The 1960s was a decade and there was music in it. Lots of good music, actually. Albums really exploded as a way in which to deliver a lot of music at once, and have it work together to form some kind of narrative, or capture a set of emotions. Many of these were concept albums, and though the earliest concept albums debatably pre-dated the 1960s, the idea of this kind of album did take off in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
What about individual songs, though? Yeah, they were great, too. It\u2019s harder to summarize the 1960s as it relates to single tracks, because it was generally a good decade for pop, rock, folk, and some other broad \u2013 and maybe even timeless \u2013 genres. What follows is a rundown of 10 of the best songs of the 1960s, and it\u2019s hard to pick just 10, so brace yourself for snubs. And there will be a limit of one song per artist (sorry, The Beatles<\/a>).<\/p>\n 10 <\/p>\n “Space Oddity” (1969)<\/p>\n David Bowie<\/p>\n David Bowie was on a whole other level in the 1970s<\/a>, compared to any other decade when he was active, but he did establish himself in the 1960s, with at least one amazing song snuck into that decade before it was over. It is, of course, \u201cSpace Oddity,\u201d which more or less established Bowie\u2026 but saying that isn’t entirely fair, because Bowie was about as chameleonic and versatile as artists have ever been.<\/p>\n So, maybe it\u2019s fairer to say that one side of David Bowie was well established with \u201cSpace Oddity.\u201d He\u2019d return to singing about space and other ambitious things at various points throughout the rest of his musical career<\/a>, and then as late as \u201cBlackstar,\u201d he was still exploring such things (especially in that song\u2019s music video). \u201cSpace Oddity\u201d is, overall, an incredible track; that should also be stressed. It\u2019s remarkable on its own, and when considered as a small but essential piece within David Bowie\u2019s eventually vast body of work.<\/p>\n 9 <\/p>\n “Good Times Bad Times” (1969)<\/p>\n Led Zeppelin<\/p>\n Like David Bowie, Led Zeppelin had a more fruitful 1970s than they did the 1960s, but that\u2019s only because the band was formed \u2013 and put out its first two albums \u2013 right near the decade\u2019s end. The best of Led Zeppelin<\/a> did come later on, therefore, but those first two albums are both great, and if a highlight has to be singled out\u2026 it\u2019s not easy to do that, actually. But why not go with the first track on the first album?<\/p>\n You get a good idea of their energy, sound, and style here, so it works as an immense mission statement for the band overall.<\/p>\n \u201cGood Times Bad Times\u201d is that song, and it\u2019s a fantastic distillation of Led Zeppelin into less than three minutes. You get a good idea of their energy, sound, and style here, so it works as an immense mission statement for the band overall, even if later songs by the band mix things up a little (it\u2019s not an AC\/DC situation where the band kind of plays the same song over and over again for decades upon decades).<\/p>\n 8 <\/p>\n “Desolation Row” (1965)<\/p>\n Bob Dylan<\/p>\n Easily the longest song here, \u201cDesolation Row\u201d unfolds over about 11 minutes, and serves as an amazing finale for Bob Dylan\u2019s Highway 61 Revisited<\/a>. An honorable mention should also go out to \u201cLike a Rolling Stone,\u201d which opens that same album and is another legendary Dylan song. That one\u2019s probably more popular, and the one you’d expect to appear here, but \u201cDesolation Row\u201d is something special.<\/p>\n It\u2019s got a whole other level of ambition, and really succeeds at keeping your attention throughout, with some of Dylan\u2019s best lyrics and storytelling here (by design, it\u2019s hard to know entirely what the song\u2019s about, but Bob Dylan at his best does the whole \u201cleave things up to interpretation\u201d thing very well). Similarly great \u2013 and also just similar \u2013 is the closing track on Dylan\u2019s Blonde on Blonde<\/a>, \u201cSad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,\u201d which is another highlight of the singer-songwriter\u2019s expansive discography.<\/p>\n 7 <\/p>\n “All Along the Watchtower” (1968)<\/p>\n The Jimi Hendrix Experience<\/p>\n Speaking of Bob Dylan, but also not entirely speaking of Bob Dylan, here\u2019s \u201cAll Along the Watchtower,\u201d which was originally a Dylan song, but the version by The Jimi Hendrix Experience<\/a> is the one going here. He kind of Hey Jude-d this, taking a rad song and making it better. It becomes more theatrical in its sound, and goes from being a folk rock song to more of a psychedelic\/hard rock one.