The 1960s were an exciting time for popular music, with new genres emerging and recording technology evolving constantly. I recently listed 10 awful 1960s songs, so it’s time to pick out some highlights.
This list largely eschews the most acclaimed acts of the 1960s – The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and The Beach Boys have deep catalogues, where their big hits aren’t necessarily my favourite songs from them. Any song that reached a top 40 on a chart somewhere is eligible.
I couldn’t cram all the songs from my shortlist into this top ten. Condolences to Aretha’s Franklin’s ‘Respect’, The Left Banke’s ‘Walk Away Renee’, and The Temptations’ ‘I Can’t Get Next To You’, which all deserved a place.
#10 – Time of the Season by The Zombies
1968
The Zombies carved out their own niche in the British Invasion. Keyboardist Rod Argent provided a jazzy feel and vocalist Colin Blunstone possessed a distinctively sweet voice. They enjoyed initial success with 1965’s ‘She’s Not There’, but struggled for hits thereafter. When ‘Time of the Season’, from 1968’s masterpiece Odessey and Oracle, was released, The Zombies had already broken up. It belatedly became a #3 hit in the US, and helped to popularise the phrase “who’s your daddy?”.
#9 – A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke
1964
Sam Cooke was already a successful hitmaker when he wrote ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’. The song was inspired by Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ and by an incident where Cooke and his entourage were turned away from a hotel based on their skin colour. Cooke recalled that the song arrived fully formed – “he grabbed it out of the air”. The song didn’t chart until after Cooke’s untimely death in December 1964. ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ is evocative – the orchestration is gorgeous, while the opening line “I was born by the river” is memorable.
#8 – Son of a Preacher Man by Dusty Springfield
1968
Dusty Springfield was a successful hitmaker in the 1960s, with songs like ‘I Only Want to Be with You’ and ‘You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me’. With her career momentum flagging in a changing musical landscape, she signed to Atlantic Records and recorded Dusty in Memphis – she also recommended that Atlantic sign the newly formed Led Zeppelin. ‘Son of a Preacher Man’ was originally written for Aretha Franklin, but Franklin passed on it until Springfield’s version hit the top ten. It’s audacious for an English singer to enter Franklin’s territory and cut a record, but Springfield has the vocal chops to pull it off.
#7 – Pata Pata by Miriam Makeba
Johannesburg-born Miriam Makeba was in her mid-thirties when she enjoyed her biggest worldwide hit. Makeba first recorded ‘Pata Pata’ in 1959 and she performed it on stage immediately before the heart attack that claimed her life in 2008. It was a rare US hit for an African artist in the 1960s – Makeba was exiled from Africa for her political activities. The spoken word parts are a little distracting, but ‘Pata Pata’ is an effervescent blend of pop, gospel, and jazz with a terrific vocal melody.
#6 – Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell
1968
Jimmy Webb was one of the best songwriters to emerge in the 1960s, but his wheezycvoice was a limitation and he needed other vocalists to take his music to the charts. He worked with the Fifth Dimension and actor Richard Harris, but his most enduring partnership was with Glen Campbell. Campbell was previously a session musician with The Wrecking Crew and toured with The Beach Boys. Campbell had already enjoyed a hit with Webb’s ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’, and requested another song with a place name. Webb wrote ‘Wichita Lineman’ in a single afternoon, on a piano that had just been spray-painted green. Webb delivered what he thought was an incomplete song, with no third verse or bridge. Campbell filled in the missing space with a baritone guitar interlude, and the evocative song reached #3 on the US charts.
#5 – I Want You Back by The Jackson 5
1969
The Jackson 5’s debut single introduced Michael Jackson to the world. The group’s lead singer was only 11 years old when he recorded the vocal for this irresistibly bouncy hit. The musical centrepiece is the descending bassline in the chorus played by Wilton Felder. Usually, a song with a descending bassline is sad or contemplative, like the piece at #3 on the list, but it’s perfect for this song that blends joy and regret.
#4 – Louie Louie by The Kingsmen
1963
‘Louie Louie’ is a garage rock classic. The Kingsmen originally intended to record an instrumental version of ‘Louie Louie’ and the studio’s only microphone was hung several feet above head height. Lead singer Joe Ely had to stand on tiptoes and shout to be heard. This resulted in the famously unintelligible lyrics; the FBI launched an investigation to determine whether they were obscene. After 31 months, they couldn’t draw a conclusion. The recording is messy but perfection is clearly overrated as this slice of rock and roll is one of the genre’s definitive songs.
