Songs That Marked the Beginning of the 60s

Well, we’re three years into the 2020s and that means that culturally the 2020s have begun. That also means that 1963 is 60 years ago, so all the great songs and albums from that year are 60 years old now! Time flies!

From studying history, I find that it takes about three years for a decade to find itself. The first few years are really just a continuation of the previous decade. Despite being a cusp Millennial/Zoomer (I was born in 1994), I definitely identify more with Millennial things and 90s nostalgia than 2000s nostalgia. The late 90s and early 2000s were my childhood. I grew up on the old Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network shows. I remember Y2K and where I was when I heard about 9/11 (I think that whether or not you remember 9/11 is what separates Millennials and Zoomers). I somehow survived the low rise jeans and stripey highlights era. I remember the days when someone saying your butt looks big is an insult. I remember dialup. I remember going to Blockbuster. I remember when the iPod was seen as cutting edge and a big deal. You name the late 90s/early 2000s memory, I’ll remember it. The late 2000s were quite different from the early years. Anyway, that’s enough of me waxing poetic about childhood.

If you asked me as a kid what I associated with the 60s, I would have said hippies and rock and roll. I would have thought that once the calendar went from December 31, 1959 to January 1, 1960 the world changed radically and everyone ditched the circle skirts and petticoats of the 50s for the looser, more colourful hippie attire. The truth is not quite! Fashion evolves over time and that’s something I learnt through historical costuming videos. To take an example from the past, it’s not like fashions went from the extreme hourglass of the 1900s to the boxier 1920s overnight. There was already a shift away from that shape going on by the late part of the 1900s and into the 1910s. The 1920s was a decade of change fashion wise and socially and there’s a lot of parallels between that decade and the 1960s. The 60s was another decade of social change with civil rights, women’s liberation, and gay liberation. Similarly with the fashion, the silhouette underwent a radical change and you begin to see it around 1964 with the A-Line dress taking over – a repetition of history. Still, it didn’t happen overnight. Look at early 60s fashion and you’ll see how matchy-matchy and conservative it is. It’ll be a few years until you see miniskirts and psychedelic prints taking over young women’s wardrobes. You won’t see moptops and long hair on guys until 1964, and even then shoulder length hair was seen as extreme in 1964. Rock stars like PJ Proby, Phil May, and Dave Davies were considered to be the rock stars with the longest hair back then. If you had hair that long, you were asked if you were gay or a woman. Or as The Barbarians put it “Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?”.

If we’re talking about events that marked “the beginning of the 60s”, I think it has to be the end of 1963 and beginning of 1964. What happened? Well, on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Like I said about Millennials knowing where they were on 9/11, that was the Boomer equivalent. Pretty much every Boomer knows where they were when they heard the news. That was a historical event that really shocked the nation and the world, and not long after that was Beatlemania, which had a huge impact on the charts and the rock music that followed. Most American pre-British Invasion rock stars faded away and similarly most of Britain’s pre-Beatles homegrown rock stars had a lull in popularity and relevance. New faces and names populated the charts.

Years ago, I read Jim Curtis’ book Rock Eras (read my interview with him here) and he divided the eras of rock into five year increments with different events marking the beginning and end of each era: 1954-1959 (Rock’s beginnings to the Day the Music Died), 1959-1964 (Pre-British invasion rock and roll to the eve of Beatlemania), 1964-1969 (British Invasion to Altamont), 1970-1974 (Kent State-Watergate), and 1975-1980 (the epic takeover of Disco). That book inspired me to write this blog post and what I’m going to do is explain what was going on around late 1963 musically before going into the list of songs that I believe marked the cultural beginning of the 60s.

Why the 60s? What makes it special?

I have a lot of interest in various historical eras, but no era is as special to me as the 1960s. No matter what, the 1960s will always be my favourite. Nothing captivates me like the 1960s. I’ve been obsessed with the decade for over half my life now. It’s a decade that is so unique and I agree with the boomers, there will never be anything like it again. What I especially love about the 1960s is how diverse it is musically and how dynamic it was. Look at photos from 1960 and compare them to 1969, you’ll think they’re from two different decades. Heck, 1962 and 1964 were only two years apart and there’s a different look and sound in both of those years. In my opinion, the 1960s is the most diverse decade for music and there’s something for everyone. I don’t believe anyone who says they don’t like 1960s music. There’s music for all tastes: guitar instrumentals, bossa nova, surf rock, garage rock, R&B, beat music, yé-yé, folk rock, blues rock, psychedelic rock, country rock, raga rock, latin rock, ska, tropicália, and hard rock. I love it all! I don’t know if I can say that for other decades.

Context: What was going on musically from 1960-1963?

Thanks to classic rock radio, we associate the 60s with The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, and many others. But these aren’t names that you’d see much, if at all in the charts from 1960-1963. Take a look at the charts and you’ll see completely different names in the early 60s compared to the mid and late 60s.

A lot was changing at that time. The space race began. People were moving from radio to TV. Things were becoming more visual and image based. Take a look at the 1960 US Presidential Election – that famous TV debate between Kennedy and Nixon. Recording technology improved and as the 60s progressed, artists could make more complex music and experiment more with the sound in the studio. With WWII and rationing over, teens could be teens and they had more spending money and were able to buy clothes and music to express themselves. For Americans, there was another war that the older generation were pushing the youth into and in came the generational divide and the rebellion. To look at it in a cynical way, businesspeople capitalised on it and packaged the counterculture mods and hippies as something you could buy into, a distraction from what was going on, perhaps.

The early 60s just isn’t talked about very much and it’s a shame because there’s a lot of great music from that time period. Rock and roll is a lot like building blocks that build upon each other. You couldn’t have beat music and folk rock without the music that came before it: 50s rock and roll, doo-wop, and guitar instrumentals. That’s what the boomer classic rockers grew up on and were influenced by. To truly appreciate rock and roll, you gotta appreciate the roots of it and the early music that kicked off the genre. Going year by year, let’s take a look at the British and American charts to get a feel for what was going on at the time:

1960:

Britain: By this point, you had homegrown rock stars on the charts like Cliff Richard and the Shadows, Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde, Adam Faith, and Johnny Kidd & The Pirates alongside American (and in some cases, Canadian, like Paul Anka) rock and pop stars like Neil Sedaka, Connie Francis, Brenda Lee, Frankie Laine, Bobby Darin, The Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent, Ricky Nelson, Bobby Vee, Duane Eddy, Sandy Nelson, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino. Musically, it wasn’t that edgy, a lot of overflow from the 50s. You had guitar based instrumentals by artists like The Shadows, The Ventures, Johnny and the Hurricanes, and Duane Eddy.

The musicians who spent the most weeks in the charts were The Shadows, Cliff Richard, Adam Faith, Anthony Newley, and Johnny and the Hurricanes. The Ventures had some chart hits in the UK, but they were bigger in their native US.

America: Largely the same. Dominant genres were pop, country, R&B, doo-wop, but music wasn’t really that edgy. Lots of teen idols and vocal groups. Solo artists were more dominant in the early 60s. The first chart topper that year was Marty Robbins’ “El Paso”, released in 1959. Other big songs include “Running Bear”, “Teen Angel”, “Stuck On You”, “Alley Oop”, “I’m Sorry”, “It’s Now Or Never”, “Walk, Don’t Run”, “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini”, “The Twist”, “Chain Gang”, and “Georgia On My Mind”. Funny enough there was a chart-topping Neil Sedaka song that came out that year called “Stairway to Heaven” – completely different from Led Zeppelin’s unrelated song that came out 11 years later. In those days, the music charts were segregated and black musicians were often relegated to the R&B charts, with occasional crossovers into the pop charts with artists like Jackie Wilson, Ray Charles, Jimmy Jones, Sam Cooke, Chubby Checker, Hank Ballard, Fats Domino, Dinah Washington, and The Platters.

