At the Honest Broker website, writer Ted Gioia has an article summarizing his friend’s view of the bet and worst hit songs of the 1960s—perhaps the best decade in the history of pop and rock music. The article is below, and I’ll simply list a few songs from each category selected by his friend Chris Dalla Riva (he has a book on them, too). Dalla Riva also runs his own site, “Can’t get much higher“, which deals with a lot of interesting musical questions like “The greatest two-hit wonders”, e.g., Pink Floyd, Jimmy Buffett, and “Which music stars [of the Sixties] are being forgotten the fastest?” e.g., Peter & Gordon, jan & Dean.
At any rate, here is an excerpt from Gioia’s article and Dalla Riva’s selection of best and worst hits (songs that made #1) of the Sixties. Quotations are indented, and my own comments are flush left. Click screenshot to read:
Excerpts:
Chris Dalla Riva is a guru of data analytics on popular culture. He’s been a longtime friend to The Honest Broker, and I’ve learned a lot from his work.
And now Chris has released a fun and fascinating book, Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves. This is the closest music writing gets to the freewheeling conversations ardent fans have among themselves about bands, songs, and rising or falling reputations.
But Uncharted Territory also draws on the scrupulous research that is Chris’s trademark. (You might have seen some of it on his Substack Can’t Get Much Higher.)
With his permission, I’m sharing an extract below on #1 hit songs of the 1960s. The entire book deserves your attention. You can learn more at this link.
This is from Dalla Rivia’s book:
When I decided that I was going to listen to every song to ever get to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, I wasn’t in a great spot. My mental health was suffering greatly, and I was working a job that I hated. Every waking moment outside of my job was spent with my guitar. Some nights I would literally fall asleep playing. Still, I did not feel good. And nothing seemed to help. Therapy. Medications. Exercise. Socializing. It was all a wash.
For some reason, I decided that a musical quest might help. I set out to listen to every number one hit since the Hot 100 was started in August 1958. Why? Again, I was a musician. I thought it might help my songwriting. Maybe I could unlock some secret to writing a hit and use the knowledge to quit my job. At the same time, I thought it might be good for my sanity. I would only listen to one song a day. Listening to one song a day is an easy thing to accomplish. Maybe one little win could right my mind.
And it kind of did. A friend soon joined me on my journey. Each day, I would text him the number one hit. We’d both listen a few times. I’d play along on my guitar. We’d talk about it and rate the song out of ten. I started tracking those ratings in a spreadsheet. Slowly, that spreadsheet began to balloon as I tracked a ton of other facts and figures. Trends began to emerge, and I started to write about them. My musings became Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves. It’s a data-driven history of popular music that I wrote as I spent all those years listening to every number one song.
That’s an interesting task, and here are the author’s highlights with a few of them giving his comments:
“Georgia on My Mind” by Ray Charles (November 14, 1960)—The reason this song has been recorded hundreds of times is because the melody sounds like it was delivered from the high heavens. That’s not a shock. That melody was written by Hoagy Carmichael, the man behind classics like “Stardust” and “Heart and Soul.” But the reason you know this version of “Georgia on My Mind” rather than any other comes down to a different person: Ray Charles.
To state the obvious, Ray Charles was a talented piano player. You can hear that talent shine on the jazzy fills he sprinkles throughout this song. But his greatest instrument was his voice, a voice whose subtle slides and slurs could make Georgia feel like your home even if you’d never been within a thousand miles of it.
“Runaway” by Del Shannon (April 24, 1961)
“Running Scared” by Roy Orbison (June 5, 1961)
“He’s a Rebel” by The Crystals (November 3, 1962
“My Girl” by The Temptations (March 6, 1965)—When Smokey Robinson wrote “My Guy” for Mary Wells, I imagine he thought he’d never write a better song. “My Guy” is just so expertly crafted that burgeoning songwriters should study it. But then a year later, he decided to write a response to “My Guy” for The Temptations. Response songs were very common during the 1960s. Chubby Checker hits it big with “The Twist.” Joey Dee jumps on the bandwagon with the “Peppermint Twist.” Only one name made sense for Smokey’s response: “My Girl.”
“My Girl” is not just the greatest response song of all time, it might be the greatest song period. I’d go so far as to argue that if a random DJ in the twenty-first century cut off whatever booty-shaking track they were playing at the club on Friday night and put on “My Girl,” nobody would complain. Decades later, the ascending guitar riff and finger-snapping rhythm that drive this track remain as fresh as ever.
