887 Cream “I’m So Glad” 1966

“Cream made its official debut on July 31, 1966, before a crowd of 20,000 at Britain’s 6th National Jazz & Blues Festival. Robert Stigwood, whose other primary client was the Bee Gees, managed the group. Cream signed a five-year recording contract with the Reaction label for a reported 50,000 pounds (more than $150,000). In the United States, Cream was signed to Atlantic Records, where label head Ahmet Ertegun was determined to make a star out of the man he considered Cream’s chief asset, Eric Clapton. ‘[We] are tired of having talent that doesn’t make any big money,’ said Clapton, who was twenty-one years old. ‘Personally, I’d like some big money. I’ve lived in dingy rooms long enough. I’ve given all I’ve had to make music. Now I want something back’” (John Milward, How the Blues Shaped Rock ’n’ Roll and Rock Saved the Blues, 2013). 

Cream “I’m So Glad”

886 The Concords “He Thinks of You” 1966

A Christian quartet based in Scotland that performed from 1961 to the late 1960s (www.1960schristianmusic.com). “Unique in approach and universal in appeal, the music of the Concords has been appreciated by many thousands of people within the past five years or so. There can be no doubt that these young men are among the top artists of their kind, or that their popularity and reputation are continually growing and promises with the release of this record to reach new heights. The Concords sing Gospel music only. Why? Simply because they believe in the message of the gospel and have chosen to sing songs they believe will benefit their fellow man…These are fine, clean-living young men who do not sing for money, having purchased expensive equipment from their own pockets. They do no consider their music as being ‘entertainment’: the Concords seek higher rewards than the clamour of public applause” (Soul Purpose album notes). 

The Concords “He Thinks of You”

885 Judy Collins “Suzanne” 1966

“I have always been grateful that I did not fall in love with Leonard [Cohen] in the way that I fell in love with his songs. I could have, certainly. He had that charm, that glint in his eyes, that secretly knowing air that always attracted me to the dangerous ones—men who had fantastic sex appeal, were terribly smart and funny, and seemed to slip in and out of other women’s lives. I adored Leonard, but thankfully it wasn’t the kind of passion that got me into trouble. Instead, his songs would let me fly” (Judy Collins, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life in Music, 2011). 

Judy Collins “Suzanne”

884 The Cobblers “There Is a Green Hill” 1966

A Christian British group’s revision of “House of the Rising Sun.” “The Cobblers started as a result of the Billy Graham North of England Crusade in Manchester…Bob Worwick, a converted night club star,” started the group at William Carey Baptist Church. The group took its name from Carey, who “was a cobbler before he was a minister and a missionary” (There Is a Green Hill album cover notes). 

The Cobblers “There Is a Green Hill”

883 Cher “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” 1966

“Sometimes I think, ‘It’s such a pain in my ass,’” says Cher of being, well, Cher. “But then I remember, ‘You’re so lucky to be able to do what you’re doing.’”... “I always believe that what belongs to you comes to you. It’s not about achieving goals. With success, luck has so much to do with it. I know people who are a lot more talented than I am, who just haven’t been lucky” (Jeff Nelson, People, 8 October 2018).

Cher “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)”

882 The Byrds “Eight Miles High” 1966

“Roger McGuinn’s twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar was one of the defining sounds of 1960s pop, and never was it heard to more brilliant effect than on Eight Miles High. He has said his soloing here was inspired by jazz saxophone legend John Coltrane, and indeed Coltrane’s ‘sheets of sound’ is  a phrase that applies to the breathtaking torrent of notes cascading from McGuinn’s guitar here—no doubt in turn also inspiring an up-and-coming virtuoso named Jimi Hendrix. It was Byrds colleague David Crosby who first turned McGuinn on to Coltrane and Indian sitar wizard Ravi Shankar” (Steve Sullivan, Encyclopedia of Great Popular Recordings, 2013). 

The Byrds “Eight Miles High”

881 The Paul Butterfield Blues Band “East West” 1966

“Living in Chicago, Bloomfield was able to hear Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and other blues giants live. Briefly a rock-band guitarist, he worked as a folk-club manager and played his earliest acoustic gigs with fellow white blues fans Nick Gravenites (vocals) and Charley Musselwhite (harmonica). In 1965 he joined Paul Butterfield's Blues Band. The band’s earliest recordings, released on the Elektra sampler What’s Shakin’? (1965), were some of Bloomfield’s finest, with his solos like lightning flashes illuminating the songs” (Phil Hardy, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001). 

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band “East West”