1966
This may be the best year ever in pop music. So many choices but as Ricky Nelson said “You Can’t Please Everyone…” so here it goes.
There are so many Beatles songs this year like Day Tripper, Eleanor Rigby, Paperback Writer, and more. My two favorite Beatles songs of this year would be And Your Bird Can Sing and this one…the B side to Paperback Writer…Rain. The bass in this song is incredible. The song was credited to Lennon/McCartney but it’s more of a Lennon song.
Now we have The Beatles arch-rivals…just kidding. Actually, they were friends who worked together and made sure their releases didn’t overlap each other. The Rolling Stones in Paint It Black. Personally, I like this one better than Satisfaction. Paint It Black was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
Wild Thing…you make my heart sing. That’s all that needs to be said by this band. They were not a one-hit wonder though. I’ve been a fan of The Troggs since I bought their single as a kid in the late seventies. Their hits included Wild Thing, With a Girl Like You, and the song that has been covered many times…Love Is All Around. They were punk rock before punk rock. The song was written by Chip Taylor.
Let’s go to the American band The Lovin Spoonful who scored huge with this single. The song was written by John Sebastian, Mark Sebastian, and Steve Boone.
This man would change rock guitar forever and some still consider him the best. Hey Joe was released in December of 1966. The Jimi Hendrix Experience was making its debut. The song’s songwriting credits have been disputed. Here is what Wiki said: Public Domain (1st pressing), Dino Valenti a.k.a. Chet Powers (2nd & 3rd pressings), and Billy Roberts (copyrighted)
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“Hey Joe” was played by every band at dances when I was in high school. They often played both the Leaves earlier arrangement (much faster tempo) and the Hendrix version, sometimes combining them. Hard to leave out the Spencer Davis Group with “Gimme Some Lovin'”, our introduction to a young Steve Winwood. While it wasn’t a big hit, I think the pinnacle of the Wall of Sound was Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High” that year. Psychedelia hit the charts in ’66 with The Blues Magoos and the Electric Prunes – neither from San Francisco.
But as you (and Ricky) said, “You can’t please everyone so you got to please yourself”.
I just wrote up River Deep Mountain High…that will be coming soon on a regular post…I also left off California Dreaming which was hard because I like that one also. I ended up replacing California Dreaming and You Can’t Hurry Love with Summer in the City and Hey Joe…. you could flip a coin on some.
Great year for music…and funky sunglasses!
I love those McGuinn sunglasses…I once tracked a pair down in the late 80s…not an easy task at that time. Some odd shop in Nashville.
Nice! I have a pair of blue tinted glasses, but they aren’t that shape. 1966 is probably my favorite year for The Beatles’ music.
I agree with the Beatles comment. Revolver and the singles that year were incredible.
I agree a tough year to select from, I’m sure you could present a long list but this one has some stellar music!
And all of these have held up…that is the incredible part.
Not too many people can get their guitars to make great music by licking the strings and besides Jimi Hendrix, I don’t know anyone else who ever tried it. really great music in this post, Max.
Yeah, others can play with their teeth, but I haven’t seen anyone else use their tongue.
Thanks Jim…can’t lose in the sixties with music…so much of it.
man, there were a lot of good options for that year. Just looking through the list of #1s, ‘Poor Side of Town’, ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’ and ‘the sound of silence’ jump out at me besides your choices, and that’s not even looking at the other, non #1 hits and album cuts. I certainly agree on the RS- ‘Paint it Black” outshines ‘Satisfaction’ to me, and even more so at this point in time because it hasn’t been as worn out by radio.
I thought of both of those…Poor Side of Town was in at first…that is when I just go with my personal preference and it’s hard though…because it depends on the day! lol.
A good sign when it’s tough to narrow it down to just 5 songs from the year. May not be as problematic for you by the 2010s
Hard to find anything wrong with any of those tunes. Paperback Writer might be my favorite and then Wild Thing. Yep, every garage band worth their salt had to play those, and of course, Gloria.
Yea Gloria and Wild Thing shouuld be law for beginning bands…we did them both.
Some interesting tracks coming out in 66 and you can hear these tunes on rock radio still today especially the Stones with Paint It Black. Great stuff Max getting close to our birth year now..lol
We sure are! We were born in the psychedelic era….maaaannnnn groovy!
Turn on, tune in, drop out!
If you look at the home page of my blog Max, and click on the top left side menu icon, you will see your excellent pic of The Beatles at their coolest, telling me what you have posted today ! It looks great. I love how it shows the pics from what you have posted each day!
That is really cool that it shows that. And yes it is a cool picture of them in their middle period. I was telling someone else…I tracked down some of those rectangled McGuinn glasses before in the late 80s.
For some reason I can’t do “like” on your posts anymore – bloody WordPress! I have so many problems with them. You’ll just have to know that I like lots of your posts!
LOL…that is fine. Yea WP can be a pain at times!
Up there in the Pop Stratosphere, every one.
Soooo much that’s good- nah, forget good, great! The troggs ‘Wild Thing’ was a sonic boom, The Beatles were flying, the Stones were still in their snarling snarky stage, there was so much good stuff out.