It was a big year for Connie Francis who got five top ten hits: “Mama”, “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool”, “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own”, “Many Tears Ago”, and “Among My Souvenirs”.

1961:

Britain: Largely the same as 1960. You see jazz, pop, R&B, doo-wop, instrumentals, and some rock and roll in the charts, The Shadows get even bigger. “Apache” was a chart topper the previous year and they matched it with “Kon-Tiki” and got three other top 10 hits: “FBI”, “The Frightened City” and “The Savage”. Their American equivalent The Ventures had a big UK hit with “Perfidia”. You start to see female musicians like Petula Clark, The Shirelles, Helen Shapiro, and Shirley Bassey get some chart success.

The musicians with the most time on the charts were The Shadows, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, Helen Shapiro, Billy Fury, The Everly Brothers, and Bobby Vee.

America: A lot of similarities to 1960, but you see more black musicians in the pop charts like The Jive Five, Chubby Checker, Dee Clark, The Shirelles, Ray Charles, Ernie K-Doe, The Miracles, Brook Benton, Gene McDaniels, Gary U.S. Bonds, Chris Kenner, The Marcels, Shep & The Limelites, Lee Dorsey, Adam Wade, Carla Thomas, Ben E. King, Ike & Tina Turner, Bobby Lewis, and The Drifters.

A big year for Elvis with six top tens: “Surrender”, “I Feel So Bad”, “Little Sister”, “His Latest Flame”, “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”, and “Can’t Help Falling in Love”.

1962:

Britain: Charts are still poppy and jazzy with some American rock and roll names still having chart success like Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Chubby Checker, Dion, The Crickets, and Duane Eddy. Alongside that you see some homegrown acts like Cliff Richard, Billy Fury, Danny Williams, Adam Faith, Jimmy Justice, Joe Brown, Eden Kane, Helen Shapiro, and Shirley Bassey.

Like the previous two years, it was a great year for The Shadows, Elvis Presley, and Cliff Richard.

America: Motown starts to rise into the pop charts with acts like Mary Wells, The Marvelettes, and The Contours reaching the top 10. getting chart hits and The Beach Boys get their first hit with “Surfin’ Safari” and more hits for them will come in the next few years. You start seeing more folk music in the charts with hits like “If I Had a Hammer” and “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?”. This is also the year that Bob Dylan released his debut studio album.

Important to note: You start to see British musicians in the charts. Not The Beatles or anything that sounds like them, but rather some Pre-British Invasion acts like jazz/easy listening clarinetist Acker Bilk, who had a big hit with “Stranger on the Shore” (which topped the year-end charts) and The Tornados with the futuristic, space-rock “Telstar” – written by Joe Meek, who was the British Phil Spector, for better or worse. Both were instrumentals. Kenny Ball’s “Midnight in Moscow” was also a hit. For whatever reason, Cliff & The Shadows had no success in the US, but when America has Elvis and The Ventures, that’s pretty tough competition.

Elvis, Chubby Checker, Ray Charles, Dion, and Connie Francis all had four top ten hits.

1963:

Britain: This is the year that you start seeing more familiar names on the charts like The Beatles, Dusty Springfield, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, Freddie and the Dreamers, and The Tremeloes, The Searchers, and The Dave Clark Five. Groups like The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Animals, The Hollies, The Yardbirds, and The Zombies have formed, but haven’t gotten chart hits yet. It wouldn’t be long until these are household names. Liverpool has been put on the map thanks to Merseybeat, only a matter of time before it comes to America. Of course with those bands being British, they’re going to be big in their country first.

As far as musicians with most weeks in the charts, this is the last year where Cliff and The Shadows are on top. Former Shadows members Jet Harris and Tony Meehan also had a few hits that year. Just behind them are The Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers. Elvis Presley didn’t have as many hits that year. A new era of rock and roll was just around the corner and the 50s and early 60s were considered the old guard. The youth wanted something new and relatable.

America: This is the year of three quintessentially 60s things: surf rock, girl groups, and Motown. While these all existed before 1963, this is the year when those types of music became popular. Sadly surf rock was a short-lived fad, but girl groups and Motown were still popular in the late 60s. Some girl groups that had success that year include The Exciters, The Cookies, The Shirelles, The Crystals, The Chiffons, The Angels, Martha and the Vandellas, The Jaynetts, The Dixiebelles, and of course The Ronettes. Some Motown acts that had chart hits that year include Mary Wells, Martha and the Vandellas, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye. These are some musicians you definitely associate with the 60s. As for surf rock, The Beach Boys got hits like “Surfin’ USA”, “Surfer Girl”, “Be True To Your School”, and the Christmas classic “Little Saint Nick”. Jan and Dean had three top 20 hits “Surf City”, “Honolulu Lulu”, and “Drag City”. Some surf rock one-hit wonders include The Surfaris’ “Wipe Out”, The Chantays’ “Pipeline”, The Trashmen’s “Surfin’ Bird”, and The Rivieras’ “California Sun” – one of the last American rock and roll hits before The British Invasion. The controversial “Louie Louie” was released and kept out of the top spot because of The Singing Nun’s “Dominique”.

No Beatles just yet, but a British female duo called The Caravelles had a top 10 hit with “You Don’t Have To Be a Baby To Cry”, yet another British act to have a hit in the US before The Beatles.

What is 1960s exactly?

So now that we have the context, what is 60s music? Surely the music from 1960-1963 is every bit as 60s as music from 1964-1969, but what comes to mind culturally when you think 60s? I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d say surf rock, Beat music/British Invasion, girl groups – both R&B and pop, folk rock – both acoustic and electric, energetic and danceable R&B and soul music, blues rock – the baby of American R&B and rock and roll, garage and psychedelic rock – the fuzz and all the effects, and the optimistic sound of sunshine pop. Basically moving away from rockabilly, doo-wop, and cutesy classic pop and ballads. Something edgier, more advanced, more youthful. Something distinct.

This blog post is about the songs that really marked the beginning of a new era – whether or not they were popular. It’s all about the artistry and music here and talking about what songs started these genres in the 60s. Originally I was going to make a list of 20 or so songs and just talk about those, but I’d feel like I’m leaving songs out. I will be making a list for each of these categories and posting 5-10 early songs that fit into these categories and talking a bit about them. To give this list some variety and ensure a representation of the 60s, I’m going to limit each musician to two songs on the whole list. Hope you like this article! If you want to listen along, here’s the playlist:

Surf Rock

A multicultural genre, surf rock is an early 60s thing and I’d say one of the earliest truly 60s rock subgenres. Mostly instrumental, but The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean added some vocals. A short-lived fad, but a well-loved and iconic one! Keith Moon especially was a big fan of it, so if you’re not gonna take my word for how great it is, trust him! Here’s a list of groundbreaking surf rock songs of the 60s:

“Apache” – The Shadows (1960): Easily one of the best rock instrumentals of all time. Even though The Shadows are not well known in the US, Americans will all recognise this song because of it being widely sampled in hip-hop (If you’re an American Shadows fan, you get a gold star! You’re a real one!). This song inspired so many classic rockers to play guitar and is easily one of the best pre-Beatles British rock songs. If you want to hear some early American covers of it, The Ventures covered it in 1962 and Davie Allan and The Arrows covered it in a more garage rock style sound in 1965. 

