Last month, we revisited some cool British singles released in January 1966. Now it's time to do the same with February. And February 1966 was a particularly great month for singles. Enjoy!
Us folks in Detroit were introduced to "... Better Man ..." by a group called Terry Knight and the Pack. Knight was later to be the manager of Grand Funk Railroad.
Many years ago I had a wonderful opportunity when I got a call from a woman in Palm Springs, CA. She told me she had a bunch of records that came from the estate of Dave Hassinger. I knew who he was from his work with The Electric Prunes. Needless to say I was on my way to the desert. To cut to the chase I bough some fantastic 45s, LPs, and some of Hassinger's gold records. I got Dave's gold LP for "Out Of Our Heads" and his gold 45 for "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". As a bonus I got Dave's scrapbook which included all kinds of interesting items. One was a letter from Andrew Loog Oldham thanking Dave for his work on "Satisfaction". As a way of saying thanks Andrew and the boys made sure he got an engineering credit on the 45 label. All these items were going to be tossed away! Can you imagine that??
Let's not forget- John Dalton was a temporary Kink in 1966. He is on some songs on 1966s Face to Face" LP and toured with Kinks while Pete Quaife recovered
London '66 is my fantasy place & time (above my actual hippie upbringing on America's west coast). The clubs, the birds, the cars, the World Cup - what a scene.
So many great singles from an era when 45’s were a fascinating barometer of pop culture. The Walker Brothers extraordinary ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore’ still sounds epic to this day, some 57 years on!
They just copied the production of the original Four Seasons version, credited just to Valli, nothing particularly unique to the Walker Brothers version apart from the lead vocals, which I think are superior to Valli's and make it the epic classic it is.
@@sg-yq8pm it was a similar arrangement to Valli’s recording, but it has slightly faster tempo. Scott Walker’s baritone gives the song a dramatic - some might say melodramatic - atmosphere that makes it (for me anyway!) particularly memorable.
I’ve long lost count how many times I have told the sort of Beatles fans that Sgt pepper’s wasn’t the first psychedelic music, and that before them the Yardbirds, Cream, Byrds and “the Pink Floyd” had all gone there. Some ignorant people think that the Beatles invented everything…
It’s hard to credit all these songs were released in a single month, I think we took it for granted at the time. The Yardbirds truly were an innovative band, with their excellent “Shapes of Things” covered by many artists including David Bowie. I’d never heard of The Wheels before but so many groups simply faded away if they didn’t make the Charts. I always thought it quite sad that Graham Gouldman didn’t have more success with his own compositions before he did, the man was always a gifted songwriter. Thank you kindly Yesterday’s Papers for another fascinating flashback.
@@YesterdaysPapers …….I agree, especially when you consider the number of quality guitarists in the band’s lineup over the years! I think The Yardbirds are remembered fondly enough by their fans, but perhaps because so many members (Page, Beck, Clapton) enjoyed more commercial success outside the band (be it a later band or a solo career), unfortunately, that’s what the artists’ are best remembered for, rather than their work with The Yardbirds? At any rate, it’s always nice to revisit these wonderful times, so thanks again YP.
I'm guessing we're of an age ! {Can't belive I'm actually THIS OLD !}. I've bought quite a few CD's in the last year or two, with 15 to 20 song's on, by artist's like the Yardbird's, Pretty Thing's, Downliner's Sect, Bo Diddley {No Chuck Berry yet} & have all the early Stone's album's and many more of this period. I like the RAWNESS of the recording's and liked the London Band's over the Mersy Beat stuff. Did you ever see "The British Bird's" ? They were very yardbird's like.... I was struck by The Wheel's too. Never heard of them but that single sound's worth while to "youtube". All the Best Linda, Michael.
This was maybe the best dive into forgotten British pop history this channel has yet produced. You can see things building for what would come later in 1966 and then in 67. Shape of things to come indeed.
