Customer Reviews

1966: Time-Life Music Classic Rock

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The heavily-promoted and massive Time-Life "mail order only" series of CDs of about 15 - 20 years ago seemed intent to corner the market on everything from the Big Band Era to Pop, Country, R&B, Soul, Rockabilly and R&R Oldies. In addition to single artist releases, they put out year by year volumes covering the best hits of 1940 to (as far as I can tell) 1969, including this one which covered one of the most turbulent years of that decade.

Street riots in Chicago and L.A. broke out under Stokely Carmichael's rallying cry of "Black Power" and in Chicago and at the University Of Texas, two wing-nuts named Richard Speck and Charles Whitman murdered eight nurses and 14 innocent people respectively. Ronald Reagan became California governor, and in Vietnam some were beginning to wonder if the Pentagon was aiming for a tie instead of a win

The music of that year was diversified, to say the least, with two non-Rock tunes, Frank Sinatra's Strangers In The Night and Somewhere My Love (Lara's Theme) by Ray Conniff emerging among the year's best. Neither is here unfortunately.

What Time-Life presents in this volume are some of the best from among the more Rock-oriented/R&B/Soul sides. All have since become available in numerous other compilations with even better sound (although this isn't bad considering the time) and a lot more in the way of liner notes.

Still, not a bad buy if 1966 holds special memories for you.