Woodstock. The Manson Family murders. The Apollo 11 moon landing. The Stonewall riots. These were just some of the life-changing, mind-altering and Earth-shaking events that occurred fifty years ago this year. And this was the year when we began to see a shift in popular music. The era of factory-written, easy-listening expressions of life and love was being pushed away by singer/songwriters who were pushing the envelope to fuse together musical genres and communicate with unconventional ideas.
The staff of Billboard magazine have put together a list of the best one hundred songs that were released and charted in the year of 1969. As I went through the list (and I was a seven year old during this year), I found many songs that I loved and some that I had never heard of before. But what they all have in common is that they are all inventive and creative songs that helped shape and define a generation.
Click below to read the article:
The 100 Best Songs of 1969
And here are a few songs from this list that are my all-time favorites:
99. Friends of Distinction - "Grazing in the Grass"
89. Cass Elliot - "Make Your Own Kind of Music"
67. Blood, Sweat & Tears - "Spinning Wheel"
56. Tommy James and the Shondells - "Crystal Blue Persuasion"
44. Laura Nyro - "Save the Country"
24. The Foundations - "Build Me Up Buttercup"
5. Isaac Hayes - "Walk on By"
