Music Related Firsts (1857-2001)

1857 - Leon Scott invents the "Phonautograph" in France. It is the world's first sound recording device, but it proves to be commercially unviable.
1887 - Edison made the first recording of a human voice ("Mary had a little lamb") on the first tinfoil cylinder phonograph Dec. 6.
1889 - An Edison phonograph was fitted with a coin slot and four listening tubes by Louis Glass and placed in a saloon in San Francisco.
1890 -­ Columbia Phonograph Company publishes a one page catalog of Edison and Columbia cylinders.
1893 - Emile Berliner's Gramophone (first developed in 1887) begins to succeed. He sells 1000 machines and over 25,000 7-inch rubber 78-RPM records later to be called the "Victrola".
1898 - Wurlitzer builds the first coin-operated player piano which would end up fighting head-to-head with the phonograph in popularity for the next 30 years.
1901 - The Victor Talking Machine Company acquires the American rights to the famous painting of the dog Nipper listening to a phonograph with the caption "His Master's Voice" and begins using the image in advertisements.
1902 - First black artist to record for public release: The Dinwiddie Quartet (six one-sided discs for Monarch label), October.
1905 - Billy Murray, a very popular singer of the time, recorded the first known song about a car, "In My Merry Oldsmobile".
1906 - The Victrola phonograph is introduced by the Victor Talking Machine Company.
1906 - The Gabel Automatic Entertainer was the first machine to play a series of gramophone discs, using a spring-loaded hand-cranked motor and a 40" acoustic horn.
1907 - the earliest recording of a drum solo is recorded on James Lent's "Ragtime Drummer."
1908 - John Lomax, on his first trip west, records a black saloon keeper in San Antonio singing "Home on the Range" on an Edison cylinder and the lyrics were written down and published in the book "Cowboy Songs and Frontier Ballads" by Lomax in 1910. The song becomes a national favorite.
1913 - Billboard magazine publishes a list of the most popular vaudeville songs. It's the predecessor to their trademark charts.
1917 - The “Theremin” is invented by Lev Sergeivitch Termen. If you’ve ever wondered where that strange sound came from on the Beach Boy’s “Good Vibrations” or were over spooked by the background sounds in the film, “Forbidden Planet” – this is where it came from. Rather than take the space here to explain further, here’s a link.
1917 - The first "Jazz" record "Livery Stable Blues" is recorded by the all-white Original Dixieland Jazz Band from New Orleans.
1920 - The first (commercial) radio station powers up - KDKA in Pittsburgh.
1920 - First blues recording, "Crazy Blues," by Mamie Smith, is released.
1923 - Fiddlin' John Carson's "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" becomes the first hit country record.
1925 - The electric microphone is refined for use in musical recordings. This leads directly to the age of soft-voiced "crooners" such as Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.
1926 - The NBC Coast-to-Coast radio network is established.
1927 - Ralph Peer held recording sessions on State Street in Bristol, TN for the Victor company using the new electrical recording equipment made by Western Electric. The Bristol sessions have been recognized as "Big Bang of Country Music" that helped to launch the careers of the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, the first commercially successful modern country music artists.
1927 - U.S. Radio Act declares public ownership of the airwaves.
1929 - Decca Records is founded in Britain as a classical music company.
1930 - Henry Cowell and Leon Termen introduce the "Rythmicon", the first electronic rhythm machine. It was a keyboard instrument based on the Theremin (see 1917 above.) It would later become popular as sound effects and music for movies of the 50’s such as Dr. Strangelove and later, in music by Pink Floyd, Arthur Brown and Tangerine Dream, among others.
1931 - Adolph Rickenbacker invents the electric guitar. Known as the Frying Pan, it was a lap-steel guitar with an electromagnetic pickup, created by Adolph Rickenbacker and George Beauchamp, in which a current passed through a coil of wire wrapped around a magnet. This created a field that amplified the strings' vibrations.
1933 - The first recorded reference of what would later be used in the term "jukebox" - "Jookit, Jookit" by Walter Roland on Vocalion.
1934 - First recorded song entitled "Rock and Roll" by the Boswell Sisters.
1936 - Benny Goodman becomes the first big-time, big-band orchestra to integrate. He hires two black musicians, Teddy Wilson on piano, and Lionel Hampton on vibraphone.
1936 - First pop-record sales chart: Billboard, January 4
1936 - Robert Johnson records "Crossroads Blues," an ode to the spot where Highway 61 crosses Highway 49 near Clarksdale, MS.
