Debuts by The Mamas and the Papas, Buffalo Springfield, Jefferson Airplane, The Blues Magoos, the 13th Floor Elevators, The Monkees, Gordon Lightfoot, Love, Butterflied Blues Band merging East with West on the appropriately titled East-West, The Sir Douglas Quintet, The Small Faces, The Troggs. Garage rock gold of Turn on the Music Machine, The Seeds, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, Gloria by The Shadows of Knight, Boom! by The Sonics, ? & The Mysterians, The Standells’ Dirty Water. Great R&B by The Supremes, Wilson Pickett, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Sam & Dave, Aretha, Percy Sledge, Don Covay and Otis Redding’s The Soul Album.
Regardless of the genre, you can point to an incredible album that would go on to become highly influential. (Yes, I know I missed some fantastic albums on the list – no hate mail, please).
Nineteen sixty-six, like no other year, saw the merging of genres that smashed through the previous boundaries. It was the ultimate explosion of artists expanding their musical vision while at the same time writing lyrics that made listeners think.
Maybe it’s because the list of the year’s great albums is so long that Roger the Engineer tends to get overlooked.
Up until that point, The Yardbirds were a singles machine. They had released two albums then – the first a live album and the second being a hodgepodge of tracks collating singles and b sides. By 1966, they began work on their first full studio album.
While they had relied on covers and outside writers for the bulk of their material until then, this time it would be all originals.
Eric Clapton had already departed, and Jeff Beck proved to be the perfect replacement, bringing his incredible style to a band that was moving away from the constraints of the 12-bar blues they had earlier been shackled by. Beck’s presence became evident right away with the release of “Heart Full of Soul” featuring his stinging guitar. (For fun, check out their original version of the song. That signature guitar lick was originally intended to be played on a sitar. Let’s just say they made the right decision).