Psychedelic Rock: Top 100 Songs

Psychedelic Rock: Top 100 Songs

Psychedelic rock emerged in the mid-‘60s as music inspired, influenced, or representative of the experience of taking hallucinogenic drugs, most notably LSD. The Summer of Love in 1967 and the Woodstock Festival in 1969 were major cultural events which have been tied to the psychedelic rock movement. This list was created by aggregating 24 lists focused on psychedelic rock songs. Click here to see other genre-specific song lists. 1. Jefferson Airplane “White Rabbit” (1967) 2. The Jimi Hendrix Experience “Purple Haze” (1967) 3. The Beatles “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (1967) 4. The Doors “Light My Fire” (1967) 5. Strawberry Alarm Clock “Incense and Peppermints” (1967) 6. The Beatles “Strawberry Fields Forever” (1967) 7. The Byrds “Eight Miles High” (1966) 8. The Beatles “Tomorrow Never Knows” (1966) 9. Pink Floyd “Interstellar Overdrive” (1967) 10. Procol Harum “A Whiter Shade of Pale” (1967) 11. Jefferson Airplane “Somebody to Love” (1967) 12. Iron Butterfly “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida” (1968) 13. Grateful Dead “Dark Star” (1968) 14. The Amboy Dukes “Journey to the Center of the Mind” (1968) 15. The Electric Prunes “I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night” (1966) 16. The Beatles “I Am the Walrus” (1967) 17. Cream “Sunshine of Your Love” (1967) 18. Scott McKenzie “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)” (1967) 19. The Jimi Hendrix Experience “Are You Experienced?” (1967) 20. Steppenwolf “Magic Carpet Ride” (1968) 21. The Small Faces “Itchycoo Park” (1967) 22. The Chambers Brothers “Time Has Come Today” (1967) 23. The Doors “The End” (1967) 24. The Beatles “A Day in the Life” (1967) 25. Status Quo “Pictures of Matchstick Men” (1967) 26. The Animals “Sky Pilot” (1968) 27. Pink Floyd “Astronomy Domine” (1967) 28. Cream “White Room” (1968) 29. The Beatles “All You Need Is Love” (1967) 30. The Velvet Underground & Nico “Venus in Furs” (1967) 31. The United States of America “The American Metaphysical Circus” (1968) 32. Pink Floyd “See Emily Play” (1967) 33. The Rolling Stones “2000 Light Years from Home” (1967) 34. Tommy James & the Shondells “Crimson and Clover” (1968) 35. The Who “I Can See for Miles” (1967) 36. The Count Five “Psychotic Reaction” (1966) 37. The Doors “Strange Days” (1967) 38. Tomorrow “My White Bicycle” (1967) 39. The Beach Boys “Good Vibrations” (1966) 40. The Turtles “Happy Together” (1967) 41. Kenny Rogers & the First Edition “Just Dropped in to See What Condition My Condition Was In” (1967) 42. Big Brother & the Holding Company “Piece of My Heart” (1968) 43. Pink Floyd “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” (1968) 44. Donovan “Hurdy Gurdy Man” (1968) 45. The Rolling Stones “She’s a Rainbow” (1967) 46. The Balloon Farm “A Question of Temperature” (1968) 47. The Byrds “Mr. Tambourine Man” (1965) 48. The Kinks “Waterloo Sunset” (1967) 49. The Yardbirds “The Shapes of Things” (1966) 50. The Animals “San Franciscan Nights” (1967) 51. Buffalo Springfield “For What It’s Worth” (1966) 52. The Grass Roots “Let’s Live for Today” (1967) 53. The Bubble Puppy “Hot Smoke & Sassafras” (1969) 54. The Young Rascals “Groovin’” (1967) 55. The Beatles “Within You Without You” (1967) 56. Pink Floyd “Echoes” (1971) 57. The Box Tops “The Letter” (1967) 58. Vanilla Fudge “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” (1967) 59. Donovan “Sunshine Superman” (1966) 60. Country Joe & the Fish “Grace” (1967) 61. Traffic “Dear Mr. Fantasy” (1967) 62. The Doors “People Are Strange” (1967) 63. Love “The Red Telephone” (1967) 64. Kaleidoscope “Beacon from Mars” (1968) 65. The 13th Floor Elevators “You’re Gonna Miss Me” (1966) 66. The Lemon Pipers “Green Tambourine” (1967) 67. The Jimi Hendrix Experience “Third Stone from the Sun” (1967) 68. Traffic “Paper Sun” (1967) 69. Bobbie Gentry “Ode to Billie Joe” (1967) 70. The Rolling Stones “Ruby Tuesday” (1967) 71. The Monkees “Pleasant Valley Sunday” (1967) 72. Pink Floyd “Comfortably Numb” (1979) 73. The Moody Blues “Nights in White Satin” (1967) 74. Pink Floyd “Arnold Layne” (1967) 75. H.P. Lovecraft “At the Mountains of Madness” (1968) 76. The Blues Magoos “We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet” (1966) 77. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown “Fire” (1968) 78. The Jimi Hendrix Experience “All Along the Watchtower” (1968) 79. Donovan “Mellow Yellow” (1966) 80. The Yardbirds “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago” (1966) 81. Blue Cheer “Summertime Blues” (1968) 82. Cream “Strange Brew” (1967) 83. The Youngbloods “Get Together” (1967) 84. The 13th Floor Elevators “Roller Coaster” (1966) 85. Country Joe & the Fish “Bass Strings” (1967) 86. The United States of America “Cloud Song” (1968) 87. Donovan “Season of the Witch” (1966) 88. The Beatles “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” (1965) 89. Black Sabbath “Planet Caravan” (1970) 90. Country Joe & the Fish “Section 43” (1967) 91. West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band “Shifting Sands” (1967) 92. The Byrds “Mind Gardens” (1967) 93. The Rolling Stones “We Love You” (1967) 94. Steve Miller Band “In My First Mind” (1968) 95. Tim Buckley “Hallucinations” (1967) 96. The Doors “Break on Through” (1967) 97. Funkadelic “Maggot Brain” (1971) 98. It’s a Beautiful Day “White Bird” (1969) 99. The Doors “When the Music’s Over” (1967) 100. Cream “I Feel Free” (1966) Resources/Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: “Other Genre/Category Song Lists” Dave’s Music Database: “Psychedelic Rock Albums: Top 50” First posted 4/17/2020; last updated 9/29/2023.

