Best Songs of the 60s Pt-1

“Hey Jude” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney.

The ballad evolved from “Hey Jules”, a song McCartney wrote to comfort John Lennon’s son, Julian, during his parents’ divorce.

“Hey Jude” begins with a verse-bridge structure incorporating McCartney’s vocal performance and piano accompaniment; further instrumentation is added as the song progresses. After the fourth verse, the song shifts to a fade-out coda that lasts for more than four minutes.

The Hollies: Bus Stop is a song recorded and released as a single by the British pop band The Hollies in 1966. It reached No. 5 in the UK Singles Chart. It was the Hollies’ first US hit, reaching No. 5 on the Billboard charts in September 1966. Bus Stop” was written by UK songwriter and future 10cc member Graham Gouldman, who also penned major hits for The Yardbirds (“For Your Love”) and Herman’s Hermits (“No Milk Today”), as well as The Hollies’ first venture into the U.S. top 40 with “Look Through Any Window”.
In a 1976 interview Gouldman said the idea for the song had come while he was riding home from work on a bus. The opening lines were written by his father, playwright Hyme Gouldman. Graham Gouldman continued with the rest of the song in his bedroom, apart from the middle-eight, which he finished while riding to work – a men’s outfitters – on the bus the next day.

Thirty years later he elaborated on the song’s beginnings: “‘Bus Stop’, I had the title and I came home one day and he said ‘I’ve started something on that Bus Stop idea you had, and I’m going to play it for you. He’d written Bus stop, wet day, she’s there, I say please share my umbrella and it’s like when you get a really great part of a lyric or, I also had this nice riff as well, and when you have such a great start to a song it’s kind of like the rest is easy. It’s like finding your way onto a road and when you get onto the right route, you just follow it.

“My late father was a writer. He was great to have around. I would write something and always show him the lyric and he would fix it for me. You know, he’d say ‘There’s a better word than this’ – he was kind of like a walking thesaurus as well and quite often, sometimes, he came up with titles for songs as well. ‘No Milk Today’ is one of his titles, and also the 10cc song ‘Art for Art’s Sake’.”

The Byrds: Turn Turn Turn is a song written by Pete Seeger in the late 1950s. The lyrics, except for the title which is repeated throughout the song and the final two lines, are adapted word-for-word from the English version of the first eight verses of the third chapter of the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes. The song was originally released in 1962 as “To Everything There Is a Season” on The Limeliters’ album Folk Matinee and then some months later on Seeger’s own The Bitter and the Sweet.The song became an international hit in late 1965 when it was covered by the American folk rock band The Byrds, entering at #80 on October 23, 1965, before reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on December 4, 1965, #3 in Canada (Nov. 29, 1965), and also peaking at #26 on the UK Singles Chart. In the U.S., the song holds distinction as the #1 hit with the oldest lyrics.

The Supremes: Stop! In The Name of Love is a 1965 song recorded by The Supremes for the Motown label.

Written and produced by Motown’s main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, “Stop! In the Name of Love” held the number one position on the Billboard pop singles chart in the United States from March 27, 1965 through April 3, 1965, and reached the number-two position on the soul chart.

The Ronettes: Be My Baby is a song written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector. It was first recorded and released by American girl group The Ronettes as a single in August 1963 and later placed on their 1964 debut LP Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes featuring Veronica. Spector produced their elaborately layered recording in what is now largely considered the ultimate embodiment of his Wall of Sound production formula.

It is considered one of the best songs of the 1960s by Pitchfork Media, NME and Time. In 2004, the song was ranked 22 by Rolling Stone in its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and described as a “Rosetta stone for studio pioneers such as the Beatles and Brian Wilson,” a notion supported by Allmusic who writes, “No less an authority than Brian Wilson has declared ‘Be My Baby’ the greatest pop record ever made—no arguments here.”

In 1999, it was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 2006, the Library of Congress honored the Ronettes’ version by adding it to the United States National Recording Registry

The Band: The Weight is a song originally by the Canadian-American group The Band that was released as Capitol Records single 2269 in 1968 and on the group’s debut album Music from Big Pink. Written by Band member Robbie Robertson, the song is about a visitor’s experiences in a town mentioned in the lyric’s first line as Nazareth.

“The Weight” has significantly influenced American popular music, having been listed as #41 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time published in 2004.

Pitchfork Media named it the 13th best song of the Sixties,[2] and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named it one of the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

PBS, which broadcast performances of the song in “Ramble at the Ryman” (2011), “Austin City Limits” (2012), and “Quick Hits” (2012), describes it as “a masterpiece of Biblical allusions, enigmatic lines and iconic characters” and notes its enduring popularity as “an essential part of the American songbook.”

“The Weight” is one of The Band’s best known songs though it was not a significant mainstream hit for the group in the U.S., peaking at only #63. The Band’s recording fared much better in Canada and the UK – in those countries, the single was a top 40 hit, peaking at #35 in Canada and #21 in the UK in 1968.

