Forget your algorithmically curated playlists, your anodyne audio streams. Let’s rewind the psychic tape to a time when the WKNR Music Guide chronicled something raw, something immediate, something that felt like the whole damn world was shifting on its axis. The week ending May 16, 1966 wasn’t just a list of songs; it was a cultural seismograph.
Just look at that lineup. It’s a beautiful, chaotic collision of what was, what is, and what was furiously clawing its way into being. Leading the charge, leaping from #4 to the coveted #1 spot, were The Rolling Stones with “Paint It Black.” This wasn’t your parents’ pop music. This was a nihilistic, sitar-slashed declaration, Jagger sneering his way through a landscape of existential gloom, a stark, monochrome counterpoint to the Technicolor dreams of mid-decade optimism. If you wanted a signpost for the encroaching darkness and complexity that would define the latter half of the sixties, this was it, blaring out of transistor radios across the Motor City.
But the Stones weren’t alone in their ascent into artier, more introspective territory. Right there, jumping from #5 to #2, were Simon & Garfunkel with the anthemic “I Am a Rock.” Paul Simon, the poet laureate of alienation, was giving voice to a generation starting to feel the fissures in the American dream. This was brainy stuff, man, lyrical and layered, a million miles from the moon-June-spoon ditties that still clung to the charts.
And speaking of clinging, how about Ol’ Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra, catapulting from #15 to #3 with “Strangers in the Night”? In the midst of this youthful sonic revolution, here comes Frank, the Chairman of the Board, scoobee-doobee-dooing his way into the hearts of… well, somebody. It’s a testament to Sinatra’s sheer, undeniable star power, but stuck between the Stones’ brooding and S&G’s angst, it feels like a tuxedoed guest who wandered into a psychedelic happening. No disrespect, Frank, but the times, they were a-changin’.
The chart is a testament to that change. Just scan down: Chris Montez’s “The More I See You,” a breezy, almost throwback pop number, originally recorded by Dick Haymes in 1945 and suggested to Montez by his new A&M label master, Herb Alpert. The jazzy classic which rejuvenated Montez’s career after 1962’s “Let’s Dance,” tumbles from the top spot, making way for the raw, unadulterated soul of Percy Sledge. His “When a Man Loves a Woman,” a monumental leap from #26 to #5, wasn’t just a song; it was a secular hymn, a howl of such profound romantic agony it could make a grown man weep into his Stroh’s. This was the real stuff, alongside the Godfather himself, James Brown, whose “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” (up to #9) was a primal assertion of funk and feeling. Detroit, the heart of Motown, knew soul, and WKNR was feeding the faithful. You can feel the DNA of the soon-to-explode Temptations (debuting at #30 with the iconic “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg”) and the sweet promise of Tammi Terrell (new at #27 with “Come On and See Me”) in the air.
The folk-rock explosion was in full bloom. Love’s “My Little Red Book,” a slice of antsy, Byrds-inflected cool, held strong at #7. The Mindbenders’ “A Groovy Kind of Love” (at #8) was pure, sweet, pop-inflected folk. And then there was Zimmerman. Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,” with its “everybody must get stoned” refrain, was slipping a bit from #6 to #16, but its very presence was a statement. This wasn’t just music; it was commentary, a blurry, brass-band fueled invitation to… something else. The Mamas & Papas’ “Monday Monday” at #17 and The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Did You Ever Make Up Your Mind” at #22 kept that West Coast sunshine-and-shadow vibe strong.
But this was Detroit, and garage rock still could find its way onto local radio playlists. Roseville’s The Tidal Waves surfed up to #12 with the stomping “Farmer John.” Down the list, new entries like Syndicate of Sound’s “Little Girl” (#26) and Oak Park’s own The Shy Guys with “We Gotta Go” (#28), customized for WKNR’s Scott Regen, promised fuzzed-out guitars and teenage angst – the kind of stuff that would make Iggy Pop and the MC5 proud a few years down the line. Even Robert Parker’s “Barefootin'” (#13) brought a dose of infectious New Orleans R&B stomp to the party. The Keener request bin includes a mash up with the almost note-for-note cover by Motown’s Marvelettes.
This WKNR chart from May 16, 1966, is more than a historical document. It’s a sonic snapshot of a revolution in progress. It’s the sound of a generation finding its voice, in all its glorious, contradictory, and electrifying forms. This was the soundtrack of a world about to be reborn. You can almost smell the exhaust fumes from Detroit Dragway, the youthful rebellion of riding the Rotor at BobLo after guzzling an extra large Coke, and the promise of a long, hot, and very loud summer just around the corner. Keener 13 wasn’t just playing the hits; they were documenting history, one feedback-drenched, soulful, or perfectly harmonized 45 at a time. And man, what a time it was.
