932 Laura Nyro “Wedding Bell Blues” 1966

“Jan Nigro remembers seeing Laura’s list of possible name changes, all variations of Nigro. Her father recalls that she seriously considered ‘Niagra,’ a name she had used on her creative writing book in 1960. But Lou had pointed out to her that it would not lessen the wisecracks. ‘Laura,’ he said, ‘if you trip, someone will say, Niagra falls. She settled on Nyro—pronounced, coincidentally, the same as the surname of a well-known earlier Music and Art alum, pianist Peter Nero. Spelled with a y, though, it would almost always be mispronounced as Nigh-ro—just as her father also warned. Perhaps the NY represented New York (NY); perhaps it had a resonance to a kindred spirit Bob Dylan’s name (which was often similarly mispronounced as Die-lan. ‘I think it was just an unusual name that she liked the sound of,’ says Jan Nigro. Whatever it stood for to her, Nyro was certainly unique: There was not another in any New York City phone book” (Michele Kort, Soul Music: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro, 2002). 

Laura Nyro “Wedding Bell Blues”

931 Aaron Neville “Tell It Like It Is” 1966

“When his singing career hit its stride in 1966, ‘Tell It Like It Is’ had zoomed to the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on two of the most respected music charts in the country and generated millions of dollars in record sales. But the money didn’t find its way into Neville’s pockets. He got no royalties, he says, and a 45-rpm that his friends spray painted gold was just about all he had to show for his effort...’Somebody made off with the money, and that song made somebody rich.’ Not Neville. At the height of the song’s popularity, Aaron was breaking his back working on the New Orleans docks to support his family. And over the next few years, he had to move from one job to another—digging ditches, painting houses and even driving a truck to deliver cigarettes and candy for a mere S50 a week” (W. Leavy, Ebony, Dec. 1991). 

Aaron Neville “Tell It Like It Is”

930 Fred Neil “The Dolphins” 1966

“Neil started his music career in 1955 when he moved from St. Petersburg to Memphis, Tenn…The singer became a cult favorite in New York City’s Greenwich Village folk scene after Roy Orbison released a blues recording of Neil’s ‘Candyman’ in 1960. The following year, a young Bob Dylan joined Neil on stage during a show at a Greenwich Village nightclub. Some of Neil’s other big-name fans in that era included musicians John Sebastian, Paul Kantner, Richie Havens, David Crosby and Stephen Stills. Neil moved to Miami’s Coconut Grove district after releasing his first solo album, ‘Bleecker & MacDougal,’ in 1965. While in South Florida, Neil took an interest in protecting dolphins and frequently visited Kathy, the star of television show ‘Flipper’” (The Associated Press State & Local Wire, 9 July 2001).  

Fred Neil “The Dolphins”

929 Napoleon XIV “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa” 1966

“Popular music is underwritten by advertisers. If a song is TOO controversial, and enough folks scream into their phones about it, its hit potential gets instantly curtailed. Witness Napoleon XIV’s #3 7-66 ‘They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa.’ Napoleon’ Jerry Samuels of New York claimed a million-seller, but after two days stations reeled from a fiery flurry of negative calls saying the song made vicious fun of the emotionally ill—which it did” (Maury Dean, Rock and Roll: Gold Rush, 2003).  

Napoleon XIV “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa”

928 Mouse and the Traps “A Public Execution” and “Maid of Sugar, Maid of Spice” 1966

“Tyler’s Mouse and the Traps…were actually to what would become the punk ethic. They were formed in 1964 by Ronnie ‘Mouse’ Weiss (vocals/guitar), Bugs Henderson (lead guitar), Dave Stanley (bass), Jerry Howell (organ), and Ken ‘Big Nardo’ Muray (drums). Produced by Robin Hood Bryans, they had two hits with ‘A Public Execution’ and ‘Maid of Sugar, made of Spice,’ and , all told, released thirteen 45s and an album for RCA. Though the band was legendary in Texas, struggles to gain attention elsewhere were less than successful, and they broke up in 1969. They still convene every decade for much-anticipated reunions” (Rick Koster, Texas Music, 1998). 

