Gonna do a deep dive of this year when that channel I like covers it next Friday. I’ll let you know what gems I find.

check out some of the gems i found put in 3 months of work

anything you dont recognize near the top of my list

Will do

The best songs I discovered for this year;

Dave Berry - Don't Give Me No Lip
Ben E King - River Of Tears
Wilson Pickett - For Better Or Worse
Bo Diddley - Keep Your Big Mouth Shut
Ricky Nelson - From A Distance
Dave Berry - Crying Game

@rvi thoughts?

The Animals and Shangri-Las rookies of the year

Brian Wilson and Lennon the mvp's

Dave Davies the riff-monster of the year and Clapton was doing some ridiculously potent stuff with the Yardbirds but id have to give Townshend guitarist of the year nobody stepping to his slashing free-jazz solos and pulverizing rhythm work

Sam Cook clearly gets vocal oty but its another year of Roy Orbison pretty much rivalling the best soul singers out there

Spector gets producer of the year again of course but "Shadow" Morton hot on his heels with the Shangri-Las epics

by far the best year popular music had up to that point

its (roughly) in order right?

Yeah pulled my hair out for weeks over the sequencing

its looking solid, although the top 3 im not as big on as you are. a lot of songs on there i like but wouldnt put on a "best of year" level but i think thats because you like 1964 a bit more than me in general

@rvi

need your version of this

for 65? or 64 cuz i see you got both Cooke and Who there

64

kinks not your rookies? yeah album isnt that great but for the 2 classic singles alone

kinks rookies
wilson MVP because of the heights, but beatles very close all things considered (def. better albums)
sam cooke best vocalist i guess
eric dolphy best jazzman from my limited knowledge
i dont know enough producers to really say but its gotta be spector i guess
Buck Owens for country

for 65:

Be my Husband - Nina Simone

Sinnerman - Nina Simone

Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan

desolation row - bob dylan

Also all of A Love Supreme - John Coltrane

Idk as much as I love the Kinks I gotta admit the Animals were the ones that showed what the future of rock and roll was really gonna be like Rising Sun sounds like it's from 66 or even later

my picks for 65 pretty basic, but f*** nina simone went off on pastel blues man

no way imo

given the importance of de riff in rock history and You Really Got Me's role in developing that its the other way around for me

House of the Rising Sun sounds like '64 to me and surely that big rhythm & blues aspect was the opposite of where the future of rock was headed. the mood of it maybe i can see

organ solo vs guitar solo too

I feel like the riff is great but alot more basic than the daring structure and length the Animals attempted and reached #1 with no chorus, super dark subject matter from the depths of the folk cannon, no bullshit lovey lyrics, Burdon with a vocal that would flatten any other Brit, ridiculously powerful production that would basically set the tone for every "epic" rock tune from then on.... Feel like it preceded not just Dylan's rock stuff and The Doors but also Nick Cave and alot of post punk in its mounting drama. Ray was just writing chunes for the street urchins which is great but he didn't find the magic sound I'm obsessed with till Well Respected Man next year.

yeah i can see the drama aspect for sure (not with Dylan though tbh). but that basicness and "chunes for street urchins" was definitely rock af. the mounting drama and type of vocal strength is a smaller subset of artists where the basic riff was a staple of like everything. from the most poppy rock to the most esoteric post punk to hard rock/metal

maybe id feel differently if i held it in as high esteem as you, to me it's just a great song and not an all timer climax(s) dont hit me nearly as hard as they do to you

yeah Ray definitely didn't find the magic sound yet but they still somehow struck gold and its probably my #2 kinks song anyway. despite all the sophistication he(+they) would achieve later

it's probably not in my top 50

Ballad Of A Thin Man wasn't dramatic?