WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG FROM THE 1960s AND WHY? (I will...
What is your favorite song from each decade (NOW MOVING TO THE 1960s)! And why?
I'm going to go through each decade one post at a time and ask this question, I already did the 1950s and now I'm going to the 1960s. I want everyone to join me in this experiment/exploration! Last time we learned a lot from a few writers I hope will participate again, including the president of the SGA.
Picking a favorite song in the 1960s is pretty much impossible for me. First of all I decided to ignore the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Why? Because I would probably go through most of their catalog before I would consider others. And that is unfair to all of the other INCREDIBLE pop songs from this decade that is the beginning of the pop music renaissance. According to the Prince that renaissance goes from 1960s through the 1980s. And I have to agree.
SO HERE IS MY ANSWER:
I picked this just to show my eclectic side, but I picked "Happy Together" by the Turtles. In 1967 this song knocked the Beatles "Penny Lane" out of the number 1 spot. It was named one of the Top 50 songs of the 20th Century by BMI; having generated over 5 million performances on American radio by 1999, placing it in the same league as the Beatles' "Yesterday" and "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel.
The song was written by Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon both of whom had been in a band called The Magicians and had worked with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. This song had been rejected dozens of times and the demo acetate was worn out before the turtles decided to do it.
Lyrically it is not heavy in scope or the stakes of the content, but they are cleverly twisted around the sing-song melody over this oddly sneaky sounding F sharp minor build to the chorus which is major or rather F-sharp Mixolydian mode. The chorus seems to explode out of the quirky sneakiness of the verses. So it is really the melody of this song that really makes it work so well.
It was such a mega-hit it is easy to overlook it's importance, but one day I was hearing it play somewhere (perhaps a grocery store) and when I got home that night I happend to be on the phone with a major songwriter and I asked him why this song works so well and did he consider it a good song. He went into a 20 minute diatribe about why it works so well and he himself had studied it as an example of how to create a cool pop hit.
Honestly I cannot say it is my favorite song from the 1960s overall. But it is my favorite song that people would least expect. And I think it is an excellent example of how songwriters in this period realized they could break rules, do the unexpected and still have a huge hit on their hands!
And I hope this happens in pop music again soon!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZEURntrQOg
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Replies
Joe Loforte
Agreed Scott. Tough call. So many great songs and groups. But I had to go with Paint it Black, by the Rolling Stones. Released as a single on May 6,1966. An upbeat and catchy melody, with a very dark and morbid story to tell. Kind of catches you by surprise. Written by Jaggar and Richards, the song was originally written at a much slower tempo. During a recording session, they took the original song and started spoofing on music played at Jewish weddings. Co-manager Eric Easton who was an organist and Charlie Watts joined in and improvised a double time drum pattern, similar to rythyms heard in middle eastern dances. This more upbeat tempo counters the depressing and morbid lyrics the song is conveying about the unexpected death of a girlfriend/wife. Works so well !!! Also first US and UK number one single to feature a Sitar. m.youtube.com/watch
Loading content, please wait. 7 years ago
James Porterfield
Oh I love this song. Yeah. It is one of those that always gets to me. Used in so many movies and television shows too. I always get a chill when it is used for the end credits of "Full Metal Jacket." Interesting that we both picked a song that sort of breaks the rules on melody matching the lyric. It was a time for that experimentation! But this one moreso than Happy Together. Awesome song!
7 years ago
Rusty Watkins
This is a tough one, the Beatles, the Stones, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Hendrix, George Jones and the list goes on. I decided to limit myself to a genre and choose a song that changed that genre or planted the seeds for a new one. My mind quickly went to R&B and James Brown. "I Got You (I Feel Good)" is perhaps my favorite James Brown song but by my own rules (I'm picking a genre and a song from that genre that changed it or created a new genre), "Poppa's Got a Brand New Bag" is the song I am going with.
This song has layers of sparse syncopated parts that complement each other masterfully and fit perfectly with the vocals which Brown uses almost as percussion in place of the understated drum beat. All of these tasty little parts weave together to make a great arrangement but more importantly they are planting the seeds of Funk. The hooky repetitive bass line, the horn stabs and the guitar playing a measure full of 16th notes strummed on one high chord are all staples of Funk to this day.