Mouse and the Traps “A Public Execution”

Mouse and the Traps “Maid of Sugar, Maid of Spice”

927 The Mothers of Invention “Who Are the Brain Police” 1966

“What people heard was arguably the first conceptual pop LP and way ahead of its time. Frank Zappa already had a clear vision of the mixture of music and satire that he wanted to put onto record. The LP’s sleeve came complete with a letter from the fictitious Suzy Creemcheese Salt Lake City, Utah. The letter implied just what Zappa wanted to get over about the group. With its talk of bearded weirdos who all smelled bad, it almost seemed to imply that the whole thing was an elaborate joke—which of course it wasn’t. Zappa couldn’t have been more serious about the music itself. However, he appeared to be smart enough to realize that the Mothers didn’t stand a chance in hell of gaining success in the rock world with their type of music if they came across as serious musicians” (Billy James, Necessity Is…The Early Years of Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention, 2000).

The Mothers of Invention “Who Are the Brain Police”

926 Tony Mossop with The Soulseekers “He Bought My Soul at Calvary” 1966

Lead singer Tony Mossop was born in Jamaica and “started singing in a church choir as a boy of nine” (album notes). Based in London, the Soul Seekers performed country gospel from 1964 to 1969. “The Soul Seekers began as The Celestial Chords, who were formed in the early 1960s by Carl and Denver Grant, who played bass and lead guitar respectively. They were from Calvary Apostolic Church in Camberwall, London. By 1966, the group had expanded to include tony Mossop (vocals), Way Powell (rhythm guitar) and Barry Forde (drums). The group were determined from the outset to make a career in the music industry and they employed the managerial services of a South London manager called Ken McCarthy. McCarthy organized tours in Europe and secured radio airplay at a time when many stations refused to play black Gospel music.” Mossop died in a car crash in 1970 (Steve Alexander Smith, British Black Gospel, 2009).   
  
Tony Mossop with The Soulseekers “He Bought My Soul at Calvary”               

925 Ennio Morricone “Il Buono, Il Bruto, Il Cattivo (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Theme)” 1966

“many of the same qualities that made the rock-and-roll of the 1960s commercially successful did the same for Morricone’s film music: it was concise, easily remembered, harmonically and formally uncomplicated, yet melodically very original. Morricone’s scores, particularly the Westerns of the 1960s including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, demonstrate a fusion of many of the popular music elements of the time. The immense popularity of the electric guitar is the best example of this fusion…Undeniably, there is some similarity between these rock-and-roll instrumental hits of the 1960s [such as “Apache,” “Pipeline”] and Morricone’s use of the solo electric guitar in his Western scores of the same period” (Charles Leinberger, Ennio Morricone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 2004).

“the soundtrack recording of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly became a best-seller in the United States, due in part to radio airplay being given to a [1968] cover version of the ‘Main Title’ by Hugo Montenegro” (Charles Leinberger, Ennio Morricone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 2004). 

Ennio Morricone “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Theme”

924 The Monkees “Last Train to Clarksville” 1966

“Open auditions were held for the four Monkees in order to attract ‘real’ people for the sake of verisimilitude on the level of personae—the Beatles weren’t actors; the Monkees had to be ‘real’ also. The ad in Variety specified that what was sought was a type known to congregate at a particular after-hours hipster hangout in LA: ‘MADNESS!! Auditions—folk & roll musicians-singers for acting roles in new TV series. Running parts for 4 insane boys, age 17-21. Want spirited Ben Frank’s types. Have courage to work. Must come down [from your ‘drug trip’?] for interview’” (Matthew Stahl, Popular Music, Oct. 2002). 

The Monkees “Last Train to Clarksville”

923 The Monkees “I’m a Believer” 1966 and “(Theme from) The Monkees” 1966

Penn Jillette: “The Monkees were engineered to appeal to the broadest audience possible with no other concerns. The Monkees were sanitized to fit into America’s living rooms. My mom and dad would watch the Monkees with me, and other than their stupid haircuts, Mom and Dad weren’t bothered much by the Pre-fab Four. The silly Monkees did their thing in the wood veneer TV console under the white doily below the heirloom clock. They didn’t shock. They fit comfortably on the same cathode ray tube as Lawrence Welk” (Eric Lefcowitz, Monkee Business: The Revolutionary Made-For-TV Band, 2013). 

“The Monkees were formed in 1965 by two young television producers [Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider] who pitched the idea of a weekly comedy TV show featuring a young band having wacky, surreal, intertextual adventures that would trade on and draw its inspiration from Richard Lester’s 1964 Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night. The two producers rounded up their young Hollywood friends, hired a song-writing team, auditioned and selected four young men and produced a successful television show that ran for two seasons and a band that was productive for years afterwards” (Matthew Stahl, Popular Music, Oct. 2002).

