Every Friday, I’m publishing my top ten songs from a single year and this week it’s the turn of 1966.
For previous top ten tunes, please click on the year: 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
In 1966, the Action Man toy figure is first introduced to the UK, John Lennon declares that the Beatles are more popular than Jesus, after it goes missing from an exhibition- Pickles the dog finds the FIFA World Cup Trophy wrapped in a newspaper in a garden in south London, the General Election takes place and Labour led by Harold Willson win, the UK opens the first drive-through safari park outside of Africa at Longleat Park, regular Hovercraft service starts across the English Channel, Time magazine uses the phrase “Swinging London“ for the first time, the Moors Murders Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of three children, Guyana gains independence from the UK, it’s rarely been mentioned by the English, but England beat West Germany 4-2 and win the World Cup and it is watched by an all-time record UK television audience of 32,000,000 (to put that in perspective the UK population was 54,000,000 at the time), the Beatles play their very last concert in San Francisco, a coal soil tip collapses in Aberfan, Wales killing 144 (116 of which were children), Barbados achieves independence from the UK, anti-Vietnam war protests take place across the world, the TV series Batman and Star Trek debut, ex-marine Charles Whitman kills 14 and injures 31 during a killing spree at the University of Texas, Chairman Mao launches China’s Cultural Revolution and begins purging intellectuals, and the films Blow-Up, Alfie, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf? and Born Free are released.
Yep, I’m still sitting here crying over how great the 60s were. It’s relentless. Tune after tune after tune. After a mini-breakdown, I still managed to whittle the tunes down to 10 and here they are for y’all. Spotify list at the end as per.
1. I’m a Believer by the Monkees
2. You Can’t Hurry Love by the Supremes
3. Sunny Afternoon by the Kinks
4. All or Nothing by the Small Faces
Nothing to see here. Just the Small Faces walking their pet crocodiles around London. Move along now.
5. Reach Out, I’l Be There by Four Tops
6. Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra
7. Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles
Can’t stop/won’t stop adding the Beatles to these lists.
8. River Deep Mountain High by Ike & Tina Turner
9. When A Man Loves A Woman by Percy Sledge
10. God Only Knows by the Beach Boys
The Beach Boys really enjoying themselves in London. Also, what a year the Boys had in 1966. They released 3 amazing singles this year and I could’ve included all 3 of them in this list tbh.
Ooooh it’s close between the Four Tops, Frank, the Supremes and the Beach Boys, but it’s the lads with God Only Knows that’s my absolute favourite from 1966. Which one is yours, gang?
See you next week for 1967!
Just Another Blog From a Woman 
Oh the Beach Boys, love them. Second for me is You Can’t Hurry Love
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Excellent choices. The Beach Boys were soooo good. Love them.
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Seriously such a good musical era! I can’t choose again!!!
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I hear ya xx
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Aberfan is my main memory of that year. It was a great disaster and I can remember hearing about it on the radio.
As far as the music goes, I think Strangers in the Night was probably the one I was most familiar with at the time.
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The Aberfan disaster is just horrific. I actually hadn’t heard of it before I did my research. Just awful.
Aah good ole Frank. I adore that song.
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Definitely the beach boys number one, followed by the Kinks… But what about Paint it Black by the stones?
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I’ve really tried to like the Rolling Stones (as lots of people seem to), but I just can’t seem to. The odd song is ok- I think there might be one in these lists in the future though. Cheers Willow x
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I was a huge Stones fan, the first 45 I bought was ” come on ” by them .
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My mum met Mick Jagger once, but sadly she was far more Beatles than the Stones.
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Lol 😱😀 I met loads but none of the stones, saw them at TOP but never brave enough to speak to my heroes 😒
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I’m not a huge Beatles fan, but Eleanor Rigby is a beautiful and sad song.
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I’ve had a roundabout kind of relationship with Eleanor Rigby. It went from being my all time favourite Beatles songs, to one of my least favourite (possibly my fault for over playing it), but now as time has passed, I’m very fond of it again. And it is indeed and an equally beautiful & sad song *sigh*
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When a man loves a woman is my favorite, I think. The 60’s history lessons sounds so much like today—mass shootings etc. Interesting, though depressing, parallels.
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Yes, very depressing parallels. We just don’t seem to learn as a race, do we? The music however, is outstanding. Cheers Angela x
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All amazing again, but I’ll go with River Deep, Mountain High. So epic.
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It’s so epic. I LOVE Tina Turner
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Been looking forward to this post to see what was around when I entered the world 😉 To chime in on some of the above comments, I confess too to not being a Beatles fan but LOVE the Stones. I don’t know how you whittle any year down to ten tunes. Mixed bag of news there. Aberfan was such a tragic event. The BBC news did a really interesting albeit harrowing in-depth piece about it, thought it was recent but I’m now thinking it must’ve been 2 years ago for the 50th commemoration. And we won the World Cup in ’66? Why didn’t someone say?! River Deep Mountain High wins this list for me, hands down 😉
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Yes, people do seem to love either the Beatles or the Stones. It’s one of the other. Tina & Ike is such a classic- excellent choice. And no, I don’t know how I whittle them down to just 10 every week either haha. You know, the English should really talk about winning the World Cup a bit more….
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Ooooh another great list! I think I’m gonna agree with you and say God Only Knows too – makes me very emotional when I hear it. The Aberfan disaster was just horrendous wasn’t it?
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God Only Knows is such an emotional song. And Aberfan was just horrific. Completely unthinkable.
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My students have been learning about Aberfan recently. It’s going to feature in the next season of The Crown… Anyway, back to the music… my choice this year would be (cue drum roll…) the Four Tops!
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I love that Four Tops song SO much. Excellent choice. Aberfan was horrific. I didn’t know they’ll be covering it in the Crown. That’ll be interesting.
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