869 The Beach Boys “Good Vibrations” 1966

“In the early hours of the morning of Thursday September 22nd, after 22 sessions lasting around 94 hours in four different recording studio, Brian’s masterpiece is finally completed…‘Good Vibrations’ has cost around $50,000 to produce—and in 1966 this makes it the most expensive single ever made. No one has ever heard anything like it before. Bruce [Johnston] speculates that The Beach Boys will either have the biggest hit of their lives or that their careers will be ended by the song” (Keith Badman, The Beach Boys, 2004). 

The Beach Boys “Good Vibrations”

868 The Beach Boys “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” 1966

Brian Wilson “wouldn’t hesitate to put a musician through his or her paces if the effort helped achieve the precise shading he desired. While the tracking sessions could be long and tedious, they were—according to most of the musicians—‘productive and fun.’ Brian thrived on the collegial relationship he enjoyed with his musicians, and he treated them with respect” (Charles Granata, Wouldn’t It Be Nice, 2003). The Pet Sounds album is listed on the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. 

The Beach Boys “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”

867 The Beach Boys “God Only Knows” 1966

“Looking back, Brian said, ‘God was with us the whole time we were doing this record…” Brian always had a keen sense of what the marketplace wanted in a pop song by the Beach Boys. Surfing, the beach, cars, girls…But now he was going to record a pop song with the word ‘God’ in the title…” Paul McCartney said, “It’s a big favorite of mine” (Jim Fusilli, Pet Sounds, 2005). The Pet Sounds album is listed on the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. 

The Beach Boys “God Only Knows”

866 The Beach Boys “Sloop John B” 1966

“The first single from Pet Sounds to hit the charts owes its existence to Al Jardine’s love for the Kingston Trio. ‘Sloop John B’ has origins dating to 1926, and the excavation of the John B off the coast of Nassau, Bahamas. The shipwreck’s story was set to a Bahamian sea chantey: a folk song lamenting the seafarer’s lot….The song was included on the album at the suggestion of Capital Records…’we need a single. How are we going to sell this thing?’” (Charles Granata, Wouldn’t It Be Nice, 2003). The Pet Sounds album is listed on the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. 

The Beach Boys “Sloop John B”

865 The Beach Boys “Caroline, No” 1966

Brian Wilson “identified one of the key themes, when he recalled the sad and reflective end of the album with ‘Caroline No,’ ‘Oh it was (sad), but you know life goes on. So you get knocked on your butt. I got knocked on my butt a couple of times, but you get back up and you keep working. I mean, like there’s always the chance of a better day. Giving up is only for idiots” (Kingsley Abbot, The Beach Boys Pet Sounds, 2001). The Pet Sounds album is listed on the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. 

The Beach Boys “Caroline, No”

864 The Barbarians “Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl” 1965 and “Moulty” 1966

“Formed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1964, this band was originally composed of band members Victor ‘Moulty’ Moulton (drums), Bruce Benson (rhythm guitar), Ronnie Enos (lead guitar), and Jerri Causi (bass)…The group decided to make their stage outfits resembles those of pirates/beach bums, as their drummer ‘Moulty’ Moulton had a hook for a hand…The song is sung by band’s drummer, Moulty, and tells the autobiography of his life and how he overcame losing his hand when a homemade pipe bomb went off in his face in 1959 when he was fourteen. Quite interestingly, Moulty didn’t record the song with his usual bandmates and released it without their approval. He instead recorded the vocals while being backed by Levon & The Hawks” (A Bit Like You And Me blog, 5 April 2013). 