“Walk Don’t Run” – The Ventures (1960): It’s hard to pick a Ventures instrumental, but this was one of their early songs and one of their most famous ones. It was a cover of a Johnny Smith jazz instrumental from 1954, so you might be wondering why is this 60s? Well, this put a rock and roll spin on a jazz instrumental. This is quintessential early 60s and one of my favourites of the era.

“Let There Be Drums” – Sandy Nelson (1961): An early surf rock instrumental. Just Richard Podolor on guitar and Sandy Nelson on drums. It’s been covered by Roger Taylor of Queen and Bev Bevan of The Move & ELO.

“Miserlou” – Dick Dale & His Del Tones (1962): This, along with “Wipeout” to me are the surf rock instrumentals. Southpaw guitarist Dick Dale, who was of Lebanese descent, brought his roots to surf rock – an early example of world music being brought to the mainstream. You could even say this song is proto-metal. The cultural impact of this song? It was in the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction and sampled by The Black Eyed Peas in their hit song “Pump It”. The Beach Boys covered it.

“Pipeline” – The Chantays (1962): Another surf rock standard. This was a one-hit wonder for The Chantays.

“Wipe Out” – The Surfaris (1962): Everyone knows this one! This might be where you learnt what “wipe out” meant. Love the breaking surfboard sound in the beginning and the drumming. This song became a surf/instrumental rock standard and has been covered by The Beach Boys and The Ventures covered it.

“Surf City” – Jan and Dean (1963): You know the opening lyrics, “Two girls for every boy!”. This song was written by Jan Berry and Brian Wilson and was the first surf rock song to become a national #1 hit, topping the charts for two weeks. The collaboration came about when Brian Wilson was hanging out with Jan & Dean and he played “Surfin’ USA” for them. They loved the song and wanted to sing it, but Brian Wilson told them that song’s for The Beach Boys, but he’d love them to record “Surf City” instead. 

“Surfin’ USA” – The Beach Boys (1963): While it wasn’t The Beach Boys’ first hit, this was an early hit for them. The music is from Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen” with new lyrics written by Brian Wilson, which was controversial because Chuck Berry didn’t get credit at first, but both are credited as songwriters now. It peaked at #3 on the Billboard and Cash Box charts in 1963, but was later called the #1 song of 1963 by Billboard. Throughout the song, a bunch of surf spots in California are name dropped, with “Australia’s Narrabeen” and “Waimea Bay” on Oahu being named dropped. Name a song that’s more California than this! From there, the Beach Boys had a string of hits: “Surfer Girl”, “Be True To Your School”, “Fun Fun Fun”, “I Get Around”, and many more!

British Invasion

“Telstar” – The Tornados (1962): An early example of space rock, long before the likes of Pink Floyd and Hawkwind who took it in a psychedelic and heavy direction. This instrumental was composed by Joe Meek and named after the communications satellite of the same name that was launched into orbit on July 10, 1962. It was recorded in Meek’s flat/studio on Holloway Road. It was one of the first British chart toppers in America, pre-dating The Beatles by a good bit! The single sold more than 5 million copies and won an Ivor Novello Award. 

“She Loves You” – The Beatles (1963): One of The Beatles’ first number ones and one of their most famous songs. It was hard to pick just one Beatles song for this category, but I think this is the one. The Beatles really pioneered in a lot of rock subgenres and I love their versatility. There really is nothing like early Beatles though because this is how they were introduced to the world. This is the Mersey sound.

“How Do You Do It?” – Gerry and the Pacemakers (1963): Liverpool was more than just The Beatles. There was also Gerry and the Pacemakers. This Beatlesque song was their debut single and topped the British charts in 1963. Their following two singles, “I Like It” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone” also topped the British charts that same year. Although not a hit in America, Americans will probably know their hits “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying” and “Ferry Cross The Mersey”. The Beatles also recorded a version of this song, which is on Anthology 1.

“Glad All Over” – The Dave Clark Five (1963): The Dave Clark Five were one of the first British Invasion bands to make it big after The Beatles. They were a force to be reckoned with with “Glad All Over” kicking “I Want To Hold Your Hand” from the top spot of the British charts. Before Beatles versus Stones, it was Beatles versus DC5! You thought only the Americans had the Wall of Sound? Britain’s answer to that was the Tottenham Sound. Do you want to know how big this song was? It was the second best selling single in the UK in 1964 only behind The Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love”.

“I Only Want To Be With You” – Dusty Springfield (1963): This song was huge when it came out at the end of 1963/beginning of 1964. It was a strong start for Dusty Springfield, with her debut solo single peaking at #4 on the UK charts in January 1964. The song is a memorable one and wasn’t just successful for Dusty. A decade later, The Bay City Rollers covered it and their version did as well in the charts as the original.

“Do Wah Diddy Diddy” – Manfred Mann (1964): While this Greenwich-Berry composition was originally performed by The Exciters, everyone knows the Manfred Mann version better. It topped the charts in both the UK and US. A very much loved early British Invasion song.

“A World Without Love” – Peter and Gordon (1964): Paul McCartney is such a legendary songwriter that not only were his songs hits for his own bands, but also others. This is one of the examples of a song that The Beatles didn’t perform (because John Lennon would stop Paul after the first line “please lock me away” – like yeah that’s enough lol) so he gave it to his then-girlfriend’s brother, Peter Asher. It topped the charts in both the US and UK. This was an early McCartney composition that he wrote when he was only 16 years old – genius!

“She’s Not There” – The Zombies (1964): Another great early British Invasion song that topped the charts in America. Interestingly enough, it did way better in America than in the UK, where it peaked at #12. Great keyboard as always from Rod Argent, who wrote the jazz influenced song.

Girl Groups

“Please Mr Postman” – The Marvelettes (1961): A hit early on in Motown’s history, in fact, the first Motown song to top the Billboard Hot 100. In those days the charts were segregated, with a lot of the songs by black musicians relegated to the R&B charts and once in a while crossing over into pop, and this was a huge accomplishment. This adorable teen love song was later covered by The Beatles and The Carpenters.

“He’s a Rebel” – Darlene Love (1962): An early Wall of Sound song and the second song Phil Spector produced that topped the charts. The song was written by Gene Pitney, who originally pitched it to The Shirelles. The weird part is while the song was credited to The Crystals, the vocals were actually sung by Darlene Love of The Blossoms because Spector wanted to rush release it before Vikki Carr released her version. Spector was based in LA and The Crystals were from NYC and touring the East Coast at the time the song was recorded. Sadly, Darlene Love didn’t get the credit she deserved. This song was one of those in the Scorpio Rising soundtrack – this film was a proto-music video of sorts released by Kenneth Anger in 1964 with a soundtrack of songs that were hits at the time. Takes you right back to the early 60s.

“He’s So Fine” – The Chiffons (1963): Another great girl group love song. It was written by Ronnie Mack, who died at just 23 years old as the song was climbing up the charts. The Holland-Dozier-Holland composition “Jimmy Mack” was actually written as a tribute to Ronnie Mack. It was so great that George Harrison was accused of plagiarising it in “My Sweet Lord” and was found guilty of subconsciously plagiarising it and settled with Mack’s family for $587,000.

“Da Doo Ron Ron” – The Crystals (1963): Another girl group classic and Greenwich/Berry composition. Gotta love Brill Building pop! The song title was originally a stand-in for real words, but Phil Spector thought that it worked so well so the title stuck. This one is actually by The Crystals with LaLa Brooks on lead vocals. The song reached the top 5 in both the US and UK. A young Cher sang backing vocals on the song.

