Music: Best Albums of the Year Series: 1966

[Saturated Fats]

1965: The Beatles - Rubber Soul
1967: The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1969: The Beatles - Abbey Road
1970: Black Sabbath - Paranoid
1971: Led Zeppelin - IV
1973: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
1975: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
1977: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
1979: Pink Floyd - The Wall
1980: AC/DC - Back in Black
1982: Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
1985: Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
1988: Metallica - ...And Justice for All
1989: Pixies - Doolittle
1991: Nirvana - Nevermind
1994: Nirvana - MTV Unplugged in New York
1996: (TIE) Soundgarden - Down on the Upside // Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
1998: (TIE) Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill // System of a Down - System of a Down
2000: Radiohead - Kid A
2002: Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
2004: (TIE) Madvillain - Madvillainy // The Killers - Hot Fuss // Green Day - American Idiot
2007: Radiohead - In Rainbows
2010: The National - High Violet
2014: Behemoth - The Satanist

1999: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication (13 votes)

2nd Place: Eminem - The Slim Shady LP (8 votes)
3rd Place: Blink 182 - Enema of the State (7 votes)
4th Place (TIE): Matthew Good Band - Beautiful Midnight (6 WRITE-IN votes)
4th Place (TIE): Rage Against the Machine - The Battle of Los Angeles (6 votes)

A little bit surprised that RHCP took this, but they are one of the most beloved and celebrated rock bands of... what, the last 30 years? And most people look at this as their best or second-best album, so I suppose it makes sense. I tallied 6 write-in votes for MGB, so I included those in here - making it the first album to make it to the top-5 despite not being a polling option.

1966 is a year with three of the biggest and most important albums ever released... And not a ton else. At least, in my reckoning. I had difficulty putting together a list of 29 albums here. Maybe I need to dive a little deeper into the psych and jazz scenes that were at their zenith. Just remember that we don't do compilation albums, hence no Yesterday and Today

9/22: 2005
9/24: 1984
9/27: 2011

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[Teemu]

Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
Beatles – Revolver
Merle Haggard – Swinging Doors
Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde

Should be quite the duel between those top two

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Real tough to put anything ahead of The Beatles, but Revolver is really uneven. It includes my favorite Beatles song (one of my favorite songs of all times), but also quite a few duds, including Taxman which also found its way to The Music Machine's album (I might prefer their version). Otis' Dictionary of Soul, the Spoonful's Daydream and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds are other very much uneven albums that include some of my favorite songs of all time. Very tough year to rank for me.

1. Komeda Quintet – Astigmatic
2. Monks – Black Monk Time
3. John Coltrane – Ascencion / John Coltrane – Meditation (plus 2 live albums)
4. The Beatles – Revolver
5. The Troggs – From Nowhere
6. Jacques Brel – Ces gens-là / Jacques Brel – Les bonbons
7. Lovin' Spoonful – Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful / Lovin' Spoonful – Daydream (Coming 2 years before The Turtles' Battle of the Bands, I almost put the Hums album first in this ranking, just a real fun album, and Daydream is one of my all time favorite songs, certainly my go-to song for good vibes)
8. The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
9. Patty Waters – Sings / Patty Waters – College Tour
10. Roscoe Mitchell Sextet – Sound
11. The Music Machine – (Turn On) The Music Machine
12. Otis Redding – Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul / Otis Redding – The Soul Album
13. Nina Simone – Wild Is the Wind / Nina Simone – Let It All Out
14. Cecil Taylor – Unit Structures
15. Sun Ra – The Magic City / Sun Ra – The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 2
16. John Mayall & Eric Clapton – Blues Breakers
17. The Kinks – Face to Face
18. The Shadows of Knight – Gloria / The Shadows of Knight – Back Door Men
19. The Who – A Quick One
20. The Sonics – Boom (for Cinderella... actually, the stuff written by Roslie is pretty good)

HMs
The 13th Floor Elevators – The Psychedelic Sounds of The 13th Floor Elevators
Them – Them Again
Miles Davis Quintet – Miles Smiles
The Butterfield Blues Band – East-West

Other fun stuff I considered, but not good or consistent enough to crack in
The Animals – Animalism
Count Five – Psychotic Reaction
Question Mark and The Mysterians – 96 Tears
The Mothers of Invention – Freak Out!
The Yardbirds – Roger the Engineer
The Seeds – A Web of Sound / The Seeds – The Seeds
The Ugly Ducklings – Somewhere Outside
Love – Da Capo / Love – Love
Donovan – Sunshine Superman

Curiosities:
Blues Magoos – Psychedelic Lollipop
John Fahey – Volume 5: The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death
The Deep – Psychedelic Moods
Timothy Leary, Ph.D. – Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out (“If you're over the age of 40, I'm not sure that you should listen. To this record. What I'm gonna say. Might make you mad” - ahahah)
Godz – Contact High With the Godz
Gilles Vigneault – Mon pays (important work for Quebec, cultural curiosity otherwise not real easy on the ears)

