Fade in on earliest supposed history, possibly the Stone Age… Man puts two stones together and discovers the beat… the very first contemporary music… and the beat goes on. Fade in around 3000 BC A highly developed musical culture was seen in Egypt as well as other ancient civilizations.

Fade in around 2000 BC
Percussion instruments were added to the Egyptian orchestras.

Fade in around 1500 BC
The trumpet made its debut; however, it was mostly used in warfare to announce military battle.  This early trumpet was also used to signal religious ceremonies.  During this same time period the Hittites (also known as the Children of Heth, whereas Heth was a son of Canaan whereas Canaan was a grandson of the everfamous Noah) were using the guitar, lyre, trumpet, and tamborine in their musical events.

Fade in around 700 BC
During this period music was evidenced in the temples of the Jewish people as well as in everyday livelihood.  According to the Mishnah (an historic collection of existing oral laws, traditions and traditional wisdom), the temple orchestra had twelve musicians and the temple choir had twelve singers.  The following instruments were used in the ancient temple:

the nevel (12-stringed harp) the kinnor (lyre with 10 strings) the shofar (hollowed-out ram's horn) the chatzutzera (trumpet, made of silver) the tof (small drum) the metziltayim (cymbal) the paamon (bell) the halil (big flute)	A Nevel

The anitphonal psalmody originated with the Hebrew people.  Two semi-independent choirs interacting with one another, often singing alternate musical phrases, is known as 'antiphonal' or a “call and response” type of singing.  Both responsorial (a soloist answered by the congregation) and antiphonal (alternating congregational groups) styles were used in singing the Psalms.

Fade in around 100 AD
Thus began the practice of Christians gathering before sunrise and repeating antiphonally a hymn to Christ as to God.  This marks that the early Christians continued the worship practices of their Jewish ancestors.

Fade in on April 13, 1742
Composed in the summer of 1741 and The Messiah, written by George Frederick Handel, premiered in Dublin.

Fade in on January 27, 1756
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born.

Fade in on December 16, 1770
Ludwig Von Beethoven was likely born on this day.  It is not known for sure; however, his death was marked on March 26, 1827… around fifty years before the phonograph was invented.  How cool it would have been for Beethoven to have been in a recording studio.  Then again he might have needed a cochlear implant to have used a recording studio.

Fade in on December 24, 1877
Thomas Alva Edison filed for a patent for his new invention… the phonograph.  

Fade in during the year 1878
General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, first heard a brass quartet consisting of Charles Fry and his three sons playing during outdoor meetings in Salisbury.  Booth started to use them in his own campaign which led to the formation of the Salvation Army Band.  He recognized the power of music even of a secular nature.  Booth is quoted to have said, "Why should the devil have all the best tunes!"

Fade in on March 17, 1919
Nat King Cole was born.

Fade in on July 1, 1942
Andraé Crouch and his twin sister Sandra were born.

Fade in on November 27, 1942
Jimi Hendrix was born

Fade in on October 3, 1945
Elvis Presley made his first public performance in a singing contest at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show when he was ten years old.

Fade in on September 2, 1946
Billy Preston was born. 

Fade in on April 8, 1947
Larry Norman was born.  Norman became a Christian at the age of five and attended a Black Pentecostal Church as a child.

Fade in on May 13, 1950
Stevland Hardaway Judkins was born later to become known as Little Stevie Wonder (1961)… and then again later as Stevie Wonder.

Fade in on July 8, 1954
Elvis Presley’s "That's All Right" was aired by DeeJay Dewey Phillips on his Red, Hot and Blue show.  Listeners to the show began phoning in eager to find out who the singer was.  The interest was such that Phillips played the demo fourteen times.  During an interview on the show, Phillips asked Presley what high school he attended to clarify Presley's color for listeners who assumed he must be black.

Fade in on October 9, 1954
Scott Bakula was born.

