On August 15, 1969, the Woodstock music festival opened on
a patch of farmland in White Lake, a hamlet in the upstate New
York town of Bethel.

Promoters John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfield and
Michael Lang originally envisioned the festival as a way to raise
funds to build a recording studio and rock-and-roll retreat near
the town of Woodstock, New York.

Despite their relative inexperience, the promoters managed to
sign a roster of top acts, including the Jefferson Airplane, the
Who, the Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin,
Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival and many more.

Based on outcry from parents who bought into what may
have started as an idle rumor, the FBI launched a formal
investigation in 1964 into the supposedly pornographic
lyrics of the song “Louie, Louie.”

That investigation finally neared its conclusion on this
day in 1965, when the FBI Laboratory declared the lyrics
of “Louie Louie” to be officially unintelligible.

No one will ever know who started the rumor that “Louie
Louie” was dirty. As written by Richard Berry in 1955, the
lyrics revolve around a sailor from the Caribbean lamenting
to a bartender named Louie about missing his far-away love.

    
    
   
Annette Joanne Funicello (October 22, 1942 – April 8, 2013)

During the mid-1960s, she established herself as a film
actress, popularizing the successful "Beach Party"
genre alongside co-star Frankie Avalon.

In 1992, Annette Funicello announced that she had been
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She succumbed to
the disease on April 8, 2013.

Charles Edward Anderson Berry was an singer, guitarist and
songwriter who pioneered rock and roll with distinctive songs
such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956),
"Rock and Roll Music" (1957), and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958).

Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and
developing a music style that included guitar solos along with
showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent
rock music.   

 
Charles Edward Anderson Berry
(October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017)

The rock star scored early hits like "That’ll Be the Day" and
"Peggy Sue” before he was killed in rock ‘n’ roll’s most
famous plane crash at age 22.

Holly was among the first artists inducted into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame, in 1986. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him
number 13 in its list of 100 Greatest Artists in 2010.

Last photo of Buddy during concert at the Surf
Ballroom, Clear Lake, Iowa.  (February 2,  1959)