(Françoise Hardy/Roger Samyn)
1964
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (#36)
Available on The Vogue Years
The beat sways, Hardy sings, you swoon. The space between the guitar, bass, drums, and vocals-- and that's all there is on this song-- is palpable, and Hardy's vocal is a nonchalantly solitary midnight waltz through swinging Paris. Makes me want to learn French. --Joe Tangari
169. Stevie Wonder: "Uptight (Everything's Alright)"
(Henry Cosby/Sylvia Moy/Stevie Wonder)
1966
Chart info: U.S. (#3), UK (#14)
Available on Definitive Collection
After two years without a major hit-- an eternity in the Motown days-- and with his voice making the troublesome transition from "Little" to big, 15-year-old Stevie Wonder (with help from a cavalcade of horns) literally laughs through his woes on this No. 3 smash. It's all in this rich girl/poor boy tale: the freakish optimism, opulent funk, and sneaky sociology. Here, the full breadth of Wonder's talent starts to come into full view. --Ryan Dombal
168. Albert Ayler: "Ghosts"
(Albert Ayler)
1964
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on Love Cry
Ayler first recorded his signature piece "Ghosts" in 1964, and it eventually became his most frequently played composition. The shortened version that appears on his 1967 Impulse album Love Cry is perhaps the purest distillation of Ayler's ecstatic marching-band mode, as he and his brother Donald volley the theme's simple fanfare back and forth with a joyous, Pentecostal fervor. --Matthew Murphy
167. Stone Poneys: "Different Drum"
(Michael Nesmith)
1967
Chart info: U.S. (#13), UK (N/A)
Available on The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt
It's not you, it's Linda Rondstadt. Only in her 1967 Stone Poneys version of Monkees guitarist Mike Nesmith's "Different Drum", the country-pop diva would never put it so blandly. "I ain't saying you ain't pretty/ All I'm sayin' is I'm not ready," she avers, standing proud with Nashville strings and "In My Life"-like harpsichord. So… can we stay friends? --Marc Hogan
166. The Flirtations: "Nothing But a Heartache"
(Wayne Bickerton/Tony Waddington)
1969
Chart info: U.S. (#34), UK (N/A)
Available on The Northern Soul Scene
This is girl-group pop with all the swoony drama that the genre demanded, but it's also tense and brittle: The horn stabs and string whooshes anticipate the funk and disco that were in their embryonic stages in 1969, and the group sings about heartache like they're sharpening their teeth. Northern Soul kids picked up on this one for very good reasons. --Tom Breihan
165. The Monks: "Monk Time"
(Gary Burger/Larry Clark/Dave Day/Roger Johnston/Eddie Shaw)
1966
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on Black Monk Time
It's beat time, it's hop time, it's Monk time! It's American punk GIs in Germany destroying everything in sight with overdriven organ, guitar feedback, and electrified banjo. This was not your rank-and-file Army beat group, raging against Vietnam, the Bomb, and complacency. --Joe Tangari
164. Frank Sinatra: "It Was a Very Good Year"
(Ervin Drake)
1965
Chart info: U.S. (#28), UK (N/A)
Available on September of My Years
Frank walks the same balancing act as Jay-Z, somehow pulling off the aging-Don Juan character and even making himself sympathetic. Strings weep and oboes hum while Sinatra looks back on all the girls he's fucked with a fond, eloquent melancholy, never dropping his swagger but still letting weariness seep in. Masterful. --Tom Breihan
163. Cromagnon: "Caledonia"
(Connecticut Tribe/Brian Elliot/Austin Grasmere)
1969
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on Orgasm
A stately funereal march for a whole army of whispering maniacs, "Caledonia"-- with its pre-industrial stomp and pre-modern bagpipery-- evokes nothing so much as the distant and terrifying future. Like pretty much everything else on the ESP-Disk label, Cromagnon made songs so far ahead of their time we've yet to catch up. --Zach Baron
162. The Who: "I Can See For Miles"
(Pete Townshend)
1967
Chart info: U.S. (#9), UK (#10)
Available on The Who Sell Out
At the time of this song's release, the Who weren't pleased with its chart success-- it only reached #10 in the UK. But while it found them stretching out a bit, it's really classic Who, with loose, airy verses, tight, catchy choruses, and plenty of wailing from both Pete Townshend and Keith Moon. --Cory D. Byrom
161. The Zombies: "She's Not There"
(Rod Argent)
1964
Chart info: U.S. (#2), UK (#12)
Available on Begin Here
It's counterintuitively groovy, with its minor-key darkness and halting drum part, but "She's Not There" is as arresting and mysterious as the girl it describes. Singer Colin Blunstone exudes cool on the verses, obeys the frenzy of the chorus, and lets Rod Argent unload on one of rock's best electric piano solos. --Joe Tangari
160. Os Mutantes: "A Minha Menina"
(Jorge Ben)
1968
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on Os Mutantes
