If you’re not familiar with 60s folk rock, these classics serve as a perfect introduction. From The Byrds to Bob Dylan, here are some staples of the genre that everyone should know.
“Turn! Turn! Turn!” by The Byrds
“Turn! Turn! Turn!” was released by the Limeliters before it became a smash hit for The Byrds in 1965. Pete Seeger, who also penned the famous “We Shall Overcome”, released a version as well. Interestingly enough, the lyrics of this song are pretty biblical, with many of the lines drawn from the book of Ecclesiastes.
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“California Dreamin’” by The Mamas And The Papas
I could recognize the harmonies of “California Dreamin’” anywhere. In case you didn’t know, “California Dreamin’” was the first song Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks sang with Lindsey Buckingham when they met in high school. At a Young Life meeting was where the initial meeting happened.
“He was there and I was there and we sat down and played ‘California Dreamin’. I thought he was darling,” Nicks said in 1981.
“The Sounds of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel
No matter how many times you hear it, this song by Simon & Garfunkel never gets old. Even Paul Simon praised the song’s longevity in a 2023 interview with Howard Stern.
“Somehow that song has changed its meaning over the years. It’s different. That’s good luck for me that that happened, you know?” he said. “Most of what you wrote 30 or 40 years ago is dated — that song has something else.”
“Like A Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan
This song became one of Dylan’s biggest hits. Ironically, it was also the song that kept him in the music business. In the mid-60s, Dylan didn’t like where his career was going. Dylan told Playboy that “Like A Rolling Stone” was a song he felt he could actually be excited about.
“It’s very tiring having other people tell you how much they dig you if you yourself don’t dig you,” he told the magazine.
“Leaving On A Jet Plane” by Peter, Paul And Mary
“Country Roads” singer John Denver actually wrote this one and released it himself. At the time, the song was titled “Babe I Hate To Go”. Peter, Paul And Mary got a No. 1 hit out of it a few years later.
Photo by: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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GLASTONBURY, ENGLAND – JUNE 24: Johanna Soderberg and Klara Soderberg of First Aid Kit perform on the Other stage at Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 24, 2022 in Glastonbury, England. (Photo by Joseph Okpako/WireImage) -
CIRCA 1955: (Clockwise from bottom left) Herb Reed, Dave Lynch, Tony Williams, Paul Robi and Zola Taylor of the early rock and roll group "The Platters" pose for a portrait in circa 1955. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) -
Singer, songwriter and guitarist Don Barnes of .38 Special is shown performing on stage during a "live" concert appearance on June 26, 1994. (Photo by John Atashian/Getty Images) -
American country and western singer and musician Johnny Cash (1932 – 2003) performs on stage at the Painters Mill Music Far in Owing Mills, Maryland, September 29, 1977. He is strumming a guitar and standing in front of a microphone. Bassist Marshall Grant (1928 – 2011) of Cashs backing band The Tennessee Three plays behind him on the right. (Photo by Leffler/Library of Congress/Interim Archives/Getty Images) -
Seminal American rock group The Byrds consisted originally of Jim (Roger) McGuinn, born 1942, David Crosby, born 1941, Michael Clark, born 1944, Chris Hillman, born 1944 and Gene Clark, born 1941. Their folk and pyschedelic tinged music was popular and influential during the late 1960s and early 1970s. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
