Which song was number one when England lifted the World Cup in 1966?
In a normal year, The Beatles releasing Revolver would have been the best thing to happen.
Released on August 5th, this stunning album from a seminal band that opened the gateways for psychedelic music in one fell swoop would have been rightly deemed the album of the summer, soundtracking the kaleidoscopic colour of this hippie resistance with backwards-tracked guitars and hypnotic vocals that felt spiritually aligned with liberalism.
Seemingly, nothing could get in the way of The Beatles in 1966, but bizarrely, something happened that people in England have accepted as impossibility. Hope was no longer the thing that killed us but the thing that was restored by 11 men who defied all the pessimistic odds placed on England’s football team and won the World Cup.
Sport and music combined to make England in the swinging ‘60s an optimistic paradise where cultures could collide. We’ve tried to live off that energy for another 60 years, reminiscing over the good old days, where England could win a final quite comfortably, and the music was good enough to follow suit. Now we have to spend 90 minutes watching England break down a low block while listening to Baddiel and Skinner’s ‘Three Lions’ on repeat until football eventually, if ever, does come home.
Nothing is the same as it was, we all know that, but somehow, the World Cup pales that all into insignificance. England has forgotten what silverware feels like, and The Beatles are just a cultural relic that our generation can simply dream about, rather than experience.
But in fact, as is always the case with the ‘60s, the reality might not have been quite as rose-tinted as we’re led to believe. The political landscape was extremely violent, international conflict was in a state of constant tension, and The Beatles weren’t always the great antidote we are led to believe. Their music wasn’t a global comfort blanket, protecting people from the very real troubles; in fact, some chose not to bother listening at all.
Because even in the summer of ‘66, when England won the World Cup, and the country’s finest band should have been at the top of the charts, they were nowhere to be seen, for in that moment, when Bobby Moore lifted the Jules Rimet Trophy, the UK number one single was in fact ‘Out of Time’ by Chris Farlowe.
But it wasn’t just The Beatles who had grounds to be peeved with this omission. Not only were there several other songs and artists worthy of taking this crown, The Kinks’ ‘Sunny Afternoon’ and The Hollies’ ‘Bus Stop’ primarily, but Farlowe was also beating another British titan to the top and doing it by playing them at their own game.
His rendition of ‘Out Of Time’ was actually a cover of The Rolling Stones’ original track after they gave the record something of the cold shoulder by leaving it off the US version of the Aftermath album and instead including it on the compilation album Flowers. Farlowe then capitalised on The Stones’ magic, blended it with World Cup fever and a healthy sense of patriotism and then stormed the charts with it.
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