{"id":351340,"date":"2026-01-04T08:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/351340\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T08:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:12:12","slug":"the-first-ever-classic-rock-song-to-use-a-synthesizer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/351340\/","title":{"rendered":"The first-ever classic rock song to use a synthesizer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Synth<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Ryunosuke Kikuno)<\/p>\n

Sat 3 January 2026 15:30, UK <\/p>\n

Before a certain D\u00fcsseldorf electronic outfit mapped out the blueprint for electronic music in 1974, the mysterious synthesizer<\/a> held a presence in classic rock greater than is remembered.<\/p>\n

Synths were everywhere in the world of rock, from Pink Floyd\u2019s immersive Synthi AKS textures, Brian Eno tinkering on the EMS VCS 3 for Roxy Music\u2019s Top of the Pops performance of \u2018Virginia Plain\u2019, or Pete Townshend\u2019s smattering much of The Who canon with the glittering arpeggios emitted from the hefty ARP 2500 and its nimbier 2600 successor.<\/p>\n

Indeed, long before synthpop and the new wave, analogue synths were heavily associated with the day\u2019s prog wizards, Yes noodler Rick Wakeman or Keith Emerson\u2019s electronic fortress of multiple-racked keyboards defining the synth in all its grandeur and initial silliness.<\/p>\n

Electronics found their way into the world of rock and pop, from the avant-garde scree that coats The Tornados\u2019 1962 sci-fi surf hit \u2018Telstar\u2019, to even \u2018Forces sweetheart\u2019 Vera Lynn boasting the early Novachord proto-synth on her stirring \u2018We\u2019ll Meet Again\u2019 as far back as 1939. Yet, consensus would generally agree that the synth\u2019s role in rock and pop started in earnest when Dr Robert Moog first unveiled his modular Moog in 1965, tagged with a hefty price tag of over $100,000 in today\u2019s money.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s likely that most of the counterculture\u2019s big names first set eyes on the Moog at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival in June. Having formed a musical duo as a means to demonstrate the synth\u2019s aural wonders, Moog sales representatives Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause set up an industry booth promoting the new electronic music to the psychedelic crowd eager to create new sounds befitting their lysergic creative ambitions. Combined with a tour of the West Coast, such curious clients would include The Byrds, Simon & Garfunkel, and George Harrison.<\/p>\n

The Beatles<\/a> would sprinkle the Moog\u2019s sonic shimmer over select cuts from 1969\u2019s Abbey Road, and a year before Harrison released the experimental solo effort Wonderwall Music, followed by Electronic Sound, entirely made from the Moog\u2019s synthesised tonalities.<\/p>\n

So, what classic rock song first used a synth?<\/p>\n

One eager customer for Beaver and Krause was The Monkees\u2019 Micky Dolenz. Looking to move away from the clean-cut bubblegum image they\u2019d cultivated with their namesake NBC show, The Monkees\u2019 fourth LP Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd in November 1967 grabbed at the trippy washes of the era and added askance Moogs on \u2018Daily Nightly\u2019 and \u2018Star Collector\u2019, the latter\u2019s synth overdubs played by Beaver himself.<\/p>\n

Yet, Los Angeles psych-rockers The Doors beat them to the Moog punch two months before. Opening their sophomore Strange Days album, the title track boasts what can confidently be claimed as the first real synth in classic rock, frontman Jim Morrison\u2019s observations of the hippy youthquake fed through the Moog\u2019s delays and envelopes to add its ethereal ripple to his voice, Morrison himself playing the notes as he sang with Beaver\u2019s programming assistance.<\/p>\n

And before you ask, the Mellotron<\/a> wasn\u2019t a synth, but rather an electro-mechanical keyboard utilising magnetic tape loops, first heard in the pop world on The Graham Bond Organisation\u2019s \u2018Baby Can It Be True?\u2019<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Ryunosuke Kikuno) Sat 3 January 2026 15:30, UK Before a certain D\u00fcsseldorf electronic outfit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,21247,128,135512,55334,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-351340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-moog","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-synthesizers","12":"tag-the-doors","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}