Ricky Nelson 1963 – String Along
The late spring of 1963 felt like an ending, though few recognized it at the time. The great American rock…
Vanity Fare 1969 – Hitchin A Ride
The year is 1970, and the dial of the car radio glows amber in the fading light. You’ve been driving…
Chris Montez 1962 – Let’s Dance
The year is 1962. Radio waves crackle with the sound of a cultural sea change, the lingering echo of early…
Frankie Lymon 1958 – Little Bitty Pretty One
The late-night static crackles and then, suddenly, a perfectly preserved slice of 1950s rock and roll bursts through the air.…
Glen Campbell 1968 – Wichita Lineman
It is the final frame of an imaginary film, a wide shot across a darkening Great Plains highway. The only…
The Standells 1966 – Dirty Water
I remember the exact moment the grit of the 1960s crystallized for me. It wasn’t a pristine Beatles track or…
Spiral Staircase 1969 – More Today Than Yesterday
The late 1960s were an era defined by a clash of textures: the psychedelic swirl against the orchestrated grandeur, the…
Neil Diamond 1967 – Kentucky Woman
The year is 1967. The air is thick with patchouli and psychedelia, but down in the trenches of the pop…
The Turtles 1965 – It Ain’t Me Babe
The year is 1965, the air thick with the buzzing sound of electric twelve-string guitars and the urgent need to…
The Spencer Davis Group 1965 – Keep on Running
The air in 1965 was thick with possibility, a charged atmosphere where the raw, untamed blues of America was being…