“Ticket to Ride” by The Beatles (May 22, 1965)
“You Keep Me Hangin’ On” by The Supremes (November 19, 1966)
“(Sittin’ On) The Dock of The Bay” by Otis Redding (March 16, 1968)
“I Heard It Through the Grapevine” by Marvin Gaye (December 14, 1968)—This song is about humiliating heartache. It’s about finding out your lover is done with you indirectly, through rumors circulating on the streets, rumors you are the last to be privy to.
That rumor starts with the keyboard playing a circular riff in its lower register. Then it moves to the drums, a soft thump, your heartbeat. Then it finds its way to the guitar and strings echoing the initial whisper of the keyboard. With each step, the truth becomes more apparent. Then Marvin Gaye arrives, the pain dripping from his voice, a voice whose range and control are nearly inhuman. He knows the truth, and even if “a man ain’t supposed to cry,” he can’t hide his pain.
Sadly, I don’t have time to look at the #1 songs myself, though I have to say that there are better songs by these groups or singers, but they may not have made #1. For instance, Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness” is, to me, a lot better than “The dock of the bay,” and “Stop! In the name of love” by the Supremes beats “You keep me hanging on.” There are others, but let’s go on to the worst songs.
“The Battle of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton (June 1, 1960)
“Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” by Brian Hyland (August 8, 1960)—This song is about a girl who is embarrassed by the yellow polka dot bikini she is wearing and runs from place to place to stay covered up. She starts in a changing room, then runs to a blanket, and then into the water. While in the water, she’s described as “turning blue” before the final line declares that there isn’t anywhere else for her to go. Call me crazy, but I think this irritating song might have a sinister, deathly undertone that everyone else has missed. And even if I’m imagining it, it still makes me feel sick.
“Moody River” by Pat Boone (June 19, 1961)
“Wooden Heart” by Joe Dowell (August 28, 1961)
“Go Away Little Girl” by Steve Lawrence (January 12, 1963)—My sister Natalie was walking through the room while I was listening to this song. 27-year-old Steve Lawrence crooning the words “Go away, little girl / I’m not supposed to be alone with you” stopped her dead in her tracks. “Is this by a pedophile?” she asked.
Despite how creepy that couplet might sound, the lyrics are not anything criminal. The song was composed by Carole King and Gerry Goffin about a man tempted to cheat on his lover. Albeit patronizing, the term “little girl” was common fare in pop songs at the time. In this era alone, it’s used in five additional songs, including The Beatles’ “I Feel Fine” (e.g., “I’m so glad that she’s my little girl”) and Tommy Roe’s “Sheila” (e.g., “Man this little girl is fine”). But when you need this many words to explain why a creepy-sounding song actually isn’t creepy, you’re probably not going to have people lining up to listen to it.
“Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” by Herman’s Hermits (May 1, 1965)
These last three are real stinkers, and they’re on my own personal list:
“The Ballad of the Green Berets” by SSgt. Barry Sadler (March 5, 1966)—When looking back at the 1960s, we often remember the scores of artists who wrote songs in protest of the Vietnam War. But there really were people who supported it. “The Ballad of the Green Berets” is proof of that. Topping the charts for five weeks on its way to becoming the tenth best-selling single of 1966, SSgt. Barry Sadler’s military march is an unabashed celebration of the armed forces, the soldier in his song dying with only one final request for his wife, namely that their son also serve. Now knowing about the endless, pointless destruction of the Vietnam War, this musical wish is hard to stomach.
“Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro (April 13, 1968)—Telling the story of a man whose wife died, “Honey” falls within the maudlin tragedy song tradition. But what makes this sappy song stand out is that it’s not clear whether the narrator ever really liked his wife. He describes her as “Kind of dumb and kind of smart,” while also recounting how he laughed himself to tears when she almost hurt herself falling in the snow. With lines like, “She wrecked the car and she was sad / And so afraid that I’d be mad, but what the heck,” the only thing you should feel after “Honey” is hope that you’ll never be in a relationship like this.
“In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)” by Zagar and Evans (July 12, 1969)—In Dave Barry’s novel Tricky Business, he describes a band that is forced to work the party circuit after they fail to make it big. When the group is asked to play a song that they don’t like, Barry describes how they then perform a retaliation song to punish the audience. “In the Year 2525” is described as the “hydrogen bomb” of retaliation songs. While I don’t know if I’d go that far, it’s a strange song that predicts the future in thousand-year increments. If Zager and Evans are correct, then in the year 4545 you’ll no longer need your teeth because “You won’t find a thing to chew.” Dentists, please beware!
