'60s Memories

With culture clashes, world-changing ideals, and an undeniable golden age of Top 40 tunes encompassing soul, rock, pop, and more, the '60s is the kind of decade you can't possibly forget . . . even if you weren't there. Something was in the air as early as '64, when folk prophet Bob Dylan was a weatherman predicting a shift in the wind with "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and Sam Cooke put his poppier side on the shelf for his soul-grinding social statement "A Change Is Gonna Come." The arrival of the Age of Aquarius made a Mecca of love-power locales like Haight-Ashbury, celebrated in such paisley-tinged hippie anthems as Scott McKenzie's invitation-to-a-happening "San Francisco."

Find folk-rock heaven in Next Steps.

While some '60s rockers turned to fuzz-tone riffs and over-the-top psychedelic effects, there was a healthy legion of folk-rockers focused more on melody and surefire songcraft. On the East Coast, the Lovin' Spoonful mixed Beatles-esque pop instincts with jug-band roots to turn out the immortal bit of breathless wonder "Do You Believe in Magic?" Back on the Gold Coast, America's first great supergroup, Crosby, Stills & Nash, turned heavenly harmonies and woody strumming into the acoustic-rock epic "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," and the Youngbloods — California's answer to the Spoonful — spoke to the turmoil of the times by crafting the sweet, gentle ode to pacifism "Get Together."

The '60s goes pop in Deep Cuts.

The rebel set may have been busy storming the barricades of the Establishment in the '60s, but there were plenty of folks whose first priority was making great — and, ultimately, timeless — pop music. The light, breezy sound of '60s sunshine pop overflows with contagiously carefree glee, whether it's the Association's high-flying "Windy" or Harpers Bizarre's airy cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)." And for every Dylan-inspired protest singer predicting an "Eve of Destruction," there was a group like the Grass Roots, whose divine purpose in life was to billow out a blissful sha-la-la while merrily advising "Let's Live For Today."

Bask in the warm, lava-lamp glow of the flower-power age, and experience the full sonic spectrum of the '60s — an era that was about more than just psychedelic sensations. Sure, Iron Butterfly made millions of bandana-bedecked heads bob with the marathon drum solo of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," but at the same time, bubblegum pop was putting diabetics in danger with the super-sweet sounds of the Archies' "Sugar, Sugar." And just a few years earlier, Jersey boys the Four Seasons were providing the missing link between doo-wop and Motown with falsetto-powered, tough-but-tender gems like "Big Girls Don't Cry." From the sophisticated, urban pop of Dionne Warwick to the from-the-gut soul shout of Aretha Franklin, this is the spot where you can tap into what still sounds like the most exciting decade of the 20th century.