‘Yesterday’ would be the best song in any year it was released
There are 16 songs on this list I could have selected as my top pick. However, I could only pick one so I chose “Satisfaction” just barely over “Yesterday”.
That would’ve been my pick too. What song kept Dylan out anyway?
1966 is next and while it too has a bumper crop of great songs to choose from, it’s not as large and formidable as 1965’s. For me, there was one clear choice for that year.
I Feel Fine
There’s a fascinating split in this year. Groups that wrote their own songs are on the rise and would soon take over the rock world. The other half of the list are singing the work of others, but now tend to be working directly with them or dipping into the singer-songwriter pool surrounding them.
“Downtown” was written by the vastly underrated Tony Hatch, who was responsible for an amazing number of hits before becoming Petula Clark’s partner in production. Smokey Robinson and Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote hits for the Temptations, the Four Tops, and the Supremes. (“Come See About Me” may be my favorite Supremes song.)
“Eve of Destruction” was written by P. F. Sloan, “Turn, Turn, Turn,” by Pete Seegar and the Byrds dumped four verses by that Zimmerman guy to make “Tambourine Man” a number one.
Even the old hit factories are represented. “This Diamond Ring” was plucked from a stack of demos, but it happened to have been co-written by Al Kooper during his year as a Brill Building hack. “You’ve Lost That Loving Feelings” was delivered straight to the Righteous Brothers by its authors, Phil Spector and the team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.
That’s a tremendous depth of all-star writers, doing some of their best work, probably all inspired and pushed by what they heard around them.
But I have to go with a self-penned song. Obviously, that means “I’m Telling You Now,” written by Freddie Garrity. Yeah, not only am I kidding but it was co-written by British hit factory Mitch Murray.
“Help Me, Rhonda” is one of my favorite Beach Boys songs, but let’s face it, I need to pick a staggering all-time classic to mark the year and that means “Satisfaction.”
“Help,” two weeks running.
Damn, it’s agonizing to pick just one song from that list. But I didn’t pick *Satisfaction *because . . . well, it’s by the Stones, and how could I pick *any *Stones song over the Beatles? And I didn’t pick a Beatles song from 1964. So I wound up picking Yesterday.
I voted Satisfaction, I was this close to voting Tambourine Man, but Satisfaction won out.
I recognize Yesterday is iconic, but I’m afraid it’s just a maudlin Tin Pan Alley song to me.
If videos counted, I’d have voted for Hang On, Sloopy…he said, leeringly
Good thing you specified “song” in the poll…
As for the poll, I voted with the hindsight of nearly 50 years and went with one of the obscure.
As an Ohio resident, I’d just like to mention that the songwriters of this song should have been nuked from orbit before they ever could set pen to paper.
I wasn’t talking about the music…
I’ve never gotten the hate for “Hang On, Sloopy.” It’s a perfect example of catchy garage rock. Is there something about Ohio that they offended?
That film in MrDible’s link is a fascinating example of an early music video. I wonder when it was made. In 1965 the McCoys looked like this. Every time people make comments about the 60s’ look, thinking that everybody dressed like they were in a road company of Hair, they should be forced to stare at that picture for an hour.
I’m going with My Girl. The Funk Brothers’ intro is brilliant and immediately recognizable to anybody who listens to music, the bass line is great, the lyrics catchy, and the harmony wonderful.
The song has become associated with Ohio State football and gets played way too much.
Judging by the clothes and hair, I’d guess later in the 60s. The gulf in pop culture between '65 and '69 is vast. It’d have to be before 1970, at any rate, the McCoys were only active until '69.
I’m really torn between two songs for 1966; I think I’m going to vote for the one that isn’t as likely to run away with it.
It’s been several of these since I posted my list of music I had some appreciation for.
But this year had quite a few, in descending order of preference:
The Beatles - “Ticket To Ride” (my vote)
The Beatles - “Yesterday”
The Rolling Stones - “Satisfaction”
The Byrds - “Mr. Tambourine Man”
The Righteous Brothers - “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”
Freddie and the Dreamers - “I’m Telling You Now”
Herman’s Hermits - “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter”
Herman’s Hermits - “I’m Henry the Eighth, I Am”
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After several years of ho-hum stuff I think this year was about when I decided that music wasn’t dead yet. 
Holy crap this was a great year for music.
Went with My Girl. My memory is that there were two versions from the 1960s, one with the guitar riff prominently featured in the opening (and the other not so much.) Wikipedia doesn’t mention alternate versions, and YouTube’s selection isn’t vast. Am I misremembering?
If Like a Rolling Stone qualified, that would have won my vote. It wears its length very well and makes the songs around it seem puny. It’s been called the first Rock song – as opposed to rock and roll. Don’t know, but maybe.
**Satisfaction **doesn’t push my buttons, although the menstruation reference is nice. I started appreciating it a little more after reading that the guitar riff was originally meant as a stand in for a horn section. The riff is too simple for my tastes – I think I’d like the song better with the textural interest of horns.
And finally… I’d like to put in a plug for Back In My Arms Again. It seems to generally get pegged as a second tier Supreme’s song. To me it’s got a great spacious opening, a comparatively complex story line, good instrumental interplay and lots of fun “wooo” vocal fills.
Funny you should mention this. I distinctly remember hearing it for the first time, as a 12 year old kid with an unsophisticated ear and no knowledge of the Rolling Stones, and thinking that the riff was being played on a sax.