“My Boyfriend’s Back” – The Angels (1963): One of those youthful songs you can clap and sing along to. Love the call and response in this one! Like “He’s a Rebel”, this song was also pitched to The Shirelles and it was in the Scorpio Rising soundtrack. The songwriters were the famous FGG songwriting team (Feldman, Goldstein, and Gottehrer – who went on to be in The Strangeloves, who wrote and sang “I Want Candy”) Other girl groups like The Chiffons and Martha and the Vandellas recorded covers of the song.

“Heat Wave” – Martha and the Vandellas (1963): Another great girl group love song and Holland-Dozier-Holland composition. Once again, another one from the Scorpio Rising soundtrack. This one’s been covered by The Who, Linda Ronstadt, and Phil Collins. The three-chord intro was the inspiration behind The Lovin Spoonful’s hit “Do You Believe in Magic?”. The original Martha and the Vandellas version topped the R&B charts in 1963 and reached #4 on the pop charts.

“Be My Baby” – The Ronettes (1963): Nothing exemplifies the Wall of Sound like “Be My Baby”. It came out in the summer of 1963 and is considered one of the best songs of the 60s and all time. The Greenwich/Berry/Spector composition is a favourite of Brian Wilson, who wrote “Don’t Worry Baby” as inspired by it – he wanted The Ronettes to sing it but because Phil Spector was a control freak he refused. The first time he heard the song he was driving and was so blown away he had to pull over. He called it the greatest record he’d ever heard and Mike Love said he compared it to Einstein’s theory of relativity. Not only was Brian Wilson mindblown and inspired by the production, but also The Beatles, Queen, and 10cc. It showed the magic of the studio. Like in “Da Doo Ron Ron”, Cher sang backing vocals on this one. Ronnie Spector was the only Ronette on the recording. Arranger Jack Nitzsche praised Ronnie’s vibrato. Dick Clark introduced “Be My Baby” on American Bandstand as the record of the century. If you’re ever smoking weed, the wall of sound is even more intensified – one of the best songs to listen to while high. It sounds even more heavenly, from my experience.

“Where Did Our Love Go?” – The Supremes (1964): Hard to pick just one Supremes song, but I think we should start with their first chart topper, the first in a streak of five… one hit after another with “Baby Love”, “Come See About Me”, “Stop! In The Name of Love”, and “Back in My Arms Again”. In total, they topped the charts 12 times. This feat crowned The Supremes the most successful Motown act and vocal group. Not only was this song big in America, but also in Europe and Down Under. I can talk all day about the brilliance of Holland-Dozier-Holland and the Funk Brothers.

“Leader of the Pack” – The Shangri-Las (1964): The 60s was a time of great sibling groups and The Shangri-Las were one of many of them. This is the textbook teen tragedy song, a type of sad song relatable to young people that was trendy in the late 50s and early 60s. While this was a late example of the genre and not the first, it is iconic and has great storytelling in the lyrics. What truly makes this song full of the spirit of the 60s is the rebelliousness of the biker boyfriend Jimmy. Makes me think of that book I read in English class in middle school, The Outsiders.

60s R&B and Soul

“The Twist” – Chubby Checker (1960): This song was huge in the early 60s and climbed up the charts multiple times. While Chubby Checker didn’t do the original – that was Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, he popularised the song. It didn’t just top the charts in 1960, but also once again in 1962. Thanks to American Bandstand, the song became a big hit. From there, a lot of songs about the twist were released. Imagine if TikTok existed back then! It would have been full of people doing the twist. As old as this dance is, it still stayed alive in pop culture being referenced a lot. 

“Do You Love Me?” – The Contours (1962): This Motown song is full of energy. Berry Gordy apparently originally wrote it for The Temptations, but he couldn’t get ahold of them, so he gave it to The Contours, who hadn’t had a hit yet and were nearly going to be dropped by the label. Thankfully for The Contours, they topped the R&B charts and reached #3 on the pop charts with this song. Sadly, they never had another song that had the same success as this one. But they weren’t one hit wonders, they had some other small hits like “Shake Sherry”, “Can You Jerk Like Me”, and “First I Look at the Purse”.

“Green Onions” – Booker T. & The MGs (1962): While it wasn’t the first big hit for Stax – it was predated by Carla Thomas’ “Gee Whiz, Look At His Eyes” and The Mar-Key’s “Last Night” – it’s an iconic instrumental and easily one of the most recognisable R&B instrumentals. It must have blown everyone away when it came out in 1962 – so fresh sounding even today! Organ player Booker T. Jones wrote and recorded the song when he was only 17. Originally they were going to call it “Funky Onions”, but because the word “funky” sounds like “fuck”, they changed it to “Green Onions”. It topped the R&B charts and reached #3 on the pop charts. Almost 20 years later, it reached the top 10 in the UK and Ireland. 

“Fingertips” – Stevie Wonder (1963): What makes this song stand out is that this one is a live recording. It was on the album Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius, a live album recorded at the Regal Theater in Chicago – a historic music venue popular among the black community and part of the Chitlin’ Circuit (sadly demolished in 1973). “Fingertips” was composed by Stevie Wonder’s mentors at Motown, Clarence Paul and Henry Cosby, as a jazz instrumental, but the final version had improvised call and response lyrics and crowd interaction. Like quite a few R&B songs of the era, it is a two part song. It was a major success with it being Motown’s second chart topper on the pop charts and got the live album Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius on the top of the albums charts. Later in the decade, Stevie Wonder went on to have success with songs like “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)”, “I Was Made To Love Her”, “For Once In My Life”, and “Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday”.

“I Gotta Dance To Keep From Crying” – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (1963): While it wasn’t their first crossover success (or a big success at all, it barely broke the top 40), that would be “Shop Around” from 1960 – which reached #2 on the Hot 100 and topped the R&B charts and was the first million seller for Motown, this song has a lot more of a 60s uptempo party sound. The Who covered this song as The High Numbers before the fame and I love their version of it. It was the first version I heard.

“Testify” – The Isley Brothers (1964): By this point, The Isley Brothers were well-established with hits like “Shout” and “Twist and Shout”, but this one has a lot more of a 60s uptempo sound that takes you to church. Sadly, it wasn’t a hit, but a certain guitarist who would take the rock and roll world by storm later in the decade played on this song and that guitarist was no other than Jimi Hendrix. Just years before “Hey Joe”, “Purple Haze”, and “All Along The Watchtower”, he played on an Isley Brothers song. Prior to this he was a backing musician who played on the chitlin’ circuit with major acts like Wilson Pickett, Slim Harpo, Sam Cooke, Ike & Tina Turner, and Jackie Wilson. He started working with The Isley Brothers when he was living in New York and was recommended to them by Joe Tex.

“My Girl” – The Temptations (1964): The Temptations’ first chart topper on the Billboard Hot 100. This song was written by Smokey Robinson and Ronald White of The Miracles. They wrote the song for David Ruffin to sing because they were impressed with his version of The Drifters’ “Under The Boardwalk”. It was the first Temptations single with David Ruffin on lead vocals. It topped the charts in 1964.

“Shake” – Sam Cooke (1964): This is one of the last songs that Sam Cooke ever recorded. It was released posthumously in December 1964 and reached the top 10. Sounds really different from his earlier songs like “You Send Me”, “Chain Gang”, and “Twistin The Night Away”. Much more uptempo and danceable. You could clearly see the direction 60s soul and R&B was going in this song. Every time I listen to it, I keep wondering what more songs Sam Cooke had like this in his mind. The song was famously covered by Otis Redding, who also had a posthumous hit – “Sittin’ On The Dock of the Bay”, and The Small Faces, who would often cover it at their concerts in the 60s – it was on their 1966 self-titled debut too.

“Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” – James Brown (1965): Funk was born in the mid 60s when James Brown released “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag”. This blew people’s minds when it came out in 1965. There was foreshadowing for this new musical direction though in earlier songs like “I’ve Got Money” (from 1962 – incredibly funky for the time – an honourable mention) and “Out Of Sight” (from 1964). “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” though… that crowned James Brown the Godfather of Soul. It was so good that James Brown shouted “This is a hit!” in the studio before the drum and horn intro. Before this James Brown had success on the R&B charts, but this was his first top 10 hit on the pop charts. It also earned him his first Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording.

“I Got You (I Feel Good)” – James Brown (1965): Is it possible for a song to be an antidepressant? I’m not sure, but this comes close. Need some funk to get out of that funk? Put on “I Feel Good” and you can’t help but smile and dance. James Brown made such an impact that I couldn’t just put one of his songs in this category, I had to put two of them in there. This song was James Brown’s highest charting song, reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Why not #1? Well, The Byrds “Turn! Turn! Turn!” topped the charts and you can blame the British Invasion because the Dave Clark Five reached #2 with “Over and Over” – both great songs. Still, this song was groundbreaking and was sampled in hip-hop multiple times and it has been made into a SpongeBob meme.

Folk Rock

“Blowin’ in the Wind” – Bob Dylan (1963): It’s hard to limit it to two Bob Dylan songs, but I think “Blowin’ in the Wind” is a standout since it is a great example of 60s protest music and his acoustic political songs era. While it wasn’t a chart hit at the time, it is still one of his most famous songs. Throughout the decade, you’d see a lot of artists covering Bob Dylan songs like Sam Cooke, The Byrds, Manfred Mann, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, and Nina Simone. Sam Cooke was so moved when he first heard “Blowin’ in the Wind” that he knew he had to record a version and so he did for his At The Copa album. Inspired by that song, he wrote “A Change is Gonna Come”. 

“The Sound of Silence” – Simon & Garfunkel (1964): Surprisingly, this song that Paul Simon wrote at 21 years old was a flop at first and after recording their 1964 debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, Simon and Garfunkel broke up, with Paul Simon going to England and Art Garfunkel attending Columbia University. A year later, the song became a sleeper hit when DJs in Boston and Florida started playing the original acoustic version of the song. When Tom Wilson found out the news, he remixed it with some electric guitars and drums without Simon & Garfunkel’s knowledge. By January 1, 1966, the remixed “The Sound of Silence” topped the charts as folk rock started growing in popularity thanks to Bob Dylan and The Byrds. “The Sound of Silence” and The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out” were in a battle for the top spot in January 1966 and each had their time as #1. Because of the success of the song, Paul Simon returned to the US and recorded some more songs with Art Garfunkel until they broke up in 1970.

“Catch The Wind” – Donovan (1965): You could say that Donovan was Britain’s answer to Bob Dylan, but really Donovan’s a great musician in his own right. This Dylanesque song was Donovan’s debut single. It reached #4 in the UK and #23 in the US. Like “The Sound of Silence”, there were two versions of the song; the album version had a Dylanesque harmonica and the single version is shorter with a string section and a more echo-ey sound. The follow up single “Colours” matched the success of “Catch The Wind”. 

“Mr Tambourine Man” – The Byrds (1965): This Bob Dylan cover was The Byrds’ first chart topper in the US and UK and only their second ever single. The band were formed by Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, and David Crosby, who all had a folkie background and performed in coffeehouses and in collegiate folk groups. As the band were forming, they were inspired by The Beatles and that influence became a big part of their folk rock sound and they even bought instruments just like the ones The Beatles used. You can even see The Beatles influence in their image too – the long hair especially. It’s easy to tell how they became a post-British Invasion success – one of many new faces! They were really pioneers in the folk rock genre, and not only that, psychedelic rock and country rock too. This song is considered the first folk rock hit. You could even say they were the inventors of jangle pop and pioneers of power pop. 

“Like a Rolling Stone” – Bob Dylan (1965): You know I had to put two Bob Dylan songs in this section. We wouldn’t have folk rock without Bob Dylan. Heck, we wouldn’t have a lot of popular music without Bob Dylan. While this wasn’t Bob Dylan’s first ever electric song, this is one of his most famous songs period and a song that marked a new era for him. You could even say it’s a diss track, long before rap was invented. Just after returning from his 1965 English tour, he wrote this song for his album Highway 61 Revisited. The song peaked at #2 in the US in September of 1965. The Beatles kept it out of the top spot with “Help!”. Just below that? The Beach Boys with “California Girls”. Iconic.

“It Ain’t Me Babe” – The Turtles (1965): Similar to The Byrds, The Turtles started off folk rock and their first hit was a Bob Dylan cover. A different sound from “Happy Together” and “Elenore” for sure! This one reached the top 10, while Bob Dylan’s original wasn’t released as a single. Similarly, Bob Dylan didn’t release “Mr Tambourine Man” as a single. No doubt these covers brought attention to Bob Dylan’s original. Want another Byrds/Turtles connection? Their debut albums were named after their first hits – Mr Tambourine Man and It Ain’t Me Babe – respectively, which were both Bob Dylan covers.

“Eve of Destruction” – Barry McGuire (1965): This anti-war song was written by P.F. Sloan and while The Turtles released a version of it, the most famous version was by Barry McGuire. The Byrds were initially offered the song, but they turned it down. It was popular among the counterculture youth, but angered the establishment, who called it everything wrong with the youth. Some radio stations even banned the song. Even with that, all the talk about the song got it to the top of the charts. Some people just get triggered by the truth and we can see history repeating itself now with conservative politicians trying to prevent history from being taught, or whitewashing the past.

“Blues Run The Game” – Jackson C. Frank (1965): While this song wasn’t a hit, it’s still an important part of folk rock history and has been covered by other folk musicians like Simon & Garfunkel (Paul Simon produced the Jackson C. Frank original), Sandy Denny, Nick Drake (as a home recorded demo, can be found on the compilation album Family Tree), John Renbourn, Bert Jansch, and Meic Stevens. Unfortunately, Jackson C. Frank’s music career went nowhere and he only ever released one self-titled album. In the 70s, he struggled with depression stemming from childhood trauma (his primary school caught on fire. He had friends who died in the fire and he suffered burns on over 50% of his body and ended up with thyroid problems which caused him to put on weight as he aged) and was hospitalised. Later, he was accidentally shot with a pellet gun and ended up blind in his left eye. 

Garage Rock

“The 2000 Pound Bee” – The Ventures (1962): An early fuzz guitar song and way ahead of its time – the name says it all, a big fuzz guitar sounds like a bee that weighs a tonne. The Ventures experimented with distortion early on in rock history and this is one example of it – Nokie Edwards and a fuzz pedal, name a more iconic duo. Sure it wasn’t the first fuzz guitar song – other songs like Link Wray’s “Rumble”, Howlin’ Wolf’s “How Many More Years”, and Marty Robbins’ “Don’t Worry” came out before this one, but it was groundbreaking and featured fuzz guitar used in it throughout paving the way for songs like “You Really Got Me”, “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”, “Dirty Water”, “Psychotic Reaction”, and many other fuzz guitar songs. While it wasn’t a hit, the song was played at John Belushi’s funeral. It’s easily one of my favourite rock instrumentals.