1939 - The Panoram visual jukebox is invented (plays short films of records, the first music videos).
1940 - Disney's "Fantasia" introduces stereo sound to film.
1940 - An ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) strike against radio broadcasters leads to a period in which only public-domain music could be broadcast. More significantly, it leads to the creation of BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated). BMI's search for non-ASCAP music in turn creates channels for the emergence in the U.S. of Latin and black music, setting the stage for the decline of Tin Pan Alley and the rise of R&B and rock-and-roll.
1941 - Alan Lomax first records McKinley Morganfield (aka 'Muddy Waters').
1942 - "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" by The Glenn Miller Orchestra becomes the first record to sell a million copies.
1942 - Capitol Records is founded in Hollywood, the first major music company which is not based in New York.
1946 - MGM opens a recording business just to sell their movie soundtracks.
1948 - An employee of the Columbia Broadcasting System, Dr. Peter Goldmark invented the 33 1/3-rpm record, (primarily to overcome the interruptions to music made necessary by the constant need to turn over, then change, the old 78 rpm record.) In lieu of royalties, he received a free copy of any Columbia Records LP he wanted.
1949 - Billboard Magazine renames the "Race Records" category to "Rhythm and Blues" and "Hillbilly" to "Country and Western."
1949 - A failing white Memphis' radio station WDIA hires Nat Williams, the first black disc jockey and changes its format to rhythm & blues which promptly turns the station's fortunes around. They eventually hire B.B. King and Rufus Thomas as DJs.
1950 - First use of an echo chamber: "Foolish Heart," Junior Mance (used a boom mike in a bathroom).
1951 - Sam Phillips in his studio in Memphis used his Ampex 350 tape machine to record Rocket 88, written by Ike Turner, sung by Jackie Brenston, and sold to Leonard and Phil Chess in Chicago who released it as the 78 rpm Chess record #1458. The sale of this master tape allowed Phillips to start his own Sun Records label.
1951 - Little Richard's first record, "Taxi Blues," was released by Victor.
1952 - In Memphis, Roscoe Gordon records "No More Doggin'", the origin of the rhythm of ska.
1952 - Pete Seegers band, The Weavers, accused of being communists, are forced to dissolve. They re-group in 1955 with a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York.
1953 - "Crying in the Chapel" by The Orioles rises to #11 on the pop charts, becoming the first R&B song by a black act to cross over to the pop charts.
1953 - Elvis Presley recorded "That's All Right" to be released July 19, 1954. It was taped on the two Ampex 350 recorders Phillips used to create the "slapback" audio delay that became a trademark sound of Sun records.
1954 - On January 14, the term rock ‘n’ roll, is used for the first time at a concert promoted by Alan Freed, known as the Rock ‘n’ Roll Jubilee.
1954 - Bill Haley recorded the rhythmic "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and "Rock Around the Clock" on Decca, due to the success in 1953 of his first national rock hit "Crazy Man Crazy" on the Essex label.
1954 - The first commercial transistor radio – the $49.95 Regency TR-1 – was introduced by the Regency division of an Indianapolis-based manufacturing company. They were the first to bite when Texas Instruments started looking for a company willing to incorporate transistors in their radio designs. More than 100,000 TR-1 radios were manufactured over the course of about 14 months.
1955 - Lonnie Donegan's "Rock Island Line" is the first skiffle song to be recorded.
1955 - 45 rpm records outsell 78's for the first time ever on February 27.
1955 - Chuck Berry begins recording, establishing the guitar as the focal point of rock, and introducing descending pentatonic double-stops.
1956 - Elvis Presley recorded "Heartbreak Hotel" on January 10 in Nashville at his first session for RCA in the new Studio B on Music Row. It was also the first record ever to make the pop, R&B, and C&W charts simultaneously.
1956 - Feedback is invented by The Johnny Burnette Rock 'n' Roll Trio on their record "The Train Kept A Rollin".
1956 - The introduction of the record player to the automobile - the Chrysler Imperial 16-2/3 rpm record player with 7-inch ultramicrogroove records developed by Peter Goldmark.
1956 - "Love Me" by Elvis Presley is the first song to make the Billboard charts without being issued as a single.
1956 - Freddie Bell and the Bellboys become the first American group to tour the U.K.
1956 - The first #1 record for a black artist or group, “The Great Pretender” by the Platters.