#3 – A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum
1967
English rock band Procol Harum delivered their signature song with their first single. The lyrics were inspired when lyricist Keith Reid heard someone tell a lady that they’d turned a whiter shade of pale. The music is dominated by Matthew Fisher’s Hammond Organ, which plays a Bach inspired melody, accompanied by an elegantly descending bassline. Along with Gary Brooker’s keening tenor, the song has a dream-like quality that fitted perfectly into 1967’s Summer of Love.
#2 – Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks
‘Waterloo Sunset’ is an unlikely hit single. It’s a low-key, acoustic song from Ray Davies, a gently sung tale of Terry and Judy. But it reached #2 on the UK charts. There are a ton of great Kinks songs to choose from – the heavy rock of ‘You Really Got Me’ and the pop-rock sophistication of ‘Shangri-La’ are two other 1960s classic. But this quintessentially English song is irresistibly charming.
#1 – Be My Baby by The Ronettes
1963
Phil Spector sullied his reputation with his issues later in life but he was a hugely influential figure in the development of pop music. He was an auteur who used the studio as an instrument and ‘Be My Baby’ was his finest moment. The opening drumbeat from Hal Blaine is iconic, and Ronnie Spector’s lead vocal is stunning. It’s estimated that the song has been played almost 4 million times on radio and television since 1963; the equivalent of 17 years back-to-back.
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Wow. This topic is like picking the “10 Best Flowers in Kew Gardens.” Kind of a broad endeavor!
Some of my favorites are “Itchycoo Park” by the Small Faces, “You Baby” by the Turtles, and “7 and 7 Is” by Love. And maybe a half-dozen Burt Bacharach songs. Also, “Tell Her No” by the Zombies was a worthy follow-up to “She’s Not There.” I actually like it better.
I forgot Tell Her No was a hit in the US – it didn’t crack the top 40 in the UK. I like it though.
I’m OK with leaving out big acts like the Beatles and Beach Boys, but no Stones? Not one? Dude. 😉
I didn’t actually realise how many hit singles they had in the 1960s – I assumed they were more of an album band. Something like Get Off My Cloud or Jumpin’ Jack Flash certainly wouldn’t go amiss here.
I wondered! But they would also fall into your Too Big For The List category with the Beatles and Dylan, too, so I get it. I’m just a Stones fan saying “hey but what about…” 🙂
In my head the Stones are an early 1970s band too – Exile and Sticky Fingers are my favourite Stones’ albums.
Go back two records and make the Big Four – add Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed and you’re all set. But most of what you hear on the radio was from 64-72.
I’ve never got into Let It Bleed as much as the others. Don’t really know why.
Hm. I maintain it’s a grower. Stick with it! 🙂
Hard to argue with any of those being on a ‘best of ‘ list.
I thought Pata Pata might be a little controversial, but everything else is pretty established as a great 1960s song at this point.
great list!
Thank you!
Very good list with some really good songs on it. Personally, I would have included Jefferson Airplane and The Doors but that’s me the wannabe hippy.
I was actually playing White Rabbit the other day. It’s good for sure, just not top ten for me.
It’s top 10 for me. And Somebody to Love came pretty close.
You would think I’d be all over this but I really don’t even know where I’d start. All good songs (but I don’t know the Makeba one) but I don’t know that they’d be in my Top Ten. Too many songs in that decade for me to even say.
I find the 1960s easier than the 1970s – I didn’t have anything from the first three years of the decade so it’s only drawn from seven years.
Yeah but see, I grew up with these tunes. I can go back to just about any Billboard list from then and sing the tunes. There were so many genres – leftover late 50’s, girl groups, British Invasion (Mersey pop and London blues), folk, folk-rock, Motown, soul, psychedelia, country. Even assuming I could put together such a list, it would take forever. Plus I couldn’t go with your arbitrary dismissal of Beatles and Stones.
I found it hard to squeeze in The Beatles. My favourite Beatles song is ‘I Am The Walrus’, which wasn’t a single. Then ‘Strawberry Fields’ and ‘Penny Lane’, which I never hear on the radio and which didn’t top the charts in the US or the UK when lots of other Beatles songs did.
In that case you leave me no choice in the matter but to assign you a new Beatles favorite song. I believe you’re a keyboard player, yes? Then your new favorite Beatles song is “Let it Be.” This dovetails neatly with the new documentary coming out by Your Favorite NZ Director. You’re welcome.
Let It Be used to be my favourite when I was 13. NZ also has Taika Waititi – we’re much more influential in the film sphere than in the music sphere.