“Jack The Ripper” – Screaming Lord Sutch (1963): This musician turned politician covered a Clarence Stacy song about one of the most famous serial killers and it was the best known version of the song and one of his best known songs. Similar to shock/horror rock pioneer Screaming Jay Hawkins, there’s this Halloween vibe to the song, but with a comedic sound – like a novelty song like the “Monster Mash”. Even though it’s a novelty song, it’s an early example of garage rock, released in 1963. Because it was banned by the BBC and you couldn’t hear rock music on the radio unless it was pirate radio, it wasn’t a hit. What embodies the spirit of the 60s more than shocking uptight old fogeys? 

“Louie Louie” – The Kingsmen (1963): A garage rock standard and one of the most covered rock songs in history. In a way, the beginning and end of an era. This was one of the last American rock and roll hits before the British Invasion and the incoherent delivery of the lyrics captivated the record buying public wondering what they were singing about, leading to a controversy about the subject matter of the song and a full blown FCC investigation into the content of the lyrics, which turned out to not be obscene. As talked about before in the blog, the reason for the vocals sounding mumbled wasn’t to hide any “obscenities” that old people were hearing, it was because the microphone was suspended from the ceiling and the lead singer had to tilt his head back and shout. Heck, the song was a cover of a doo-wop song by Richard Berry, who also wrote “Have Love Will Travel”, which was famously covered by The Sonics. Anyway, the song peaked at #2 on the Billboard charts being kept out of the top spot by the French language song “Dominique” by The Singing Nun, a song that became a meme on TikTok.

“Rosalyn” – The Pretty Things (1964): You thought The Rolling Stones were raunchy blues rockers? If you want that dirty, raunchy, garage rock sound turned up to 11, The Pretty Things are that band. They were even more rebellious looking with Phil May having shoulder length hair – longer than any of The Rolling Stones. There’s a reason Mick Jagger didn’t want them on Ready Steady Go! And it’s self-evident on their debut single “Rosalyn” – you can hear some Bo Diddley influences in the guitar sound and beat – they even named themselves after one of his songs. While it didn’t break the top 40 in the UK, it was still influential. Maybe the world wasn’t ready for it yet. David Bowie loved the song and referred to the frontman Phil May as “God” in his phonebook. He covered the song on his cover album Pin Ups.

“Have I The Right?” – The Honeycombs (1964): The Honeycombs made their debut with this single that had some proto-punk/proto-garage rock moments with the stomping and loud guitars that came out of nowhere in the chorus… “Come right back! I just can’t bear it. I’ve got some love and I long to share it!” and then the jangly instrumental break – it’s ahead of its time. It topped the charts in their native UK and peaked at #5 in the US, which could also make it part of the British Invasion section, but they were pretty much a one-hit wonder. One thing that made this band stand out was that they had a female drummer. At the time, if women were in a rock band, they were playing piano like Cherry Wainer or playing guitar like Mary Ford or Lady Bo. You didn’t often see women in the rhythm section very much in the 60s. The only other example I can think of from that time was bassist Megan Davies from The Applejacks.

“Hold Me” – PJ Proby (1964): PJ Proby is an American singer who was bigger in the UK than in his birth country and had a brief period of popularity there in the mid 60s. He was trying to be an actor in Hollywood, but ended up in music instead, writing songs and recording demos for Elvis, Bobby Vee, and Johnny Burnette. Two songwriters, Sharon Sheeley and Jackie DeShannon, introduced him to British TV producer Jack Good, who created Britain’s first rock and roll TV shows The Six-Five Special and Oh Boy! At his peak fame he was known for his trademark long hair. He got a few top 10 hits in the UK with “Hold Me”, “Together”, “Somewhere”, and “Maria”. “Hold Me” was his biggest hit and it had a bit of fuzz guitar in it, an early example of that technique.

“You Really Got Me” – The Kinks (1964): This list wouldn’t be complete without this iconic song. You know the riff by just reading the title. Imagine hearing those opening chords on the radio in 1964 – it’s like “I’ve never heard something like this before! What’s this sound I hear?”. It’s a song made for parties and speeding on the motorway. It’s youthful. It’s provocative. This was the song that put The Kinks on the map and marked the beginning of Ray Davies’ legendary songwriting career – this is what started it all for The Kinks and what a mark it left in rock history. Inspired by “Louie Louie”, Ray Davies wrote it as a jazzy song with the famous riff played on the piano – original idea was to play it on saxophone, but it was his younger brother Dave’s idea to play the riff on guitar for more impact. To get that fuzzy sound, a teenage Dave DIYed it by taking a razor blade to the speaker cone of his Elpico amp and presto! That fuzz guitar sound was born. Now that’s what I call resourcefulness! Dave was only 17 years old when he played on that song – impressive! The Kinks soared to the top of the charts in the UK and reached the top 10 in the US in 1964 with “You Really Got Me” and that early success earned them overseas tours early on in their career in Australia and the US. The song had such an impact on Pete Townshend of The Who and you can hear the influence of the riff in songs like UFO’s “Follow You Home” from 1970 and more recently in Blac Rabbit’s “Closer to the Sun” from 2017.

“I Can’t Explain” – The Who (1964): Pete Townshend openly admits that The Kinks’ early singles influenced his early songs for The Who. Roger Daltrey called The Kinks’ the band’s biggest influence at that time. The Kinks opened the door for bands like The Who and the two bands opened the door for power pop and heavier rock music. This song was The Who’s first single as The Who. They previously released “Zoot Suit” b/w “I’m The Face” as The High Numbers, but it didn’t go anywhere and they quickly changed their name to The Who, what we know and love them as. At the end of 1964, they released one of Pete’s first compositions, “I Can’t Explain” introducing the world to their powerful sound. A lot of bands in the 60s tried their hand at sounding like The Beatles, but The Who were different, they tried to sound like The Kinks. This song made an impact on the charts, reaching the top 10 in the UK, paving the way for the popularity of “My Generation” – where The Who really found themselves and their sound. David Bowie was also a fan of this song, covering it for his Pin Ups album. He also covered “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere”.

“Have Love Will Travel” – The Sonics (1965): If I had to name what America’s answer to The Kinks were, I’d have to say it was The Sonics, a Pacific Northwest garage rock band. If you like one band, you’ll like the other. The Sonics had a heavy sound for the time and influenced groups like The White Stripes, LCD Soundsystem, Nirvana, The Hives, The Cynics. What made their sound cool is that it was proto-punk with a saxophone. Interestingly enough, there is no fuzz guitar on this song, but it does sound like it thanks to the saxophone. I highly recommend going beyond “Have Love Will Travel” – listen to their debut album Here Are The Sonics!, you won’t regret it. “Psycho” and “Strychnine” are also great songs – easily honourable mentions for this list. While “Have Love Will Travel” wasn’t a hit, it was influential and covered by Stiv Bators, Crazyhead, Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper, The Headcoatees, Blood Sausage, The Brandos, Jim Belushi, and many more. This is easily a great example of early garage rock. 

“She’s About a Mover” – Sir Douglas Quintet (1965): While the band’s name sounds very British, the band were actually from San Antonio, Texas and they had a Hispanic member – Johnny Perez – and even incorporated some Tex Mex influences in their sound. This song has a 12-bar blues sound reminiscent of Marvin Gaye’s “Can I Get a Witness” and Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say”. It was called the #1 Texas song by Texas Monthly and was a top 20 hit in the US and UK. Ringo Starr covered it on his 1983 album Old Wave.

Blues Rock

“Road Runner” – Bo Diddley (1960): This 12-bar blues song released in January 1960 became a blues rock standard covered by lots of British rock bands like The Rolling Stones, Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders, The Pretty Things, The Zombies, The Animals, and The Who. It was also in the soundtrack of the 2013 film Wolf of Wall Street. The original reached #20 on the R&B charts and barely made the Hot 100, but it’s a very influential song and a blues rock classic. 

