Only in Canada and Australia.
It was #1 for multiple weeks on the DC-area top 40 stations, which was why I was confused. (Same was true of the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreaming” which I might’ve considered voting for - it’s a better song, IMHO, than “Monday Monday.”)
It certainly got my vote, with “Paint It, Black” and “We Can Work It Out” rounding out my top three.
Even though I voted for it, I’m surprised how well “The Sound of Silence” is polling. Thought the Stones and Beach Boys would both trounce it.
This was a rough one, but I went with We Can Work it Out, the first Beatles song I fell in love with.
It’s hard to overestimate how much the type and quality of pop music changed in such a short time. I think that most – actually almost all – of these songs are better than any of the selections from just three years prior, 1963, and the one group sounds almost nothing like the other.
What happened? It’s impossible for me to look at these lists and not see that the 60’s represented a massive cultural renaissance in the West (a shocking opinion, I know).
I voted for “Reach Ouyt I’ll Be There” but really it was an impossible choice. “Sounds of Silence,” “Paint It Black,” “Good Vibrations,” “We Can Work It Out” and “You Can’t Hurry Love” are all wonderful.
It really is rather amazing how much better music got in such a short time. If I may offer an answer to VarlozZ’s question as to hwat happened, it may simple be that pop music matured. Rock/pop was a relatively new art form, and like anything else it can take awhile for the right mixes and formulas to be found. By 1966 they’d been trying to make good pop music for about ten years, so this is about the time when people are learning from years of experience and starting to get really good at it. The Supremes and all their incredible songs can’t exist without the various girl-band songs of inferior quality that came before them, and it’s inconceivable bands like the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Beach Boys could do what they did had they not been learning from the songs written in the 1950s.
Even to use an example of an artist who isn’t up to the talents of those people, consider Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made For Walkin.” there’s nothing special about Nancy Sinatra, and any one of a thousand women could have done that song just as well. The song is famous because it’s a terrific SONG - that’s why it gets covered so much. But Lee Hazelwood, who wrote the song, simply could not have written the same song in 1956. The conceptual elements of the song didn’t exist then; Hazelwood had to spend years writing songs, and hearing songs, and being exposed to songs, to even make it possible that he could come up with that song.
I’m sure that’s part of it. I’m also pretty sure demographics had something to do with it, as the baby boomers reached the age when their preferences started driving the market (and even creating the art by the end of the '60s).
It’s not just limited to music. Though the difference isn’t nearly as stark, IMO you see a big shift in movies as well during the decade, and film was *not *as new a medium. There were some great, great movies in the '50s, but if you pluck out Hitchcock and Kurosawa, a typical modern American – even a relatively cultured one – would likely think that this is a pretty dire “Best Of” list. The breadth, variety, and inventiveness of the '60s films exceeds them pretty easily.
I don’t know, maybe I’m overstating the difference in quality, but the '60s films sure *feel *different – more modern. There’s a much bigger shift in the medium between '60 and '70 then there was between '50 and '60 (even between '40 and '60, really).
Same here.
And yeah, man, what an exciting period of music. The electrification of instruments and PAs, the increasing sophistication of studio use, the British Invasion reflecting rock, blues and r&b back on America, the deeper influence of African American music categories on the mainstream*. Just wow…
ETA: *and The Ballad of the Green Berets. Love how that sticks out.
If I may get off-topic for a moment, a major reason why 1960s movies have a different “feel” than 1950s movies has to do with two factors: (1) the radical change in social mores and attitudes between the two decades; and (2) the related collapse of the Production Code which set down a strict set of rules American filmmakers had to follow. Since they had fewer restraints, filmmakers could address adult subjects and take unconventional approaches that were previously off-limits.
Getting back on-topic, I was either too young or not even around when this music came out in the 1960s. In fact, if I truly represented my demographic, I should have little interest in these songs and relate more to the stuff that came out during the 80s. Yet, after going over to Wikipedia and reviewing most of the songs that hit #1 during that decade, I know it’s going to be a matter of having to pick the one song I can tolerate as background noise rather than having to select among a ten or more great songs I love.
Enjoy the embarrassment of riches we’re getting now because choices are going to thin out considerably once we these polls get into the 70s.
Fixed that for me.
Wow, I was 100% convinced that the Beach Boys would take this by a wide margin, but it has turned into a real horse race!
1974 Baby! Epic year for music! :smack:
I think it’s a race between Form vs. Content. Good Vibrations is a triumph of production and pushing the boundaries of the recording studio, but the lyrics are more of the same old Girls-Beaches-Waves. While Sounds of Silence is pretty simple in its musicality (perhaps deceptively so) but its haunting lyrics still resonate decades later. Both great songs, but I chose the latter for that reason.
Wish we could vote for more than one. *Sounds Of Silence *won out (S&G will always own my heart) over Reach Out by the Tops, but they were the two pieces of music that helped me keep my sanity in my freshman year of college. It still gives me a shiver remembering how amazing Reach Out sounded coming out of what was at the time the best sound system I’d ever heard - thank you, Rick’s in DeKalb. 
Sounds of Silence for me.
While this is a bit off topic I am not sure that is a good comparison. You’re right in that the films of the 1950s appear to be generally better than the films of the 1950s. But the films of the 1950s were generally better than in the 1940s. And the films of the 1970s are notably superior to those of the 1960s… indeed, I think it fair to say there was a greater upswing in North American cinema in that decade than in any other. the changes that began in the 1960s really, really took off in the 1970s.
I am not wholly convinced music in the 1970s got worse - the number one singles got worse, but that’s in part because we begin to see truly great, landmark musical talent just not hit Billboard’s #1 point. There’s no Led Zeppelin at the top of the charts, not as much Stevie Wonder as you’d expect, etc. etc. However, I think it very clear that the “modernization” of pop music happened in the mid 60s.
There’s a master’s thesis in here somewhere as to why art forms peak at different times. We are right now in an age of television quality that is stunning in its breadth and genius; there are twenty or thirty shows you could have watched in the last three years better than any show thirty years ago. Why is that? More cable channels? I’m not sure.
“Sounds of Silence” is a good song, but I’m surprised it’s giving “Good Vibrations” such a run for its money.
Or maybe I shouldn’t be. I respect Paul Simon as a songwriter (and guitarist as well — he’s really quite good in that department), and I like a lot of S&G songs…just not as wildly as so many seem to. Sometimes Simon can seem just a little…precious to me. I suppose to be fair one should listen to “The Sounds of Silence” with 1966 ears rather than today’s.
In any case, I will always respond to music first and lyrics second. The greatest lyrics in the world will do nothing for me if they’re not in an interesting musical setting. The music of “The Sounds of Silence” is good (despite its Frankenstein origins), but it’s no contest stacked against the the remarkable achievement of “Good Vibrations.”
That song must also be heard with 1966 ears to realize how completely revolutionary it was. That a song with that many “movements,” that degree of complexity, could make it to #1 on the pop charts is a true tribute to Brian Wilson’s skills as both a master of melody and harmony and producer/arranger.
And it sounds no less remarkable today. I hope it ultimately wins the race, even as I’m generally against ranking greatness against greatness. I feel that 1966 was actually the pinnacle of years for pop/rock. Take away Petula Clark (who had many great songs…“My Love” was simply one of her weakest), “Winchester Cathedral” and the dreaded Sgt. Barry Sadler, and every one of the other songs on this list has something to recommend it, and ranges from very good to indisputably great.
Sound of Silence for me (there are some great songs on this list, but I MUST go with S&G.)
Wow that was a tough choice. Changed it about a dozen times before settling on “Paint It Black” but owned eight of those on 45.