physician, bodyguards, and complete strangers. His favorite books were The Impersonal Life and The Holy Bible.

Another little-known fact about Presley is that Kurt Russell made his screen debut against the legendary singer. Russell was ten years old and appeared in ‘It Began at the World’s Fair. Interestingly, Russell was paid by Presley to kick him in the shins for a scene, and that’s how Russell’s acting career started.

This picture shows Jimi Hendrix, who is arguably one of the best guitarists to have ever lived. This picture shows Jimi to be riding a dune buggy and enjoying the company of an unknown woman. Hendrix was born in 1942 as John Allen Hendrix, and later his father renamed him James Marshall Hendrix, but in 1966 he changed his name to Jimi. He died tragically at the young age of 27 and became a member of the 27 club, which is a group of celebrities who died exactly at the age of 27. Other famous members of the 27 club are Jim Morrison and Amy Winehouse.

Jimi is universally regarded as the greatest electric guitar player of all time, but do you know that he didn’t even have a guitar in the initial stages of learning music? That’s right! Jimi Hendrix used a broom to learn to play guitar and take a broomstick to school and even dance with it. The first actual instrument that Jimi had was the ukulele, which he found in the trash, and it had just one string. Still, he used it to his fullest capability as he used it to teach himself how to play the guitar. After some time, he was able to buy an actual guitar. But, it is interesting that the world’s most famous guitarist never took a single guitar lesson in his lifetime. In fact, he never learned music at all and couldn’t even read music notes. He used to play by ear and not by reading notes.  

The Fab Four made the heartbreaking decision to break up their band The Beatles in 1969. This is believed to be the last photo ever taken of The Beatles together as a group. This rock band formed in Liverpool back in 1960 with members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. They started by doing small gigs in clubs and soon became one of the most influential bands of the rock era. Although initially a rock n’ roll band, The Beatles eventually started experimenting with other musical styles, including psychedelia and pop ballads. The world was crazy about them, and The Beatles had become the greatest boy band ever. So why did they break up?

In their death throes, the band became a symbol of the most complicated and mysterious end-of-romance tales in the late 20th century. They not just made music, they made history with their music. As influential as any political force can be, the Beatles had everything going in their favor. Still, they decided to part ways and focus on their solo careers, which sadly didn’t benefit any of them. Rumor has it one of the reasons was the love interest of John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and the band’s devious new manager Allen Klein whom Paul McCartney didn’t like. But Ono later revealed that she had nothing to do with the band’s breakup.

 “I don’t think you could have broken up four very strong people like them even if you tried. So there must have been something that happened within them – not an outside force at all,” Ono said in one of her interviews.

Before iconic full-on beards that is now their signature style, this picture is special since shortly after this photo was taken, the band became a huge hit and held successful concerts in huge stadiums. No more were the days of playing high school proms. However, their first-ever concert was held on February 10, 1979, at a Knights of Columbus Hall, outside Houston. Al Caldwell of KLVI booked them, and he later broadcast their first recordings. But, at their first performance, there was just one attendee present in the hall.

ZZ Top is the longest-running rock band in the US with no member changes. The band, however, took some time off during the late 1970s as Hills and Gibbons wanted to grow out their beards. Frank Beard was the only member without a beard. Reportedly, famous guitarist Jimi Hendrix referred to Gibbons as one of the country’s best young guitarists on The Tonight Show. In 1968, Gibbons happened to open some of Hendrix’s shows.

This photo of the Texas trio was taken in 1970, when their bears are just starting to grow out. An interesting fact about ZZ Top is that this was the first and last band to play at the McNicholas Arena, Denver, which opened in 1975 and closed in 1999. Legend has it that the word ZZ in the band’s name comes from a barn doors’ design and Top comes from Tops rolling papers.

In his book Rock’ n Roll Gearhead, Billy Gibbon stated that while checking out the concert posters on the wall, the group noticed a poster for ZZ Hill. Gibbons liked the ZZ part so much that he decided to make it a part of the band name. Initially, they wanted to use ZZ King. However, to avoid similarity with BB King, they switched to ZZ Top.

The Queen of Rock n Roll, the one and only Janis Joplin, had one of her most influential personalities. Sadly, she fell victim to drug abuse, but she recorded many influential songs that are still remembered during her lifetime. In 1963, the rock n roll goddess was ironically voted the Ugliest Man on Campus while studying at the University of Texas, Austin. She was studying art and had a desire to become a musician. But she got dishearten due to this discriminatory behavior and left her home in Texas to pursue a career in music. 

Joplin reached New York City, but initially, she couldn’t earn success on the music scene. She also went to San Francisco, but a similar fate awaited her even there. She returned to Texas in 1965 and tried to get her life back on track. She left music and led a more conventional lifestyle. Previously she was into drugs and wild parties, which Janis Joplin suddenly left for a more conservative lifestyle. But, she couldn’t resist the lure of the music scene, so she returned to San Francisco in 1966 and joined the psychedelic rock group Big Brother. Later she joined the Holding Company. Joplin’s performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 received rave reviews and their album Cheap Thrills was a massive hit in 1968. That’s how her musical career flourished, and today, we know her as the queen of rock n roll.

