Good Vibrations
1966 · From Smiley Smile
Brian Wilson's pocket symphony, months and a fortune spent chasing one shimmering theremin line into the sunlight.
★ 9.8
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1966
Showing 50 songs from 1966
Strawberry Fields Forever
1966 · From Magical Mystery Tour
Two takes in different keys and tempos spliced into one, a Mellotron haze over Lennon's Liverpool childhood.
★ 9.7
God Only KnowsThe Beach Boys
God Only Knows
1966 · From Pet Sounds
It opens by admitting doubt and spends the next two minutes refuting it; McCartney still calls it the greatest.
★ 9.7
Eleanor Rigby
1966 · From Revolver
No Beatle plays an instrument on it; George Martin's string octet does everything, sawing away at two solitary lives.
★ 8.9
Try a Little Tenderness
1966 · From Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul
A 1932 Tin Pan Alley ballad, rearranged by Isaac Hayes, until Redding and Al Jackson tear the roof off.
★ 8.6
Paint It, BlackThe Rolling Stones
Paint It, Black
1966 · From Aftermath
Jones's sitar made it the first number one to feature the instrument, and Decca added the comma by mistake.
★ 8.2
Wouldn't It Be NiceThe Beach Boys
Wouldn't It Be Nice
1966 · From Pet Sounds
Two accordions, a key change eight beats in, and 21 takes at Gold Star before Wilson sang about growing up.
★ 8.2
When a Man Loves a WomanPercy Sledge
When a Man Loves a Woman
1966
Sledge gave the writing credits away to two bandmates, and Atlantic pressed the take with the out-of-tune horns.
★ 7.9
It's a Man's Man's Man's World
1966 · From It's a Man's Man's Man's World
Betty Jean Newsome shares the credit and later claimed all of it; Sammy Lowe's strings carry Brown's most exposed vocal.
★ 7.7
Eight Miles High
1966 · From Fifth Dimension
Columbia rejected the RCA session on a technicality, so McGuinn recut his Coltrane-inspired twelve-string and radio banned it anyway.
★ 7.6
You Keep Me Hangin' On
1966
Dozier reportedly took the Morse code guitar figure from a radio news signal, and Ross demands her exit over it.
★ 7.6
You Can't Hurry LoveThe Supremes
You Can't Hurry Love
1966
The frame came from a Dorothy Love Coates gospel record, and Jamerson's bass did the rest.
★ 7.6
River Deep, Mountain High
1966 · From River Deep - Mountain High
Twenty-one musicians at Gold Star, Turner singing until she was drenched, and a US peak of eighty-eight that broke Spector.
★ 7.6
96 Tears
1966
A Vox Continental organ, a Michigan basement studio, a tiny local label, and somehow the number one record in America.
★ 7.5
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Main theme)
1966
Alessandro Alessandroni whistled the two-note coyote howl, and Hugo Montenegro's cover of it reached number two in America.
★ 7.5
Wild Thing (The Troggs)
1966
Ten minutes at the end of somebody else's session, and an ocarina solo standing in for a hand whistle.
★ 7.5
Hey Joe
1966
Hendrix took Tim Rose's slow arrangement off a jukebox, Chandler hired the Breakaways, and Britain answered at number six.
★ 7.4
Hold On, I'm Comin'
1966
A shout through a Stax restroom door became the title, and Booker T.'s band made it an R&B number one.
★ 7.4
These Boots Are Made For Walkin'
1966
Chuck Berghofer's descending double bass, plus Sinatra talking Hazlewood into letting a woman sing lines written for a man.
★ 7.3
Sunny AfternoonThe Kinks
Sunny Afternoon
1966 · From Face to Face
A white upright piano, a bout of illness, and Britain's supertax reimagined as a lounging aristocrat pleading poverty.
★ 7.2
Scarborough Fair
1966
Simon learned it from Martin Carthy in London; Garfunkel wound an anti-war lyric through the ballad as counterpoint.
★ 7.0
Caroline, No
1966 · From Pet Sounds
Twelve players at Western, an empty water jug for percussion, and Murry Wilson speeding the tape a semitone.
★ 6.9
Sloop John B
1966 · From Pet Sounds
Al Jardine sold Wilson a Bahamian folk tune, and Billy Strange's twelve-string solo went down in a single take.
★ 6.9
Summer in the CityThe Lovin' Spoonful
Summer in the City
1966
Car horns and a jackhammer in the instrumental break, a garbage can for percussion, and the Spoonful's only number one.
★ 6.8
Substitute
1966
Townshend built it from a single word in "Tracks of My Tears", and American pressings rewrote the line about race.