In 1968 Brazil, it constituted a political statement for Os Mutantes to perform their brash and radical form of Tropicália. But you'd never guess it from the playful, sunny bounce of "A Minha Menina", which combines propulsive Latin rhythms, delirious doo-wop choruses, and trebly fuzz guitar to frame a near-perfect slice of carefree boy-meets-girl pop. --Matthew Murphy
159. Pink Floyd: "Astronomy Domine"
(Syd Barrett/Nick Mason/Roger Waters/Rick Wright)
1967
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
In a pre-Dark Side of the Moon world, "Astronomy Domine" was Pink Floyd's calling card, single-handedly generating every space-rock cliché and exposing rock's true psychedelic potential. Forget Jerry Garcia and Jefferson Airplane: According to Syd Barrett's brilliantly warped songwriting, mind expansion and intergalactic research could only be conducted through NASA morse code, academic electronics, time-rippling guitar echoes, and tabernacle vocals about Saturnian staircases. --Alex Linhardt
158. P.P. Arnold: "The First Cut Is the Deepest"
(Cat Stevens)
1967
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (#18)
Available on The Immediate Singles Collection
Everyone from Rod Stewart to Sheryl Crow has covered this Cat Stevens-penned number, but no one has owned it like Arnold, whose delivery suggests a lively mix of brassy self-possession and courageous vulnerability. Her devastating interpretation outshines the fussily Spector-ian orchestration, making the song a massive monument to a profoundly broken heart. --Stephen M. Deusner
157. Aretha Franklin: "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man"
(Chips Moman/Dan Penn)
1967
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
Fuck Dr. Phil. Fuck Oprah. Fuck "Lovelines" and Dr. Drew. The blueprint to how to treat a woman is delivered by the woman with the voice we all want to educate us. Aretha opens plainly with "Take me to heart and I'll always love you." Is there any better way to explain this? --Sean Fennessey
156. Loretta Lynn: "Fist City"
(Loretta Lynn)
1968
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on The Definitive Collection
The greatest catfight song of all time would be just another sad attempt by a done-wrong woman to stick up for her no-good man if it wasn't for the vicious glee with which Lynn delivers her threats. It's almost as if she encourages him to cheat, just so she can get off on beating up the bitch afterward. --Amy Phillips
155. Creedence Clearwater Revival: "Bad Moon Rising"
(John Fogerty)
1969
Chart info: U.S. (#2), UK (#1)
Available on Green River
"Bad Moon Rising" remains the apotheosis of midnight dread: sly rockabilly, cheery resignation, and stab-your-friends paranoia. For all of Fogerty's lyrical simplicity ("I hear the voice of rage and ruin"), he manages to unite Cambodian monsoons, tear-gassed riots, postdiluvian Apollo missions, and bayou homicide under one ominous eclipse. --Alex Linhardt
154. The Kingsmen: "Louie Louie"
(Richard Berry)
1963
Chart info: U.S. (#2), UK (#26)
Available on The Kingsmen in Person
You can blear the words and miss your cues. You can play it in a marching band, with the tubas bobbing up and down, farting the hook. You can even, like radio station KFJC, spin 823 different versions by different bands for a straight 63 hours. Go ahead, try anything-- because you can't fuck up "Louie, Louie". --Chris Dahlen
153. Lorraine Ellison: "Stay With Me"
(Jerry Ragovoy/George David Weiss)
1969
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on Stay With Me: The Best of Lorraine Ellison
"Stay With Me" starts with a slow-rotating piano line and a whisper-coo vocal, before it wells up and explodes into one of the great scenery-chewing choruses of all time. An orchestra drops bombs, and Ellison's voice abandons all restraint, clawing and rasping and howling at the man who's about to leave her. --Tom Breihan
152. The Association: "Never My Love"
(Don Addrisi/Dick Addrisi)
1967
Chart info: U.S. (#2), UK (N/A)
Available on The Association's Greatest Hits
While the Association's happy-together harmonies might make them seem like just another chirpy pop group aching to be hoisted upon Charles Manson's petard, there's a wispy melancholy to "Never My Love" that lifts it above the rabble. This reassuring affirmation of amour is a California dream that knows the alarm could go off at any time, which, in a world of silly love songs, makes all the difference. --David Raposa
151. David Axelrod: "The Human Abstract"
(David Axelrod)
1969
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on Songs of Experience
This is the kind of primary-source material that lets DJ Shadow records get described as "cinematic"-- a bottomless piano figure that ramps up through funk bass, guitar shards, and what we'd now call "breakbeats" to hit a string-drenched climax. This, you know, is the kind of stuff the cool kids listened to. --Nitsuh Abebe
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