As I mentioned in the best list intro, 1969 was when many of the worst pop trends of the early 70s started rearing their ugly heads. Although the foremost bad trend on display this year is gutless, edgeless pop-rock of a variety that would rapidly fizzle out over the next year or two, even inContinue reading “The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1969”
Tag Archives: Sixties List
The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 1969
Tempted as I am to make the obvious joke and say ’69 was a very “nice” year, such a mild descriptor really doesn’t do this year justice. A man named Armstrong landed on the moon, a crook named Nixon landed in the White House, and the Manson Family killed eight Hollywood hot-shots because some whackoContinue reading “The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 1969”
The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1968
As I said in the intro to my best list, 1968 saw a distinct shifting of trends in the pop world, but as usual, the less impressive chart acts were a bit slower on the uptake. Though easy listening was steadily gaining ground, ‘68 still delivered a glut of passe proto-soul, stale bubblegum pop, andContinue reading “The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1968”
The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 1968
Any attempt by historians to neatly demarcate where one cultural epoch ends and another begins is always going to be at least a little reductive. In 1968, there was still plenty of music and art that felt more of a piece with the zeitgeist of the years prior, and many of the trends that roseContinue reading “The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 1968”
The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1967
1967 is a famously great year for pop music, but as I’ve said before (and will undoubtedly say dozens more times over the course of this project), even the best years have their low points. Between the crass copyists who were eager to make a quick buck by xeroxing the sounds of the British InvasionContinue reading “The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1967”
The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 1967
Here we are, folks. 1967, arguably the year that defined the entire decade. It’s hard not to view this year as the climax the past seven years were all building to, and the remainder of the decade as a comedown from the dizzying whirlwind that was 1967. This was the year of the The MarchContinue reading “The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 1967”
The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1966
The bad songs of 1966 were, predictably, largely a blend of trend-hopping opportunism and the outdated ‘50s pop that was still gasping its last few breaths of popular relevancy, with that weird sort of half-50s/half-70s gunk I’ve mentioned before filling up the remainder. By now the ‘60s were in full swing, and plenty of songwritersContinue reading “The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1966”
The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 1966
By 1966, the countercultural revolution was already well under way on both sides of the Atlantic, but this year still brought advances in both music and culture at large that would reverberate throughout the rest of the decade and onwards. Walt Disney passed away in December of this year, effectively bringing an end to Disney’sContinue reading “The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 1966”
The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1965
It has to be clarified here that, whenever I say a chart year was “good” or “bad”, I’m always speaking pretty broadly. Every year delivers a wide range of quality: you get some good, some bad, and a whole lot of just-kinda-ehh. That’s just the way it is when you’re looking at stuff marketed toContinue reading “The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1965”
The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 1965
Oh man. Oh man. At long last, we’ve finally gotten to the years where I really have to work to contain my excitement. 1965 is the start of an extended golden age for the Billboard charts- The popular wisdom is that it lasted until around 1970 or so, but I would actually argue that everyContinue reading “The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 1965”
Pop Goes The Year 