★ 6.8
Mustang SallyWilson Pickett
Mustang Sally
1966
Muscle Shoals cut it in 1966, and the title was Aretha Franklin's idea; Mack Rice had called it Mustang Mama.
★ 6.8
Walk Away Renee
1966
Sixteen-year-old Michael Brown's hands shook when Renee walked into the control room, so he cut the harpsichord part later, alone.
★ 6.8
Ain't Too Proud to BegThe Temptations
Ain't Too Proud to Beg
1966
"Get Ready" stalled at 29, so Gordy handed the Temptations to Whitfield, and Ruffin tore into the result.
★ 6.6
That's Life
1966 · From That's Life
Ernie Freeman's arrangement, and a second take Sinatra resented making; the annoyance is why the vocal snarls.
★ 6.6
Sunday MorningThe Velvet Underground
Sunday Morning
1966 · From The Velvet Underground & Nico
Cale spotted a celesta in the studio, Warhol suggested paranoia, and the last track cut became the album's gentle opener.
★ 6.5
Gimme Some Lovin'
1966
Half an hour in a Marquee rehearsal room, by Muff Winwood's account, and Steve's placeholder yell became the title.
★ 6.5
Rain
1966
Emerick taped the backing fast and slowed it on playback; Ringo called it the best record he ever made.
★ 6.5
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)Nancy Sinatra
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
1966
Tremolo guitar from arranger Billy Strange, a murder-ballad chorus, and the reading Tarantino chose for Kill Bill's credits.
★ 6.5
I Fought the Law
1966
Written by Sonny Curtis after he replaced Buddy Holly in the Crickets, then reborn as Bobby Fuller's number nine.
★ 6.5
You're Gonna Miss Me
1966
Erickson wrote this kiss-off at fifteen, and Tommy Hall's electric jug gave Texas garage rock its strangest sound.
★ 6.4
Standing in the Shadows of LoveThe Four Tops
Standing in the Shadows of Love
1966
Holland-Dozier-Holland cut the vocals at Golden World in October 1966, and Levi Stubbs sings like the blow already landed.
★ 6.4
Don't Come Home A' Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)
1966 · From Don't Come Home A' Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)
Lynn and her sister Peggy Sue wrote it, and the album became country music's first gold record by a woman.
★ 6.3
Get Ready
1966
Smokey's song, Kendricks singing lead, number one R&B but only twenty-nine pop, which handed the group to Whitfield.
★ 6.3
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
1966
Two people who had never written a lyric rewrote a Sanremo ballad, and Springfield cut her vocal in a stairwell.
★ 6.3
Strangers in the NightFrank Sinatra
Strangers in the Night
1966 · From Strangers in the Night
Bert Kaempfert's film melody, an Ernie Freeman arrangement, Sinatra's first number one in eleven years, and he reportedly hated it.
★ 6.3
I'm a BelieverThe Monkees
I'm a Believer
1966
Seven weeks at number one for Neil Diamond's song, with Diamond himself on acoustic guitar behind Dolenz's lead.
★ 6.2
It Was A Very Good YearFrank Sinatra
It Was A Very Good Year
1966 · From September of My Years
Ervin Drake's vintage-wine conceit reached Sinatra via the Kingston Trio, and Gordon Jenkins's arrangement won its own Grammy.
★ 6.2
The Kids Are Alright
1966 · From My Generation
Recorded at IBC in October 1965, it stalled at 41 in Britain, then became the mod movement's calling card.
★ 6.1
Season of the Witch
1966
Two chords built for jamming, Mickie Most in the producer's chair, and folk-pop suddenly acquired a shiver of paranoia.
★ 6.1
Tell It Like It Is
1966
Neville was working the New Orleans docks when he cut this for Par-Lo, a label built to release it.
★ 6.0
I Am a Rock
1966
Simon first cut it alone for a UK-only album, then Hal Blaine and Carol Kaye turned withdrawal electric.
★ 6.0
Daydream
1966
Sebastian was chasing the straight-eighth lilt of 'Baby Love' on tour with the Supremes; McCartney answered with 'Good Day Sunshine'.
★ 5.8
Devil with a Blue Dress On
1966
Shorty Long cut it slow and bluesy first; Ryder welded it to Good Golly, Miss Molly and hit number four.
★ 5.4
KicksPaul Revere & the Raiders
Kicks
1966
Mann and Weil wrote it about Gerry Goffin's drug problems, by Mann's account; the Raiders took it to number four.
★ 5.2
Bus Stop
1966
Graham Gouldman's father handed him the opening lines; Gouldman finished the middle eight on his own bus to work.
★ 5.0