Fade in on November 6, 1954
“You Upset me Baby” by B. B. King enters the R&B chart. It was his fourth and final single to reach Number One though his career went on for years to come

Fade in on January 19, 1955
President Eisenhower was the first president to have a news conference for TV

Fade in on February 12, 1955
President Eisenhower sent the first US advisors to South Vietnam

Fade in on March 3, 1955
Elvis Presley made his first TV appearance

Fade in on March 14, 1955
The United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency was established by the United States Senate in 1953 to investigate the problem of juvenile delinquency.  On this day a report entitled “Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency” was published.  In light of the bad public image this created, the comic book industry adopted the Comics Code Authority, a self-regulatory ratings code that is still used by some publishers today. 

Fade in on March 16, 1955
Ray Charles hits #2 on the R&B charts with the Atlantic single “I Got A Woman”, widely considered the first song to be labeled “soul”—a blending of R&B and gospel.

Fade in on April 15, 1955
Ray Kroc started the fast food chain McDonalds

Fade in on April 18, 1955
Albert Einstein, developer of the relativity theory, died

Fade in on April 22, 1955
The United States Congress ordered all US coins to say "In God We Trust"

Fade in on May 21, 1955
Chuck Berry records “Maybellene.”  It is the first of Berry’s many hits for Chess Records.  By August 1, “Maybellene” reaches #5 on Billboard’s Best Sellers chart and tops the R&B chart for eleven weeks.

Fade in on May 7, 1955
“I Got A Woman” topped the Billboard’s R&B Chart making it Ray Charles’ first number one hit.

Fade in on May 31, 1955
The United States Supreme Court ordered school integration "with all deliberate speed"

Fade in on July 9, 1955
“Rock Around The Clock” by Bill Haley and His Comets was the number one song played on jukeboxes in the United States.  It became the first worldwide number-one Rock and Roll song.

Fade in on July 17, 1955
The theme park, Disneyland, first opened its gates

Fade in on August 28, 1955
Emmett Till, a black fourteen year old teenager was murdered for not showing respect to a white woman in Money, Miss.

Fade in on one day in August 1955
DC Comics released “The Brave and the Bold” comic book issue number one.

Fade in on September 14, 1955
"Tutti Frutti" was recorded by Little Richard, which became his first hit record in 1955. With its opening cry of "Womp-bomp-a-loom-op-a-womp-bam-boom!" (supposedly intended to be a verbal parody of a drum intro) and its hard-driving sound and wild lyrics, it became not only a model for many future Little Richard songs, but also one of the models for Rock and Roll itself.

Fade in on September 30, 1955 James Dean was killed in an automobile crash Fade in on October 3, 1955 The "Mickey Mouse Club" first premiered Fade in on November 5, 1955 Racial segregation is forbidden on trains and buses in U.S. interstate commerce. Fade in on November 7, 1955 Supreme Court of Baltimore banned segregation in public recreational areas Fade in on November 13, 1955 Whoopi Goldberg was born

Fade in on November 19, 1955
Although Pat Boone began recording in 1954 for Republic Records, his 1955 version of Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame" was a huge hit. This set the stage for the early part of Boone's career, which focused on covering R&B songs by black artists for a white American market.

Fade in on November 20, 1955
Bo Diddley makes his television debut on Ed Sullivan's Toast Of The Town show for the CBS network.

Fade in on November 21, 1955
Parker and Phillips negotiated a deal with RCA Victor Records to acquire Elvis Presley's Sun contract for an unprecedented $40,000 (Presley at 20 years old was officially still a minor, so his father had to sign the contract)

Fade in on December 1, 1955
Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama

Fade in on December 18, 1955 Michael David Williamson was born.  Williamson went on to be the other half of Kolaiah Productions as keyboardist, sound engineer, co-arranger, co-producer and everything else we needed. Fade in on December 19, 1955 Carl Perkins recorded "Blue Suede Shoes" Fade in on December 23, 1955 I was born. Fade in on December 29, 1955 Barbara Streisand first recorded "You'll Never Know" at the age of thirteen Fade in on May 5, 1956 Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” debuts on the Billboard’s Top 100 (prior to the Hot 100) Fade in on June 30, 1956 Chuck Berry hits #2 on the R&B chart and #29 on the pop chart with “Roll Over Beethoven.” Fade in on September 9, 1956 Elvis Presley's first Ed Sullivan appearance was seen by some 55 to 60 million viewers Fade in on January 6, 1957 Eddie Van Halen is born.