And, just to supplement this list (actually, “Mrs. Brown” isn’t so bad), here’s my own personal list, compiled over decades, of the worst pop/rock songs ever. The “best” list is pages long, so I won’t include it. But if you can find “An open letter to my teenage son, list to it. Remember, many of these songs were after the sixties, so it’s not comparable.
Coyne’s Worst Songs Ever
Green Berets Sgt. Barry Sadler
An Open Letter to My Teenage Son Victor Lundberg
Spill the Wine (Dig that Girl) Eric Burdon
I Got a Brand New Pair of Rollerskates Melanie
I’ve Never Been to Me Charlene
Octopus’ Garden The Beatles
Macarthur Park Richard Harris
Old Rivers Walter Brennan
Take the Money and Run Steve Miller
Muskrat Love The Captain and Tenille
The Name Game Shirley Ellis
Drops of Jupiter Train
Oh hell, I’ll also add my BEST list, but only between 1962 and 1969. Surely some of these made #1, but they’re not in the list above. They also don’t include soul music, of which I’ve kept a separate list. And THAT one is awesome (perhaps I’ll put it up some time). I have added “God only knows” by the Beach Boys, which came out in 1966.
Coyne;’s best non-soul songs, 1962-1969
Light My Fire The Doors
Nowhere Man Beatles
Eleanor Rigby Beatles
In My Life Beatles
Got to Get You into My Life Beatles
Please Please Me Beatles
A Day in the Life Beatles
Louie Louie The Kingsmen
Sweet Judy Blue Eyes Crosby, Stills & Nash
49 Reasons Crosby Stills & Nash
Bluebird Buffalo Springfield
Rock & Roll Woman Buffalo Springfield
On the Way Home Buffalo Springfield
Feel a Whole Lot Better The Byrds
Eight Miles High The Byrds
Mr. Tambourine Man The Byrds
Turn! Turn! Turn! The Byrds
Touch Me The Doors
Honky Tonk Woman The Rolling Stones
Venus in Furs Velvet Underground
Heroin Velvet Underground
California Dreaming Mamas & Papas
I Saw Her Again Mamas & Papas
Younger Girl Lovin’ Spoonful
Summer in the City Lovin’ Spoonful
Groovin’ Young Rascals
Wouldn’t It Be Nice The Beach Boys
Don’t Worry Baby The Beach Boys
God Only Knows The Beach Boys
Little Deuce Coupe The Beach Boys
Badge Cream
Positively 4th Street Bob Dylan
Angel Jimi Hendrix
I Only Wanna Be With You Dusty Springfield
Take Another Little Piece of My Heart Big Bro. & Holding Co.
Along Comes Mary The Association
Israelites Desmond Dekker
You Don’t Have to Say you Love Me Dusty Springfield
I Only Want to be With You Dusty Springfield
These choices are subjective, of course, so feel free to weigh in on either my choices or Dalla Rivia’s:
h/t Barry
This is great
Only nitpick is Drops of Jupiter by Train
The composition, the melody, is great – the meaning of the lyrics might be stupid – perhaps that’s the issue – he says “deep fried chicken” at some point – which I am embarrassed by – making me recall the lyric quiz question by PCC(E) about … songs that refer to food?… what tune was that?
But Drops of Jupiter makes me play air piano.
In my opinion the absolute worst song of the 60’s was “Danker Schoen” by Wayne Newton. We used to play at around 2AM on the fraternity house stereo to let everyone know the party was over and go home. Emptied the place in minutes.
Here are ten favorite songs from the 1960s (excluding songs from The Best Band Ever: The Beatles). This list, in no particular order, is subject to revision within mere seconds after posting this:
God Only Knows – The Beach Boys
Sunny Afternoon – The Kinks
Bus Stop – The Hollies
Mrs. Robinson – Simon & Garfunkel
Happy Together – The Turtles
Last Train to Clarksville – The Monkees
Summer in the City – The Lovin’ Spoonful
Ruby Tuesday – The Rolling Stones
Mr. Tambourine Man – The Byrds
My Girl – The Temptations
To me, the only good Monkees song, and it’s a decent one, is “Daydream Believer”. One of them, Michael Nesmith, had a subsequent hit with “Joanne.”
