150. Bob Dylan: "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding"
(Bob Dylan)
1965
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on Bringing It All Back Home
In many respects, "It's Alright, Ma" was Dylan's last word on overt protest music, and he channeled this comprehensive social diatribe with such otherworldly fury that it seemed to awe even himself. "I don't know how I got to write those songs," he told Ed Bradley in a 2004 "60 Minutes" interview. "Try and sit down and write something like that." --Matthew Murphy
149. Archie Bell & the Drells: "Tighten Up"
(Archie Bell/Billy Butler)
1968
Chart info: U.S. (#1), UK (N/A)
Available on Tighten Up
Prozac on wax-- one of the simplest, most joyous soul-shouting dance numbers of the decade, built on the only chords that matter. The Drells send their major sevenths strutting and scratching back and forth like they know they've found the perfect groove, and the whole thing just beams; you'd be hard pressed to find someone who can hear it without smiling back. --Nitsuh Abebe
148. The Velvet Underground: "Sister Ray"
(John Cale/Sterling Morrison/Lou Reed/Mauren Tucker)
1967
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on White Light/White Heat
It may clock in at 17 minutes, but "Sister Ray" is rock ‘n' roll debased to it purest, most puerile form: blow jobs, smack, and a ceaseless riff that sounds like "96 Tears" getting cooked in a spoon. Some 26 years later, Jon Spencer would claim, "My father was Sister Ray!" He's just one of a million garage-rock deviants with a claim to child support. --Stuart Berman
147. Nina Simone: "Sinnerman"
(Traditional)
1964
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on The Best of Nina Simone
It's the end of the world and whoever sings this spiritual is trying to find a way out. Simone, raised in church, understands the scriptural underpinnings and sounds like she's riding her piano into town with a column of flame trailing 10 feet behind her. "Urgent" doesn't begin to describe it. --Mark Richardson
146. Terry Riley: "In C"
(Terry Riley)
1968
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on In C
Where Steve Reich's 1974 modern classical piece "Music for 18 Musicians" throws up a wall of sound that even a packing Phil Spector would have trouble penetrating, Terry Riley's "In C" hangs like a beaded curtain. Here, minimalism isn't some totalizing force but a loose scrim dividing sound from silence, music from chaos, and chance from design, as the players attack cell-based arrangements like tipsy bingo players throwing chips to the wind. --Philip Sherburne
145. Tammy Wynette: "Stand by Your Man"
(Billy Sherrill/Tammy Wynette)
1968
Chart info: U.S. (#19), UK (#1)
Available on Stand by Your Man
Listening to Tammy Wynette's hit song now, it's tough to decide who's being insulted more-- the wife who should forgive her philandering husband, or the husband who, being "just a man," apparently can't keep his libido in check. Regardless, the track's hallmarks-- swinging rhythm, teary steel guitar, and aching vocals-- are definitive, making it one of the most popular and best-loved songs country music has yet produced. --Cory D. Byrom
144. Bobbie Gentry: "Ode to Billie Joe"
(Bobbie Gentry)
1967
Chart info: U.S. (#1), UK (N/A)
Available on An American Quilt: 1967-1974
Our "Law & Order"-corroded minds can all-too-easily guess what the singer and Billie Joe tossed off the bridge that night, but this Southern Gothic story-song is still a creeping horror, for the way Gentry teases out each character's reactions to a tragedy-- and for the dread that sinks in with every revelation. --Chris Dahlen
143. Scott Walker: "Big Louise"
(Scott Walker)
1969
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on Scott 3
With his trembling baritone croon and God's string section by his side, Scott Walker skillfully straddles the line between true pathos and nauseating bathos. With the weight he imparts to lyrics that are both clumsy scraps of poesy and poignant images ("She's a haunted house/ And her windows are broken"), it doesn't matter if the song is about an aging prostitute or his favorite soup spoon-- he sings this sad tale as if it's escaping upon his very last breath. --David Raposa
142. Procol Harum: "A Whiter Shade of Pale"
(Gary Brooker/Keith Reid)
1967
Chart info: U.S. (#5), UK (#1)
Available on The Best of Procol Harum
This song, given a bit more than its fair share of exposure via high school dances and movie previews, is nevertheless a pristine example of how far a great melody and chord progression will take you. It doesn't matter that it's a Bach rip, or that nobody really knows what Gary Brooker is singing about. --Dominique Leone
141. The Supremes: "Baby Love"
(Lamont Dozier/Brian Holland/Eddie Holland)
1964
Chart info: U.S. (#1), UK (#1)
Available on The Ultimate Collection
The four-bar intro, the ponying piano rhythms, a young Diana Ross' naifish vocals, the sugary vocal callbacks, the key change; simple economy of songwriting was one of Motown's defining characteristics, but few tracks from the label's golden era came as perfectly packaged as this one. --Mark Pytlik