<\/p>\n Of course, the quality of Bob Dylan\u2019s lyrics is retained, but there are different ways you can interpret them in this version by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, just because the energy of the whole thing is shifted. Both takes on the song are legendary, sure, but the Hendrix version perhaps just a little more so.<\/p>\n 6 <\/p>\n “A Change Is Gonna Come” (1964)<\/p>\n Sam Cooke<\/p>\n There\u2019s an opportunity to keep yapping about Bob Dylan now, because he wrote one of the definitive \u201cchange is in the air\u201d anthems of the 1960s, literally called \u201cThe Times They Are a-Changin’.\u201d That was from the album of the same name, released in 1964, and then that same year, Sam Cooke also released his signature song, with a similarly in-your-face title: \u201cA Change Is Gonna Come.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to look back on the 1960s as a decade of change and all, socially, politically, and artistically, but when people at the time were commenting on change, that does validate the whole notion of viewing the decade this way. It\u2019s not just people looking back on the 1960s and broadly calling it \u201cthe decade of change.\u201d It well and truly earned such a term. As for \u201cA Change Is Gonna Come,\u201d it\u2019s a perfect and hugely emotional song<\/a>, and it\u2019s hard to do justice to it with mere words. Hence the rambling and further yapping about Bob Dylan. Trying to break down this song in a proper way would come off mawkish and maybe even pretentious, which the track itself most certainly isn’t.<\/p>\n 5 <\/p>\n “In My Life” (1965)<\/p>\n The Beatles<\/p>\n So many songs by The Beatles, and so little time. You can do a massive ranking (say\u2026 top 50<\/a>? Imagine someone being crazy enough to attempt that) and still end up with snubs. That\u2019s particularly surprising when you consider that The Beatles really weren\u2019t around for all that long, and if not for Let It Be, all the band\u2019s music would be relegated to the 1960s (though much of the recording for Let It Be was done in the 1960s, as The Beatles: Get Back<\/a> shows).<\/p>\n The band can\u2019t help but feel like a defining one for the 1960s overall, and there are plenty of songs that are worthy of being highlighted here, but here\u2019s \u201cIn My Life.\u201d This one\u2019s from the essentially perfect album that is Rubber Soul<\/a>, and it\u2019s lyrically, emotionally, and musically mature in ways that felt like a real step forward for the band at the time. Even today, it still might well be the single most emotional song The Beatles ever recorded.<\/p>\n 4 <\/p>\n “Waterloo Sunset” (1967)<\/p>\n The Kinks<\/p>\n It\u2019s pretty easy to recommend The Kinks to anyone who\u2019s a fan of The Beatles, and though the latter band had more outright great albums, it\u2019s the former band that might well have had the best single song. That one\u2019s \u201cWaterloo Sunset,\u201d which concludes the band\u2019s more-than-solid 1967 album Something Else by the Kinks<\/a>. But nothing else on Something Else by the Kinks is anywhere near as spectacular as \u201cWaterloo Sunset.\u201d<\/p>\n This one\u2019s uniquely emotional in ways that are hard to put your finger on, standing as one of those moving sorts of songs that can sound any level of bittersweet, depending on your mood. Like, sometimes it feels like it\u2019s heavy on the bitter, and a little light on the sweet, and, at other times, more sweet than bitter. Even among all the great songs released in the 1960s, \u201cWaterloo Sunset\u201d feels like a particularly special kind of great.<\/p>\n 3 <\/p>\n “God Only Knows” (1966)<\/p>\n The Beach Boys<\/p>\n Standing out as the best of all The Beach Boys songs<\/a> is really saying something, but the song is \u201cGod Only Knows,\u201d and that song definitely is something. It\u2019s one of the ultimate love songs, even if it begins with the line, \u201cI may not always love you,\u201d going for something a bit more complex and nuanced than a good many love songs at the time. Or, even, more complex than a good many love songs nowadays, too.<\/p>\n As far as the production goes, \u201cGod Only Knows\u201d is also phenomenal, sounding particularly great on an album (Pet Sounds)<\/a> that already sounds great overall. When \u201cGod Only Knows\u201d was released as a single, it was technically the B-side to \u201cWouldn’t It Be Nice,\u201d but given how great both those songs are, it\u2019s more of a double-A-side kind of single, really.<\/p>\n 2 <\/p>\n “Stand by Me” (1961)<\/p>\n Ben E. King<\/p>\n