1969 in heavy metal music

This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal in the year 1969.

Bands formed

• The Allman Brothers Band
• April Wine
• Argent
• Atomic Rooster
• Bang
• Blackfoot
• Blind Faith
• Bloodrock
• Blue Mountain Eagle
• Blues Creation
• Brownsville Station
• Cactus
• Coven
• Crushed Butler
• Dust
• Elonkorjuu
• Eloy
• Epitaph
• Faces
• Focus
• Gary Moore
• Grand Funk Railroad
• Granicus
• Hawkwind ^[1]
• High Tide
• Hot Tuna
• Hookfoot
• Humble Pie
• Iron Claw
• Jacula
• Josefus
• Judas Priest (as Freight)
• King Crimson
• Leaf Hound
• Little Free Rock
• May Blitz
• Morly Grey
• Mott the Hoople
• Mountain ^[2]
• Neon Rose
• November
• Thin Lizzy ^[3]
• Titanic
• Toe Fat
• Trapeze
• Truth and Janey
• Tucky Buzzard
• UFO ^[4]
• Uriah Heep
• Wishbone Ash
• ZZ Top

Albums

• Morgen – Morgen
• Writing on the Wall - The Power of the Picts

January

Day	Artist	Album
13	Led Zeppelin	Led Zeppelin
17	Iron Butterfly	Ball

February

Day	Artist	Album
5	Cream	Goodbye
	MC5	Kick Out the Jams
	Vanilla Fudge	Near the Beginning

March

Day	Artist	Album
	Blue Cheer	New! Improved!
	James Gang	Yer' Album
	Steppenwolf	At Your Birthday Party

May

Day	Artist	Album
9	Slade	Beginnings
19	The Who	Tommy

June

Day	Artist	Album
25	Alice Cooper	Pretties for You
	Deep Purple	Deep Purple
	The Jeff Beck Group	Beck-Ola
	Coven	Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls

July

Day	Artist	Album
	Blossom Toes	If Only for a Moment
	Edgar Broughton Band	Wasa Wasa
	Leslie West	Mountain

August

Day	Artist	Album
5	The Stooges	The Stooges
25	Grand Funk Railroad	On Time
	Humble Pie	As Safe as Yesterday Is

September

Day	Artist	Album
	Vanilla Fudge	Rock & Roll

October

Day	Artist	Album
10	King Crimson	In the Court of the Crimson King
	The Kinks	Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
22	Led Zeppelin	Led Zeppelin II
	High Tide	Sea Shanties

November

Day	Artist	Album
	Humble Pie	Town and Country
	Little Free Rock	Little Free Rock
	Mott the Hoople	Mott the Hoople
	Steppenwolf	Monster

December

Day	Artist	Album
29	Grand Funk Railroad	Grand Funk (The Red Album)
	Blue Cheer	Blue Cheer

References

1. Borthwick & Moy 2001, p. 57 "Certain elements of psychedelic coding found their way into genres as diverse as soul, funk, proto-metal (the "space rock" of Hawkwind, for instance), folk (Roy Harper, The Flying Burrito Brothers), jazzy rock (Steely Dan's early work), indie, dance genres such as acid house and trance, ambient and commercial chart pop."
2. Buckley 2003, p. 702 "Although Mountain will probably be remembered only for the anthemic "Mississippi Queen" and the seemingly endless "Nantucket Sleighride", Felix Papparlardi (bass/keyboards) and Leslie West (guitar/vocals) were the musical fuel of a band that, along with Blue Cheer and Black Sabbath, pioneered the bottom heavy sludge that would become heavy metal."
3. Weinstein 1994, p. 66 "But until the late 1980s there were almost no black heavy metal musicians (Exceptions such as the late Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy can be counted on the fingers of one hand.)"
4. Buckley 2003, p. 1116 "In the end, UFO are probably best regarded as having brought a touch of class to heavy metal, for having great tunes and a cool logo, and for being so out of it that even "Mad Mickey" Schenker couldn't stand the heat."