“Spoonful” – Howlin’ Wolf (1960): This Willie Dixon composition is one of his most covered songs and very influential to the blues rock that came later in the decade – that raspy voice! It was famously covered by Cream on their debut album Fresh Cream. Howlin’ Wolf visited London in the early 70s and recorded an album with Blind Faith members Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood and Rolling Stones members Charlie Watts, and Bill Wyman. To understand and appreciate blues rock, you gotta listen to this song.

“Shake Your Moneymaker” – Elmore James (1961): This song also was covered by classic rockers like Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green era), George Thorogood, and Rod Stewart. It was inspired by older blues songs “Shake It And Break It” by mixed black/Native American blues singer Charley Patton and “Shake ‘Em On Down” by Bukka White. While it’s clearly early 60s, it easily has the spirit of the 60s with its risqué lyrics and slide guitar – Elmore James was called “The King of the Slide Guitar”. This was Elmore James’ last ever single because he died in 1963 of a heart attack. He sadly didn’t get to see how influential his song was and at the time of his death, he was due to go on a European tour with the American Folk Blues Festival.

“You Need Love” – Muddy Waters (1962): You definitely know this song as the one that Led Zeppelin ripped off for “Whole Lotta Love” at the end of the 60s, influenced by the Small Faces cover of it from 1966 as “You Need Loving”. This easily makes it a song that started the 60s. Unfortunately, neither the Small Faces nor Led Zeppelin gave credit to Willie Dixon for writing the song. The first recording of “You Need Love” was done by Muddy Waters in Chicago in 1962. While the single was never a hit, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck loved listening to Muddy Waters’ EP that had that song, “Little Brown Bird”, “You Shook Me”, and “Muddy Waters Twist”. While the original had a blues sound, the Small Faces’ version of the song gave the song more of an R&B flavoured rock sound and it was longer, and Led Zeppelin’s was even longer and heavier with Robert Plant’s vocals being modelled after Steve Marriott’s and there being a great guitar solo by Jimmy Page. Led Zeppelin changed up the lyrics, but it was a clear ripoff of the Willie Dixon composition and finally in 1985, Willie Dixon won the lawsuit and got credit for “Whole Lotta Love” 

“Country Line Special” – The Cyril Davies All-Stars (1963): Cyril Davies was a British blues legend and one of the first blues harmonica players in England. Along with Alexis Korner (formerly of Chris Barber’s Jazz Band), they founded British blues and formed Blues Incorporated – a band that had some pretty famous alumni: Long John Baldry, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Charlie Watts, Duffy Power, and Graham Bond. They were the first amplified R&B band in the UK. They also had a lot of famous fans who were influenced by them like Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Paul Jones, John Mayall, and Jimmy Page. Cyril Davies left Blues Incorporated in 1962 and started his own band, Cyril Davies All Stars. One of their most famous songs was an instrumental called “Country Line Special” – a favourite of R&B loving Mods. What Cliff Richard’s “Move It” was to British rock and roll, “Country Line Special” was to British R&B – great homegrown music. The Who loved this instrumental and recorded a cover of it at a session at Abbey Road Studios in 1964 before they were famous – you could already hear how skilled they were as a band and even hear a musical precursor to Tommy. Cyril Davies died at just 31 years old on January 7, 1964, just as The Beatles were starting to take over the charts.

“Gloria” – Them (1964): This Van Morrison composition became a garage rock standard and a song that new guitar players learn to play because of it being a simple three chord song. He wrote the song when he was 18 and playing in Germany with a group called The Monarchs. He later joined Belfast-based Them when they posted an advert looking for musicians to play at an R&B club. Van Morrison early on became known for his ad libbed lyrics and “Gloria” was one of those songs that was different at each show and when played live it could be up to 20 minutes long, compared to the studio version that was under 3 minutes long (typical pop song length at that time). “Gloria” was originally the B-side of their cover of Big Joe Williams’ “Baby Please Don’t Go” and it got way more airplay. Interestingly enough, the version that was the biggest in America was The Shadows of Knight’s version. It was also later covered by Patti Smith. While Americans know “Gloria” very well, Them’s best known song was “Here Comes The Night”.

“The House of the Rising Sun” – The Animals (1964): This song could either be put in the folk rock or blues rock category, but since The Animals are more blues rock in their sound, it’s going in this section. This song is a traditional folk song of unknown origin or authorship. It was said to have been sung by miners in the 1900s and the lyrics were first published in 1925 in a column called “Old Songs That Men Have Sung” in Adventure magazine. Before The Animals recorded it, Woody Guthrie, Josh White, Lead Belly, Glenn Yarbrough, Pete Seeger, Andy Griffith, Miriam Makeba, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan recorded versions of the song, but none of those versions were as big as The Animals. The Animals first heard the song from a Northumbrian folk singer named Johnny Handle and while on tour with Chuck Berry, they performed it as their closer to stand out from other rock bands who played straight rockers as a closer. The crowd’s positive reaction encouraged producer Mickie Most to record a studio version of it and so on May 18. 1964 The Animals recorded the song in one take! It’s so haunting sounding and I love it – Eric Burdon’s vocals – ‘nuff said. The song was long for the time with the album version being about 4 and a half minutes long. There’s a bit of drama with the song, with Alan Price only getting credit for arranging it, which meant he only got royalties, and the other band members were understandably upset because it topped the charts in both the US and UK. While his organ part was great, Hilton Valentine’s guitar playing was also an important part of the song too. Even worse, Georgia Turner, who sang the first recorded version of the song for Alan Lomax as “Rising Sun Blues” at just 16 years old didn’t even make $120 in royalties and she died penniless in 1969 at just 48 years old.

“Don’t Bring Me Down” – The Pretty Things (1964): This was The Pretty Things’ first and only top 10 hit in the UK. It did not go anywhere on the American charts and my guess is poor marketing, possibly America not being ready for them. I mean, The Pretty Things were so wild they got kicked out of New Zealand. They had more of a cult following, but I think that’s the appeal. How can a band so groundbreaking not make it? Still, it’s a great blues rock song and something to give some variety to your classic rock playlist.

“Time Is On My Side” – The Rolling Stones (1964): I couldn’t just make a list like this and leave out The Rolling Stones! Before The Rolling Stones found themselves sound-wise, they started off as a blues rock/R&B band and that’s the sound Brian Jones was especially fond of – he was the one who came up with the band’s name, naming themselves after a Muddy Waters song, “Rollin’ Stone” – over time he was voted out and his role diminished and he wasn’t the creative force or leader of the band anymore. Anyway, The Rolling Stones, like many other British bands of the time started off playing covers and that’s what their early singles were: “Come On” and “Carol” were originally Chuck Berry songs, “I Wanna Be Your Man” was a Beatles song, “You Better Move On” was by Arthur Alexander, “Not Fade Away” was a Buddy Holly song with a Bo Diddley beat, and “It’s All Over Now” was originally by The Valentinos featuring Bobby Womack. “Time Is On My Side” was The Rolling Stones’ first top 10 hit in the United States and two versions of it were recorded, one that was looser with a shorter organ only intro, and the other one more tightly arranged with a guitar intro which was more popular in the UK. This song later was covered by a lot of other musicians like The Tremeloes, The Pretty Things, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Moody Blues, The O’Jays, Patti Smith, and Blondie.