The Barbarians “Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl”

The Barbarians “Moulty”

863 The Association “Cherish” 1966

“The group was formed out a 13-strong (yes, 13!) aggregation calling themselves The Men. Internal squabbles resulted in six of them forming their own band, with somebody’s wife leafing through a dictionary in search of a name and coming up with The Association. The group at this point consisted of Ted Bluechel Jr (drums), Brian Cole (bass guitar), Gary Alexander (lead guitar), Russ Giguere (vocalist), Terry Kirkman (multi-instrumentalist) and Bob Page (guitar). Page lasted only a couple of weeks before being replaced by Jim Yester (rhythm guitar)…September saw the follow-up Cherish, written by Terry Kirkman, occupy the No. 1 spot in the US Hot 100—a lovely romantic ballad that couldn’t have been more different from Mary” (Record Collector, July 2013). 

The Association “Cherish”

862 The Liverbirds “Diddley Daddy” and “Leave All Your Loves in the Past” 1965

The Liverbirds “(pronounced lie-vah)…played the Cavern Club alongside the Beatles and were sent to the Reeperbahn in the early Sixties on the same promotional circuit. They never came back to England. Their looks was masculine—apparently Astrid Kirchherr helped them with it. They played Chuck Berry covers and songs with names like ‘Peanut Butter’. They performed nightly, for a hefty pay packet, on Hamburg’s street of sailors and hookers—and were all aged 16 and 17. The Liverbirds rolled joints for Jimi Hendrix; Jimmy Savile was one of their earliest supporters” (Kate Mossman, New Statesman, October 2015). 

The Liverbirds “Diddley Daddy”

The Liverbirds “Leave All Your Loves in the Past”

861 Goldie and the Gingerbreads “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat” 1965

“Before there were the Go-Go’s, the Runaways, or Fanny, there was Goldie and the Gingerbreads, the first all-female band ever signed to a major label. Unlike other girl groups of the ‘60s, Goldie and the Gingerbreads played their own instruments, and the groundbreaking group made a splash in the U.K. with their 1965 hit single, ‘Can’t You Hear My Heart Beat?...” 

Genya Ravan: “We were considered a novelty till they heard us. Right from the first note, they knew they were hearing and watching something special. The U.S. was far more misogynistic than [Europeans]. In Europe they said, ‘Wow, you are great!’ and in the U.S., guys were like, ‘Do you broads really wanna be in this business? Shouldn’t you be home married with children?’ I never let it bother me—it drove me to become so good that male musicians would get embarrassed when they followed us onstage. The thing that really bothered me was how journalists would mention age [when writing about us]. They don’t say ‘Mick Jaggar is in his 30s now’ or talk about what male groups wore that night’” (Bess Korey, Bitch Magazine, Winter 2011).  

Goldie and the Gingerbreads “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat”

860 The Association “Along Comes Mary” 1966

“The Association were a successful sixties vocal-harmony group who, despite selling some 15 million copies of their singles, were unable to build a long-term career for themselves. Formed around Terry Kirkman (who had played with Frank Zappa) and Jules Alexander in Los Angeles in 1965, the group from the start ploughed the path of soft, rather than hard, rock. Signed to Valiant in 1966, they had an immediate million-seller with the controversial ‘Along Comes Mary’ (despite its soft harmonies, the song was widely regarded, like the Byrds’ ‘Eight Miles High’, as an ode to marijuana” (Phil Hardy, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001).

The Association “Along Comes Mary”

859 The Yardbirds “Heart Full of Soul” 1965

“The three successive lead guitarists of the highly influential Yardbirds personified the changes in (London-based) British rock of the sixties: from blues (Eric Clapton) through the beginnings of psychedelia (Jeff Beck) to heavy rock (Jimmy Page, who formed Led Zeppelin as a direct descendant of the Yardbirds.) As was the case with many British groups of the early sixties, Samwell-Smith (bass), Relf (vocals), Dreja (guitar) and McCarty (drums) met while performing in school and folk-club bands. They formed the Metropolitan Blues Quartet in 1963, which became the Yardbirds with the addition of lead guitarist Topham. With the arrival of Clapton to replace Topham, who chose to remain at art school (Phil Hardy, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001).

