Steel Notes Magazine
Winter 2017/18
100 Greatest Songs:
1960-1969
by Alex shaffner
The 1960s was a decade of change. Not just musically, but po-
litically and socially as well. It's fascinating to witness evolution
in music. I mean, could ANYONE have seen the psychedelic
era coming in 1962? There's one artist above all that dominat-
ed this decade. I'm sure you've heard of them. The Crickets?
No, sorry that's not it. Ah, that's right, The Beatles. The four
lads from Liverpool that changed music forever and easily the
greatest artist of the 20th century. But they weren't the only
"British Invasion" band that made their mark. Artists like The
Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks and The Zombies all made
significant music throughout the decade.
But what about the good ol' US of A? Of course since rock
music was created in the US, there's plenty of great American
artists. Bob Dylan led the pack in that department, delivering
some of the greatest songs ever and two of the twenty great-
est albums ever in "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Blonde on
Blonde". He's on my musical Mt. Rushmore for sure. He along
with The Beatles and The Beach Boys helped change Rock and
Pop from "entertainment" into "art" with their releases from
1965 to 1967. Some people don't like this truth and often turn
up their nose at "Progressive" and "Art" Rock and Pop as being
"pretentious" or "boring". Their loss, I say.
So white guys playing guitar of course wasn't the only great
thing to come from this wonderful time in music. We saw the
rise of four of the greatest and most recognizable black artists
ever in Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson (with the
Jackson 5) and Stevie Wonder. Though the latter three artists'
prime were in the decades that followed, it's interesting to observe
their beginnings. In the Jazz world, it gave way to Rock and Pop as
the dominant music genres by the middle of the decade, but there
wasn't a shortage of Jazz classics. John Coltrane and Charles Min-
gus both released their greatest achievement, "A Love Supreme"
and "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady", respectively. And we
surely can't ignore the lovely Girl Groups during this time. Trust
me, at best, this isn't mediocre "teen" pop in the slightest. The
Supremes? I'll take them over most rock bands. And the single
greatest pop song of all-time? From the Girl Group genre. I rest
my case.
I could go on and on about talking about this era. We have never
seen music change more drastically from the beginning to end of
a decade than the 60s. I feel though as I can safely say that when
you look at popular music, the 60s was without a doubt the pin-
nacle in quality. So let's get psychedelic and take a look at the best
songs the decade had to offer.
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1) A Day In the Life - The Beatles
2) Be My Baby - The Ronettes
3) Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
4) God Only Knows - The Beach Boys
5) Gimme Shelter - The Rolling Stones
6) I Want You Back - Jackson 5
7) Hey Jude - The Beatles
8) All Along the Watchtower - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
9) Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks
10) Desolation Row - Bob Dylan
11) My Favorite Things - John Coltrane
12) Tomorrow Never Knows - The Beatles
13) Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
14) Sympathy For the Devil - The Rolling Stones
15) My Generation - The Who
16) I’m Waiting For the Man - The Velvet Underground
17) Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles
18) River Deep Mountain High - Tina & Ike Turner
19) I Wanna Be Your Dog - The Stooges
20) The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel
21) Light My Fire - The Doors