Psychedelic Rock

“Fingerbuster” – Davey Graham (1963): Davey Graham was a folk guitarist who was half Guyanese, half Scottish and a key figure in the British folk revival of the 60s, so this song could fit in the folk rock section, but hear me out. What made him special is that his music incorporated world music influences – he had a fascination with the Mediterranean – and he was the composer of the folk rock instrumental “Angi”, which has been covered by Bert Jansch and Simon & Garfunkel and is a favourite of many fingerstyle guitarists. He had a lot of famous fans like Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, Ralph McTell, John Martyn, Nick Drake, Ritchie Blackmore, Ray Davies, and Paul Simon, but he never had much, if any commercial success and he retired from playing music by the early 70s so he could focus on other interests like studying languages and do charity work. This short but sweet instrumental is an early example of raga rock, a type of psychedelic rock with Indian influences. This was released just a couple years before The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” that featured a sitar.

“Blend” – Sandy Bull (1963): If you like Davey Graham’s proto-psychedelic folk, then you’ll also love Sandy Bull’s album Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo, which combined folk music with Indian and Middle Eastern influences. Music journalist Sandy Pearlman wrote in Crawdaddy that this album was a precursor to raga rock and that Sandy Bull was an innovator for incorporating Indian influences in Western music, predicting that trend in the mid-late 60s. Sandy Bull was a folk musician who could play multiple stringed instruments well: guitar, banjo, bass guitar, oud, and mandolin. His sister, Daisy Hellman Paradis played sitar. He played in folk clubs in Greenwich Village in the early 60s before moving to San Francisco. If you have 22 minutes, give “Blend” a listen. A contrast from the short but sweet “Fingerbuster”, it’s a proto-raga rock epic inspired by Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan. He saw both of those musicians perform in New York City.

“Any Way You Want It” – The Dave Clark Five (1964): The echoes and reverb in this song from an Echoplex are a great example of early psychedelia and just like The Sonics’ “Have Love Will Travel” the saxophones have this sound reminiscent of fuzz guitar. The song went top 20 in the US and was later covered by Kiss, The Ramones (their last song ever performed), and Tom Petty. 

“I Feel Fine” – The Beatles (1964): This John Lennon composition was the first time a rock song used guitar feedback, giving it that psychedelic sound – all thanks to John’s guitar leaning against Paul’s bass amp by accident. They were so blown away by the sound they told producer George Martin that they’re keeping the sound and it just works! The guitar riff in this song was influenced by a 60s jump blues song by Bobby Parker called “Watch Your Step”. That song also influenced The Beatles’ “Day Tripper”, Led Zeppelin’s “Moby Dick”, The Yardbirds’ “I’m Not Talking”, Deep Purple’s “Rat Bat Blue”, and The Allman Brothers Band’s “One Way Out” (a cover of an Elmore James song). “I Feel Fine” topped the charts and was the sixth Beatles single that topped the Billboard charts in 1964, setting a record. The previous five songs were “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, “She Loves You”, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “Love Me Do”, and “A Hard Day’s Night”. And that wasn’t the end for The Beatles! The next singles they released topped the charts: “Eight Days A Week”, “Ticket To Ride”, “Help!”, “Yesterday”, and “We Can Work It Out”.

“See My Friends” – The Kinks (1965): Before The Beatles tried their hand at raga rock with Norwegian Wood, The Kinks released “See My Friends”. While it didn’t use a sitar, it had this Indian influenced sound with its droning guitar. Some people suggest that “See My Friends” is the first raga rock song by a Western band. However, the sitar version of “Heart Full of Soul” was recorded before it, but it wasn’t the one played on the radio – Jeff Beck instead used fuzz guitar to emulate the sitar sound. The inspiration for the sound came from The Kinks stopover in India before their Australian tour and the sound of Indian fishermen chanting captivated Ray. While it wasn’t a hit, Pete Townshend was similarly smitten with the song and wrote “The Good’s Gone” inspired by it. Paul McCartney allegedly told Dave Davies that he wished he wrote “See My Friends”. The Kinks didn’t do much psychedelia after this. The only other song I can think of that they did that was really psychedelic was “Fancy”, which has a similar raga rock sound to “See My Friends”.

“Heart Full of Soul” – The Yardbirds (1965): This was another Graham Gouldman composition and marked a new era of the Yardbirds as the first single with Jeff Beck on lead guitar. As said before, it was originally recorded with a sitar player, but the band didn’t like how it turned out so Jeff Beck used fuzz guitar to record that famous riff. I personally love both versions of the song. It was a great followup to their previous hit “For Your Love”, reaching the top 10 in the US. 

“Eight Miles High” – The Byrds (1966): As I said before, The Byrds weren’t just a folk rock band, they were also a psychedelic rock band and they had a really diverse discography with different eras kind of like The Beatles and that’s what makes them a great band. They tried different things. They certainly did that on “Eight Miles High”, which was influenced by the music of Ravi Shankar and John Coltrane. But like a lot of songs from the 60s, it came with controversy because of the word “high”. The old fogeys were freaking out about their kids smoking pot and thought it would destroy minds. Because of the moral panic, “Eight Miles High” was banned by some radio stations, but it didn’t stop it from becoming a counterculture anthem or making the top 20 – It reached #14 in the US and #24 in the UK. To try to do some damage control, the band and their publicists were insisting it wasn’t about drugs but about plane travel, but later Gene Clark and David Crosby admitted that the song was inspired by their drug use at the time. It also marked the end of an era for The Byrds, being the last release before Gene Clark left the band. If you want another stoner anthem, I highly recommend his song “Elevator Operator”.

“Sunshine Superman” – Donovan (1966): Just like The Byrds, Donovan played folk rock before going psychedelic. One of Donovan’s most psychedelic songs is “Sunshine Superman”. You could say this was a “song of the summer”, but really it was recorded in the winter, in December 1965 – I’m guessing they waited until July 1,1966 to release it because it’s not a very wintery song and the timing worked well and it topped the charts in the US, making it his signature song. Meanwhile in the UK, the song reached #2, only behind Tom Jones’ “Green Green Grass of Home”. Since then, DC Comics created multiple characters called Sunshine Superman – In Animal Man, there is a black version of Superman called Sunshine Superman with a sun-shaped S-shield. A nod to 60s counterculture is there because he’s part of the Love Syndicate of Dreamworld, a world based on the drug culture of the 60s. Donovan himself was the first British rock star to be arrested for smoking pot.

“Good Vibrations” – The Beach Boys (1966): One of the masterpieces of the 60s and the song that showed The Beach Boys were more than just a surf rock band, they made art. This song is just otherworldly and the production is easily some of the best in rock and roll. What genre is “Good Vibrations” exactly? Well if you take a look at the Wikipedia page, the answer is essentially “yes” listing a variety of genres like progressive pop, psychedelic rock, art pop, acid rock, psychedelic pop, avant-pop, and R&B. With so many genres and such a complex sound, it was an expensive song to make, in fact, it was the most expensive single ever recorded at an estimated $50-75,000 or $450-680,000 in today’s money! You could buy a house with that kind of money! To put it in perspective, The Beach Boys spent as much money on recording “Good Vibrations” as they did on the entirety of Pet Sounds. The theremin alone cost $15,000 and Mike Love definitely didn’t approve of that, but who cares what Mike Love thinks? No real Beach Boys fan even likes Mike Love! It paid off and the song was a major success, topping the charts in the US and UK and reaching the top 5 all over the world. I’m pretty sure The Beach Boys made back that money many times over. When The Beatles heard what The Beach Boys were doing in this era, they got into a little competition and utilised the studio to make psychedelic rock that sounded magical.

In Conclusion:

And that concludes my list of songs that marked the beginning of the 60s, musically. What a journey and a fun blog post for me to write. Hopefully it’s been a fun one for you to read and reminisce about the 60s. Did I miss any songs? Any thoughts on the songs on the list? Have your say in the comments section below!

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