{"id":9235,"date":"2023-12-01T15:48:52","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T20:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?p=9235"},"modified":"2023-12-01T15:48:52","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T20:48:52","slug":"changin-times-in-hyper-drive-pop-culture-in-the-summer-of-66","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/changin-times-in-hyper-drive-pop-culture-in-the-summer-of-66\/","title":{"rendered":"Changin\u2019 Times in Hyper-Drive: Pop Culture in the Summer of \u201866"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our Fest for Beatles Fans<\/strong> in-depth study of <\/em>Revolver has reached the mid-point. Throughout 2023, we moved song-by-song through the album, enjoying the insights of Beatles music experts, historians, and biographers. Before plunging into Side Two of this transformative LP, we asked the Executive Editor of <\/em>Beatlefan magazine, Al Sussman, to put <\/em>Revolver into perspective against the rich backdrop of 1966\u2019s diverse and creative plethora of hit songs, films, and television programs.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Al is a lifelong member of our Fest family, and for many years assisted Mark and Carol in the planning of the Fest experience. He also hosted many of the weekend\u2019s panels and events. Furthermore, Al is the author of the respected historical work, <\/em>Changin\u2019 Times: 101 Days That Changed a Generation about the importance of that unique historical period between 22 November 1963 and 1 March 1964. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With his meticulous, introspective look at history, Al shares his insights into the kaleidoscopic pop culture of 1966. Sit back and enjoy! \u2013 Jude Southerland Kessler<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Most Beatles fans know that Brian Wilson\u2019s Beach Boys masterpiece Pet Sounds <\/em>had a major influence on The Beatles, particularly Paul McCartney, and many have seen the photos of the group in the studio perusing the new Rolling Stones LP Aftermath. <\/em>And of course, The Beatles had a mutual admiration society going with the Byrds and their folk-rock brethren the Lovin\u2019 Spoonful and the Mamas & Papas.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The pop culture world of the summer of 1966 was awash with such communal creativity, and much of that was centered in Swinging London, but also in Los Angeles and New York, in the burgeoning scene in San Francisco and in small southern studios in Memphis and Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Indeed, The Beatles flirted with the idea of recording at the Stax studios in Memphis that year but never quite made it happen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The week that the single of \u201cPaperback Writer\u201d\/\u201cRain,\u201d the first release from the sessions that produced Revolver, <\/em>reached American record stores, the Stones had the No. 1 single with \u201cPaint It, Black,\u201d which featured Brian Jones on sitar \u2013 just months after George Harrison had brought that instrument to the pop world on Rubber Soul<\/em>\u2019s \u201cNorwegian Wood.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But folk-rock was very much a part of the Top 10, with the Spoonful\u2019s \u201cDid You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind,\u201d the Mamas & Papas\u2019 \u201cMonday Monday\u201d and Simon & Garfunkel\u2019s \u201cI Am A Rock.\u201d West Coast pop craftsmanship was represented by Gary Lewis & the Playboys\u2019 \u201cGreen Grass,\u201d which was largely recorded by the L.A. session players known as the Wrecking Crew and arranged by session pro Leon Russell.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1966 was arguably soul music\u2019s greatest year, and that Top 10 featured two classic R&B ballads: Percy Sledge\u2019s \u201cWhen A Man Loves A Woman\u201d and James Brown\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019s A Man\u2019s Man\u2019s Man\u2019s World.\u201d And smack in the middle of the Top 10 was a soon-to-be No. 1 by that standard-bearer for traditional pop music, Frank Sinatra, with \u201cStrangers In the Night.\u201d Indeed, in July, the Chairman of the Board would have a No. 1 single with that song and a chart-topping LP named after the hit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But The Beatles would oust Frank from both perches with their \u201cPaperback Writer\u201d single and the \u201cYesterday\u201d\u2026And Today <\/em>album, once the \u201cbutcher cover\u201d controversy had subsided and the album was released with the more traditional cover.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unlike the tightly-formatted charts of the 21st<\/sup> Century, musical variety was the hallmark of what one heard on the radio that summer. The album charts were dominated by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Their What Now My Love <\/em>LP spent eight weeks at No. 1 that late spring\/early summer and, for the week of June 18, Herb and the Brass had three of the Top Five, with Whipped Cream and Other Delights <\/em>and Going Places <\/em>also in that Top Five.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By mid-July, \u201cPaperback Writer\u201d had been ousted from the top of the charts by a two-year-old recording of a song written by Brill Building songwriters Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. Tommy James and the Shondells\u2019 recording of \u201cHanky Panky\u201d suddenly exploded as a result of airplay from a Pittsburgh disc jockey. After topping the charts for a couple of weeks, \u201cHanky Panky\u201d was dislodged by a slice of in-your-face hard rock. The Troggs\u2019 \u201cWild Thing\u201d became a rock anthem that Jimi Hendrix would perform the following summer in climaxing the Monterey Pop Festival.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The summer of \u201966 was the hottest of the decade in the U.S., so it was fitting that the No. 1 single for much of August was the Lovin\u2019 Spoonful\u2019s \u201cSummer In The City.