Yes! I had “Daydream Believer” on the list but at the last minute made the change to “Clarksville,” which always struck me as a “response” to “Paperback Writer.” I’m a sucker for jangly 12-string guitars. However (I just learned this from Gemini):
“Yes, the iconic opening riff of The Monkees’ ‘Last Train to Clarksville’ sounds like a 12-string guitar, often described as a George Harrison-style Rickenbacker, giving it that bright, jangly sound, even though session guitarist Louie Shelton used a Telecaster but aimed to emulate that 12-string jangle for the famous riff.”
The lyrics are what makes this song dreadful.
Another song that includes the word “chicken” is “I Was Made to Love Her,” a terrific number by a very young Stevie Wonder.
Oh right – that’s it!
Ok, here’s a second thumbs down for Muskrat Love. Sheesh!
But as far as the best list goes–no Led Zep? Not Good Times, Bad Times–or Whole Lotta Love? These songs were game changers!
Sadly, I’m not a Zep fan.
tsk tsk boss. (sigh)
Have ya tried – in your salad days – Stairway or Kashmir… after a joint perhaps?
I’m a generation younger than you… but listen to your…. elders?
🙂
D.A.
NYC
“Oh let the sun beat down upon my face” – Kashmir, L.Z.
LZ must be one of my favorites, because I have more LZ albums than any other artist.
Doing chores around the house I’ll put on LZ-1 at high volume and sing along through the whole thing.
I’m not knowledgeable enough to opine on the 10 worst and 10 best, but I unequivocally affirm that The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel is in the top 5.
Agreed, a true classic. On my CD the album is “Sounds of silence”, the song is “The sounds of silence” but I’m pretty sure he’s singing “The sound of silence”.
Always thought it was unfair that they were pegged as MOR, especially after Trouble over Bridgewater. Sounds of Silence is not MOR – several of the tracks are about depression, loneliness and suicide.
I am embarrassed to admit how many of the “worst” songs I actually like. Especially “I’ve got a pair of brand new roller skates” and “Spill the wine, Dig that girl”.
Be that as it may, I also like most of the “best” songs on the list. One minor nitpick about those is that “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes” is actually “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”, a reference to the varied structure of the song and maybe a play on words.
Yep, you’re right about CS&N; the list was made years ago and I just now looked at it. There are some sad omissions, too.
But Melanie? Seriously, Lou?
I don’t know what to say in my defense… songs get associated with life experiences and maybe that colors my judgement.
I stand with Lou on Melanie, stand on her roller skates.:-)
She is (was – RIP 2024)… not only adorable but a Queens, NY native and a great singer and got her start at Woodstock!
D.A.
NYC
“Especially “I’ve got a pair of brand new roller skates”….”
I may have posted this before, but the Kids in the Hall did a skit once about a DJ who had survived a nuclear holocaust and is apparently the only person left. He is still bravely broadcasting from some bunker, but only has one record left and this is it, so he has to play it over and over again. Dante couldn’t have come up with a worse circle of hell.
Wow, that was the worst song the authors could think of???? I may have to re-listen to it…
I liked that one about the roller skates too!
I, too, love Brand New Key. I find it catchy, and funny.
Melanie always claimed it wasn’t about sex, but I dunno…
“I rollerskate, I ride my bike, don’t drive no car
Don’t go too fast, but I go pretty far
For somebody who don’t drive, I’ve been all around the world
Some people say I’ve done alright for a girl –“
This is like when the Beatles used to claim that “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was not about LSD.
We are often in the car running errands on Saturdays. We listen to the 70s channel on Sirius/XM, which re-plays the old America’s Top 40 with Casey Kasem. I find it amazing the number of songs that made it into the Top 40 which have absolutely disappeared from sight these days. Popular then, for whatever reason, and gone now. I couldn’t begin to make a list of what I consider to be the best recordings, but any list I made of the worst songs would include “One Tin Soldier” and “Cat’s in the Cradle.”
Worst song of the 60s = anything by The Monkees.
I’ve heard them described as The Three Stooges if they were a Beatles knock-off band. Anytime someone gets a little too nostalgic for the 60s (and I agree they were the best decade overall for rock music), you can bring them back to earth by reminding them of the Monkees.
Yes, but one lousy group cannot efface all the great music of that decade!
Agreed, 60s still is the peak of rock.
