The official first new chart of the brand new year shows just how much musical diversity was going on at the time. ALL of this music got played together, side by side ... and nobody even gave it a second thought.
From The Top Ten, you've got The Beatles at #1 ... they've dominated the music scene for the past two years ... and look how much they've grown during that time. Their album "Rubber Soul" also took over the #1 spot on Billboard's album chart, jumping from #60 to #1. It showed The Beatles in a much "folkier" mood, probably due to the influence of Bob Dylan.
But folk music was making its mark on the pop chart, too ... Simon and Garfunkel now hold the #2 spot with "The Sounds Of Silence" followed by The Godfather of Soul (and Funk), James Brown with "I Got You," a Top Ten Record for several weeks now.
British Invasion acts are still making their mark on the American chart ... The Dave Clark Five and Herman's Hermits both have Top Ten Hits this week, followed by The Rolling Stones and more Beatles just outside The Top Ten.
The Righteous Brothers scored a Top Five Hit with their remake of the old classic "Ebb Tide" ... while country music is also represented by both The Statler Brothers and Eddy Arnold.
And, of course, there's also a couple of great pop songs ... "She's Just My Style" and "Five O'Clock World" both have Top Ten berths.
Moving down the chart, we see novelty country (Roger Miller), folk/rock (The Byrds), movie music (Tom Jones), a touch of jazz (Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass) plus a couple of MOR tunes you can't even classify by Mike Douglas, Bobby Vinton and Al Martino.
Boy, radio sure was fun back then!