The Monkees “I’m a Believer”

The Monkees “(Theme from) The Monkees”

922 Sergio Mendes and Brazil ’66 “Mas Que Nada” 1966

“In describing his trademark Brasil ‘66 sound, the pianist/arranger says, ‘You can relate to it in an organic way, It makes you dream and it makes you feel good. It’s very rhythmical so you can dance to it, and it has haunting melodies that you take to bed with you, so you can hum and whistle them.’ Born February II, 1941 in Niteroi, Brazil, Sergio Mendes studied classical music in the local conservatory before being lured away by jazz, then bossa nova. He started his professional career in Rio in the late 1950s. Alongside Antonio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto, Milton Nascimento and all the Brazilian greats, Mendes helped spread the gentle gospel of bossa nova across the world. In the ‘60s, as the leader of Brasil ‘66, he perfected a kind of Latin pop that was part easy listening, part psychedelia, and was the perfect bookend to the swanky sounds of fellow A&M artists Hurt Bacharach and Herb Alpert” (Bill DeMaine, Performing Songwriter, January 2006). 

Sergio Mendes and Brazil ’66 “Mas Que Nada”

921 John Mayall and the Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton “Steppin’ Out” 1966

John Mayall “spent two years in the service, including some time in Korea. Upon returning to England in 1955, he continued his education at the Regional College of Art in Manchester, where he formed his first band, the Powerhouse Four. Graduating in 1959, he landed a job with an advertising agency and quickly established a reputation as one of the best typographers and graphic artists in the region...In 1963, at the age of 29—old by most rock and roll standards—he took up residence in London and formed his dream group, the Bluesbreakers. Mayall worked days as a draftsman for about a year; but by early 1964 the Bluesbreakers were doing well enough for Mayall to become a full-time musician. The band backed American greats John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson on their tours of the United Kingdom and played dates in small clubs six nights a week. Before long the Bluesbreakers were acknowledged as the best blues band in England” (Joan Goldsworthy, Contemporary Musicians, 1992). 

John Mayall and the Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton “Steppin’ Out”

920 Al Martino “Spanish Eyes” 1966

“The son of Italian immigrants, a fact that was evident in his style and manner, Martino worked as bricklayer in his father’s construction business before being encouraged to become a singer by his frined Mario Lanza. After singing in local clubs and winning Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, he recorded ‘Here In My Heart” for the small BBS record label. It shot to number 1 in the US charts…the US record buyers apparently tired of Martino’s soulful ballads, although he remained popular in Europe for a time—particularly in the UK” (The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 2006).

Al Martino “Spanish Eyes”

919 The Mamas and The Papas “Monday, Monday” 1966

Lou Adler, record producer: “Denny [Doherty] could have been a big band singer in the ‘40s. he had that sort of wide-open, Western broadness to his voice. A very romantic singer. His intonation was just great. He’d get it every single time. Cass [Elliot] is also a throwback to the ‘20s and ‘30s; a very dramatic singer. She’d get a lot of drama out of a vocal. Michelle [Phillips], she’s a rock and roll baby. Her twists and turns some off of street corner type singing. Certainly not the strongest singer in the group, but definitely the heart and soul of rock and roll. John [Phillips] was more embarrassed of his lead singing; he didn’t ever really want to sing a lead. He was a perfect quartet singer and vocal arranger—one of the best vocal arrangers, ever” (Matthew Greenwald, Go Where You Wanna Go: The Oral History of The Mamas & The Papas, 2002). 

Doherty prompted John Phillips to write the song, but no one in the group like “Monday, Monday” when they first heard it. But Lou Adler believed “Monday, Monday” would be a hit “and insisted it be the follow-up single to California Dreamin’”(Doug Hall, The Mamas & The Papas: California Dreamin’, 2000).  

The Mamas and The Papas “Monday, Monday”

918 Lovin’ Spoonful “Summer in the City” 1966

“They followed with one hit after another until 1967, when Boone and Yanovsky were arrested in California for possession of marijuana. They angered a good number of their fans, many of whom were part of the hippie counterculture, by turning in their drug supplier to get out of doing jail time themselves. Many hippies called for a boycott of Lovin’ Spoonful’s records, and although it is impossible to say how much this affected their sales, the band did fall apart soon after. Yanovsky quit the band in 1967. ‘I should have left a year before then,’ he told the Ottawa Citizen years later, ‘but I was making pretty good money and so I sort of stuck it out. But the band was musically in a rut, and I think if you listen to the last album, you would agree. It was like a marriage, but instead of kids we stuck it out for the money’” (Michael Belfiore, Contemporary Musicians, 2002). 

