Like a Rolling Stone
1965 · From Highway 61 Revisited
A snare crack, a sneer, and Kooper's uninvited organ swirling through the song that split rock open.
★ 10.0
Browse by time · year
1965
Showing 45 songs from 1965
(I Can't Get No) SatisfactionThe Rolling Stones
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
1965 · From Out of Our Heads
Keith dreamt the fuzz riff, taped it half-asleep, and woke up holding the sound of teenage frustration.
★ 9.8
Yesterday
1965 · From Help!
McCartney dreamt the melody, called it "Scrambled Eggs" for weeks, then let a string quartet make it immortal.
★ 9.5
The Sound of Silence
1965
A folk flop until a producer secretly overdubbed electric guitars, and the duo heard their number one on the radio.
★ 9.4
Papa's Got a Brand New Bag
1965 · From Papa's Got a Brand New Bag
The record where the beat moved to the one and funk quietly began. James Brown never looked back.
★ 9.1
In My Life
1965 · From Rubber Soul
Lennon's first draft listed bus stops in Liverpool; Martin's piano solo, taped at half speed, sounds baroque.
★ 9.0
I Got You (I Feel Good)
1965 · From I Got You (I Feel Good)
Brown recycled a flop he'd cut on Yvonne Fair, added Maceo Parker's alto, and landed his highest-charting single.
★ 8.8
My GenerationThe Who
My Generation
1965 · From My Generation
Entwistle's bass solo needed a Fender after his Danelectro strings snapped, and Daltrey stuttered his way into history.
★ 8.7
A Love Supreme, Part 1: Acknowledgement
1965 · From A Love Supreme
Garrison's four notes, then Coltrane overdubbing the chant nineteen times, one December day at Van Gelder's.
★ 8.6
Mr. Tambourine Man (The Byrds)
1965 · From Mr. Tambourine Man
Session men cut the track and McGuinn's twelve-string Rickenbacker rang over one Dylan verse; folk rock started there.
★ 8.3
The Tracks of My Tears
1965
Tarplin brought the guitar figure first, Robinson and Moore wrote words to it, and Motown got its saddest smile.
★ 8.1
People Get ReadyThe Impressions
People Get Ready
1965
Mayfield turned the gospel train of the spirituals into a civil rights hymn, and King used it to steady marchers.
★ 8.0
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
1965 · From Rubber Soul
Harrison's sitar, widely reckoned the first on a rock record, and Lennon smuggling an affair past everyone.
★ 7.9
Reach Out, I'll Be There
1965
Holland-Dozier-Holland pitched Stubbs at the very top of his range, and Paul Riser opened it with piccolo and flute.
★ 7.8
California Dreamin'
1965 · From If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears
The Phillipses wrote it homesick in a New York winter, and Doherty sang over Barry McGuire's existing backing track.
★ 7.8
In the Midnight Hour
1965
Jerry Wexler danced the Jerk across the Stax floor until the band pushed the backbeat onto beat two.
★ 7.8
Feeling Good
1965 · From I Put a Spell on You
Written for a Newley and Bricusse musical, it opens with nothing but her voice before Hal Mooney's horns land.
★ 7.7
Help!
1965 · From Help!
Twelve takes in April 1965, McCartney's counter-melody chasing the lead, and Lennon insisting years later the plea was real.
★ 7.7
I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)
1965
Dozier lifted the title from his grandfather flirting in a beauty shop, and Stubbs sings it like a plea.
★ 7.7
Unchained Melody
1965
Written for a 1955 prison film, buried on a B-side, and Hatfield sang the whole thing alone.
★ 7.7
Stop! In the Name of Love
1965
By Dozier's account the title came from a motel argument; Paul Williams supplied the hand at a rehearsal.
★ 7.6
I've Been Loving You Too Long (to Stop Now)
1965 · From Otis Blue
Butler handed Redding a fragment in a Buffalo motel room; two weeks later Stax had the ultimate slow dance.
★ 7.6
Ticket to Ride
1965 · From Help!
Cut at EMI in February 1965, with Harrison's Rickenbacker riff and a record Lennon later called the first heavy metal.
★ 7.5
California GirlsThe Beach Boys
California Girls
1965 · From Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
Forty-four takes for the backing track, Hal Blaine and Carol Kaye on it, and an intro built like a fanfare.
★ 7.4
Sinnerman
1965 · From Pastel Blues
Simone learned it at her mother's revival meetings and stretched it past ten minutes of piano vamp and handclaps.
★ 7.4
Desolation Row
1965 · From Highway 61 Revisited
Eleven minutes, one acoustic guitar, and Charlie McCoy improvising fills after Bob Johnston found him passing through New York.
★ 7.3
We Gotta Get Out of This Place
1965
Chandler's bass walks in alone, Burdon arrives furious, and GIs in Vietnam claimed a Brill Building demo.
★ 7.3
Turn! Turn! Turn!
1965 · From Turn! Turn! Turn!
Seeger set Ecclesiastes to a tune in 1959; McGuinn's twelve-string turned it into the number one with the oldest lyrics.
★ 7.0
Uptight (Everything's Alright)
1965 · From Up-Tight
Wonder was fifteen, his voice breaking, and Gordy feared he was finished; Sylvia Moy fed him lyrics line by line.
★ 6.8
Ooo Baby Baby
1965
Robinson's falsetto over a slow Funk Brothers groove, with Pete Moore co-writing and stacking the harmonies behind him.
★ 6.7
Nowhere to RunMartha and the Vandellas
Nowhere to Run
1965
Snow chains rattling for percussion, Jamerson's bass shoving it along, and Reeves sounding genuinely cornered by the arrangement.
★ 6.6
Homeward Bound
1965
Simon wrote it on an English railway platform missing Kathy Chitty; a plaque at Widnes station now claims the spot.
★ 6.5
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
1965
Written after Horace Ott quarreled with his girlfriend, and sped from Simone's ballad into Burdon's pleading.
★ 6.4
I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better
1965 · From Mr. Tambourine Man
A few minutes' work by Clark about a girlfriend from the Ciro's residency, and a refrain hinging on "probably".
★ 6.3
Do You Believe in Magic
1965
Sebastian's autoharp opens it, written after he watched a teenager dance at the Night Owl in Greenwich Village.
★ 6.1
I Got You BabeSonny & Cher
I Got You Babe
1965
That hook is an oboe, not an ocarina, and Cher disliked the song Bono wrote for them in their basement.
★ 5.9
It's Not UnusualTom Jones
It's Not Unusual
1965
Written for Sandie Shaw, who heard Jones's demo and told them to give him the record instead.
★ 5.8
It's the Same Old SongThe Four Tops
It's the Same Old Song
1965
Gordy ordered a rush job after Columbia reissued an old single, so Holland-Dozier-Holland reversed their own chart topper.
★ 5.7
Luck Be a LadyFrank Sinatra
Luck Be a Lady
1965 · From Reprise Musical Repertory Theatre: Guys and Dolls
Brando sang it in the film while Sinatra played Nathan Detroit; eight years later Sinatra cut it himself.
★ 5.6
I Hear a SymphonyThe Supremes
I Hear a Symphony
1965
Gordy demanded better after "Nothing but Heartaches" stalled, and Holland-Dozier-Holland came back with modulations and Mike Terry's baritone sax.
★ 5.6