Baby Boomer Songs From 1966 That Defined Youth

What Made These Baby Boomer Songs From 1966 Special

The baby boomer songs from 1966 arrived when the oldest boomers were turning twenty and the youngest were still in grade school, and many were heard first on small transistor radios. Pop music that year grew more daring, more personal and, at times, more serious.

This episode counts down ten records from that year. The chart positions and stories below were checked against chart records and other reliable sources, and a few details from popular retellings have been corrected along the way.

How the Countdown Unfolds: 10 Songs That Shaped a Generation

#10: Good Vibrations — The Beach Boys (1966)

Brian Wilson built this song on an idea from his mother, who told him dogs could pick up on people's "vibrations." He recorded it piece by piece over about seven months, in roughly 20 sessions across four Hollywood studios. The eerie sliding tone came from an Electro-Theremin, played by its inventor, Paul Tanner.

The effort paid off. The single sold more than 293,000 copies in its first four days, became the group's first million-seller, and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on December 10, 1966.

It was also a high-water mark. The Beach Boys did not return to the American Top 10 until "Rock and Roll Music" in 1976, ten years later.

#9: Paint It Black — The Rolling Stones (1966)

The Stones recorded this song at RCA Studios in Hollywood in March 1966. It began as a fairly ordinary pop arrangement until Bill Wyman, playing around on a Hammond organ during a break, found the heavier sound that pushed the band in a new direction. Brian Jones added the sitar melody.

Some critics said the Stones were copying the Beatles' use of sitar on "Norwegian Wood." Jones brushed that off. The single went to No. 1 in both America and Britain, and early copies carried a comma in the title, "Paint It, Black," which has been blamed on a Decca error.

The song is credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Wyman later argued it should have been credited to the whole band, since the arrangement grew out of studio jamming.

#8: Eleanor Rigby — The Beatles (1966)

No Beatle played an instrument on this song. George Martin scored it for a string octet of four violins, two violas and two cellos, and the take without vibrato was the one used. Engineer Geoff Emerick placed the microphones very close to the strings for a sharper, rawer sound.

The classical players were not used to that. They kept edging their chairs back from the microphones until Martin told them to stop.

Released in August 1966 alongside "Yellow Submarine," it arrived during the American uproar over John Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" remark. It topped the British chart for four weeks and peaked at No. 11 in the United States.

#7: 96 Tears — ? and the Mysterians (1966)

This garage-rock classic came from Bay City and Saginaw, Michigan. The band members were the children of Mexican migrant farmworkers, and their mysterious singer, known only as Question Mark, liked to tell people his soul came from Mars.

They recorded the song in the basement studio of Lilly Gonzalez, who released it on her small Pa-Go-Go label. Frank Rodriguez's Vox Continental organ gave it that unforgettable sound. After strong local sales, Cameo Records picked it up, and "96 Tears" reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 in October 1966.

The story of the number is still debated. Reports say it began as "69 Tears," but Question Mark has denied it, saying 96 has deep meaning for him.

#6: River Deep – Mountain High — Ike and Tina Turner (1966)

Phil Spector paid $20,000 to free Ike and Tina from their contract with another label so he could record Tina. He surrounded her voice with his "Wall of Sound," using 21 session musicians, and the track cost about $22,000, a huge sum for one single.

Spector had Tina sing it over and over for hours. She later recalled that she sang it so many times, she ended up taking off her shirt and singing in her bra.

In America it stalled at No. 88. In Britain it reached No. 3, and that fall Ike and Tina toured the U.K. with the Rolling Stones. A disappointed Spector stepped away from the record business for about two years. Tina Turner died in May 2023 at age 83.

#5: Sunny Afternoon — The Kinks (1966)

Ray Davies wrote this song at home while he was ill, after buying a white upright piano. His one-year-old daughter was crawling on the floor as he worked out the opening riff.

The narrator is a spoiled aristocrat complaining that the taxman has taken his fortune, a nod to Britain's very high tax rates at the time. Davies deliberately made him a scoundrel so listeners would not feel sorry for him.

It spent two weeks at No. 1 in Britain in July 1966 and reached No. 14 in America. That was a solid showing for a band banned from performing in the United States from 1965 until 1969.

#4: You Can't Hurry Love — The Supremes (1966)

Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote and produced this Motown favorite. It was partly inspired by a 1950s gospel song, "(You Can't Hurry God) He's Right on Time," written by Dorothy Love Coates.

The famous bass line came from Motown's great session bassist, James Jamerson. Released in late July 1966, the single topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in September and also reached No. 1 on the R&B chart.

#3: Wild Thing — The Troggs (1966)

Songwriter Chip Taylor wrote "Wild Thing" very quickly. An American band, the Wild Ones, recorded it first in 1965, but their version did not sell. The Troggs' manager, Larry Page, suggested the song to the English group, and they copied the original's whistle solo on an ocarina.

Their version reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 on July 30, 1966. It was released on two different American labels at once, Fontana and Atco, and Billboard combined the sales. In Britain it reached No. 2.

Singer Reg Presley had been working as a bricklayer, and he kept at it until "Wild Thing" made the British Top 10. He died in 2013 at age 71.

#2: Reach Out I'll Be There — Four Tops (1966)

Holland-Dozier-Holland pitched the melody near the top of Levi Stubbs' range. According to bandmate Duke Fakir, they wanted a cry and a hunger in his voice.

The group found the result a little odd and asked Berry Gordy not to release it. Gordy insisted. The record spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in October 1966, also topped the R&B chart, and held No. 1 in Britain for three weeks. Levi Stubbs died in 2008 at age 72.

#1: Society's Child — Janis Ian (1966)

Janis Ian began this song at 13 and finished it at 14. It tells of a white girl whose mother and community forbid her romance with a Black boy. Atlantic Records paid for the recording but declined to release it, and Verve issued it in September 1966, when Ian was 15.

Some stations refused to play it. In her 2008 autobiography, Ian recalled receiving hate mail, some of it with razor blades hidden inside.

The turning point came on April 25, 1967, when Leonard Bernstein featured the song on his CBS special Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution. That summer it reached No. 14 on the Hot 100. Atlantic's Jerry Wexler later publicly apologized for passing on it.

Why These Songs Still Matter to Baby Boomers

Put these ten records side by side and you can hear a generation coming of age. There are studio experiments, garage bands from small towns, Motown polish and a teenage songwriter taking on a subject many adults avoided.

These baby boomer songs from 1966 also remind us that a hit was never guaranteed. Some soared, one stalled at home and thrived abroad, and one took nearly a year and a famous conductor to find its audience.

Which of these songs takes you back to 1966, and where were you when you first heard it?

Sources and Further Reading

• "Society's Child" (Wikipedia)
• "River Deep – Mountain High" (Wikipedia)
• "Eleanor Rigby" (Wikipedia)
• "96 Tears" (Wikipedia)
• List of Billboard Hot 100 number ones of 1966 (Wikipedia)