34: October 11, 1975
DEBUT OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: SNL goes on to introduce mainstream America to such musical sensations as Elvis Costello, Talking Heads and "Dick in a Box."

33: March 5, 1971
"STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN" IS PLAYED LIVE FOR THE FIRST TIME: Unveiled in Belfast, Ireland, Zeppelin's sprawling 7:55 分钟 quiet-loud showpiece at once breaks the rules and sets the standard for what constitutes a rock anthem.

32: January 21, 1959
MARV JOHNSON RELEASES "COME TO ME": The first single on Berry Gordy's little Detroit label Tamla-later known as Motown-is also its first hit, featuring the Funk Brothers, musicians whose sould would help make the label famous.

31: December 16, 1991
GRAND UPRIGHT 音乐 VS. WARNER BROTHERS: Rapper Biz Markie's defeat in this federal copyright lawsuit had a chilling effect on then-unlimited hip-hop sampling. Goodbye, Bomb Squad; hello; Diddy.

30: October 5, 2001
POP IDOL BEDUTS ON BRITISH TV: One 年 before American Idol flipped the 音乐 and TV businesses on their heads, former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller turned U.K. 长椅, 沙发 potatoes into A&R reps and nobodies into platinum-selling megastars.

29: August 18, 1969
HENDRIX PLAYS "THE STARSPANGLED BANNER" AT WOODSTOCK: On a Monday morning, 400,000 hippies ditched work to watch him immortalize the festical as a counterculteral landmark with his feedback-tortured transformation of the national anthem.

28: November 26, 1976
SEX PISTOLS RELEASE "ANARCHY IN THE U.K.": The first punk band in Britain had been making headlines for close to a year; now it was time for them to make a record. Their first single, with its Situationist slogans and commands to destroy everything, terrified the stodgy older generation as much as it delighted the kids. Every British punk band of the 下一个 few years sprang to life in the wake of "Anarchy"-and, for a few months, the Pistols made it seem like punk was actually going to incite a political revolution.

27: August 28, 1964
THE BEATLES SMOKE POT: Bob Dylan thought that the line "I can't hide" in "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was "I get high", but was wrong. Hanging with the Beatles at New York's Delmonico Hotel after their 演出, gig in Forest Hills, Dylan discovered that, despite the Fab Four's years plaing in the fleshpots of Hamburg, they'd never tried anything stronger than the occasional pill. He smoked them up, and Paul McCartney began a lifelong 爱情 affair with pot, declairing, "I'm thinking for the first time-really thinking." After that, it was a straight line to Pepperland, 草莓 Fields, and glass onions.

26: December 31, 1942
FRANK SINATRA PLAYS THE PARAMOUNT: Two full decades before Beatlemania, Ol' Blue Eyes send bobby-soxers into shrieking hysterics, shutting down Times Square and forcing NYC cops to call in the riot squad.

25: September 18, 1979
THE SUGARHILL GANG RELEASE "RAPPER'S DELIGHT": Hip-hop's first classic is also its first 金牌 record, proving the genre's commerical viability-and paving the way for the Rappin' Granny.

-TO BE CONTINUED-