Lovin’ Spoonful “Summer in the City”

917 Lovin’ Spoonful “Daydream” 1966

“John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky were joined in their new band by Steve Boone, who played bass, and Joe Butler on drums. At the beginning, as Sebastian put it years later in the San Francisco Chronicle, ‘We were smoking pot and drinking beer. We were having fun.’ But once the band started to take off, they got more serious about their music. ‘Once we started to have actual audiences, then nobody wanted to smoke pot before the show because it was too scary’” (Michael Belfiore, Contemporary Musicians, 2002). 

Lovin’ Spoonful “Daydream”

916 The Liverpool Raiders “Big Story” 1966

Lead singer Peter Lewis “was a key figure in the development of British Christian music.” His high school band Union City once beat the Quarrymen—who became the Beatles—in a competition. Union City changed its name to the Liverpool Raiders, and influenced by a Franciscan friar, Brother Ronald, Lewis became “involved in getting rock and roll into the Church” (www.crossrhythms.co.uk). 

The Liverpool Raiders “Big Story”

915 The Left Banke “Walk Away Renee” 1966

“Even in a year as star-blessed as 1966, the Left Banke’s Walk Away Renee stood out. There was a harpsichord, a string quartet, a keening vocal and a lyric of real teenage heartbreak. Back then, 15-year-old [Michael] Brown worked as a part time engineer at his father Harry Lookofsky’s recording studio in New York. In photos he looked mournful and out of time, with King Charles spaniel hair. He looked as if he would have felt at home in a Victorian drawing room, but the studio was where he met George Cameron, Tom Finn and singer Steve Martin (not the comedian). They became fast friends, forming the Left Banke in 1965. A No 5 hit, Walk Away Renee was big enough US hit for the group to record a Coca Cola jingle, and others - in their idiosyncratic style - for Hertz car rental and Toni hairspray... Brown had unlimited access to his father's studio where, according to the Left Banke’s part-time lyricist Tom Feher, ‘he’d just pound away at the piano, and we’d all stand around the piano and try to emulate the Beatles and the Hollies.’ One day in late 1965, Tom Finn had brought his girlfriend Renee Fladen along to the studio, and Brown was instantly smitten - in short order he wrote three songs about her...With orchestral arrangements from his father, and Brown’s knack for odd, bunched chords and a taste for extreme melancholy, the sound was quickly tagged ‘baroque pop’ by the press” (Bob Stanley, The Guardian, 20 March 2015).

The Left Banke “Walk Away Renee” 1966

914 The Kinks “Sunny Afternoon” 1966

“‘I really can't play with my brother [Dave Davies] as the Kinks and not have Mick [Avory] in the band,’ says [Ray] Davies. ‘Mick will work with him, but Dave doesn’t want to work with Mick. Sibling rivalry has nothing on their rivalry. I have no idea what’s wrong with them.” Dave first kicked over Mick’s drumkit onstage in 1965, and Mick retaliated by knocking him out with a drum pedal, so it’s a long history…For Davies, Sunny Afternoon is ‘a song cycle about two lads who didn't really fit together. I never really had a relationship with my brother in a normal way. But what’s wonderful is the telepathy we have. Or did have’” (Jasper Rees, The Daily Telegraph, London, 24 October 2014). 

The Kinks “Sunny Afternoon”

913 The Joystrings (aka Joy Strings) “It’s an Open Secret” 1964 and “Love That’s In My Heart” 1966

Based in London, “The Joystrings were probably the most high profile Christian group during the mid 60s, and they were among the best…All the group members were members of the Salvation Army, and they performed in Salvation Army uniform.” They were unique in having “an even mix of men and women” in contrast to most 1960s groups (www.1960schristianmusic.com). 