50 years ago: The Beatles hit #1 with “All You Need Is Love”

All You Need Is Love The Beatles

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50 years ago: Jefferson Airplane charted with “White Rabbit”

White Rabbit Jefferson Airplane

Writer(s): Grace Slick (see lyrics here) First Charted: June 24, 1967 Peak: 8 US, 6 CB, 3 GR, 7 HR, 1 CL, 94 UK, 12 CN, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.0 US Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 1.0 radio, 83.9 video, 199.27 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: This was “one of the defining songs of the 1967 ‘Summer of Love’” SF and “one of the crucial sounds of the late ‘60s freak scene” DT of the psychedelic rock movement. When St. Louis radio station KSHE switched from an easy listening format to rock in 1967, “White Rabbit” was the first song they played to make it clear they “were aligning themselves with the counterculture.” SF Grace Slick wrote the “disquietingly catchy” TB song while in her first band, the Great Society. She explained that the music came to her when she “took acid and listened to Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain album for 24 hours straight until it burned into my brain.” SS The “insistent, militaristic rhythms and the way the song gradually builds to its menacing peak” TB were loosely based on the classical piece “Bolero” by Maurice Ravel. SJ The lyrics were famously inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. She said, “Our parents read us stories like Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz…They all have a place where children get drugs, and are able to fly or see an Emerald City or experience extraordinary animals and people….And our parents are suddenly saying, ‘Why are you taking drugs?’ Well, hello!’” RS500 She said, “I don’t think most people realize the song was aimed at parents who drank and told their kids not to do drugs.” SF It was “a metaphor for the hypocrisy of the straight world.” TC The FCC came down on the song as drug-related and it was banished from the airwaves, but not until the Nixon administration. Slick has said the song isn’t just about drug use, but “about opening up, looking around, checking out what’s happening…Feeding your head is not necessarily pumping chemicals into it.” SJ It’s about “finding a new awareness whether that be spiritual, political, or sexual.” TC Jefferson Airplane adapted the song for their second album, Surrealistic Pillow, when Grace Slick came on board. “Jorma Kaukonen brought his acidic, sharp guitar tones to the tune and Spencer Dryden’s staccato drumming made it very unsettling. Most of all, though, there was Slick’s caustic, banshee voice that just tore down the melody. To hear Slick scream ‘feed your head’ is to have a psychedelic experience.” TC Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Jefferson Airplane TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Pages 490-1. DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 113. RS500 Rolling Stone (2011). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” SJ Bob Shannon and John Javna (1986). Behind the Hits: Inside Stories of Classic Pop and Rock and Roll. Page 243. SF Songfacts SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 703-4. DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 198. TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 91. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 4/17/2020; last updated 3/31/2023.

The Monterey Pop Festival: June 16-18, 1967

June 16-18, 1967: The Monterery Pop Festival was held at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. Pete Townshend smashed his guitar, Jimi Hendrix lit his on fire, and the Summer of Love ignited.



More than 200,000 people turned out for a lineup of 32 performers at what the Encyclopædia Britannica called “the first commercial American rock festival.” It set the template for large rock festivals, most notably 1969’s Woodstock. Included on the bill were future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees the Animals, Booker T. & the MGs, Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin (as part of Big Brother and the Holding Company), the Mamas and the Papas, Otis Redding, Simon & Garfunkel, and the Who. See the set list here

Also performing were the Association, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Canned Heat, Country Joe & the Fish, the Electric Flag, Al Kooper, Hugh Masakela, Scott McKenzie, the Steve Miller Band, Moby Grape, Laura Nyro, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Lou Rawls, Johnny Rivers, and Ravi Shankar.

Most of the artists performed for free so that revenue could be donated to charity. The festival boasted an innovative sound system which served as the model for the larger-scale PA systems of the future. The electronic music synthesizer developed by Robert Moog was also introduced at a booth at the festival.

Read a couple first-hand accounts from festival attendees here and here. Also check out John Bassett McCleary’s summary of Monterey Pop’s place in shaping the hippie counterculture in The Herald.

Then, in the next best thing to being there, check out the 3-disc DVD collection The Complete Monterey Pop Festival: The Criterion Collection. It extends the 1968 Monterey Pop documentary shot by D.A. Pennebaker. You can also check out the 2-CD collection Monterey International Pop Festival.