The Yardbirds “Heart Full of Soul”

858 The Yardbirds “For Your Love” 1965

“‘For Your Love’ was composed in the changing room of a men’s clothing shop where one of British pop’s great enigmas then worked. The originator of smashes, home and abroad, for The Hollies, Herman’s Hermits, Dave Berry, Freddie & the Dreamers and Wayne Fontana as well as The Yardbirds, Manchester’s Graham Gouldman was oddly unable to get far with his own groups, The Whirlwinds and then The Mockingbirds—whose 1964 version ‘For Your Love’ had been urned down by Columbia…At first, Gouldman’s manager Harvey Lisberg pondered sending the number to The Beatles—but as Graham himself would muse with a laugh, ‘They were doing all right in the songwriting department…but he still mentioned the idea to a publisher friend, who suggested that instead it should be offered to The Yardbirds as they were looking to break away from pure R&B and become more commercial” (Alan Clayson, The Yardbirds, 2002). 

The Yardbirds “For Your Love”

857 Stevie Wonder “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” 1965

“When they finished working and released the record in December 1965, ‘Uptight’ exploded with a funky, exuberant expression of the gospel vision. Paying Stevie’s debt to Ray Charles in full, the song’s celebration of redemptive love rang out in a stirring call and response with the chorus of voices that was transforming the American soundscape…Most white rockers set themselves up in defiant opposition to the stifling worlds where they’d grown up. Wonder never gave a thought to rejecting his elders and ancestors. Backed by James Jamerson’s pulsing bass and Benny Benjamin’s thunderous drums, Wonder joyously declares himself a poor man’s son from the wrong side of the tracks” (Craig Werner, Higher Ground, 2004). 

Stevie Wonder “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)”

856 Junior Wells with Buddy Guy “Hoodoo Man Blues” 1965

“Amos Wells Blakemore Jr. arrived in Chicago as a boy and made his first records in his own name in 1953, aged just eighteen. Elmore James and Muddy Waters served as session men. He learned to play harp at the feet of Sonny Boy Williamson, and he fronted The Aces—Louis and Dave Myers, and Fred Below—one of the finest of all Chicago blues bands. By the mid-1960s Junior Wells was at the forefront of the city’s blues scene, a veteran of the Muddy Waters band and the resident headline at Theresa’s Tavern…He was a genuine star, born to perform: a brooding and almost sinister presence during a slow blues, an eccentrically electrifying dancer, and a mesmerizing singer who would punctuate an impassioned tenor wail with weird, guttural clicks and growls. He sang and played as if totally possessed. When Junior Wells was up on stage, nothing else in the room could hold your attention” (Alan Harper, Waiting for Buddy Guy: Chicago Blues at the Crossroads, 2016). 

Junior Wells with Buddy Guy “Hoodoo Man Blues”

855 The Who “My Generation” 1965

Manager Kit Lambert: “I paid my few shillings and went into the back. On a stage made entirely of beer crates…were The High Numbers, ugly in the extreme. Roger with his teeth crossed at the front, moving from foot to foot like a zombie. John immobile, looking like a stationary blob. Townshend like a lanky beanpole. Behind them Keith Moon sitting on a bicycle saddle, with his ridiculous eyes in his round moon face, bashing away for dear life, sending them all up and ogling the audience. They were all quarrelling among themselves between numbers. Yet there was an evil excitement about it all and instantly I know they could become world superstars” (John Perry, Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy: The Who, 1998). The Who Sings My Generation album is listed on the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.

The Who “My Generation”

854 The Who “I Can’t Explain” 1964

Pete Townshend: “I grew up in Acton, and heard Ken Colyer’s band locally near Hounslow where my friend Jimpy lived. His band was called the Crane River Band, and they played all the Louis Armstrong marching songs. Ken had actually gone to New Orleans in the Merchant Navy, and came back with stories about Louis Armstrong. Before The Who, John Entwistle and I had a jazz band called The Confederates, and we played all those songs. Later, when I made the connection that a lot of skiffle (that grew out of Trad Jazz in the UK) was based on country blues, I started looking further, and found Snooks Eaglin and a few others from New Orleans itself. I think rock ‘n’ roll related to, and grew partly out of New Orleans jazz…” (John Swenson, Offbeat, 2 May 2015).  