\u201d If one wanted to escape the heat and humidity, a visit to a movie theater was a great option, with the fare on the screen nearly as varied as it was on the radio.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There was the domestic potboiler film treatment of Edward Albee\u2019s Who\u2019s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, <\/em>starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, the all-star cast Cold War comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming!, <\/em>the scenic Born Free, <\/em>yet another in the series of increasingly bad vehicles for Elvis Presley, Paradise Hawaiian Style, <\/em>the science fiction adventure film Fantastic Voyage<\/em>, and a romantic comedy out of Swinging London that made a star out of 30-year-old Michael Caine, Alfie, <\/em>which also starred Paul McCartney\u2019s then-girlfriend Jane Asher.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Television\u2019s three networks were in rerun season during that summer of \u201966, but interesting changes were on the horizon. For instance, NBC\u2019s Monday night rock showcase, Hullabaloo, <\/em>was canceled after a season-and-a-half and was replaced in September by a sitcom about a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll band called The Monkees. Modeled after the two Beatles feature films, The Monkees <\/em>was a pioneering effort in the area of music video, and the group created for the show had tremendous success right from the start, just as some younger, more conservative Beatles fans were becoming disenchanted with that summer\u2019s controversies and the adventurous new Beatles music on Revolver. <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Monkees<\/em> (the show and the group) were a tailor-made alternative, and their first single, \u201cLast Train To Clarksville,\u201d was just starting to get radio airplay in late August, even as The Beatles were finishing up what would be their final tour.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was in the summer of \u201966 that rock radio listeners got an alternative to the screaming DJs and pimple cream commercials of Top 40 radio. As a result of a Federal Communications Commission ruling that AM stations could not simulcast their programming on their FM affiliates full time, other forms of programming had to be installed. So, in New York at the end of July, the FM affiliate of WOR began playing rock music but without constant jingles and other characteristics of Top 40. WOR-FM played the current hits but also new music not yet on the charts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For instance, young Janis Ian\u2019s song about interracial dating, \u201cSociety\u2019s Child,\u201d which wouldn\u2019t become a hit single until the following year, received heavy exposure on WOR-FM. By that fall, when the station began using on-air personalities, former Top 40 DJs like Murray The K and Scott Muni, WOR-FM became one of the first commercial outlets for an intelligent presentation of rock music<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But, whichever side of the radio dial was one\u2019s preferred listening form, the summer of \u201966 was brimming over with great and lasting music. At any moment, one could hear the likes of Dusty Springfield\u2019s \u201cYou Don\u2019t Have To Say You Love Me,\u201d Petula Clark\u2019s \u201cI Couldn\u2019t Live Without Your Love,\u201d the Hollies\u2019 \u201cBus Stop,\u201d Motown\u2019s \u201cAin\u2019t Too Proud To Beg\u201d by the Temptations, \u201cReach Out, I\u2019ll Be There\u201d by the Four Tops and \u201cYou Can\u2019t Hurry Love\u201d by the Supremes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bobby Hebb and the Cyrkle, among the opening acts on that final Beatles tour, each nearly topped the national singles chart with \u201cSunny\u201d and \u201cRed Rubber Ball,\u201d respectively. There was great soul music from Wilson Pickett (\u201cLand Of 1000 Dances\u201d), Lee Dorsey (\u201cWorking In The Coal Mine\u201d), the Capitols (\u201cCool Jerk\u201d), and Billy Stewart (\u201cSummertime\u201d).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A vocal group from New Jersey, the Happenings, put a Four Seasons-style spin on the end-of-summer \u201950s hit \u201cSee You In September\u201d while the Seasons themselves were re-interpreting Cole Porter\u2019s \u201cI\u2019ve Got You Under My Skin.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Donovan, who emerged in 1965 as a Dylan-esque folkie, re-emerged with a new pop sound, courtesy of producer Mickie Most, and a chart-topping single with \u201cSunshine Superman\u201d while Brill Building-trained singer\/songwriter Neil Diamond had his breakthrough hit, \u201cCherry Cherry.\u201d And there was so much more\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And, by the second week in September, the No. 1 album in the U.S. was an amazing, transformative LP by The Beatles, awash with creativity from London. Revolver<\/em> opened a new chapter in their already-revolutionary career.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

HEAD HERE to follow Al Sussman on Facebook<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our Fest for Beatles Fans in-depth study of Revolver has reached the mid-point. Throughout 2023, we moved song-by-song through the album, enjoying the insights of Beatles music experts, historians, and biographers. Before plunging into Side Two of this transformative LP, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":9237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[117],"class_list":["post-9235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-beatles","tag-the-beatles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9236,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9235\/revisions\/9236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}