And The Hits Keep On Coming!!! The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, The Animals, The Hollies, and The Walker Brothers released some of the best singles in rock and roll history during February of 1966. The only record that i found disappointing in this video. was The Action's version of "I'll Keep Holding On". I am big fan of The Motown Sound. and The Marvelettes are one of my favorite Motown groups. Just my opinion but The Marvelettes all but own "I'll Keep Holding On" which was one of the best records that the group ever made.
Brilliant answer by Brian Jones to a shortsighted comment, 19th is perfect as it is and with As Tears Go By, a two side A+++ single ! The whole selection is great, some I’m happy to discover in the best back to the future music channel where you don’t just listen to a playlist but contextualized with a real journalistic and popmusicologic work.
For me, 19thNB is THE quintessential Stones record. (By contrast Satisfaction is and always was a total bore.) As for the "burial" of Mick's vocals, they were secondary to the overall sound. The niggling jumpy guitar rhythm, and that tremendous bent chord after Charlie's cymbal-crash are real standouts, perfectly calculated to drive your dad up the wall!
This channel should be on mainstream UK telly...oh wait...no one actually watches mainstream telly in the UK anymore...but this is great stuff and a real musical education 👌
Shapes of Things by the Yardies is really one of the best songs ever in my opinion but sadly doesn’t get much play today. Timeless lyrics written by the band, unlike many of their other chart hits.
Very true, even the obscure Kinks songs are good. It has typical Ray lyrics, although it's not as refined as later songs. There's loneliness, envy and bitterness.
What a time to be alive! I was only one year old and didn't hear these songs when they were new, but it was a great time to be alive. Still is. Great music is timeless.
19th Nervous Breakdown was the first Rolling Stones records I bought, although I did go to buy Under the Boardwalk but ended up coming home with Help Me Rhonda by the Beach Boys😂. Some great music in this video
I have decided, based on this Cool British Singles series that 1966 was definitely my peak Radio Pop period. I always appreciate it when a chart place is mentioned for NZ. We don't get mentioned a lot, thanks!
This is one of those months, like May 1967, that just seems utterly charmed. What a stack of stone-classic goodies!! So many delicious fuzz-toned rockers and multi-layered harmony-pop hits, with mod at its peak and even the emergence of the first psychedelic song ("Shapes"). You missed Peter and Gordon's "Woman" and The Craig's debut "A Little Bit Of Soap" but no matter, as I ended up being introduced to the Wheels and Gary Walker singles, with The Wheels really coming as a surprise--you're right, it sounds very proto-punk at the end! Good stuff. March should dig up some gold in the form of The Who, The DC5, The Spencer Davis Group, Them, Fleur-De-Lys, Roy Harper, Alan Price Set, and Nicky Hopkins! You can't go wrong with 1966, there's never been another year in music like it! Brilliance flowed like air and water.
Cheers, Spirit of 66! The Wheels' single is indeed fantastic. It's been a big favourite of mine since I first heard it on the "Nuggets II" boxset. Great tune.
@@YesterdaysPapers Oh you know what, I had that "Nuggets II" box...so I guess I have heard it, LOL. It has to have been a long while since I played it, though!
This channel is a godsend and shows time travel is possible (haha). The Kinks, Yardbirds, Troggs, and the Creation all laid the groundwork for punk, metal, hard rock, and other subgenres that followed. I was just a little boy in 1966 that discovered the Creation in the 90s. In the 2010s their music appeared as jingles on TV commercials here in the States. The Troggs are sadly underrated and while they had success along with the Creation they should have been more successful on both sides of the Atlantic.
I'm beginning to think that 1966 may well have been the apex of 60's rock. The almighty Kinks ruled (over there) during this period. Witness their influence on the Stones' "Mother's Little Helper" that came out later that year! Of course "Aftermath" just screams '66. For me anyway.
Do you know the book 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded by Jon Savage? This to me is better than 1967. Even in America it produced Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield, the Dead.
What a cracking month. Obviously apart from the Stones and the Yardbirds, The Action really really stand out. I bought the first compilation back in 1980,the Ultimate Action. Still listen to them now.