Sylvia Dalziel, author of The Joystrings: The Story of the Salvation Army Pop Group: “We went into places like the Playboy Club, into nightclubs in Soho - places where you think Christians shouldn’t be. The attack came from the Church, thinking we shouldn’t be going into places like that; but not upon the music itself, because I think young people in the ‘60s were waiting for something new which would communicate with them and with people who needed the Gospel. It meant we had to begin to write lyrics which really communicated the Gospel message from the old Victorian language which was constantly sung in hymns. It was one of the producers in EMI who said, ‘When the Joystrings walked through the doors of Abbey Road studios, they changed the face of religious music forever’” (Cross Rhythms, "Joystrings: The pioneering Salvationist beat group 50 years on," www.crossrhythms.co.uk).

The Joystrings “It’s an Open Secret”

The Joystrings “Love That’s In My Heart”

912 Jefferson Airplane “It’s No Secret” 1966

“Like Rashomon, the story of Jefferson Airplane, the band’s Paul Kantner has astutely postulated, is also one of many truths. There’s a cliché these days, ‘If you can remember the ‘60s, you weren’t there.’ It’s a wisecrack intended to imply that denizens of that era were so zonked-out that their craniums have been reduced to space dust. But that’s not the case here; the former members of Jefferson Airplane were there all right, and they do remember the ‘60s. yet each has a such a distinctive personality and outlook on life, and the ‘60s was such a kaleidoscopic whirl, that, despite being in the same band, no two of them experienced the Airplane years the same way” (Jeff Tamarkin, Got a Revolution! The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane, 2003). 

Jefferson Airplane “It’s No Secret”

911 Tommy James and the Shondells “Hanky Panky” 1964, 1966

“In early 1966, a dejected Tommy James arrived home in Niles, Mich., from what appeared to be the last road gig with his then-group The Koachmen, just in time to answer a phone call that would change his life. Two years before, the group had recorded their first single, ‘Hanky Panky,’ which was recorded at a radio studio by a local DJ, Jack Douglas, and issued by a small local label. ‘The record just came and went.’ he says. ‘I graduated from high school in ‘65, and I took my band on the road. We played Rash Street in Chicago and up through the Midwest, and we came home very out of work and depressed.’ But then James received that telephone call. ‘Hanky Panky’ had sprouted new legs in Pittsburgh, thanks to numerous bootleg pressings from the original single. ‘They sold 80,000 pieces in 10 days, and it was the Number One record in Pittsburgh,’ he recalls. James had a hit on his hands. ‘If I had missed that call, there wouldn't have been a Tommy James’” (Matt Hurwitz, Mix, March 2008). 

Tommy James and the Shondells “Hanky Panky”

910 Mississippi John Hurt (1892-1966) “Candy Man” and “Coffee Blues” 1966

In 1963, Hurt was rediscovered by folk music archivists who were delighted to find that the performer of Hurt’s 1928 recordings still lived in Avalon, Mississippi. They invited him to record again. “Hurt only reluctantly agreed, but would eventually embark upon a remarkable second career of performing and recording, capturing the imagination of enthusiastic revival-era audiences like no other ‘rediscovered’ pre-War recording artist” (Daniel Fleck, Old-Time Herald, 2010). The album Today! is listed on the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. 

Mississippi John Hurt “Candy Man”

Mississippi John Hurt “Coffee Blues”

909 The Hollies “Bus Stop” 1966

Graham Nash “grew up in Salford and sang in a duo with schoolfriend Allan Clarke before the pair formed The Hollies, one of the most successful chart groups of the 60s. ‘I've been realising just how good The Hollies actually were,’ muses Nash. ‘It was very important, the energy of the early Hollies. The Hollies were basically guitar, bass and drums and three voices. Allan never played guitar and I rarely played guitar -- half the time I wasn't plugged in. 'We were very similar to what the others -- The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield -- were doing with our harmonies...’ The Hollies progressed from inspired covers to writing (Nash, Clarke and guitarist Bobby Hicks) their own material. And yet Nash increasingly found their hit machine mentality provincial compared to what The Beatles, The Yardbirds and others were doing” (Record Collector, August 2018). 

The Hollies “Bus Stop”

908 The Jimi Hendrix Experience “Hey Joe” 1966

“Jimmy writes a letter home: I still have my guitar and amp and as long as I have that, no fool can keep me from living. There’s a few record companies I visited that I probably can record for. I think I’ll start working toward that line because actually when you’re playing behind other people you’re still not making a big name for yourself as you would if you were working for yourself. But I went on the road with other people to get exposed to the public and see how business is taken care of” (Johnny Black, Jimi Hendrix: The Ultimate Experience, 1999).  

The Jimi Hendrix Experience “Hey Joe”