'60s Pop

When the sounds of the '60s come to mind, chances are you think of Woodstock or maybe a fuzzed-out garage in Suburbia U.S.A. Yet some of the decade's most unforgettable sounds shimmered across the AM dial — blessed, cavity-inducing pop confections of the highest order. Songs like the Archies' exquisitely titled "Sugar Sugar" and the Monkees' Neil Diamond-penned "I'm a Believer" — both cuts by "bands" created entirely in the wonderland of television. Uptown, string-swept soul masterpieces like Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," Ben E. King's "Stand by Me," and the Drifters' "Under the Boardwalk." And, of course, silly, sexy, utterly addictive numbers like Tom Jones' "What's New Pussycat?" and Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'."

And the pop goodness just gets better in our Next Steps.

Before she became one of the biggest stars of the '70s, Linda Ronstadt got her start fronting L.A. folk-rock trio the Stone Poneys, who turned Monkee Mike Nesmith's "Different Drum" into a Top 20 smash. Speaking of folk-rock — that jangly, gorgeous sound at the heart of '60s pop — cue up the Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man," an electrified, 12-string cover of the Dylan classic that kick-started the movement. But '60s pop wasn't about any one sound; come to think of it, it contained all of them, from the operatic longing of Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman" to Dusty Springfield's country-soul slow-scorcher "Son of a Preacher Man" to Donovan's mystical, magical "Mellow Yellow."

There's plenty more '60s pop magic where these came from. Follow us to our Deep Cuts.

Our '60s Pop Essentials simply wouldn't be complete without a boatload of British Invaders: Manfred Mann ("The Mighty Quinn"), Herman's Hermits ("Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter"), the Hollies ("Bus Stop"), and Peter & Gordon ("A World Without Love"). But here in the States, the Brits got some stiff competition from some of our finest homegrown talent: Little Eva and her dance sensation "The Loco-Motion"; Harry Nilsson and his GRAMMY®-winning theme to Midnight Cowboy ("Everybody's Talkin'"); and Little Anthony and The Imperials and the Association, groups that — with "Goin' Out of My Head" and "Never My Love," respectively — wrapped all the doubt and pain of love in two of the most flat-out beautiful songs of the era.

These are the sounds that defined the AM airwaves — the sounds that made the '60s arguably the greatest decade for pop music. Yes, the era that gave us psychedelia; garage rock; folk; and yearnin', burnin' soul quite possibly delivered its greatest gift not in the form of protest music or sonic mind-expansion, but in the pure, unfettered joys of Krazy Glue-catchy melodies, radiant harmonies, and more hooks than a tackle box. From the pleasant valley Sundays of the Monkees and the Archies to spit-polished sweet soul sensations like the Supremes and the Miracles . . . and even the adult sounds found in mom and dad's hi-fi console (Tom Jones; Blood, Sweat & Tears), our '60s Pop Essentials reveals, once and for all, why the buoyant strains of '60s pop have remained with us for decades.