1969

January

13th: The Beatles release "Hey Bulldog" a song The Residents would later go on to sample in their 1977 track "Beyond The Valley of a Day In The Life"

Frank Zappa releases "King Kong" a song The Residents would later go on to cover in 1971.

Flynn, Fox, and Palmer Eiland all move to San Francisco
While attempting to make a living, the group began to experiment with painting, silk-screening, and photography, but despite a mutual interest in music and sound in general, the group had not yet begun to experiment with making their own music. This would change when multi-instrumentalist Roland Sheehan, who had turned up at Bobuck and Rose's apartment bearing a U-Haul trailer full of musical instruments, including a Hammond B3 organ.
Around the same time, Bobuck also received a high-end two track reel-to-reel tape recorder as a gift from a friend who had recently returned from the war in Vietnam. This allowed the group to make the first of possibly hundreds of loosely edited reel-to-reel items consisting of home studio experiments, primitive original compositions, improvisations, jams, and abortive covers of contemporary pop songs.
Roland Sheehan left the group and San Mateo, however by this point the rest of the group had gathered enough recorded items for Fox to begin compiling demo reels without the assistance of the multi-instrumentalist Sheehan

The Group that would become The Residents recorded "I Hear Ya Got Religion" and "Moonman", They begin recording The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger, and shortly afterwards meet Margaret Smyk.

26th: The Beatles release "The End", a track later sampled by The Residents on their 1977 track "Beyond The Valley of a Day In The Life"