Not sure The Monkees even qualify as a musical group – they were more a media creation that portrayed an actual band. The only real musicians were Michael Nesmith (who continued after the Monkees with a bona fide solo career, and Davy Jones, who had (barely) 1 Billboard Top 100 hit post-Monkees and then fizzled out.
It wasn’t like they all honed their chops, played lots of gigs, and were then discovered – like a real band. Almost none of their songs were written by them. Guess who wrote most of them? Answer – Carole King (!) with 27. The Monkee hits were by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart of “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight” fame, which sold a million records.
I thought Peter Tork was a folk music guy.
He was. I actually like a lot of Monkees songs, including “Pleasant Valley Sunday” and “I’m a Believer.” The latter was written by Neil Diamond, another artist no one will admit to liking.
“The Prefab Four”, IIRC.
But I really did like I’m a believer, and quite a few of their TV episodes. Their movie Head did suck, IMO, despite featuring Frank Zappa in a minor role.
“I Got a Brand New Pair of Rollerskates”
If it weren’t for this song, there never would have been that lovely knockoff by Adge Cutler and the Wurzels:
“Cos I got a brand-new combine harvester and I’ll give you the key
Come on now let’s get together in perfect harmony
I got twenty acres, and you’ve got forty-three
Now I got a brand-new combine harvester and I’ll give you the key”
I was going to post about this, but you beat me to it. Sung in a Somerset accent and with endemic references that might be missed in the USA, but splendid. It starts with an innuendo that sets the whole tone: “I drove my tractor through your haystack last night”.
The band started in the 1970’s, but were still going into the 2000’s on the university circuit.
Billy Wilder’s Cold-War Comedy, ‘One, Two, Three,’ (1961, and not his best work) used ‘Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini’ as an instrument of torture. The East-German Police made a dissident listen to it over and over again, until he cracked.
The US military supposedly tortured Noriega with “Achy Breaky Heart” on endless repeat.
I remember that – Jimmy Cagney (getting on a bit) in a comedy role.
Horst Buchholz was the dissident, if I recall.
I have never heard the Sadler song. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to, but you made me curious!
I don’t see CCR on anyone’s list yet. My 60s exposure was shaped by 70s and 80s radio play, but I just never could get into CCR for some reason. Am I missing something worth revisiting?
I’m not sure CCR is worth revisiting. On the whole I never liked them very much either. But three songs that may be worth a listen, if you don’t already know them, are . . .
Fortunate Son – Just Okay for me. One of their most popular.
Susie Q – This one I like, no reservations.
I Heard It Through The Grapevine – Pretty good cover, I like this one too.
A runner up, Born On The Bayou – Not too bad.
YMMV
On a positive note, CCR is far better than solo John Fogerty. For example, Centerfield (shudder).
Like the cut of your jib there, Mr. Ernst. A fine collection.
Born in the early 70s I think of “Fortunate Son” as the anthem of the 60s.
D.A.
NYC
Heard It Through the Grapevine was written by Fogarty. The Ike and Tina and the Marvin Gaye version were both great covers.
The first release of the song was by Gladys Knight & the Pips (1967), then by Marvin Gaye (1968). It was written by the iconic Motown songwriting team Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. The CCR cover was released in 1970.
Interestingly it was first recorded by The Miracles in 1966, but the recording wasn’t released until 1968.
I love them. My own favorites are Green River and Lodi. Bad Moon Rising and their cover of proud Mary are also fine.
Well, let me add “A Fifth of Beethoven” by Walter Murphy, to the list of bests.
List of worsts? Too many to choose from, but I second Macarthur Park. How this became a radio staple I’ll never know.
Someone left their brain out in the rain?
I don’t think Octopuses Garden was released as a single, so technically not a “hit”. I also don’t think it is the worst song recorded by The Beatles. You Know my Name, (Look up my Number) is much worse. In my opinion, of course.
My 2025 Spotify year end wrap up suggests I have a “listening age” of 75, so I feel qualified to speak about 60’s music, even though I am not yet 60.
1) pick any 10 Dusty Springfield songs, and they’d all make the top 5.
2) Many Bob Dylan songs would make my list, but none of his recordings.
3) Genres get a bit blurry, but Albert King’s Born Under a Bad Sign is a favorite. Is it blues? Is it southern soul? Is it rock? I dunno, but it is a smoking hot track, as is the album from which it sprung.
4) The entirety of The Who’s Tommy stands out for me.