Fade in on July 5, 1957
Reneé Susan Phipps, the most beautiful woman in the world, was born.  We chose to go steady on May 23, 1973 and were married on June 19, 1976.

Fade in on July 6, 1957
John Lennon met Paul McCartney at the Woolton Parish Church after a performance by Lennon’s skiffle group, the Quarrymen. McCartney was invited to join the group.

Fade in during the year 1960
Andraé Crouch’s first band was the COGICS (Church Of God In Christ Singers) which included Billy Preston who went on to play organ for the likes of Ray Charles and the Beatles.

Fade in during the festive season of 1960
Ralph Carmichael’s first break was doing the arrangements for Nat King Cole on an album entitled The Magic of Christmas on Capitol Records.  Carmichael worked with Cole until Cole died February 15, 1965.

Fade in on October 8, 1962
Little Richard began a rock and roll comeback tour in Britain.  In November, he shares the bill at Hamburg’s Star Club with the Beatles.

Fade in on December 1962
The Lonely Bull was released by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass as their debut album.

Fade in on July 30, 1963
“Roll Over Beethoven” (Chuck Berry’s song) is covered by the Beatles.  Later in 1972, the Electric Light Orchestra covers the song with an arrangement including Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

Fade in on August 10, 1963
"Fingertips" is a 1963 number-one hit single recorded live by Little Stevie Wonder for Motown's Tamla label.  This song was the first live, non-studio recording to reach number-one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the United States.

Fade in on February 1, 1964
“I Wanna Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles tops the Billboard’s Hot 100 list

Fade in on February 9, 1964
The Beatles made their first American appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Fade in on March 25, 1964
The movie Muscle Beach Party was released in the threatres with the film debut of Little Stevie Wonder.  This movie was second in a series of teenie-bop movies starring the likes of Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello.  Wonder returned in the sequel released five months later, Bikini Beach.  He performed on-screen in both films, singing "Happy Street," and "Happy Feelin' (Dance and Shout)," respectively.

Fade in on May 4, 1964
The Moody Blues was formed.  Later on November 10, 1967 Days of Future Passed was released.

Fade in during August 1964
Diana Ross and the Supremes debuted with the hit song “Where Did Our Love Go” on the Motown label.

Fade in during 1964 in England
Christian youth in England responded to the British teen beat scene with a host of "gospel beat" albums that predate similar developments in North America.  At the age of fifteen Alwyn Wall met Malcolm Wild and they formed The Zodiacs.  Influenced by the Beatles the pair became obsessed with their heroes and eventually met George Harrison who turned them on to meditation, but they found this wasn't enough. They looked elsewhere and found Jesus Christ and looked no further.

Fade in on March 6, 1965
"My Girl" became the Temptations' first number one pop hit and went on to become their signature song.

Fade in on September 25, 1965
Barry McGuire’s Eve of Destruction was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles and tops out at 37 on the Billboard Hot 200 for music albums.

Fade in during the fall of 1965
Rober Culp and Bill Cosby star in I Spy on NBC pairing a white and black man as equals for the first time on TV.  Bill Cosby won the Emmy award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1966, 1967 and 1968.  How cool it was to see an integrated partnership who were equals.

Fade in on November 27, 1965
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass topped the Billboard 200 top albums of the year with Whipped Cream and Other Delights.  "Whipped Cream" and "Lollipops and Roses" were eventually featured on the ABC-TV game show The Dating Game as well as the “Spanish Flea” from the group’s next album…

Fade in during 1965
Ray Repp produced a ''folk mass,'' something completely new to the church scene.  Repp's Mass for Young Americans was a forerunner of numerous folk masses which would be performed around the nation in a sweep of the Catholic churches.  Repp has been called “the person most responsible for introducing folk music and the guitar into Christian Churches.”

