The Stunning Singles of 1966 & A Random Week

Email exchange from Rebel Records:

how many of these songs have you actually heard?

’66 was a pretty amazing year for singles; not sure the criteria in picking these, but “mostly” great (tommy roe i could do w/o in general; pet clark kind of throw-away). the roots of punk and psych can be traced to pushin’ too hard and you’re gonna miss me

pardon my nostalgic moment–(how bout cee-low’s new single?):

• Happenings – See You In September
• Turtles – Hey Baby
• Yardbirds – Happenings Ten Years Time Ago
• Lovin’ Spoonful – Summer In The City
• Shadows Of Knight – Gloria
• Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels – Devil With A Blue Dress
• Syndicate Of Sound – Little Girl
• Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 – Mais Que Nada
• 13th Floor Elevators – You’re Gonna Miss me
• Temptations – Ain’t Too Proud To beg
• Bobby Hebb – Sunny
• Troggs – Wild Thing
• Love – My Little Red Book
• Animals – Don’t Bring Me Down
• Johnny Rivers – The Poor Side Of Town
• Tommy Roe – Sweet Pea
• Swingin’ Medallions – Double Shot Of My Baby’s Love
• Paul Revere & The Raiders – Hungry
• Easybeats – Friday On My Mind
• Crispian St. Peters – Pied Piper
• Electric Prunes – I Had Too Much To Dream last Night
• Who – Happy Jack
• Tommy James & The Shondells – Hanky Panky
• Seeds – Pushin’ Too Hard
• Petulia Clark – Sign Of The Times

And me:

LOVE Cee-lo’s new one.

I counted 6 that I couldn’t recall lines or licks from, not sure if that’s good or bad. But that’s pretty ridiculous that these are all from the same year. There’s at least one of my all-time favorites (“Ain’t To Proud to Beg”) nestled in here and lots of really strong favorites (“Summer In The City” is one of those hard-rock-before-there-was-supposed-to-be-hard-rock tracks I’ve always been a fan of– the first 20 seconds breaks it down the way the last 20 seconds of most songs try too hard to emulate).

For whatever reason I’ve been watching old Jools Holland episodes on my Verizon cable’s on-demand (not sure if you have concert.tv for free on your home cable, give it a look) – found an old 1992 episode with Mary Chapin Carpenter and a star-studded Indigo Girls (with Souixie’s Budgie on drums, Bob Dylan’s violinist and the bassist from B-52′s).

Musically I’ve been all over the map this week. From a reggae version of “Country Roads” by Toots and the Maytals to a new solo set by the former NIN knob-turner Alessandro Cortini (“Sonoio”) – to a weird reprisal in my collection of Living Colour. Don’t know what’s gotten into me.

This week I get back to the concert-going after a few weeks off — get to see Black Keys with The Whigs opening. Looking forward to it…

- Dean (@dbrowell)

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