The Bee Gees was synonymous and defined an entire era of the 1970s disco. The widely successful Australian pop group was formed in 1958 by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. This trio sang their songs in recognizable three-part harmonies, with their combined vibrato and falsetto becoming their signature sound. Not only did the Bee Gees write their songs, but they also wrote and produced several other major hits for different artists. Few people know that Robin was a pyromaniac and use to love to burn his pajamas just for fun. ‘The Bee Gees’ 1st’ was not their first album; it’s their third.

The Bee Gees comprised brothers Barry, Maurice, and Robin. But, not many know that their older sister Lesley and their younger brother Andy were also briefly a part of the band. Andy, however, tragically died at the age of 30 before he could formally join the band. Reportedly, the Bee Gees are all-time top moneymakers in music history and not much far behind the Beatles in terms of record sales. They are in the same league as Paul McCartney, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Garth Brooks. The group boasted highly talented musicians who not just wrote their music but wrote songs for many other artists. Such as the Bee Gees wrote the hit song Islands in The Stream for Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.

Everyone in the 1960s knew who The Ronettes were. This trio of female singers from America became a sensation due to the quality of their music and Cher becoming a permanent backup singer for their songs…” Be My Baby” and “Baby I Love” hits defined a generation. The Ronettes influence was tremendous, from the Beach Boys to Bruce Springsteen and Amy Winehouse in both music and style. The Ronettes was a mixed-race American girl band. The girls came from Spanish Harlem, New York, and the band comprised of lead vocalist Veronica Bennett, aka Ronnie Spector, her elder sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. 

According to the girls, they had sung together since they were in their teens and called themselves the Darling Sisters. Surprisingly, they got their big break accidentally in 1961, when they were waiting in queue to enter a famous club called The Peppermint Lounge. The club manager thought they were the performers for the night, and the girls took advantage of this mistake. By the time their show ended, the manager had hired them as regular performers for the club. They sang both rock music and slow-paced ballads and quickly became a sensation at the local music scene. In fact, the Ronettes were dubbed one of the most influential artists of their generation. Phil Spector and producer Lester Sill collaborated to found Philles Records in 1961 and signed up The Ronettes and helped them develop their iconic style.

Jim Morrison’s mugshot in Tallahassee when he was 19 years old for misbehaving at football game. The photo on the right, John Densmore and Robby Krieger were missing in this picture. This band ruled the hearts of many fans around the world with their music and personalities. Jim Morrison is known for his intoxicating, provocative, genre-bending music and poetry. The founder of The Doors made a lasting impact on the popular music scene and popular culture. Morrison’s band The Doors surfaced on the music scene in 1967, and one by one, the boys churned out hit singles and albums. Many of their songs are regarded as stone classics. The Doors is credited for developing a unique relationship with their audience, which wasn’t a norm back then. So, in other words, they can be regarded as trendsetters. 

Their song Roadhouse Blues is part of their 1970 album Morrison Hotel. It was released as a B-side of You Make Me Real. The song topped the US Billboard top 50 and top 100 charts and became a constant concert staple for The Doors. This photo also features the famous Hard Rock Café. It represents a chain of theme restaurants, but the first one was established in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, they started covering the restaurant’s walls with Rock’ n Roll memorabilia. The first-ever memorabilia was contributed by none other than Eric Clapton, who wanted to gift one of his guitars to Tigrett. But, since he couldn’t play, he, the former Cream lead singer said, “Why not put it on the wall?” Just one week later, Pete Townshend gifted him another guitar with a note that read: “Mine’s just as good as his!” and this is how the tradition was born.

Two of the singers in this picture achieved massive prominence as soloists, care to guess which two? Everyone’s favorite Cher and Bob Dylan. Cher is known for her amazingly distinctive contralto vocals. Another thing that makes her stand out among her competitors is that she continuously reinvents her music and image. So far, she had worked in almost every area of entertainment. Due to her versatility, she is regarded as the true goddess of pop.

Bob Dylan shared a friendly relationship with Cher and Sonny. In fact, in his MusicCares speech, Dylan thanked them for helping him make his mark in the music industry by getting his songs promoted.

There’s no doubt that throughout his career, Cher has covered many of Dylan’s songs. Some of the songs she covered include All I Really Wanna Do, I Threw It All Away, Like A Rolling Stone, Masters Of War, Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You, Lay, Baby, Lay (yes, really!), I Want You, Blowin’ In The Wind, and Don’t Think Twice.

Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta musical about high schoolers in 1978. The best movie of the same year it was released. It started off as a musical created by an advertising copywriter called Jim Jacobs in 1971. Jacobs collaborated with a high school art teacher Warren Casey to create Grease, and in 1978 it was adapted into a movie. Many wonder why the movie was titled Grease. According to its creators, it was named Grease to pay homage to the 1950s era’s greasy hair, greasy food, and greasy engines. 