America is very insular. Half the people here barely even heard of your country till “Lord of the Rings.”
Interesting list and choices! Without thinking TOO hard about it, my (unranked) list would probably go something like this, right now, if I follow your lead and focus on single-oriented pop . . .
Dusty Springfield, “Son of a Preacher Man”
The Bee Gees, “Massachusetts”
Mason Williams, “Classical Gas”
Glenn Campbell, “Wichita Lineman”
Blood, Sweat and Tears, “Spinning Wheel”
Keith, “98.6”
Bobbie Gentry, “Ode to Billie Joe”
Joe Cuba, “Bang Bang”
Herb Alpert, “This Guy’s In Love With You”
Gilbert and Getz, “The Girl from Ipanema”
Gilbert = Gilberto . . . .
Cool – we have a couple in common. I really like that Herb Alpert record, even though I’m probably not supposed to.
Pretty good list, especially Glen Campbell and Zombies and Procol Harum, which was my number one. There’s so many good ones to choose from in the sixties that it must be hell to narrow it down to 10.
Your list reminded me I forgot Crimson and Clover. I had it the list on my head at one point. It might have struggled to crack my top ten though.
Best hit songs of the 60s
https://rateyourmusic.com/list/bobbyb5/greatest-hit-singles-of-the-60s/
Sometimes the big guys are the most aclaimed because they deserve it. And in my humble opinion this is the case. Strawberry Fields, Good Vibrations, All Along The Watchtower, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, My Back Pages, Waterloo Sunset, Something, Black Magic Woman, California Dreaming, Sunshine of Your Love.
I like all those songs, but most of the time my favourite from those artists is a deep cut like Sway or I Am The Walrus. It made sense to me to give some other groups the limelight.
That is absolutely true and 100% correct.
Nice list! The ’60s were such a great decade in music that it’s really tough to come up with a top 10 list. That being said, I like “best of” lists much better than lists of “worst.”
Your picks include some of my longtime favorites, such as “Time of the Season”, “A Change Is Gonna Come”, “A Whiter Shade of Pale” and “Waterloo Sunset.”
Also, while I knew “Pata Pata,” I had no idea it’s a ’60s tune. For some reason, I always it came out in the ’70s.
It’s always a little bit arbitrary – it’s pretty unfair to reduce a decade of tunes to 10 songs.
Odessey and Oracle is indeed a masterpiece!
Nice choices across the board, I guess Rocky Raccoon wasn’t a Top 40 hit, but if deemed eligible, it would be on my list!
Odessey is amazing. I Am The Walrus is my favourite Beatles tune, but it was only a b-side, not a single.
I believe How Soon is Now was a b-side initially as well – what a nice problem, to have so many great songs that these gems get relegated to b-side status!
It’s a very British thing, to put out non-album material on singles.
I don’t know if these are the top ten hit song of the 60s or not but it’s a dam good list – love every song on here
I always use best because it’s more search engine friendly, but really it’s my favourites.
This list would be overwhelming for me to make…there are just so many I liked. I am glad you included that Jackson 5 song… Strawberry Fields would be hard to leave off. Great list though…all are deserving.
My favourite Beatles song is ‘I Am The Walrus’, which wasn’t a single. Then ‘Strawberry Fields’ and ‘Penny Lane’, which I never hear on the radio and which didn’t top the charts in the US or the UK when lots of other Beatles songs did.
Elbert Humperdinck…
Pedant alert – it’s “Terry and Julie” (not Judy). The names were said (possibly apocryphally) to be based on the popular actors of the time Terence Stamp and Julie Christie.
Oops I need to fix that.
Oh, I forgot – here are my top ten (not necessarily the greatest, just my favourites) –
1. Whiter Shade Of Pale – Procol Harum
2. Don’t Worry Baby – The Beach Boys
3. Everlasting Love – Love Affair
4. Sugar Sugar – The Archies
5. Baby I Love You – The Ronettes
6. Pretty Flamingo – Manfred Mann
7. Eve Of Destruction – Barry McGuire
8. Fire – The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
9. The Son Of Hickory Holler’s Tramp – OC Smith
10 Silence Is Golden – The Tremeloes
Silence is Golden is an amazing record. It’s kind of forgotten today but I don’t know why.. I used to hear it on the radio all the time when I was little but you dont hear anything about it. anymore. it’s so good that I think I’m going to move it up higher on my list where it deserves to be.