Always when I hear some hidden gems from the 60-ies on YP it is like being in a warm hot bath. I was born in 1959 and my fav decade in music are the 60-ies especially 1965, 1967 and 1969.
In ‘66 I was graduating high school in June. I‘d been into the English music scene since ‘64. Can you guess why? Also I had started to read Rave magazine while I was attending art school in Chicago. Great times to be a teenager!!
"Sitting on a Sofa" by the Kinks was the apogee of a run of singles like "You Really Got Me", "All Day and All of the Night" and "Till the End of the Day". I mean, how could you improve on this? No wonder they switched style. Terrific singles and bands all around here. Howard and Blakely wrote all the hits for Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky , Mick and Tich and others. They could warrant their own segment.
I always have a good time when a new YP video drops. Such a well edited, interesting overview of a phenomenal time in pop culture. It's great to have shoutouts for The Creation and The Action, my personal favourites. And then the pleasure of going down a YP rabbit-hole of newly discovered tracks - ' Sitting on my Sofa' and The Wheels! Blimey!! And always some intelligent viewer comments to read (present company excepted lol) Cheers YP!!
I've long believed that 1966 was the greatest year for music. So many different styles and so much creativity! While some of these new releases are better than others, there's not a bad single in the bunch. ♥ Thank you, as always, YP. It's not only cool that you bring attention to so many lost songs, but placing them in a single moment of time and gives context to each track, as well
I agree, 1966 was the greatest year for music. The Beatles, Stones, and other original British Invasion bands at their peak, Motown and Stax at their peak, the developing West Coast music scene, The Beach Boys Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations.
I had forgotten what a heady time early 1966 was. All the great Brit songs, in combination with what was going on here in the US made it heaven for a teenager.
Aside from your excellent curation of all these fabulous songs of the 60s, I love that you include the reviews of the day. It's impressive how articulate and descriptive the reviews are! I know of nothing even remotely comparable in the US music press. Please continue to gift us with your creativity!!!
“Bad little Woman” by The Wheels is fantastic. I love The Walker Brothers “The sun ain’t gonna shine anymore”, but it’s B-side “After the lights go out” is just as good in my view, you missed out on that one. I love The Action and The Creation. A great month in music. God bless The Kinks! Wonderful video! Thank you for this.
I'm one the few in the U.S. who bought "Hold Tight". If a song I liked was huge in the UK but not in the U.S. it's likely I would buy it figuring that if I didn't I'd likely never hear it again.
What an amazing time, and a great video in homage to it. I'm flashing back to that time - I was only 10, but it was an ecstasy for my ears. Thanks, YP.
Another splendid video - It took me a moment to suss out that Kaleidoscope (The American Band) did a cover of "You DOn't Love ME" which appeared on their album "A Beacon From Mars."
The song was originally recorded by Willie Cobb (or Cobbs) in l960. Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper did a great cover in '68. I've played it a few times myself.😀
Being of that era {I'm 75} it's no wonder so many great song's didn't make it when you see how much was being put out. I've alway's said this about Album's too. Most of us were not rich and could only buy the odd record each month. An LP was a month's worth of Record buying for me ! Dave Dee, dozey etc were originally Dave Dee & the Boston's and I must of seen them over 100 time's, as "our local band".
The Troggs were really, really good and very unique. I must check out more of their back catologue. Additionally, that Gary Walker song "You Don't Love Me" would be covered quite a few times. The version I'm most familiar with is by Jamaican singer Dawn Penn and retitled "No, No, No".
All their sixties albums were reissued on the German Repertoire label, all with bonus tracks, giving you their complete Larry Page produced tracks of the sixties.
You Don’t Love Me, was originally done by Willie Cobbs who wrote the song in 1961, also The Allman Brothers did a version over 19 mins long on their Live at Fillmore East album in 1971
So many great bands around that time that it's hard to mention... The singles by Dave Dee & Co always had incredible sounds like guitar fuzz and that stuff. They deserve more credit, their catalogue is very fine. The Hollies, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, always brilliant!