5) side one, track one for The Allman Brothers Band debut album is the best opening I have ever heard. Led Zep 1 is a close second.
6) King Harvest Has Surely Come from The Band is my favor track by The Band. Storytelling in a song as good as it gets.
As far as worst songs of the 60’s…. just about anything that falls in the novelty category would make my list.
But “Pinball Wizard” on Tommy has some of the most inane lyrics ever.
@Lou Jost
I don’t understand.
Paul Monne wrote “The entirety of The Who’s Tommy stands out for me.” I beg to differ, for that particular song.
Tommy, hear hear! And the movie was well worth the price of admission.
God Only Knows reminds me of an enthralling WEIT debate about what ‘God only knows…’ means. Does God only know ‘what I’d be without you’? Or does only God know ‘what I’d be without you’? Now if God is omniscient…
… then she must know what she doesn’t know…
Not that I’m recommending that anyone listen to it, but I concur with Jimmy Cross’s song, “I Want My Baby Back”, as the worst song in the World. I’d go with The Beatles’ “Day In The Life” as my favorite song because it gives me an ‘aurgasm’ every time I hear it.
This has been a fun discussion! But as someone who came of age in the 60’s, I’ve got to say that the 70’s were the real pinnacle of rock n roll. I don’t really listen to any 60’s songs anymore. In my extremely jaded opinion, groups like Queen, Deep Purple and the true Number One Group of All Time, Boston, defined what RnR is all about. Postscript: Muskrat Love is still the worst of the worst, and my skin crawled just writing that. if I were Winston Smith, it would have been muskrats.
LOL
Stories of the Street Leonard Cohen
Sloop John B Beach Boys
Jacques Brel La valse a mille temps
Saucerful of Secrets Pink Floyd
And some Dutch stuff
Pastorale Ramses Shaffy and Liesbeth List
Eva Boudewijn de Groot
Beneden alle peil Boudewijn de Groot
“Sloop John B” was a good one!
Yes, I like that one too.
Check out Ray Charles performing that with the Beach Boys in Honolulu!
My mistake. It was ‘Sail on Sailor’. But the great Ray Charles and the brilliant Beach boys – what a combination. It’s out there online.
PS – enjoying these selections and the comments. The Dalla Riva book would make a great present for your boomer friend/relation. As a UK boomer myself, I’d nominate ‘Hello, Goodbye’ by The Beatles as one of the best hits of the sixties, but is it the song itself or the memories of what I was doing at the time which jump out at me? Did the songwriters realize then that they were creating history? Great number.
Some of my favorites from the 60’s.
Hendrix – Are You Experienced
Led Zeppelin (I’ll limit to 1) – What Is and What Should Never Be
The Rolling Stones – You Can’t Always Get What You Want
The Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil (Arguably their best, IMO)
The Beatles – Hey Jude
Aretha Franklin – Think
Cream – Tales of Brave Ulysses
The Doors – Wild Child
The Temptations – My Girl
Not sure of the worst, there is so much bad music in any era. Hard to argue with Jerry’s list, with two exceptions. Spill The Wine and Take The Money And Run are both okay for me.
Agree with your last line, I find those songs fun. And “MacArthur Park” is a classic for humor value – perhaps the silliest song ever written. Although “I’ve Never Been to Me” is a close runner up.
Yes, “Spill the Wine is a classic, and many of Eric Burdan’s other songs are also great. When he sings it’s like he is in his own world.
Burdon not Burdan
I agree, Lou. It seems to me that “singing like you are in your own world,” singers that are all in when they sing, tend to be the best. Or at least my favorites.
Here’s the best version..
This seems fundamentally different from someone like Mick Jagger’s energetic but seemingly calculated performances directed at the audience or camera.
Loved “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”.
You left out “Cinderella Rockefella” from your worst list.
Best: Tangled Up in Blue, Bob Dylan
Definitely near the top.
Great song, with one of the single best stanzas of all time, the one beginning with “She was working in a topless place/And I stopped in for a beer.” Perfection.
The best rock stanza of all time is the first stanza of “Highway 61 Revisited”:
Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin’ you better run”
Well Abe says, “Where do you want this killin’ done?”
God says, “Out on Highway 61”
Bob Dylan did a lot of good ones. My favourite:
Blowing in the Wind (Peter, Paul and Mary also did a good version)
Except that it (Tangled Up in Blue) is from 1975 (Blood on the Tracks).
