Top Ten Hits by the Jefferson Airplane

It has often been said that Jefferson Airplane provided the soundtrack to the 1960's summer of love in southern California. It can even be said they invented the era's throbbing, psychedelic sounds that pervaded the entire decade and beyond. The very sound of their hit songs Somebody to Love and White Rabbit are directly related to the era of peace and love. They were the first band from the area to achieve nation recognition.

Matrix nightclub in San Francisco housed the first performance of the band in 1965. Jefferson Airplane has performed at such notable venues as the Berkeley Folk Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Monterey Pop Festival, Woodstock, Altamont the legendary Fillmore Auditorium. They were on the cover of Life Magazine in 1968 and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. They have headlined with greats such as The Doors, Grateful Dead, Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Who, Janis Joplin, Steve Miller, and many others. They are known as the only rock band to play all of the 60's era music fetivals. They released seven studio albums, five of which went gold, plus two live LPs and eight chart singles.

In 1965 the band line up of Balin, Kantner, Anderson, Kaukonen, Spence, and Casady signed to RCA Victor Records. The cut a single that went uncharted.Their debut LP, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off came out in 1966. When Grace Slick took the helm as lead singer, even more national attention circled the band. They made a first in music history, cutting an album called The Worst of Jefferson Airplane. The nature of the bands commercial breakthrough in the first place was it's sheer honesty in it's drug filled existence and lifestyle. In turn, it was also it's downfall. AM Top 40 radio was, at the time, the only real radio and refused to play such ribald rivalry. Jefferson Airplane had gained popularity for its songs about drug use and that was therefore it's downfall also.