1966 was a vital year in music. 1967 is often considered the great year of rock innovation, but if that’s the case, 1966 is like the older sibling that taught it all its tricks.
The Beatles decided to stop playing live (with the Beach Boys having stopped touring the year before), bringing a newfound emphasis on albums and studio wizardry. 1966, then, became the year when albums supplanted singles as the primary form of musical expression, when experimentation and artistic expression replaced mere craft in production, when psychedelic music first crept into the general public’s consciousness (most notably in the work of the Beatles, Byrds, and Yardbirds).
And it wasn’t just the music that was changing. The lyrical content of songs was shifting from the standard rock tropes, as well. The Beach Boys avoided surf songs, instead writing reflective songs of self-examination; the Beatles eschewed love songs other than in a universal sense; the Kinks penned literate character studies; and The Byrds sung of spacemen, perhaps inspired by the simmering tensions of the space race.
Music and the surrounding counterculture became more and more concerned with political issues. Most significantly, the US involvement in Vietnam War escalated dramatically, as did the movement against it. Race riots continued across the country. The Miranda rights were first implemented.
Elsewhere in the arts and fashion, the growing popularity of miniskirts created a scandal, and the world first experienced the twin pillars of 1960s television camp in Star Trek and the Adam West Batman series. In literature, Truman Capote published In Cold Blood, and the mysterious recluse Thomas Pynchon published The Crying of Lot 49. Walt Disney died.
The years from 1965 through 1967 marked perhaps the biggest shift in popular music of the century, and 1966 was music’s tipping point.
My Top 6 Albums of 1966
Note: Some of this commentary is adapted from that in No Hype No Trends Music’s 200 Best Albums of the 1960s.
As always, you can jump to the playlist at the bottom of each post to listen while you read.
Within each tier (Top 6, Next 6, etc.), all albums are listed roughly chronologically (all release dates from Wikipedia, unless otherwise noted).
The Mamas and the Papas
If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears
The Mamas and the PapasReleased 1966/02/28
The Mamas and the Papas might come across as a simple, sweet and innocent vocal group, but there’s often something sinister lurking beneath all those lovely, tuneful harmonies. Whether poking fun at followers of the in-crowd, wondering if a lover will still be around come evening, or asking for an equal share of a partner’s drugs, the songs here show a less rosy side to the hippy, free-love movement. The band members might seem squeaky clean piled together in that bathtub on the cover, but don’t forget there’s a dirty toilet nearby.
Listen to more of The Mamas & The Papas.
Read more in my top 100 of the decade.
Notable Critical Mentions:
- Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 136
- 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die (2005)
- Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003), No. 127
The Beach Boys
Pet Sounds
The Beach BoysReleased 1966/03/16
The lush orchestration of tuneful chamber pop songs like “God Only Knows” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” is undeniably brilliant. Nothing else in pop music from this era comes close to matching Pet Sounds’ intricate and innovative harmonies and instrumentation. There’s a reason the album has claimed the #1 spot on Acclaimed Music’s Top Albums of All Time list.
But there’s a reason I feel it’s one of the most overrated albums of the decade, too. It comes down to aesthetics, I guess. I prefer my music more edgy than lush or beautiful. Every generation has their Sixties masterpiece. The generation that came of age in the 2000s listening to Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear and Fleet Foxes reveres Pet Sounds; an alt-rock-generation guy like me elects The Velvet Underground & Nico as its unheralded 1960s masterpiece.
But regardless of aesthetic leanings, the value of this album is secure; it’s a necessary piece of rock and pop history.
Read more in my top 100 of the decade.
Notable Critical Mentions:
- Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 001
- 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die (2005)
- The Rolling Stone 200 Essential Record Collection (1997)
- Rolling Stone 100 Best Albums of All Time (1997), No. 002
- Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003), No. 002
- NME Writers All-Time 100 (1974), No. 003
- NME Writers All-Time 100 Albums (1985), No. 020
- NME Writers Top 100 Albums (1993), No. 001
- NME Greatest Albums of the ’60s (1993), No. 002
- Melody Maker All-Time Top 100 (2000), No. 011
- Uncut 200 Greatest Albums of All Time (2016), No. 001
- Paste 60 Best Albums of the 1960s, No. 003
Bob Dylan
Blonde on Blonde
Bob DylanReleased 1966/05/16
The trio of albums that represent Dylan’s electric period—Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde—shows Dylan at his peak, when he traded in his folkie credentials for something more strident. Blonde on Blonde seems to be remembered in popular culture more than the other two—its cover and title seem particularly iconic.