The square shades were cool, the hair styles were great, but time-wise I think I have to give the striped suits- and the striped pants that everyone (Gawd help us, even skinny-as Sonny) was wearing that year- a ‘D’ in the sartorial elegance category.
It was a cool era…the “britpop”era was built solely from this time period but as much as it was cool…it didn’t come close to matching this.
Yea the strip suits weren’t all there…but why quibble over small things…the rest was cool.
Yep, the iffy fashions may fade but the timeless music doesn’t.
I DO like those retangle glasses…although they serve no other purpose but looking cool and looking over.
Most definitely a vintage year! My favorite in the old days of your choices was Summer in the City – and it still is!
Glad you liked that one! They don’t make years like that anymore….I would be born the next year.
Hey Joe is my favourite from this list. How did ‘Visions of Johanna’ not make your list? I’ll get over it one day. Haha
Well you can guess mine! I know Matt.. making myself go by 5 songs…it’s just really hard. From 64 – 70….there is just too many great songs. It’s probably my favorite era…Bob will get in some more.
I’ve been listening to the Basement tapes…
Visions from Live 1966 Dylan is my favourite song ever apart from some pieces from Mozart and Rachmaninoff which come into contention.
It’s a great song ‘Rain’ too. I know it’s hard to make such a list. There are also some great outtakes from the Basement tapes which didn’t make the cut. You could do worse than listening to that.
I should have given myself 10 choices lol…it would have been easier but it probably would have been over doing it.
Sure I read somewhere that 1966 had been named the best year ever for pop music… And you can see why!
I totally agree with that! The next year is a lot of fun also…the one I highlight may surprise you…it won’t be The Beatles.
Actually I’ve seen articles arguing for 1966 and for 1984. They seem to be the top two, though I’m sure you don’t agree with the latter… 😄
Uh no…lol. Hey I have a lot of friends who like me grew up then that would agree with it.
To put it in perspective…think about this. I listened to nothing but sixties music (not counting 70s AM radio) until around 82 or so…and then this synth stuff happened…so I went from timeless music to casio rhythm tracks…. that is why I soured on it. The first “80s” album I bought was The Game by Queen….I liked that!
I was brought up on my parents’ Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Eagles… Took me a while to appreciate music that wasn’t guitars. By the time I was a teen, the 80s was having a comeback 😄
Yes I couldn’t cross that bridge…no that is not completely true…I can if the synth is coloring the song but not leading it.
But yea…the way you were raised up…I could see you have some of the same thoughts I did.
I was just as bitchy though in the 80s…but your site has taught me something…the nineties…have so many damn dance tracks…I only think of the cool songs…but they didn’t reach #1
You know if I had to pick, then guitars, drums and bass all the way. But as long as synth/dance/ whatever has the same energy as rock n roll then it’s all good
I get it!
You left out the (ridiculous) comma in Paint It, Black.
Good choices- Rain is a top-tier Beatles song that’s a bit overlooked.
Oh heck…you are right I did leave that off…never really understood that.
Incredible year in music indeed. I love all of your picks. I also agree (shockingly!) that The Beattles’ “Rain” has a really cool bassline. “Summer in the City” by the Lovin’ Spoonful perhaps is my favorite summer song and certainly one of my all-time favorite ’60s tunes. “Hey Joe” was the song that brought Jimi Hendrix on my radar screen. When started exploring his other other music, much of it was more of an acquired taste. Now, of course, I love it!
Thanks Christian…I hope you are all caught up now…I KNOW how those days go man!
Still in the process of catching up! 🙂
Don’t worry about my posts man…just finish what you need. I appreciate you going back! I’m the very last one to gripe about being late lol.
I think I’m finally caught up on your posts and feel that’s a great start! 🙂
I’m going to stop commenting to you so you can get on your way! Dam it! I did it again! Also man…check out Paul’s site when you can…you will be overwhelmed.
🙂
This list got away from me last week. But it’s darn near perfect, imo. No need for me to say anymore. John Sebastian came across as the perpetually happy hippy guy. About The Troggs, it used to be so hard for me to believe that they also did Love is All Around.
If you ever want to find it…if you go to powerpop.blog…look at the top and it’s under “Max Picks” on the top menu.
I became a fan of the Troggs after I got the Wild Thing single in the late seventies or so…but yes…it surprised me also…I really like Love Is All Around and With a Girl Like You.
Got it, thanks. I would have been happy with more from The Troggs. And I really don’t know anything about them. They are sort of a mystery with me.
They got another degree of famous because of the “Trogg Tapes”… a profanity filled tape that was bootlegged of them recording a song. It is very funny and some say it inspired Rob Reiner to make Spinal Tap…you can hear it on youtube now…it was passed around in the old days by tape.
I’ve never heard anything from the Trogg Tapes, haha. I bet that is a fun listen. I’ll look it up.
It is funny. They are totally serious also…they didn’t do it as a joke. You will hear the spinal tap connection.
That’s great. I’ve got the Chiefs game on now, so it will be later when I listen.
very often called the greatest pop year of all-time (or 1979), great choices there, again my taste would veer more towards Eleanor Rigby, God Only Knows, I’m A Believer, maybe River Deep, Reach Out, Stop! In The Name Of Love. Depends on mood really! 🙂
This was by far the hardest year to do. When I limited myself to 5…it was hard!