1968 in heavy metal music

This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal in the year 1968.

Bands formed

• Accept (as Band X)
• Alice Cooper^[1]
• Black Sabbath^[2] (as Earth)
• Breakout
• Deep Purple^[2]
• Edgar Broughton Band
• Free
• Grand Funk Railroad^[3]
• Humble Pie^[4]
• Led Zeppelin^[2]
• Meat Loaf
• Nazareth^[5]
• Rush^[5] (as The Projection)
• Sir Lord Baltimore
• Sweet
• Warpig
• Writing on the Wall

Bands disbanded

• Cream

Songs

• "Fire" by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
• "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf
• "Voodoo Child" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
• "Helter Skelter" by The Beatles
• "The House at Pooneil Corners" by Jefferson Airplane
• ’’Hurdy Gurdy Man’’ by Donovan
• "A Trial In Our Native Town" by Savage Rose
• "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Iron Butterfly^[6]
• "Race With the Devil" by The Gun
• "Summertime Blues" by Blue Cheer

Albums

January

Day	Artist	Album
16	Blue Cheer	Vincebus Eruptum
22	Iron Butterfly	Heavy
29	Steppenwolf	Steppenwolf
30	The Velvet Underground	White Light/White Heat

February

Day	Artist	Album
	Vanilla Fudge	The Beat Goes On

June

Day	Artist	Album
14	Cream	Wheels of Fire
	Iron Butterfly	In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
	Vanilla Fudge	Renaissance
	The Crazy World of Arthur Brown	The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

July

Day	Artist	Album
17	Deep Purple	Shades of Deep Purple
29	The Jeff Beck Group	Truth

August

Day	Artist	Album
	Blue Cheer	Outsideinside

October

Day	Artist	Album
16	Jimi Hendrix Experience	Electric Ladyland
	Deep Purple	The Book of Taliesyn
	Steppenwolf	The Second

November

Day	Artist	Album
22	The Kinks	The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society

December

Day	Artist	Album
20	Pretty Things	S.F. Sorrow