140. Donovan: "Season of the Witch"(Donovan)
1966
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on Sunshine Superman
Better known as a dippy, soft-spoken mystic, Donovan's claws came out for "Season of the Witch". This psych-pop seether indicts the singer's own folkie utopia ("Beatniks are out to make it rich," he growls) with toothy licks and an organ sheen that may or may not have been courtesy of Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. --Brian Howe
139. The Impressions: "People Get Ready"
(Curtis Mayfield)
1965
Chart info: U.S. (#14), UK (N/A)
Available on The Very Best of the Impressions
This song's sense of strained optimism, of hope in the face of overwhelming sadness, is almost impossibly gorgeous. Everything floats: Curtis Mayfield's coo, the bluesy guitar, the lighter-than-air strings. When I die and I'm walking toward a faraway glimmer of light, I want this to be the soundtrack. --Tom Breihan
138. The Righteous Brothers: "Unchained Melody"
(Alex North/Hy Zaret)
1968
Chart info: U.S. (#4, #13 for 1990 reissue), UK (#14, #1 for 1990 reissue)
Available on Anthology 1962-1974
"Unchained Melody" is an unparalled slow dance song. It keeps turning and unfolding, like an endless, ever-growing love...and yeah, it's sappy, and deathly sincere. But it's also stately, and undeniable. Like a great bridge that's been shot in front of too many sunsets, it can still get to you-- depending on your date. --Chris Dahlen
137. The Dixie Cups: "Iko Iko"
(Jeff Barry/Ellie Greenwich)
1965
Chart info: U.S. (#20), UK (#23)
Available on The Very Best of the Dixie Cups: Chapel of Love
Part schoolyard taunt, part Mardi Gras chant, part found-sound experiment, "Iko Iko" was allegedly born when New Orleans' Dixie Cups started singing a hometown melody during downtime in the studio, accompanying themselves by hitting an ashtray, a bottle, and a chair for percussion. Not until the reign of the Neptunes would anything this weirdly minimal again reach the top of the charts. --Amy Phillips
136. Jimi Hendrix: "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)"
(Jimi Hendrix)
1968
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (#1)
Available on Electric Ladyland
The stock of the Legendary Rock Titans is taking a dip as idols of the 1960s are replaced on classic rock radio playlists by various Sammy Hagar projects, but I refuse to live in a world where "Voodoo Chile" is left behind. This rocks God even when He's playing hard to get. --Dominique Leone
135. The Kinks: "Shangri-La"
(Ray Davies)
1969
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
"Shangri-La" makes the quotidian epic, blowing up the fireside rocking chair ride of the pensioner and the commute of the indebted laborer into a cinemascope portrait of the British middle class. It's not all tea and sympathy: Check the charging middle eight, as vicious a smackdown of the complacent life as any. --Joe Tangari
134. Brian Wilson: "Surf's Up (solo piano version)"
(Van Dyke Parks/Brian Wilson)
1966
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys
The lonely boy in his room finally gets the baroque and puzzling lyrics his most complex music deserves. For all the Phil Spector worship and industry cash lavished on fireman's hats-- and once you get past the cutesy intro-- "Surf's Up" shows all Brian needed was a piano to knock you on your can. --Mark Richardson
133. The Monkees: "I'm a Believer"
(Neil Diamond)
1966
Chart info: U.S. (#1), UK (#1)
Available on More of the Monkees
With some of the most recognizable opening notes in pop music, this Neil Diamond-penned gem showcases everything the Monkees had to offer: The melody is infectious, the chorus begs for a sing-along, and by the end, Mickey Dolenz' vocals are as impassioned as anyone's. --Cory D. Byrom
132. Louis Armstrong: "What a Wonderful World"
(Bob Thiele/George David Weiss)
1968
Chart info: U.S. (#116, #32 for 1988 reissue), UK (#1)
Available on The Very Best of Louis Armstrong
There's a battle in here. Without that C# major chord-- the one that hits on "and I think to myself"-- you might never know it. But in that teetering moment before the chord's resolution, "What a Wonderful World" makes a subtle heartbreaking gesture to all the darkness rapping at its door (bigotry, weariness, defeat), in turn making it just hard enough for you, the listener, to entirely dismiss its optimism, at which moment the battle becomes yours. --Mark Pytlik
131. The Byrds: "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better"
(Gene Clark)
1965
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on Mr. Tambourine Man
Of all the songwriters who rose with the Byrds-- Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, Gram Parsons-- Gene Clark is the least decorated. But that's OK-- in just 2:35 he basically invents modern power-pop, showing a generation of underdogs (from Big Star to Tom Petty to Teenage Fanclub) how to hide their spite in a joyous, jangly Rickenbacker chord. --Stuart Berman
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