However, the song’s popularity was greatly enhanced by three cover releases in 1968 and 1969 with arrangements that appealed to a diversity of music audiences. Aretha Franklin’s 1969 soul music arrangement was included in her This Girl’s in Love with You album, which peaked in the U.S. at #19 and #3 on the soul chart, and peaked in Canada at #12.

Jackie DeShannon’s 1968 pop music arrangement, debuting on the Hot 100 one week before The Band’s, peaked at #55 in the U.S., #35 in Canada. A joint single rhythm and blues arrangement released by Diana Ross & the Supremes and The Temptations in 1969, hit #46 in the U.S., and #36 in Canada. The Band’s and Jackie DeShannon’s versions never mentioned the title. The Band’s version credits Jaime Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson, Levon Helm on the record label, rather than The Band.

Simon and Garfunkel: Mrs. Robinson is a song by American music duo Simon & Garfunkel from their fourth studio album, Bookends (1968). Produced by the duo and Roy Halee, it is famous for its inclusion in the 1967 film The Graduate. The song was written by Paul Simon, who pitched it to director Mike Nichols alongside Art Garfunkel after Nichols rejected two other songs intended for the film. The song contains a famous reference to baseball star Joe DiMaggio.

“Mrs. Robinson” became the duo’s second chart-topper, hitting number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and peaking within the top 10 of multiple other countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain, among others.

In 1969, it became the first rock song to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. The song has been covered by a number of artists, including Frank Sinatra, the Lemonheads, and Bon Jovi. In 2004, it finished at #6 on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.

The Mamas and the Papas: California Dreamin’ is a song written by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips and was first recorded by Barry McGuire. However, the best known version is by The Mamas & the Papas, who sang backup on the original version and released as a single in 1965. The song is #89 in Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

The lyrics of the song express the narrator’s longing for the warmth of Los Angeles during a cold winter in New York City.

The song became a signpost of the California Myth and the arrival of the nascent counterculture era.

“California Dreamin’ ” was certified as a Gold Record (single) by the RIAA in June 1966[7] and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.

The Doors: Light My Fire is a song by the Doors, which was recorded in August 1966 and released in January 1967 on their self-titled debut album. Released as an edited single in May 1967, it spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in late July, and one week on the Cash Box Top 100, nearly a year after its recording.

The song originated as an unfinished Robby Krieger composition. Although the album version was just over seven minutes long, it was widely requested for radio play, so a single version was edited to under three minutes with nearly all the instrumental break removed for airplay on AM radio.

Ray Manzarek played the song’s bass line with his left hand on a Fender Rhodes Piano Bass, while performing the other keyboard parts on a Vox Continental using his right hand. For the recording session, producer Paul A. Rothchild brought in session musician Larry Knechtel to play Fender Precision Bass guitar to double the keyboard bass line. When the Doors played the song at live concerts, Manzarek used the Fender Rhodes Piano Bass without augmentation.

The Ed Sullivan Show

The band appeared on various TV shows, such as American Bandstand, miming to a playback of the single. However, “Light My Fire” was performed live by the Doors on The Ed Sullivan Show broadcast on September 17, 1967.

The Doors were asked by producer Bob Precht, Sullivan’s son-in-law, to change the line “girl, we couldn’t get much higher”, as the sponsors were uncomfortable with the possible reference to drug-taking.

The band agreed to do so, and did a rehearsal using the amended lyrics, “girl, we couldn’t get much better”; however, during the live performance, the band’s lead singer Jim Morrison sang the original lyric. Ed Sullivan did not shake Morrison’s hand as he left the stage. The band had been negotiating a multi-episode deal with the producers; however, after breaking the agreement not to perform the offending line, they were informed they would never do the Sullivan show again. Morrison’s response was “We just ‘did’ Sullivan.”

Booker T. and The MG’s: Green Onions is an instrumental composition recorded in 1962 by Booker T. & the M.G.’s. Described as “one of the most popular instrumental rock and soul songs ever”, the tune is twelve-bar blues with a rippling Hammond B3 organ line by Booker T. Jones that he wrote when he was just 17.

The guitarist Steve Cropper used a Fender Telecaster on “Green Onions”, as he did on all of the M.G.’s instrumentals. The track was originally issued in May 1962 on the Volt label (a subsidiary of Stax Records) as the B-side of “Behave Yourself” on Volt 102; it was quickly reissued as the A-side of Stax 127, and it also appeared on the album Green Onions.

Rolling Stones: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released in 1965. It was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and produced by Andrew Loog Oldham. Richards’ three-note guitar riff‍—‌intended to be replaced by horns‍—‌opens and drives the song. The lyrics refer to sexual frustration and commercialism.

The song was first released as a single in the United States in June 1965 and was also featured on the American version of the Rolling Stones’ fourth studio album, Out of Our Heads, released that July. “Satisfaction” was a hit, giving the Stones their first number one in the US. In the UK, the song initially was played only on pirate radio stations, because its lyrics were considered too sexually suggestive. It later became the Rolling Stones’ fourth number one in the United Kingdom.