A popular 1969 song that has really held up well is “Can’t Find My Way Home” by Steve Winwood. Here he is at 64 playing it solo:
Great song, which I have not heard in years. It brings back many memories that I had forgotten. I am so glad you put this up.
What a lovely comment 🙂
So glad you enjoyed it.
Beautiful song.
HA! WEIT is such a GenX and boomer memory cafe when we talk about music.
Never leaving this platform! 🙂
D.A.
NYC
You know what might be fun? (It’s a bit of a thread highjack, and PCC(E) probably should approve it, or make a new post for it)
But, Spotify, TIDAL and likely other streaming platforms, allow you to share your playlists with other people – even nonsubscribers.
Personally, I’d love to listen to music that WEIT commenters find wonderful.
We’re old as the hills!
Less fun…
While we’re talking about music – it just occurred to me John Lennon was killed 45 years ago — tonight — a little uptown (about 50 blocks) from me now – same avenue.
I was 10 – remember it just – but that makes me feel old.
D.A.
NYC
Yup, my sister just showed me her ticket stub for Queen’s concert in London the following night (£6.50!). The image on the bass drum was changed from the News of the World robot’s face to one of John Lennon and they played a cover of “Imagine” as a tribute to him.
Your worsts are the worst, with one exception: I liked Melanie’s roller skates song!
I agree with all your Bests. But if it was my list, I’d probably have more Rolling Stones and fewer Beatles. It sounds heretical, but for some reason I barely ever listen to the Beatles any more.
I’d also add some songs by Leonard Cohen.
Eta: Truckin’ too!
“Your worsts are the worst, with one exception: I liked Melanie’s roller skates song!”
Yes!
Great, great lists of both worst and best!
It is difficult with these lists, whether about music or film, to remember that those works were created to appeal to folks living in that particular time and place. I think it is also reasonable to look at how the songs appeal to modern ears, but they should be primarily judged by how they appealed to their intended audience. IMHO.
Also, some of these songs are going to be associated ( and heard for the first time) with their appearance in later films. From your list-
Rollerskates- Boogie Nights
Danke Shon- Ferris Bueller
Some of the “worst” songs mentioned are just incredibly depressing. “Old Rivers” in particular. There is a demographic that enjoys depressing songs, but I am not in it.
My teenage kids are not especially impressed with some of the music that I and many here consider groundbreaking masterpieces. I think it is because they cannot know what it was like before that music was released. To them, those songs and all of the ones derived from them have just always been there. Like air conditioning and microwave ovens.
As an aside, there are genres of music recorded for a narrow military niche audience. I suspect Green Berets was conceived that way, and the John Wayne film gave it immortality. I grew up surrounded by Fighter Pilots, and there are dozens of songs that were a constant part of my childhood, but likely nobody here has ever heard of them.
One by Dick Jonas- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RULJiNPN-Cg
I don’t think that people who listen to such music are necessarily pro-Vietnam war. They might be pro-military, but I know from experience that the troops are never consulted on which conflict they get to participate in.
Before my time (mostly), although I fondly remember SSgt Sadler’s LP album that included his “Ballad of the Green Berets.” My sister and I listened to the whole oeuvre over and over, arguing with each other about what the unfamiliar Vietnamese words (mostly place names) referred to.
The prevailing view of popular history (Coming Home, Platoon, Apocalypse Now!) is that the United States military was fighting not merely for nothing in Vietnam, and incompetently genocidally at that, but was fighting on the wrong side, which must have rankled. You and your father, who I believe you have told us flew the F-105D, might appreciate this little piece of evidence that some Canadians vehemently disagree.
There is at least one extended family in our little suburban town who are profoundly grateful for the long, costly American effort to keep the communists out of South Vietnam after the North went on the march in 1954. The high school daughter — there are a number of branches of the family involved here — recounts in a school museum project their harrowing journey (ultimately to southern Ontario where they settled) after the victorious communists drove them into the South China Sea in small boats. They lost everything they owned except those few possessions overlooked by pirates.
She doesn’t speak at all of “terrible destruction” and war crimes wrought by American aviators (such as your father) and ground forces. Most of what is recalled by journalists as “carpet bombing” amounted to craters within craters in rural regions where the Viet Cong held sway, and in the sparsely populated Central Highlands and along the infiltration routes of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. None of this ordnance fell on the densely populated towns and cities where her striving and business-oriented family mostly lived. The architecture, infrastructure, and population of Vietnam’s cities in the South and even in the North were essentially untouched. No Hamburgs. No Tokyos. Not even any Schweinfurts.
