The Best Songs of the 60s

"If you can remember anything about the sixties, you weren't really there." Paul Kantner

The sixties were a time of immense change in all areas of public and private life, often referred to as a social revolution global in scale. For example, social change was wrought by the American civil rights movement, the rise of feminism and gay rights. President John F. Kennedy promoted America's journey into space while the hippies and the counter-culture promoted "inner journeys" through the use of drugs.

Popular music entered an era of "all hits" as numerous singers released recordings, beginning in the 1950s, as 45-rpm "singles" (with another on the flip side), and radio stations tended to play only the most popular of the wide variety of records being made. Also, bands tended to record only the best of their songs as a chance to become a hit record. The developments of the Motown Sound, "folk rock" and the British Invasion of bands from the U.K. (The Beatles, The Dave Clark Five, The Rolling Stones ,and so on), are major examples of American listeners expanding from the folksinger, doo-wop and saxophone sounds of the 1950s and evolving to include psychedelia music.

The rise of an alternative culture among affluent youth, creating a huge market for rock and blues music produced by drug-culture, influenced bands such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Doors, and also for radical music in the folk tradition pioneered by Bob Dylan, The Mamas and the Papas, and Joan Baez in the United States, and in England, Donovan was helping to create folk rock.

Other significant events in music include:

1960: Motown Record Corporation founded. It's first Top Ten hit was "Shop Around" by the Miracles in 1960. "Shop Around" peaked at number-two on the Billboard Hot 100, and was Motown's first million-selling record. Motown scores 110 Billboard Top-Ten hits between 1961 and 1971. Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show after getting out of the Army.

1961: The Marvelettes scored Motown Record Corporation's first US #1 pop/soul hit, "Please Mr. Postman" in 1961. Dion splits from The Belmonts.

1962: The Supremes have their first record released by Motown. The Twist takes off.

1963: Surf music rules the airwaves.

1964: The Beatles hit America leading the British Invasion.

1965: Bob Dylan plugs in and goes electric at the Newport Folk Festival spawning Folk-Rock.

1966: The Monkees TV series begins. The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album arrives, ushering in the era of album orientated rock. Bob Dylan is called "Judas" by an audience member during the legendary Manchester Free Trade Hall concert, the start of the Bootleg recording industry follows, with recordings of this concert circulating for 30 years with the incorrect label of The Royal Albert Hall Concert before a legitimate release in 1998 as The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert. The Supremes A' Go-Go was the first album by a female group to reach the top position of the Billboard magazine pop albums chart in the United States.

1967: The Velvet Underground release their influential self-titled debut album The Velvet Underground and Nico. Monterey Pop Festival begins the open air Rock festival concept. The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper is unleashed. Cream issues their first two albums. The Doors release their self-tilted debut album The Doors and begin the Heavy Metal genre. The Jimi Hendrix Experience release two albums in the United Kingdom (U.K.) Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold as Love that innovate both guitar, trio and recording techniques. The Beatles release the seminal 'concept' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in June. Bob Dylan releases the Country Rock album John Wesley Harding in December, making the genre acceptable. The Monterey Pop Festival was the apex of the so-called Summer of Love.

1968: Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention release We're Only In It For The Money. The Band releases the roots rock album Music from Big Pink in 1968. The Rolling Stones film the TV special Rock and Roll Circus in December which was never broadcast during its contemporary time. Considered for decades as a fabled 'lost' performance until released in North America on Laserdisc and VHS in 1995. Features performances from The Who; The Dirty Mac featuring John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Mitch Mitchell; Jethro Tull and Taj Mahal.

1969: Woodstock Music & Arts Festival draws half a million fans to Max Yasgar's farm in New York. The Who release and tour the first rock opera Tommy in 1969. Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band release the advant garde album Trout Mask Replica in 1969. The Woodstock Festival, and four months later, the Altamont Free Concert in 1969.