The Who “I Can’t Explain”

853 The We Five “Let’s Get Together” and “You Were On My Mind” 1965

“A major attraction on the San Francisco scene, We Five found that elusive middle ground between folk and pop and enjoyed a fair amount of success stateside in the latter half of the Sixties…At their best, they harnessed their instinctive folk sensibilities to more commercial songs…We Five were also the first of many bands to feature on a Coca-Cola advertisement…How To Make A Soft Drink Commercial includes some attempts they made and making the perfect jingle before they nailed it” (Music Week, 7 March 2009). 

The We Five “Let’s Get Together” 

The We Five “You Were On My Mind” 

852 Junior Walker and the All Stars “Shotgun” 1965

“Born Autry DeWalt II in 1942 in Blythesville, Arkansas, the saxophonist was nicknamed Junior by his stepfather, whose name was Walker. When he turned professional in 1962, he took up the stage name of Junior Walker while still signing his compositions with the DeWalt monicker. Walker’s honking, hard-driving style was heavily influenced by Earl Bostic, a Lionel Hampton sideman and one of the early exponents of the R&B and jazz crossover genre. In the late Fifties, Walker met up with the guitarist Willie Wood in the South Bend area of Indiana and formed the band Jumping Jacks. In 1961, an over-excited fan jumped on stage in Battle Creek, Michigan, and shouted ‘These guys are all stars.’ The name stuck…Detroit was the place to be for black musicians in the mid-Sixties and Junior Walker was keen to join label-mates like the Temptations, the Four tops and the Supremes in the charts. In 1965, while playing a gig in Benton Harbor, Michigan, he spotted two teenagers doing an unusual dance they called the Shotgun: Walker went back to his motel room, penned an infectious tune he simply called ‘Shotgun’ and recorded it as soon as he was back in Detroit” (Pierre Perrone, The Independent (London), 25 Nov. 19950).   

Junior Walker and the All Stars “Shotgun”

851 The Turtles “It Ain’t Me Babe” 1965

“This is a great example of how, even on a song you love and think you know by heart, Dylan can trick you. Given just a perfunctory listen, ‘It Ain’t Me, Babe’ comes off as a guy’s admission that he’s just no damn good, and, as a result, he is chivalrously stepping away from a girl who holds him in lofty status in her mind…When the Turtles took the song to the U.S. Top 10 in 1965, they seemed practically gleeful in re-telling Dylan’s tale. In their hands, ‘It Aint’t Me, Babe’ came off sounding like a guy who knew he was the weak link in the relationship and was completely unapologetic about it. That same year, Johnny and June Carter Cash put out a duet of the song which messed with the context in fascinating ways, taking Bob’s measured words and shouting them at each other like two former lovers who were each trying to win the blame game” (Jim Beviglia, Counting Down Bob Dylan: His 100 Finest Songs, 2013). 

The Turtles “It Ain’t Me, Babe”

850 Them “Gloria” 1964

“The release of ‘Baby Please Don’t Go/’Gloria’ in November of 1964 is the landmark record that changed, however briefly, how the world saw Belfast and, just as importantly, how Belfast saw itself…The record is ‘one of the greatest achievements of the British R’n’B scene of the time and, by extension, one of the most significant achievements of the beat era in Ireland’. It was selected as the signature theme tune of ‘the most hip programme on British television of the time’—Ready Set Go—and hence conferred on Belfast a ‘cultural cache that wasn’t there previously” (Noel McLaughlin, Joanna Braniff, Popular Music History, 2015).