It was initially recorded by The Four Seasons, but, unusually (as I love The Four Seasons) I have always preferred The Tremeloes’ version which I first heard aged 7-8 and I remember enthusiastically singing it to a friend of mine, altering it to “Simon is golden”. Funny the things you remember.
I agree that it’s better than the Four Seasons one. Their cover of Here Comes My Baby is also better than the original. I think it was Cat Stevens first hit way back in 1967 or something like that.
I like Everlasting Love a lot – haven’t heard it for years. U2 covered it as a b-side in the 1980s too.
Some great tracks! Another list that would take me forever to put together as there are so many to choose from it is crazy. But I do like your choices and a lot of choices from the comments.
Maybe you can post yours one day.
Maybe one day!
This is a tough one for me. #1 might be 21st Century Schizoid Man, but I’d have to think about it.
I specified hits in the title – that means I can make a list of deep cuts and obscurities sometime like ’21st Century Schizoid Man’, which is a great call.
I heard a completely different story about Whiter Shade of Pale. I read where he said that they went to a party on some kind of boat and he got so drunk that the room started spinning and stuff because he was drunk. That’s why there’s all that talk in the song about calling for another drink and the waiter bringing drinks and feeling seasick and the ceiling flying away and everything.
I got mine from Wikipedia – it also said that a lot of people speculate that it’s about sex.
Another stonker of a list and while I wouldn’t even know where to start on such a list (it would probably include a Bob or Jimi tune rubbing shoulders with a Honky Tonk Woman) I also wouldn’t disagree with any of these songs being in the top ten… whittling it down would be a struggle
Hendrix would have been good to include.
I am happy to see Waterloo Sunset in there!
That song has garnered a lot of love over the years – it’s pretty low key.
Here’s hoping respect for what The Kinks did and for Ray’s talent as a songwriter continues to grow as time passes.
The 1960s stuff has held up well, especially given they were pretty obscure in the states for most of their 1960s peak.
I think the Kinks were pretty popular in the states. They had about a dozen top 40 and top 10 hits. But I think they’re one of those bands who never had a number one.
If you look at the charts though, they went missing between 1967 and 1970 in the states. I think they weren’t allowed to tour due to some Davies brother shenanigans.
yeah. except for Lola.
And Victoria also. Alhough I’m not quite sure what year that was. But I think it was one of the later ones in the late sixties.
Exactly. And it seems at least a few young music fans are still getting into their music when they discover it actually exists. I was a teacher a few years ago, and I introduced the band to some students who listen to it regularly until this day and have gone on to actually explore their discography.
School of (very English) Rock.
‘Waterloo’ covers all the decades for me.
There used to be a local record shop named Waterloo Sunset.
I think we have talked about that before.
😁
Of course, it could be all these things. But the one about the party on the boat came straight from Gary Booker’s mouth, so I would say that’s probably the most credible one. I wish I could remember where I read that interview. I think it was in Rolling Stone or something. idk.
Gary Booker didn’t write the lyrics though?
Yeah, that Keith guy wrote the lyrics, but don’t you think that Gary Brooker would know the story behind how he wrote it? Unless that was just HIS version of the story. Ha ha. Everybody seems to have their own. Lol
Age – of – Aquarius
Do you like it? I haven’t heard it for years, but I didn’t used to mind it, even if it’s quite over the top in places.
Should be #1 on the list!
I thought I Am the Walrus was a double-sided hit with Hello Goodbye. Like the same way Penny Lane was a double-sided hit with Strawberry Fields. .
I think it was a straight a-side and b-side thing. Wikipedia credits the other double a-side singles – like We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper and Penny/Strawberry – but not this one. It would have made sense as a double a-side – they would have balanced each other out.
I see. Only a couple of them were marked as two A-sdes. It still reached number 46 on Billboard, but Hello Goodbye was number one. Strawberry Fields did better cuz it reached number eight, and Penny Lane number one. And there was a couple where both sides reached number one.
10 Sixties hits i’ve always liked but never felt got the acclaim they perhaps deserved:
Syndicate Of Sound – Little Girl (1966)
Beach Boys – God Only Knows (1966)
Jimmy Ruffin – What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted (1966)
The Move – I Can Hear The Grass Grow (1967)
Procol Harum – Homburg (1967)
Julie Driscoll – Wheels On Fire (1968)
Supremes – I’m Livin’ In Shame (1968)
Consortium – All The Love In The World (1969)
Donovan – Barabajagal (1969)
Three Dog Night – Eli’s Coming (1969)
Always thought the 2nd half of the decade was better than the first; i never much liked the happy, smiley pop sung by men in matching suits of pre-1965.