Summer Songs of the '60s

Percy Faith
Many of 1960's summer hits, like "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini," would have been at home in the previous decade. Even the summer's biggest song, orchestra leader Percy Faith's "Theme from A Summer Place," was a gentle, breezy, string-laden piece of easy listening. Matters were considerably weightier in the movie A Summer Place, where teen idols Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee deal with an unplanned pregnancy.

Fun Fact: The birth-control pill was approved for public use in June 1960.

Ricky Nelson
Even though television was famously declared "a vast wasteland" by FCC chairman Newt Minow in 1961, TV heartthrob Ricky Nelson's "Travelin' Man" found a home in every road trip soundtrack this summer. America loved this song so much that it actually hit No. 1 in May and then again in June. 

Fun Fact: Another piece of harmless good-looking popular culture debuted in 1961 — the Ken doll.

Ray Charles
As the civil rights movement gained traction in protests across the country, Ray Charles took a country song and infused it with soul and R&B style. His lush and longing "I Can't Stop Loving You" spent the entire month of June lilting out of AM radios — and into the hearts of millions.

Fun Fact: America became increasingly color-conscious in 1962: Polaroid introduced color film, and ABC started color broadcasting.

Jan and Dean
Even though the bikini was invented in 1946, it didn't become a fashion craze until millions of teens spied Annette Funicello filling one out in the summer movie Beach Party, co-starring Frankie Avalon. Also premiering in 1963 was Jan and Dean's "Surf City" (co-written by Beach Boy Brian Wilson), the first surf-rock song to hit No. 1.

Fun Fact: Two of Bob Dylan's most influential songs — "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" — were released in 1963. Neither one made the Billboard Top 200.

The Beatles
The biggest hits of summer 1964 showed an America in transition: "Chapel of Love" by girl group The Dixie Cups; "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys; blazer-wearing vocal group The Four Seasons' "Rag Doll", and "Where Did Our Love Go?" a Motown groove from the Supremes. Ultimately, 1964 belonged to the Beatles — after occupying the No. 1 slot for four months earlier in the year, they continued their chart invasion with "A Hard Day's Night" in August.

Fun Fact: Also released in 1964 was The Kinks' "You Really Got Me," which is widely regarded to be the first "heavy metal" song because of the distorted guitar sound (achieved by guitarist Dave Davies slicing the speaker of his guitar amp with a razor blade).

The Rolling Stones
The generational battle lines were becoming more distinct by summer 1965. The best-selling album of the year was the Mary Poppins soundtrack, but the song parents most wanted to disappear was the teen anthem "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" from the provocative and vaguely threatening Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger has called "Satisfaction" an indictment of the consumer culture that was starting to run wild in the U.S.

Fun Fact: Britney Spears recorded a cover of "Satisfaction" in 2000, saying "I was just like, 'I like this song.'"

The Lovin' Spoonful
Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" hitting No. 1 in July seemed liked a last gasp from the old guard when it ceded the top slot first to the Beatles' "Paperback Writer," then to "Wild Thing" by grungy garage rockers the Troggs. One of the best songs ever recorded about summer — The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City" — scorched up the charts in August.

Fun Fact: Singer John Sebastian had another No. 1 hit in 1976 with "Welcome Back" — the theme song to Welcome Back Kotter.

The Doors
The Summer of Love saw the counterculture in full bloom as more than 100,000 people flocked to the hippie epicenter of San Francisco for peace, love, drugs and the music of Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. The Doors' "Light My Fire" reflected the darker and more rebellious side of rock, especially after singer Jim Morrison refused to change the song's most controversial line ("Girl, we couldn't get much higher") for the band's live performance on the The Ed Sullivan Show.

Fun Fact: Buick offered the Doors $75,000 to use "Light My Fire" in a TV ad for its new Opel. Morrison said if they did, he'd smash an Opel onstage with a sledgehammer.

The Rascals
Riddled by assassinations, civil rights strife and the military's ever-escalating involvement in Viet Nam, 1968 was one of the country's most turbulent years. The hottest part of the summer was cooled by a funky message of togetherness and hope: "People Got to Be Free" by the Rascals. Practicing what they preached, the all-white band refused to play any concert gig that did not also feature an African American band.

Fun Fact: The band was originally called The Young Rascals to avoid confusion with The Harmonica Rascals, a 10-piece harmonica band from the 1930s and '40s.