1957 - Elektra releases the first all-electronic music recording: Subotnick's "Silver Apples of the Moon".
1957 - The first prime time network special devoted to rock music, "Rock N' Roll Show" was telecast on ABC, May 4th & 11th. It was hosted by Alan Freed and featured the Clovers, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and the DelVikings among others.
1957 - On a tour of Australia in the fall, Little Richard sees the Russian satellite "Sputnik" descending to earth and takes it as a sign from God to quit rock 'n' roll and join the ministry.
1958 - The first all-rock and roll radio station is established: WHB in Kansas City.
1958 - Berry Gordy (founder of Motown) produces his first record, "Come To Me" by Marv Johnson (Tamla 101).
1958 - Guitar slinger, Link Wray first introduces "distortion" to the masses on his record, "Rumble".
1958 - The World standard for stereo records is established, and first stereo LPs are sold. Koss introduces stereo headphones.
1958 - On March 14, the Recording Industry Association of America grants Perry Como the very first gold record for "Catch a Falling Star".
1959 - The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences sponsors the first Grammy Award ceremony for music recorded in 1958.
1959 - Seeburg, the jukebox maker, introduces the “Background Music System”. It used 9" records that played at 16-2/3 RPM. These machines were used to play elevator music in the 60’s and 70’s. The player was the size of a microwave oven and played up to 28 records in a stack, for 40 hours of music. It automatically restarted the stack for continuous music. The records were manufactured by RCA.
1959 - First album released with no artist name on cover, front or back: For LP Fans Only, Elvis Presley.
1959 - "There Goes My Baby" by The Drifters is the first R&B song to be recorded with strings.
1961 - The Beatles make their first appearance at "The Cavern Club", May 12.
1961 - Bob Dylan plays his first New York gig September 11th at Gerde's Folk City (playing "House of the Rising Sun" and "Song to Woody," among others)
1961 - "Please Mr. Postman" by the Marvelettes gives Motown its first number 1 single on December 11.
1961 - Alexis Korner forms Blues Incorporated, a band that is pivotal in the development of British blues as well as a training ground for some of the most popular performers of the "British Invasion".
1962 - Henry Kloss introduces the KLH Model 11 - the first "transistorized" record player with the changer/amplifier and two speakers folding into a three-piece suitcase.
1962 - The Tornadoes are the first British group to have a Number One hit in the U.S. with "Telstar".
1962 - The Reverend James Cleveland and the Angelic Choir of Nutley release "Peace Be Still", which introduced choir-based gospel to mainstream America.
1963 - Philips developed the Compact Audio Cassette. At the time, it was only one of several competing cartridge based formats designed to simplify tape recording. RCA had developed a magazine-style system in 1958 (demonstrated here), and several German companies began pushing to develop a standard. Philips approached Sony after realizing that Japanese acceptance of the new format would vastly improve the chances of success. The format was initially marketed for voice recording and dictation only. Technology soon improved, and advances in noise reduction technology, its ability to play stereo tapes, and new tape formulations soon assured high-quality sound from the compact format.
1963 - The Beach Boys contract with Sunn Electronics to build the first large full-range sound system for touring.
1963 - The first rock and roll singer to be nominated for an Oscar is Bobby Darin, for Best Supporting Actor in "Captain Newman, M.D."
1964 - The Kinks' record "You Really Got Me" considered by many to be the first hard rock recording.
1964 - Jimi Hendrix records his first guitar solo to vinyl on the Rosa Lee Brooks single, "Utee" on Revis Records.
1964 - Dr. Robert A. Moog builds the first synthesizer.
1964 - Tony Scott records "Music for Zen Meditation" commonly considered the first example of New Age music.
1965 - Chad Allan & the Expressions (later and better known as The Guess Who) have a hit with "Shakin' All Over"; this is the beginning of Canadian pop music.
1965 - John Mayall's Bluesbreakers invent blues-rock.
1966 - More records (domestic U.S.) were issued than in any year before or since. Officially, there were 12,100 singles, EP’s and LP’s released that year. One reason given - it was the peak year for tiny label, garage band output.
1966 - The first use of reversed tapes is used on "Rain" by the Beatles.
1967 - The Monterey Pop Festival begins the open air rock festival concept, also igniting a "live" recording trend for rock acts which would last through the 1980's. The festival is also credited with inspiring Jann Wenner to develop Rolling Stone magazine.
1967 - Jimi Hendrix burns his first guitar at Finsbury Park, London on March 31.