And although for me this album is a touch less essential than the other two, its power is without question. It seems to show Dylan moving from the surreal imagery and cultural clutter of the previous two albums toward a more personal vision, with “Visions of Johanna” and “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” in particular coming across as cryptic but tender songs of love and devotion.
Read more in my top 50 of the decade.
Notable Critical Mentions:
- Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 005
- 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die (2005)
- SPIN: 25 Greatest Albums of All Time (1989), No. 003
- The Rolling Stone 200 Essential Record Collection (1997)
- Rolling Stone 100 Best Albums of All Time (1997), No. 007
- Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003), No. 009
- NME Writers All-Time 100 (1974), No. 002
- NME Writers All-Time 100 Albums (1985), No. 008
- NME Writers Top 100 Albums (1993), No. 017
- NME Greatest Albums of the ’60s (1993), No. 009
- Uncut 200 Greatest Albums of All Time (2016), No. 007
- Paste 60 Best Albums of the 1960s, No. 006
The Yardbirds
Yardbirds (a.k.a. Roger the Engineer) [UK]
The YardbirdsReleased 1966/07/15
The Yardbirds are known in the U.S. primarily for a few classic rock cuts—“For Your Love,” “Heart Full of Soul,” their version of “I’m a Man,” and not much more. This eponymous album, known more familiarly as Roger the Engineer after the character on the cover (and repacked in the U.S. as Over Under Sideways Down), is their finest. But I don’t believe I’d heard anything from it on classic rock radio back in my mid-teenage AOR days, which is a shame. It’s an excellent album, no matter the title—one of the greatest of its era.
On Yardbirds and the non-album singles they released around the same time, Jeff Beck and crew crank out a masterwork of blues-tinged psychedelic rock, a year ahead of just about everyone else. It’s not a complete, unified fusion just yet—more of an eclectic mish-mash of straight-up blues tracks with the psychedelic explorations often separate. But it’s a giant step.
Read more in my top 50 of the decade.
Notable Critical Mentions:
- Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 118
- 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die (2005)
- Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003), No. 349
The Beatles
Revolver [UK]
The BeatlesReleased 1966/08/05
This is possibly the best Beatles album, although on any given day I could offer either of the other two that make my top ten of the decade. Heck, just the inclusion of “Tomorrow Never Knows” makes Revolver a masterpiece. Sure, the expand-your-mind-and-all-that lyrics of this type of song seem a bit silly now, if you take them by themselves; but when you pair them with music that actually does expand your mind, they work. And the sounds of that song still amaze, even today.
And the rest of the songs on the album show the band at their peak, for the first time fully embracing psychedelic experimentation throughout an entire album. The propulsive, edgy “Taxman” and sitar-drenched “Love You To” are two of George Harrison’s best Beatles tracks, and John Lennon and Paul McCartney contribute one of their finest sets of songs, both individually and together.
Read more in my top 5 of the decade.
Notable Critical Mentions:
- Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 002
- 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die (2005)
- Rolling Stone 100 Best Albums of All Time (1997), No. 008
- Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003), No. 003
- NME Writers All-Time 100 (1974), No. 004
- NME Writers All-Time 100 Albums (1985), No. 011
- NME Writers Top 100 Albums (1993), No. 002
- NME Greatest Albums of the ’60s (1993), No. 001
- Melody Maker All-Time Top 100 (2000), No. 006
- Uncut 200 Greatest Albums of All Time (2016), No. 002
- Paste 60 Best Albums of the 1960s, No. 005
The Kinks
Face to Face
The KinksReleased 1966/10/28
On the earlier singles “A Dedicated Follower of Fashion” and “A Well Respected Man” the Kinks had begun a shift from their earlier rock-and-roll sound toward a more sprightly style with an accompanying shift in lyrical content toward literate, witty character studies. On the excellent Face to Face and Something Else and the surrounding non-album singles, they mine this vein for all it’s worth, creating one of the most essential bodies of work of the decade in the process.
Read more in my top 100 of the decade.
Notable Critical Mentions:
- Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 099
- 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die (2005)
Here’s the complete 1966: The Year in Review playlist for you—three tracks per album. Enjoy!
More 1966, The Year in Review
More Years in Review of the 1960s…
Cover Art Citations:
- If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20131605
- Pet Sounds: By http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/329b877871e564f61f8ebf1d34f94d6e/o63.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2240549
- Blonde on Blonde: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=661003
- Yardbirds (a.k.a. Roger the Engineer) [UK]: Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2332722
- Revolver: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=142095
- Face to Face: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15460464
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