Lyrically, it is a simple song about dancing, the words are cool but not earth shaking, but the music was part of a ripple that would become a wave that Earth Wind and Fire, the Commodores, Parliament and Prince would all ride on. The man had soul, and was super bad.
www.youtube.com/watch Loading content, please wait. 7 years ago
This song has layers of sparse syncopated parts that complement each other masterfully and fit perfectly with the vocals which Brown uses almost as percussion in place of the understated drum beat. All of these tasty little parts weave together to make a great arrangement but more importantly they are planting the seeds of Funk. The hooky repetitive bass line, the horn stabs and the guitar playing a measure full of 16th notes strummed on one high chord are all staples of Funk to this day.
Lyrically, it is a simple song about dancing, the words are cool but not earth shaking, but the music was part of a ripple that would become a wave that Earth Wind and Fire, the Commodores, Parliament and Prince would all ride on. The man had soul, and was super bad.
www.youtube.com/watch Loading content, please wait. 7 years ago
Joe Loforte
Scott , Great song by the Turtles. Catchy tune, great hook, very few lyrics, repetitive lines and no bridge and it still works. Genius !!!
7 years ago
Eric Watkins
The greatest song from the 60s? On its face, that’s a tough one. It was perhaps the most diverse, most energetic, most creative and most free decade in modern popular music. You could choose a hundred songs and realize you’d left off “Ring of Fire“, “Sam Stone“, “Everyday People” or “ Sittin on the Dock of the Bay”. You could go 50 songs deep into just the Beatles catalog and choose any one of them as the greatest songs of the decade. Yeah, it seems like it’s damn near impossible to choose.
But it’s not. It’s actually pretty easy. Just choose the greatest song ever written by the greatest songwriter who ever lived. Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”.
To me, everything in the song was the best version of everything that made Bob Dylan the best.The imagery was powerful, the commentary was biting, the writing itself was just flawless. And it spoke perfectly of the 60s but also the human condition in general in a timeless way.
It’s an angry song – a really angry song that blows most punk **** out of the water actually – but it’s also a warning: not about losing one’s station but how that station is an easily lost illusion in the first place. In that way, I think the song might be sympathetic even as it’s raging.
www.youtube.com/watch 7 years ago
But it’s not. It’s actually pretty easy. Just choose the greatest song ever written by the greatest songwriter who ever lived. Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”.
To me, everything in the song was the best version of everything that made Bob Dylan the best.The imagery was powerful, the commentary was biting, the writing itself was just flawless. And it spoke perfectly of the 60s but also the human condition in general in a timeless way.
It’s an angry song – a really angry song that blows most punk **** out of the water actually – but it’s also a warning: not about losing one’s station but how that station is an easily lost illusion in the first place. In that way, I think the song might be sympathetic even as it’s raging.
www.youtube.com/watch 7 years ago
Rick Carnes
Foxy Lady - Jimi Hendrix
When I remember the 1960's I think of two distict pop song idioms. There was the 1960-1967 period mainstream AM radio chart toppers that were designed to be ear candy for the masses and then there was a sudden break with the past when album oriented rock was ushered in by the advent of FM radio. The new format was designed to be experimental and open to longer duration songs, particularly guitar solo driven bands like Cream and Led Zeppelin, and also songs that were less mainstream oriented. The song I have chosen was a combination of both these new styles.
Foxy Lady by Jimi Hendrix was not a lilting tribute to teenage romance. It was a full throated scream of lust. The intro of the song is one tremeloed note held until the the amp feedback reaches eye bleed volume. Then Hendrix does a power dive on the strings that sounds less like a guitar and more like a German Stuka Bomber finally landing in an explosive dominant 7th sharp 9 chord that had never been in rock and roll before. This is a song that probably contributed to several traffic accidents the first time it was played on the radio. ALthough it never charted higher than #67 I remember hearing it playing in every hippy head shop and out of every dorm window for the entire year of 1968.