1967 - The first song to be broadcast on BBC Radio One was "Flowers in the Rain" by The Move.
1967 - The Beatles release "Sgt Pepper" in the U.S. on June 1st with an addition cost of $1.00 added for extra production.
1967 - DJ Kool Herc moves to New York City, part of a wave of Jamaican immigrants that bring dub to the US; in the Bronx, it will evolve into hip-hop.
1968 - "Wheels of Fire" by Cream became the first double album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard charts in the U.S.
1968 - A group of drag queen performing artists called The Cockettes debut in San Francisco, beginning the glam-rock style.
1969 - Lillian Roxon writes the first rock encyclopedia and thus begins the modern era of music criticism.
1970 - Digital music is invented. James Russell, a scientist with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, invents the first digital-to-optical recording and playback system, in which sounds are represented by a string of 0s and 1s and a laser reads the binary patterns etched on a photosensitive platter. Russell isn't able to convince the music industry to adopt his invention, but 20 years later, Time Warner and other CD manufacturers pay a $30 million patent infringement settlement to Russell's former employer, the Optical Recording Co.
1971 - Alice Cooper creates "shock rock", a distinctive kind of glam and heavy metal influenced rock.
1973 - 36 different songs reached the #1 position on the U.S. charts. A record that stands to this very day.
1974 - Wurlitzer abandons it's jukebox business, purposely destroying all its files and spare parts in the process.
1976 - The Who become the first band to use Lasers in a live performance.
1976 - The first commercial release of a twelve-inch dance mix single: "Ten Percent" by Double Exposure, on the Salsoul label. It extended the original version 8 minutes.
1977 - The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band become the first American pop group to tour the U.S.S.R.
1977 - "Frampton Comes Alive" by Peter Frampton recieves the first "Platinum Cassette" distinction.
1978 - The first picture-disc 45 is released by Toto with "Hold The Line".
1979 - Sony introduces the first "play only" portable Walkman. (Recordables in 1982.)
1979 - The Sugar Hill Gang releases the first commercial rap hit, "Rapper's Delight".
1982 - On October 1st, the first successfully mass-marketed CD player, the Sony CDP-101 (jointly developed by Sony, CBS/Sony, Philips, and Polygram) is introduced to European and Japanese markets (U.S.- six months later.) Simultaneously, CBS/Sony releases fifty CD titles spanning a wide array of musical genres. According to company records, the very first CD pressed was Billy Joel's "52nd Street." (First U.S. review of CDP-101 from Jan. '83)
1982 - Afrika Bambaataa releases "Planet Rock", an early hip-hop album that mixed rapping with electronic beats. It becames one of the most influential hip-hop recordings of the decade.
1984 - Stryper's "The Yellow and Black Attack" is the first Christian metal album.
1985 – The band “Green River” begins to define the burgeoning Seattle grunge music scene.
1985 - Ice-T's "6N' Da Mornin'" is the first nationally successful West Coast rap single, and is often considered the beginning of modern gangsta rap.
1988 - CD’s outsell vinyl records for the first time.
1991 - Pro Tools software is introduced - the beginning of the end for ugly singers.
1991 - On May, 25th, Billboard begins using a bar-code-based data system called SoundScan to track CD sales rather than relying on retailers’ own often-faulty, sometimes-fraudulent tally. The week of the change, 15 more country albums appeared in the Top 200 than the previous week.
1992 - The MP3 is invented as a format to store music in computers.
1995 - KPIG in Monterey, California starts the very first webcast (stream) of their audio on August 2.
1995 - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum opens in Cleveland.
1999 - Napster is released to the world on June 1st. After his roommate at Northeastern University complained about the unreliability of MP3 download sites, Shawn Fanning became obsessed with devising software to make music file sharing easier. Fanning dropped out of college and, after three months in front of a laptop in his uncle’s office, completed coding “Napster,”; sent it to 30 chat-room friends and asked them to keep it to themselves. By February 2001, 26.4 million people were using it to trade songs.
2000 - Sony adds the first-ever skip-prevention technology to a new line of CD Walkmans.
2000 - The CD format's peak year. Units shipped: 942.5 million. Total value: $13.2 billion dollars. Declining numbers attributed to Internet downloads.
2001 - Apple Computer introduces the iPod portable music player on October 23th.

Some things you just can't bring yourself to throw away because you spent so much time putting it together... this is one of those things. So along with my last remaining content under this name. It will remain here forever until this website dies.