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Song of the Day #1,448: ‘Street Fighting Man’ – The Rolling Stones

Best Albums of the 60s – #11
Beggars Banquet – The Rolling Stones (1968)

Back in high school and my first years of college, I made a point to discover the important music recorded before I was born. I had sufficiently mined the catalogs of Bob Dylan and The Beatles before finally turning my attention to The Rolling Stones.

Given my limited resources, I settled on two albums considered essential by the powers that be. One is still to come on this list, and the other was Beggars Banquet.

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Song of the Day #1,447: ‘Just One Smile’ – Dusty Springfield

Best Albums of the 60s – #12
Dusty in Memphis – Dusty Springfield (1969)

My standard line is that when I’m listening to Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis I feel like I’ll never need to listen to anything else. It so perfectly captures a mood and a sound that I want to say, “OK, everybody else, put down your instruments… we have our winner.”

There’s just something about this particular brand of British soul by way of the American south that works for me.

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Song of the Day #1,446: ‘Something’ – The Beatles

Best Albums of the 60s – #13
Abbey Road – The Beatles (1969)

The second Beatles album on this list is similar to the first (Sgt. Pepper) in that its reputation and historic importance outweigh the quality of the actual songs.

They also boast the two most famous cover shots in the Beatles catalog (and perhaps in popular music history).

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Song of the Day #1,445: ‘Overs’ – Simon & Garfunkel

Best Albums of the 60s – #14
Bookends – Simon & Garfunkel (1968)

On Simon & Garfunkel’s fourth album, Bookends, the duo entered full-on concept album territory. Or maybe I should say “half-on concept album,” because the record is split between a suite of songs about beginnings and endings (hence the title) and a group of songs that were left over from the Graduate soundtrack.

Perhaps that paints the duo as a little unfocused, but when you consider the second half contains such great songs as ‘Fakin’ It,’ ‘A Hazy Shade of Winter’ and the full version of ‘Mrs. Robinson,’ it’s hard to argue with the results.

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Song of the Day #1,444: ‘I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)’ – Aretha Franklin

Best Albums of the 60s – #15
I Never Loved a Man the Way That I Love You – Aretha Franklin (1967)

I feel a little guilty for having only two women on this top twenty, though I suppose it’s less egregious considering I have only nine artists total. But the two albums recorded by women are truly special — seminal releases that play just as well today as they did thirty plus years ago.

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