 

[frisco]

Other:
Sinatra At The Sands-Frank Sinatra
That's Life-Frank Sinatra
Strangers In The Night-Frank Sinatra
Spicks And Specks-Bee Gees

My Best-Carey

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Has to be Pet Sounds

 

[WetcoastOrca]

1. Revolver
2. Pet Sounds
3. Blonde on Blonde
4. Buffalo Springfield
5. Sounds of Silence
6. Otis Redding
7. Love s/t
8. The Monkees (add this one to the guilty pleasures thread).
9. The Kinks
10. Mamas and Papas

 

[Chili]

Heres to you Mrs. Robinson...

Sounds of Silence
Parsley Sage, Rosemary & Thyme
Buffalo Springfield
Fifth Dimension
Revolver
Il buono il brutto, il cattivo

Added:

Lovin' Spoonful-Daydream
John Lee Hooker-More Real Folk Blues
Lalo Schifrin-Mission Impossible

Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass released several albums, some great stuff
Rolling Stones-High Tide & Green Grass (one of my favorite compilation albums)

Edit: Amend the John Lee Hooker album above to Real Folk Blues, some great influential music on this album and thanks to Violenza Domestica.

 

[plank]

1. Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan
2. Revolver - The Beatles
3. Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys
4. If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears - The Mama's and The Papa's
5. Fresh Cream - Cream
6. s/t - Buffalo Springfield
7. It Serves You Right to Suffer - John Lee Hooker
8. East-West - The Butterfield Blues Band
9. Projections - The Blues Project
10. Psychedelic Lollipop - The Blues Magoos
11. s/t - Small Faces

 

[kihei]

The Beatles: Revolver
Bill Evans Trio: Bill Evans Trio with Symphony Orchestra
Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde
The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds
The Kinks: Face to Face
Cream: Fresh Cream
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles: Away We a Go Go
Paul Butterfield Blues Band: East-West
Buffalo Springfield: Buffalo Springfield
Donovan: Sunshine Superman

 

[Saturated Fats]

I'm no big Dylan lover, but I'm genuinely surprised to see the lack of love his holy triumvirate - Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blood on the Tracks - seems to be getting on this board (as far as the voting is concerned). I would've automatically thought he'd be beloved, considering the aggregate of tastes and preferences.

 

[Eisen]

I'm no big Dylan lover, but I'm genuinely surprised to see the lack of love his holy triumvirate - Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blood on the Tracks - seems to be getting on this board (as far as the voting is concerned). I would've automatically thought he'd be beloved, considering the aggregate of tastes and preferences.

To me, at least, there are some good songs on these albums but also a bunch of fillers.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

John Lee Hooker-More Real Folk Blues

Great album, but only came out years later. John Lee Hooker had quite a few albums in '66. I'll be looking into it and will probably add him to my list. Thx!

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I find Blonde on Blonde completely banal save for the odd song. I don't dislike him at all but I also have no serious interest in Dylan's music. Never did much of anything for me. Kind of like The Doors.

 

[NyQuil]

I find Blonde on Blonde completely banal save for the odd song. I don't dislike him at all but I also have no serious interest in Dylan's music. Never did much of anything for me. Kind of like The Doors.

 

[Chili]

Great album, but only came out years later. John Lee Hooker had quite a few albums in '66. I'll be looking into it and will probably add him to my list. Thx!

Thanks, you're right. Looks like I got it mixed up with Real Folk Blues (which I haven't listened to).

Edit: More Real Folk Blues was a 1967 release, I picked it up when it was re-released in 1991.

Edit 2: From the liner notes of More Real Folk Blues-The album was recorded in 1966 as well as Real Folk Blues. The latter was released in Oct 1966 for whatever reason More Real Folk Blues wasn't released for 25 years until 1991.

 

[Saturated Fats]

I don't exactly have a top-10 for this year, as there isn't a lot of depth and breadth to my knowledge. But there are 5 albums from the year that I really, really like:

Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Nina Simone - Wild is the Wind
John Lee Hooker - It Serve You Right to Suffer
Simon & Garfunkel - Sounds of Silence
Ennio Morricone - Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo

Not being the biggest Beatles fan, I can't say that I love Revolver. I certainly respect it, though.

 

[Langdon Alger]

I find Blonde on Blonde completely banal save for the odd song. I don't dislike him at all but I also have no serious interest in Dylan's music. Never did much of anything for me. Kind of like The Doors.

Same, saw him in concert once and I wasn’t impressed at all. Some of his songs are good, but to be honest, his music doesn’t do much for me. Not exactly the most pleasant singing voice either.