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The Soundtrack of 1966: What A Year To Be Born

1966 was the year pop music grew up and got complicated. The singles charts were more crowded and more diverse than ever before — the Beatles were releasing Revolver and pushing into studio experimentation, the Rolling Stones had their finest run of singles, and soul music from America was reaching deeper into the British charts with every passing month.


It was the year that gave us Good Vibrations, one of the most ambitious records ever committed to tape; Eleanor Rigby, with its string quartet and total absence of guitars; and River Deep, Mountain High, which Phil Spector considered his masterpiece and which the American public promptly ignored. Meanwhile, a young man called Jimi Hendrix had recently arrived in London and was about to rewrite the rules of what a guitar could do.


On the British side, 1966 had its own particular flavour. The Kinks were at their most sardonic, the Who at their most aggressive, and the Small Faces were proving you could sound quintessentially London even when singing about the most ordinary things. There was a wave of brilliant pop from Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black and Petula Clark, alongside the harder-edged sounds of the blues revival and the mod scene.


This was also the year England won the World Cup, the year the Cavern Club closed, and the year Bob Dylan went fully electric and the folk world never quite forgave him. The playlist below captures the breadth of it: the hits, the hidden gems, and everything in between. 1966 didn’t know it was a golden age. It rarely does.


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  1. Paint It, Black — The Rolling Stones

  2. Green Green Grass of Home — Tom Jones

  3. Paperback Writer — The Beatles

  4. You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me — Dusty Springfield

  5. Good Vibrations — The Beach Boys

  6. Reach Out I’ll Be There — Four Tops

  7. Sunny Afternoon — The Kinks

  8. These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ — Nancy Sinatra

  9. The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore — The Walker Brothers

  10. When a Man Loves a Woman — Percy Sledge

  11. Eleanor Rigby — The Beatles

  12. Wild Thing — The Troggs

  13. Strangers in the Night — Frank Sinatra

  14. Sloop John B — The Beach Boys

  15. All or Nothing — Small Faces

  16. You Can’t Hurry Love — The Supremes

  17. Monday, Monday — The Mamas & The Papas

  18. A Groovy Kind of Love — The Mindbenders

  19. 19th Nervous Breakdown — The Rolling Stones

  20. River Deep – Mountain High — Ike & Tina Turner

  21. Yellow Submarine — The Beatles

  22. With a Girl Like You — The Troggs

  23. Pretty Flamingo — Manfred Mann

  24. Substitute — The Who

  25. Summer in the City — The Lovin’ Spoonful

  26. Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) — Cher

  27. Good Lovin’ — The Young Rascals

  28. Somebody Help Me — Spencer Davis Group

  29. California Dreamin’ — The Mamas & The Papas

  30. God Only Knows — The Beach Boys

  31. You Keep Me Hangin’ On — The Supremes

  32. Dedicated Follower of Fashion — The Kinks

  33. The Sound of Silence — Simon & Garfunkel

  34. Daydream — The Lovin’ Spoonful

  35. Sunshine Superman — Donovan

  36. I’m a Boy — The Who

  37. Bus Stop — The Hollies

  38. Sunny — Bobby Hebb

  39. Stop Stop Stop — The Hollies

  40. My Love — Petula Clark

  41. Out of Time — Chris Farlowe

  42. Uptight (Everything’s Alright) — Stevie Wonder

  43. Shapes of Things — The Yardbirds

  44. What Becomes of the Brokenhearted — Jimmy Ruffin

  45. Keep On Running — Spencer Davis Group

  46. No Milk Today — Herman’s Hermits

  47. Gimme Some Lovin’ — Spencer Davis Group

  48. Alfie — Cilla Black

  49. Black Is Black — Los Bravos

  50. Working My Way Back to You — Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons

  51. Land of 1000 Dances — Wilson Pickett

  52. I Can’t Let Go — The Hollies

  53. Try a Little Tenderness — Otis Redding

  54. I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love — Petula Clark

  55. See See Rider — Eric Burdon & The Animals

  56. Ain’t Too Proud to Beg — The Temptations

  57. Hold On, I’m Comin’ — Sam & Dave

  58. You Were on My Mind — Crispian St. Peters

  59. Working in the Coal Mine — Lee Dorsey

  60. Devil with a Blue Dress On / Good Golly Miss Molly — Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels

  61. Tomorrow Never Knows — The Beatles

  62. I Can’t Control Myself — The Troggs

  63. Taxman — The Beatles

  64. Spanish Flea — Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass

  65. Wouldn’t It Be Nice — The Beach Boys

  66. Distant Drums — Jim Reeves

  67. Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James — Manfred Mann

  68. Winchester Cathedral — New Vaudeville Band

  69. Homeward Bound — Simon & Garfunkel

  70. Mellow Yellow — Donovan

  71. Hey Joe — Jimi Hendrix

  72. Knock on Wood — Eddie Floyd

  73. Mustang Sally — Wilson Pickett

  74. Beauty Is Only Skin Deep — The Temptations

  75. Get Away — Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames

  76. My Mind’s Eye — Small Faces

  77. Michelle — The Overlanders

  78. Morningtown Ride — The Seekers

  79. Eight Miles High — The Byrds

  80. Over Under Sideways Down — The Yardbirds

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