This is why I have chosen this song as the most memorable song of the 60's for me. Because this song perfectly captures the frantic energy and barrier smashing rebellion that was the late 60's. No record had ever sounded this LOUD before. All these 50 years later it is nearly impossible to remember that back then music was played thru SPEAKERS and the speakers had to be really big and powerful and the reason for that was primarily due to this record and all the imitations that followed closely after. To listen to this song on earbuds now seems like a sacrilege to me.
If you missed the 60's and want to journey back for a taste of what you missed grab a vinyl version of Foxy Lady and find a 100+ watt tube stereo amplifier and a hefty pair of Altec Lansing speakers and crank it up to stun. It is a transformative experience. This is the sound that drove so many to 'tune in, turn on, and drop out.' This is a song that is inseparable from the recording. The feedback in that first note was part of the composition! This was a fully integrated 'experience' not just a tune.
As I writer I learned from this song that it is possible to move people with much more than a lyric and a melody. This record reaches out and grabs you by the collar and shakes you till it wakes you. Hendrix was a songwriter in complete control of all the tools of composition. This song cannot be sung around a campfire, it is stadium-sized... bigger than life.
That was the contribution of Hendrix to Rock n' Roll. He took the music from the dance floor and put it on a stage of epic proportions. As the album title asked "Are you experienced?" This song, this recording, IS that experience and I encourage everyone who reads this to give this record a 'spin'(and I mean that literally).
www.youtube.com/watch Loading content, please wait. 7 years ago
When I remember the 1960's I think of two distict pop song idioms. There was the 1960-1967 period mainstream AM radio chart toppers that were designed to be ear candy for the masses and then there was a sudden break with the past when album oriented rock was ushered in by the advent of FM radio. The new format was designed to be experimental and open to longer duration songs, particularly guitar solo driven bands like Cream and Led Zeppelin, and also songs that were less mainstream oriented. The song I have chosen was a combination of both these new styles.
Foxy Lady by Jimi Hendrix was not a lilting tribute to teenage romance. It was a full throated scream of lust. The intro of the song is one tremeloed note held until the the amp feedback reaches eye bleed volume. Then Hendrix does a power dive on the strings that sounds less like a guitar and more like a German Stuka Bomber finally landing in an explosive dominant 7th sharp 9 chord that had never been in rock and roll before. This is a song that probably contributed to several traffic accidents the first time it was played on the radio. ALthough it never charted higher than #67 I remember hearing it playing in every hippy head shop and out of every dorm window for the entire year of 1968.
This is why I have chosen this song as the most memorable song of the 60's for me. Because this song perfectly captures the frantic energy and barrier smashing rebellion that was the late 60's. No record had ever sounded this LOUD before. All these 50 years later it is nearly impossible to remember that back then music was played thru SPEAKERS and the speakers had to be really big and powerful and the reason for that was primarily due to this record and all the imitations that followed closely after. To listen to this song on earbuds now seems like a sacrilege to me.
If you missed the 60's and want to journey back for a taste of what you missed grab a vinyl version of Foxy Lady and find a 100+ watt tube stereo amplifier and a hefty pair of Altec Lansing speakers and crank it up to stun. It is a transformative experience. This is the sound that drove so many to 'tune in, turn on, and drop out.' This is a song that is inseparable from the recording. The feedback in that first note was part of the composition! This was a fully integrated 'experience' not just a tune.
As I writer I learned from this song that it is possible to move people with much more than a lyric and a melody. This record reaches out and grabs you by the collar and shakes you till it wakes you. Hendrix was a songwriter in complete control of all the tools of composition. This song cannot be sung around a campfire, it is stadium-sized... bigger than life.
That was the contribution of Hendrix to Rock n' Roll. He took the music from the dance floor and put it on a stage of epic proportions. As the album title asked "Are you experienced?" This song, this recording, IS that experience and I encourage everyone who reads this to give this record a 'spin'(and I mean that literally).
www.youtube.com/watch Loading content, please wait. 7 years ago
James Porterfield
Man I listen to this, Rick, after reading your description of the era and I can really feel it. Like a power fist jumping out of the speaker and hitting you in the face and stomach before you can know what happened. Totally different! Wish I had been there.
7 years ago