Them “Gloria”

849 The Supremes “Stop! In the Name of Love” 1965

“This one was inspired by an argument between its composer, Lamont Dozier, and his girlfriend. Just as she was about to take a swing at him after catching him in a lie, Lamont shouted out, ‘Please, baby! Stop! In the name of love!’ Years later, he recalled, ‘It was so corny and silly that we burst out laughing. Then, I said, Ding, ding, ding! And she asked, What’ that? And I said, It’s the cash register, baby. Can’t you hear it? In other words, I knew in that very second that I had a hit, and it would be for the Supremes. Oh, and it also ended the fight’” (J. Randy Taraborrelli, Diana Ross: An Unauthorized Biography, 2007). 

The Supremes “Stop! In the Name of Love”

848 The Statler Brothers “Flowers on the Wall” 1965

“The ride began in the early 1960s when the Statler Brothers, who had formed in 1955 and later took their name from a box of tissues in a hotel room, first opened for Johnny Cash. Agent Marshall Grant had seen them perform in 1963 and remembered them the following year when Cash’s band was searching for background vocalists…The Statler Brothers’ own historic recording career commenced when Cash was late for a session at Owen Bradley’s fabled Quonset Hut studio. Cash producer and Columbia executive Don Law asked the group if it wanted to record something. Grant says, ‘So Don pushed the button and we recorded Flowers on the Wall’” (Jim Bessman, Billboard, 7 Dec. 2002). 

The Statler Brothers “Flowers on the Wall”

847 Sonny and Cher “I Got You Babe” 1965

“The son of Italian immigrants (father Santo was a truck driver, mother Jean a beautician), he tried to break into show business after graduating from high school in Inglewood, Calif., in 1952. Working as a deliveryman for a meat company, he ducked into record-company offices between stops to peddle his songs. By 1962 he was working in promotion for an independent record distributor. Bono was 27 and separated from his first wife when he took a liking to 16-year-old runaway Cherilyn LaPierre on a double date in 1963…Deciding that Cher was star material, Sonny brought her to impresario Phil Spector. Soon she was singing backup on hits like the Crystals’ ‘Da Doo Ron Ron.’ Still too shy to perform alone when given a chance to solo on ‘Baby Don’t Go’ in 1965, she insisted that Sonny sing with her, and a duo was born” (Michelle Cunneff, People, Aug. 1991). 

Sonny and Cher “I Got You Babe”

846 The Sonics “Strychnine” 1965

Jerry Roslie’s “voice—a meaty, lunatic, blast of hoodlum-R&B bravado, punctuated with bloodcurdling howls—would be Roslie’s ticket to legend with his next band, Tacoma garage-rock pioneers the Sonics” (David Frick, Rolling Stone, 7 May 2015).

“One of the earliest exponents of the garage sound cited as an influence on everyone who kicked up a fearsome racket from iggy and the Stooges to Eagles of Death Metal. Jimi Hendrix was a big fan” (Pete Clark, Evening Standard, 26 March 2008). 

The Sonics “Strychnine”

845 The Sonics “Have Love Will Travel” 1965, Richard Berry “Have Love Will Travel” 1959

“Founded in 1961 by guitarist Larry Parypa and his bassist brother, Andy, the Sonics were part of a singular Northwest ferment with the Kingsmen, the Fabulous Wailers, and Paul Revere and the Raiders, packing teen dances with Fifties-R&B fundamentals and proto-punk ferocity. The Sonics—with drummer Bob Bennett—were rougher than the rest. ‘We used to call beer our polish,’ Roslie says. ‘We’d dring beer to become polished’” (David Frick, Rolling Stone, 7 May 2015). 

Richard Berry “became a street-smart L.A. record hustler, the studio rat who seemed born to stay up all night, singing into a mike for pleasure and profit. Berry possessed the studio hustler’s arsenal of skills, including singing, piano playing, arranging, bandleading, and—potentially most profitably—songwriting” (Dave March, Louie Louie, 2004). 

The Sonics “Have Love Will Travel”

Richard Berry “Have Love Will Travel”