Fade in on April 16, 1966
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass topped the Billboard 200 top albums of the year with Going Places with two of my favorites “Tijuana Taxi” and “Spanish Flea.”

Fade in on March 4, 1966
An article “How Does a Beatle Live? John Lennon Lives Like This” written by Maureen Cleave in the London Evening Standard quotes John Lennon as saying “Christianity will go, It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first-rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.”

Fade in on September 8, 1966 Space: The final frontier… These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise… Its 5 year mission… To explore strange new worlds… To seek out new life and new civilizations… To boldly go where no man has gone before… Star Trek… I was delighted… ecstatic… to see an integrated crew on board a spaceship… working together as equals.  It is said that Martin Luther King, Jr. convinced Nichelle Nichols, a black woman who was considering leaving the series, to stay as she would likely become a role model for other black women.  Indeed, Whoopi Goldberg said that Nichelle Nichols was her role model.

Fade in during the year of 1966
The Crusaders release their album Make a Joyful Noise with Drums and Guitars collectively remembered as the first Christian rock album sold in the United States recorded under the Tower record label.

Fade in on February 14, 1967
Aretha Franklin recorded the song “Respect” which would soon become her signature song.

Fade in during February of 1967
The Jimi Hendrix Experience had their first Top-10 hit in the U.K. with a psychedelic remake of the garage-rock classic “Hey Joe.” They followed it with another hit, “Purple Haze,” which boasted a thunderous, chugging rhythm and blistering guitar sounds that defined heavy metal before anyone knew it by name.

Fade in during the summer of 1967
Jimi Hendrix brought the Experience to America, capping a breakthrough live performance at the Monterey Pop Festival by lighting his guitar on fire.

Fade in on November 11, 1967
Blood, Sweat and Tears began recording their debut album entitled Child Is Father to the Man.  The album was released in February of 1968.

Fade in on April 12, 1968
The 5th Dimension topped the Billboard Hot 100 with “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In” after several other singles had flooded the charts including “Up, Up, and Away.”

Fade in on May 2, 1968
“Think” by Aretha Franklin was released.  This song became a feminist anthem and reach number 7 on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart.  Interestingly enough, this is the first song where the word “freedom” is chanted.  In 1987, Franklin became the first female artist to be entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  In 2008, the American music magazine Rolling Stone ranked Franklin #1 on it's list of The Greatest Singers of All Time.

Fade in on June 22, 1968
“This Guy’s In Love with You” by Herb Alpert topped the Billboard Hot 100.

Fade in during the year of 1968
Ralph Carmichael and Kurt Kaiser collaborated on Tell It Like It Is, a folk musical about God, which included the song “Pass It On.”  Carmichael founded Light Records in order to broaden the audience for Jesus People Music.  He was ridiculed often by the church for being a heretic.  The heresy... well, it was introducing the guitar into church worship as well as his big band adaptations of gospel songs.

Fade in on January 30, 1969
The Beatles perform together for the last time atop the roof of Apple Records’ headquarters in London; authorities stop the performance 42 minutes into the set during “Get Back” because of noise complaints.

Fade in on February 3, 1969
This day marked the release of the first Jethro Tull album “This Was.”  Interestingly enough by the time the album was released the band’s sound had evolved, hence the name of the album.  Ian Anderson, leader of the band, is a world renowned flutist.

Fade in on April 28, 1969
The Chicago Transit Authority was the debut album by a band who later called themselves simply “Chicago” on this day.  This was the first double album released by a new band.  Double albums were usually released as “best of” sets.

Fade in on May 3, 1969
Sly & the Family Stone released the album Stand! which included their first number one hit “Everyday People.”  This was a protest song against all kinds of prejudice.  Sly Stone had produced for and performed with both blacks and whites during his early career.  He integrated music by white artists into black radio station KSOL's playlist as a DeeJay.  Similarly the Sly & the Family Stone sound was a melting pot of many influences and cultures as the band was the first major American rock band to have an integrated lineup in both race and gender.

