1965

My vote for most significant year in pop music history is 1965, or maybe 1966.

Consider the list of records that were released:

• John Coltrane, A Love Supreme.
• Bob Dylan, Bringin’ It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited (to be followed in 1966 by Blonde on Blonde).
• The Beatles, Help! and Rubber Soul (Revolver, the band’s greatest contribution to music would arrive in 1966).
• The Byrds debut, Mr. Tambourine Man.
• Herbie Hancock, Maiden Voyage.
• Them, The Angry Young Them, notable for the single “Gloria” and for it being Van Morrison’s public debut.
• The Who’s debut, My Generation.
• The Rolling Stones, December’s Children (and Everybody’s), which features one of the first great Jagger/Richards compositions (The Rolling Stones also issued The Rolling Stones No. 2 and Out of Their Heads, which were great, but not ground-breaking records). They also released “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction).”
• Sam Cooke, “A Change is Gonna Come” as a B-Side to “Shake.”
• The Impressions’ single “People Get Ready,” penned by the legendary Curtis Mayfield.
• The Zombies’ singles “She’s Not There” and “Tell Her No.”
• The Pretty Things’ single, “Roadrunner,”
• Martha and the Vandellas’ single “Dancing in the Streets” (the most notable of too many Motown records to list).
• Tom Jones “It’s Not Unusual” (and his debut record).
• Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs’ single, “Wooly Bully.”
• Paul Simon’s singles, “I Am a Rock” and a solo version of “The Sound of Silence.”
• Otis Redding’s single “Respect,” definitively recorded by Aretha Franklin a year later.
• The Kinks’ singles “Till the End of the Day” and “Where Have All the Good Times Gone.”

Also worth noting were The Paul Butterfied Blues Band debut and several releases by the Beach Boys, though not the kind of earth-shattering releases that would come later.

As I said, 1966 is close (Blond on Blonde, Revolver, The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and “Good Vibrations,” The Stones’ Aftermath, The Who’s A Quick One, Butterfield’s East-West, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Claption, debuts by the Jefferson Airplane, the Monkees, Buffalo Springfield and Cream — great records all, but the depth of the list just doesn’t compare).

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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet