What song held the number one spot for the longest in 1966?
The term avant-garde is not derived from the realm of culture, but rather the French military.
Simply put, the vanguard was the bulk of the army, and the avant-garde referred to the few foolhardy folks who advanced out ahead into the unknown. It would be daft to wander your entire regiment into enemy territory, so the French decided to recruit the most daring fellows in their ranks to forage out ahead and report back on positions.
The arts have advanced in much the same manner, with the daft, daring and deftly original leading the way. As John Lennon once said of The Beatles, “We were all on this ship in the 1960s, our generation, a ship going to discover the New World. And the Beatles were in the crow’s nest of that ship.” It might not seem that way now, but that ship was also sailing well in advance of the main armada.
We look back at the 1960s now as a time of unrivalled liberation. But what we’re actually reflecting upon is a swollen avant-garde leading a charge so ferociously that the conservative vanguard is often forgotten about.
However, the charts don’t lie, and while it is miraculous that a group as wildly experimental as The Beatles managed to make an unprecedented mark on the mainstream, that fact can often obscure the reality that Ken Dodd’s soppy ‘Tears’ outsold everyone bar the Fab Four in the fateful decade.
1966 is a year that typifies the dichotomy of the period. You had radical hits making waves, but they were often shoulder-to-shoulder with efforts as dreary and dated as Mr Kipling’s Cherry Bakewell Tarts.
What song held the number one spot for the longest in 1966?
It was a year of great patriotism on both sides of the Atlantic. England had won the World Cup and America was ramping up its war effort. History has proven that nothing provokes a greater response from either nation, as sorry as that may be. And even though it might be a year that is culturally remembered for the arrival of the radical Revolver, the reality of what the public were potently receptive to paints a different picture.
Over in the States, the song that held the top spot on the charts for the longest was ‘The Ballad of the Green Beret’. Barry Sadler’s song was backed with Pentagon approval, given that he was an active serviceman at the time. It spent five consecutive weeks in the top spot and rounded out the year as the nation’s best-selling single.
The UK was also suffering from its own bout of nationalism. Welshman Tom Jones’ rendition of ‘Green, Green Grass of Home’ held the top spot for seven weeks at the end of the year, its supremacy running over into 1967. With pride flying high following a victorious showing in the footy, the song resonated enough to sell a whopping 1.2million copies.
So, while Revolver might grab the headlines in retrospect as the moment pop culture changed forever, the record was a daring avant-garde advancement, and the reality is that the stoic and sober vanguard still held sway over the bulk of public opinion. The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, and Nina Simone were all riding high in 1966, but none could surpass a couple of folk songs that played into national pride.