Ha! Highly apt random clip from Faster, Pussycat, Kill! Kill! What with the States being so big, and regionalized at the time, airplay and chart status was, too. I had very little awareness of The Walker Brothers at the time. "The Sun Ain't Going To Shine Anymore" did penetrate, but it was easy to mistake for a Righteous Brothers record, and I did. Anyway, a new Yesterday's Papers post is always a welcome sight in my RU-vid feed. Thanks for brightening my day!
19th Nervous Breakdown, a great song! Over the weekend , I went to The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. On exhibit is the behind the scenes and concert stills from the 1972 California leg of The Rolling Stones tour. Photographs taken by Jim Marshall. After recording Exile On Main Street at LA’s Sunset Recording studio early in ‘72, when it was released it went #1 worldwide. The Stones supported that record by touring. I was particularly interested in these photos since I went to their concert that year in San Diego, at the late, great San Diego Sports Arena. A raucous affair, if ever there was one. Let’s just say a lot of arrests. Those photos brought back a flood of memories. That same year, at the same arena, I saw perform Black Sabbath and Yes! An interesting pairing, but it worked.
@@YesterdaysPapers It was Yes’ Fragile tour. I saw the classic line up of Bruford, Anderson, Wakenan, Howe and Squire. As much as I was a fan of Yes, it was Sabbath that I was drawn to see perform.
@@boomtownrat5106Great era of the band, I love "Fragile". I suppose Sabbath had just released "Masters of Reality" or "Vol.4". Love that era of Sabbath as well
On our first TRIP I tried so hard to rearrange your mind. In the US " Sad Day" was the non- LP flip which is just as good as the Aside. That's Bsides the fact!
I know I've said this before...but I'm saying this again with LOVE. PSA: YESTERDAY'S PAPERS IS THE HIPPEST AND COOLEST CHANNEL ON RU-vid.....*mic drop*. I love you guys, thank you for your videos. This is not only educational on what was happening in England during such a creative and hot period in music, it's like a Time Machine for us who weren't around to see this firsthand. I love you guys, keep them coming :). Much respect :).....
I thoroughly enjoyed this long video full of exceptionally good singles! I was surprised I didn't even know some songs from the great British bands, like the Kinks b-side "Sitting On My Sofa" and the Troggs debut single "Lost Girl"! Shame on me 🤨! Lots of interesting trivia, like Bill Wyman's dive bombing bass line at the end of "19th Nervous Breakdown" or Beck's innovative use of controlled feedback and sustain on "Shape Of Things". And that it is considered the first psychedelic single! I also really liked the mention of the excellent but underrated Mod bands the Action and the Creation. This episode showed what the counter culture was all about: not conforming to the conservatism of the old generation. In the end there was this garage band the Wheels with "Bad Little Woman". What a scorcher! Thanks a lot for all your research Yesterday's Papers 😄👍!
I totally agree with the girl's criticism of Jagger not being audible enough to hear the words. And Brian's reply is very telling of what would have been happening between him and Mick at the time. Also, when lyrics are so unusual in a song that it's hard for the listener to understand them, it's crucial the band make every effort for the listener to hear exactly what is being sung. Especially for a single!! Again, how interesting was Brian's comment, though. Wow!
I'm not sure singles ever got successful because of the lyrics, heh. It's not a poem, it's the whole package, it's the emotional experience. And fans do sometimes get caught up in the singer and forget to pay attention to the entire band.
What a fantastic review of a great month's worth of UK singles! At about 5:30, you should have stated that 'You;re A Better Man Than I' was included on the Yardbirds' second US album, however.
Only one or two I haven't heard of this time, but some really good picks, I always love some Animals and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich is something I've only relatively recently stumbled onto but instantly fell in love with. I would say that they might be one of the least commercially friendly band names though, lol. Also thanks for reminding me that I still haven't watched Death Proof 😋 As always love these videos, thanks for making them and hopefully introducing some of this stuff to a wider audience.