Fade in on May 24, 1969
“Get Back” recorded by the Beatles with Billy Preston topped the Billboard Hot 100.  This was the only song ever recorded that shared billing with another name.  Preston was one of several who was affectionately called the “fifth” Beatle.

Fade in on August 11, 1969
Diana Ross formally introduced The Jackson 5 to the public at a Beverly Hills, California club called "The Daisy."

Fade in on August 15 to August 18, 1969
Woodstock Music & Art Fair (informally Woodstock or The Woodstock Festival) was a music festival billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music" held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York.  Sly & the Family Stone and Jimi Hendrix were two of the headliners.  Jethro Tull was invited but once Ian Anderson heard that drugs would be allowed he declined.

Fade in on August 20, 1969
With the completion of the song "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" for the album Abbey Road this day marked the last time all four Beatles were together in the same studio.

Fade in on September 22, 1969
ABC television network premiered The New People which sported a cast of multiracial young people including Billie Dee Williams.  This show lasted half a season and yet it made a huge impact on my life.

Fade in during December 1969
The Jackson 5's first album, Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5 was released. The song "I Want You Back" was the only single from the album and it reached number one in January, 1970.

Fade in on December 27, 1969
The CASHBOX magazine lists the Top 100 Pop Singles year-end chart where the Edwin Hawkins Singers’ hit “Oh Happy Day” listed at number 78.  In 1969, a San Francisco Rock promoter found a copy of the album in a warehouse as he was flipping through a stack of Gospel records.  He bought it and gave it to Dan Sorkin, a famous DJ on radio station KSFO.  Sorkin loved the song and played it 2 or 3 times each day during his 3 hour show and interviewed Dorothy Morrison and Edwin Hawkins.  Overwhelming demand caused the song to be released as a single - one million copies were sold in 2 months.

Fade in during the year 1969
This year saw the dawn of Jesus Music with the following album releases:

Fade in on June 20, 1971
Barry McGuire was baptised in the Kings River near Reedley, California on this Father’s Day.

Fade in during the year 1971
This year saw more of Jesus Music with the following album releases:

Fade in on December 9, 1971
Rolling Stone magazine stated “with all the Jesus rock albums around today, what's a mother to do?”

Fade in on May 23, 1973
I asked Reneé Susan Phipps to go steady.

Fade in on the Seventies
This decade saw a lot of Jesus Music being produced with artists such as:

It is impossible to establish a sole pioneer of Jesus Music. Even though only three albums were released in 1969, many had been performing their own versions of gospel rock music in church youth groups and coffeehouses well before anyone realized that a "movement" was taking place.

Others worth mentioning are Latter Rain, Last Call of Shiloh, Harvest Flight, The Exkursions (Mike Johnson), Liberation Suite, Out of Darkness, Azitis, Stonewood Cross, Jubal, Vindication, Hope of Glory, Hope, Overland Stage, Joshua, The All Saved Freak Band, Newbury Park, Rainbow Promise, Crimson Bridge, Earthen Vessel, Wilson McKinley, Quo Vadis, The e Band, Dust, The Sheep, Danny Taylor, Tom Rozof, The Hallelujah Joy Band, Bridge, Psalm 150, Dove, Millennium, The Glorious Liberty, The Sons of Thunder, Sunlight, Seawind, Ron Moore, and Ron Salsbury and the JC Power Outlet, and several Maranatha! Music artists Good News, Deborah Kerner, Ernie Rettino, Aslan, Phoenix Sonshine, The Road Home, Selah, Erick Nelson, Joy, Country Faith, Karen Lafferty, and Blessed Hope and others deserve mention as originators of the genre that was distinguished solely by its lyrical content.

Throughout the duration of the revival, Jesus Music would rarely deviate from the reiteration of a single theme; the experience of God through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  These artists marked the first wave of Jesus musicians that spanned from 1969 to 1974.