You may not be aware of the fact that the movie’s cast was changed multiple times. Such as Happy Days star Henry Winkler was offered the role of Danny Zuko, but he turned it down, claiming that he didn’t want to get typecast. Similarly, the movie’s director Randal Kleiser had many actors in mind for the role of Sandy Olsson, including Susan Dey, Carrie Fisher, Marie Osmond, and Deborah Raffin. Marie was about to be signed, but she objected to the transformation that Sandy underwent in Grease and was dropped. Moreover, Elvis Presley was offered the role of Teen Angel, but eventually, the moviemakers roped in Frankie Avalon. Another interesting fact about the movie is that the hit song Beauty School Dropout was inspired by a news report in which a teenager dropped out of beauty school and was arrested for murder.

All of the hullaballoo that plagued the Jackson family did not affect the stardom of Michael and Janet Jackson as they were the most famous out of all the siblings. This picture depicts their ever-green beauty. Janet got the nickname Dunk from her brother Michael Jackson because he felt she had a chunky built. In fact, Janet admitted in many of her interviews that Michael used to tease her a lot and always told her that she “looked like a donkey.”

The siblings appeared together in a highly acclaimed and hugely popular duet, Scream, which according to Janet, was a response to the frustrations both of them felt at that point in life. Michael dealt with the child molestation trial and the public fallout that followed suit, the media coverage about his marriage with Lisa Marie Presley. There was a lot of negativity around him. Janet, however, wasn’t going through as much public scrutiny, but she had her share of embarrassing moments when in 2004, her breast was revealed at halftime Super Bowl performance. Scream was produced and co-written by Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam, and at the time, it was the most expensive music video ever made, costing a whopping $7 million. The song won a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music video.

Even before rappers had developed any unique style all over them, Elvis was the lion pendant and the gold glasses during the ’70s. Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, as Elvis Aron Presley in a two-room house in East Tupelo, Mississippi. But not many fans know that just 35 minutes before Elvis’s birth, his identical twin brother Jesse Garon was born, but his was a stillbirth and was buried the next day in a nearby Priceville Cemetery.

Elvis was a spendthrift. In 1964, he paid $55,000 for a 165-foot long ship called Potomac. It served as President Roosevelt’s personal vessel between 1936 and 1945. At the time, it was called the Floating White House. The vessel was built in 1934, and after the death of the president in 1845, it was decommissioned, after which Elvis bought it. However, he didn’t keep it long and donated it to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. They sold the ship to raise funds for the hospital.

Interestingly, Elvis went on to become one of the highest-earning musicians in the history of music. Around 40% of his music sales were from outside of the USA, but, surprisingly, the legendary singer never performed on a foreign location except for a few concerts in Canada in 1957. This is unbelievable as Elvis was an international sensation. Rumor has it that Elvis’s manager Colonel Parker is responsible for this as he had turned down lucrative offers to perform abroad. That’s because Parker was an illegal immigrant and thought he wouldn’t return to the US if Elvis performed abroad.

This photo was taken in 1958 when Elvis Presley was Bremerhaven, West Germany, October, 1958 Elvis Presley holds a copy of Stars and Stripes as he leans out the window of a train taking him to his new home at Friedberg, Germany. Presley and 1,381 other soldiers.

This picture is one of the examples of Tina Turner’s energetic performances. Through her success and fame, Tina Turner inspired many female singers in those days. She was the very first superstar that insured her beautiful, powerful legs for 1 million dollars. Tina Turner’s real name was Anna Mae Bullock. The African-American singer was born in Nutbush, Tennessee. In 1960, she released the song A Fool in Love, which became an instant hit. But her solo career took off in 1983 when she released her single Let’s Stay Together.

In 1993, a biographical movie was released to honor her contribution. It was titled What’s Love Got to Do With It?. The movie depicted all the hardships and struggles Tina Turner faced to make a career in the music industry. Tina has won 12 Grammys and is the only female artist to receive concurrent Grammy nominations for rock, pop, and R&B genres. Rolling Stone ranked her 63rd in its list of 100 greatest artists of all time.

Prince always made innovations in his music and hardly left anything new in this industry. But the Prince of this picture is very young and inexperienced as his debut was about to come. Many believe that Prince wasn’t his real name, but that’s not true because he was born as Prince Rogers Nelson. The guitar virtuoso was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1958, and became popular for his flamboyant stage appearances and genre-crossing music style. Prince is universally regarded as one of the greatest musicians of all time. His music was innovative and integrated a wide range of genres from new wave, R & R&B, soul, pop, rock, funk, and psychedelia. It is said that Prince pioneered the Minneapolis sound of the late 1970s, which was a funky rock subgenre inspired by the new wave and synth-pop.

Apart from being a musical powerhouse, Prince dabbled in filmmaking and earned success and critical acclaim with 1984’s Purple Rain. He penned several hundred songs for his compositions and wrote and composed songs for other artists. He composes I Feel For You for Chaka Khan, Manic Monday for The Bangles, and for Sinead O’Connor, Prince wrote Nothing Compares 2 U. During July 1984, his movie Purple Rain topped the Box Office and the same month the movie’s soundtrack became the best-selling album of the month. In 1987, Prince’s single When Doves Cry held the position of top single, and his album The Black Album was about to release when Prince scrapped it considering it dark and immortal. He just sensed that it would flop and prevented its release.