There were of course many mistakes and disappointments in Vietnam. The Government side — her family’s side — was feckless and corrupt. At the time they were seen as oligarchs using the peasants in the ARVN as stooges of the ruling class, and marked for liquidation as soon as the Revolution reached Saigon. But we’re glad they made it to Canada where they have quietly thrived. In public presentations at, e.g., Remembrance Day, they are grateful to the US military for the long twilight struggle on their behalf against Vietnamese (and Soviet) communism, and to the US Navy for plucking them from the sea and bringing them to safety.
When we lived in the Houston area, my wife had lots of friends from the VN expat community, who share the views and some of the experiences of your neighbor.
Dad and most of his buddies were there because they had a lifelong fanatical desire to fly the best and fastest aircraft. Part of the deal was that when there is a war, their attendance was required. After Dad got his hundred in the Thud, he rotated back to the US and organized a squadron of A-7ds for deployment to Vietnam. He went back, and flew the first combat mission of the war for that aircraft.
Years later, he went back to school and got his doctorate in Military History. After my first tour in the Persian Gulf, we had a lot of conversations about his wars and mine. He was not as critical of our fighting over there as he was of how the war was conducted.
More or less, we agreed that if we are going to have a war, we should try to win.
“I grew up surrounded by Fighter Pilots . . .”
Any of them ever pass you a copy of James Salter’s debut novel “The Hunters”?
I have not read it, but I will do so soon. I have a pretty comprehensive library of Vietnam aviation books. I guess “Thud Ridge” is one that could be found on the shelves of every house I visited as a child.
Two songs from the sixties, one early, one late.
The Ronettes “Be my Baby”
I liked what I perceived to be attitude from this vocal group.
Jethro Tull. “Living in the Past”
I had moved on… or more expanded my listening, the time signature and flute on this tune was a break out for me.
Glen Campbell “Witchita Lineman” a Jimmy Webb sing is touted as one of the best ever.
I’m ok with that. Burt bacharach, Hal David “Say a little Prayer” ” Walk on By” and a few others they co wrote are up there too.
Two of my favorite songs no one else has mentioned yet: “Paint it Black” by the Stones and “Gentle on my Mind” by Glen Campbell.
Don’t forget David Bowie and Space Oddity –
” .. this is ground control to Major Tom, .. ten, nine, eight, seven, six, .. commencing countdown, engines on ..”
good stuff, and seemed to hit a zeitgeist
“White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane. God, that Grace Slick could sing.
Amen.
Nobody’s mentioned Van Morrison. He didn’t hit his stride as a solo artist until the ’70s, but I will forever love Brown Eyed Girl. And Gloria, with his Belfast band Them, is a true classic.
Thanks! I was just going to mention him; in my opinion he wrote and recorded more good music than any other artist not named Stevie Wonder in the 60s and 70s. Any song on Moondance (released January 1970) is on my best list, as are any of the songs on Astral Weeks (released November 1968). And Gloria. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ech6pZoBJ4
Oh, I forgot that Astral Weeks was released in the 60s. One of the all-time greats.
Apologies for being late to the party… but here’s my entry. I wanted to keep it to ten but it blew out to 15, though I did avoid doubling up on bands/performers.
Lay Lady Lay – Bob Dylan
A Day in the Life – The Beatles
Son of a Preacher Man – Dusty Springfield
Piece of my Heart – Big Brother and the Holding Company and Janis Joplin
A Natural Woman – Aretha Franklin
Sympathy for the Devil – The Rolling Stones
Waterloo Sunset – The Kinks
Space Oddity – David Bowie
God Only Knows – The Beach Boys
Ring of Fire – Johnny Cash
You Don’t Own Me – Lesley Gore
These Boots are Made for Walkin’ – Nancy Sinatra
I Got You – James Brown
Louie Louie – The Kingsmen
Friday on My Mind – The Easybeats
As an Australian I had to include The Easybeats. Absolute banger!
Great list!
Seems a strong list. Thanks for sharing and reminding.
Regarding “Mrs Brown You’ve got a Lovely Daughter”, I thought the atmospheric original version by Tom Courtenay(1963) was way superior to the Herman’s Hermits version.
It didn’t get as high in the charts, but popular taste isn’t necessarily an indication of merit.