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Song of the Day #1,455: ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ – The Rolling Stones

Best Albums of the 60s – #6
Let it Bleed – The Rolling Stones (1969)

Let It Bleed is the third Rolling Stones album on this list and the last record listed that isn’t by either (spoiler alert!) Bob Dylan or The Beatles.

The title song was a play on The Beatles’ ‘Let It Be,’ which had been recorded but not officially released when this album came out. I love how artists during the 60s were constantly tweaking and drawing inspiration from each other. The Stones and The Beatles wrote their share of Dylan-esque tunes, inspired by his example, while Dylan returned the favor (his ‘4th Time Around’ was a direct response to ‘Norwegian Wood‘).

John Lennon once said that everything innovative The Beatles ever did would show up six months later on a Rolling Stones record.

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Song of the Day #1,454: ‘She Belongs to Me’ – Bob Dylan

Best Albums of the 60s – #7
Bringing It All Back Home – Bob Dylan (1965)

I discovered Bob Dylan during my sophomore year of high school. I’d heard of him before, and was familiar with his greatest hits through my parents (when I was a kid, they’d played that album on a reel-to-reel player — the iPod of its day), but I’d never listened to any of his albums in full.

I started my collection on vinyl, buying whichever records I could find for a good price at the Tower Records in nearby Washington, D.C. And of those records, it was Bringing it all Back Home that truly opened my mind to Dylan’s genius.

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Song of the Day #1,453: ‘Drive My Car’ – The Beatles

Best Albums of the 60s – #8
Rubber Soul – The Beatles (1965)

Rubber Soul is the album on which The Beatles grew up. The lads who’d smiled through ‘Love Me Do’ and a dozen other simple ditties were now singing about Norwegian wood and nowhere men. Lyrically and musically, they were paving a new path, one from which every rock band for a generation would draw inspiration.

This album also marked the transition from touring band to studio band. The Beatles had performed their last live show — one in which their music could barely be heard over the screams, as usual. From this point on they would dedicate all of their time to recording.

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Song of the Day #1,452: ‘Help!’ – The Beatles

Best Albums of the 60s – #9
Help! – The Beatles (1965)

Help! is kind of the forgotten Beatles album. It’s not their best soundtrack. It’s not even their best album of 1965. It’s a bridge between their more straight-forward early work and the ground-breaking music to come — the classic middle child.

But it’s also a terrific pop-rock album that would be the best thing ever recorded by just about any other band.

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Song of the Day #1,451: ‘You Still Believe In Me’ – The Beach Boys

Best Albums of the 60s – #10
Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys (1966)

One of the most celebrated albums of all time, The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds was at the center of a pop music arms race in the mid-60s. Brian Wilson, inspired by the consistent sound and vision of The Beatles’ Rubber Soul, crafted this masterpiece, only to have The Beatles respond with Sgt. Pepper.

And while The Beach Boys pale in comparison to the Fab Four overall, this album certainly belongs in the same conversation as the albums that surrounded it.

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