1969: Stating that he “no longer sees eye to eye” with the rest of the group, Brian Jones announces he’s leaving the Rolling Stones. In reality, the group fired him a short time earlier because of worsening drug use. He will be dead in less than a month.

1972: The Fifties rock ‘n’ roll revival is taken up another notch when the Broadway musical Grease opens at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York.

Barry Bostwick (Rocky Horror Picture Show) and Adrienne Barbeau (Maude) are the original Danny and Rizzo while Alan Paul (later to join the Manhattan Transfer) is in the cast as Teen Angel (“Beauty School Dropout” is his big number).

1962: The Beatles audition for EMI Records in London at the not yet famous Abbey Road studios. They perform three of their own compositions, “Love Me Do,” P.S. I Love You,” and “Ask Me Why,” as well as the old, old standard “Besame Mucho.”

While not assigned to produce the session, George Martin is called in to give a listen. He is not impressed with either the band’s look or their musical ability, but he likes their cheeky attitude. So he decides to give them a shot, as long as they can find a new drummer. And so Pete Best’s days as a Beatle are numbered.

1975: While Pink Floyd are recording their album Wish You Were Here, written about the group’s founder, Syd Barrett, whose sanity succumbed to an excess of LSD, the man himself wanders into their Abbey Road studio.

No one notices that Barrett is actually there and so, after a few minutes, he leaves as quietly as he entered.

1966: Janis Joplin arrives in San Francisco to accept an invitation to join a new rock band, Big Brother and the Holding Company as their lead vocalist.

1964: Just days before the start of an already booked world concert tour, Ringo Starr collapses from acute tonsillitis and is rushed to a hospital. The Beatles scramble to find a replacement, settling on sessions drummer Jimmy Nicol.

Nicol is in turn rushed into rehearsal with the band. When he’s constantly asked how it’s going on tour, Nicol always replies “It’s getting better.” That eventually inspires Paul to pen a song that finds its way onto the Sgt. Pepper album.

Nicol continues to live the high life after he leaves the band and is forced to declare bankruptcy in 1965. Eventually, he gets back on his feet and goes into real estate (or property investment as it’s known in the UK). He is still around today.

1964: The Rolling Stones play their first live gig in America. Not quite as glamorous as the Beatles, the band plays at a high school in Lynn, Massachusetts.

They also make their U.S. television debut on The Les Crane Show.

1972: Pink Floyd enters the Abbey Road studios in London to begin recording the album “Dark Side of the Moon.”

1956: Buddy Holly went to the movies. He attends a showing of the John Wayne Western The Searchers at the State Theatre in Lubbock, Texas. Twice during the film, Wayne sarcastically remarks, “That’ll be the day.”

Holly goes home and writes a song around that phrase that will lift him out of obscurity to his first taste of rock ‘n’ roll fame.

1972: Bryan Ferry and his band Roxy Music make their stage debut in Lincolnshire, England, at the Great Western Express Festival.