The year 1968 is one of the most famous musical years of the 1960s. Between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, the mainstream charts were packed with rock hits. And more than a few less-famous outfits produced some amazing rock songs in 1968. Let’s look at just three hits from that year that have aged like fine wine, shall we?
“Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” was one of the biggest rock songs of 1968. Though I wouldn’t say that anything The Stones have produced would be considered underrated, this song is on the deep cut side of their biggest hits. Released in May 1968, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” is a hard rock tune with a notable Delta blues influence, and it’s one of the songs that marked the band’s return to their bluesy roots after dabbling with psychedelia.
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“White Room” by Cream
How about some Cream? This Eric Clapton-led supergroup had a good but brief run, and one of their most popular songs has to be the 1968 effort “White Room”. This song was conceived by Jack Bruce as a tribute to the great Jimi Hendrix, who was famously impressed by the band’s work while visiting them in a recording studio in New York. It’s also based on lyricist Pete Brown’s experience with living in a barren apartment after getting clean and sober. If you love psychedelic blues rock, this one’s a real treat.
“Revolution” by The Beatles
Let’s be real. I couldn’t avoid including The Beatles on our list of rock songs from 1968 that sound even better today. Quite a few tunes could have made it to this list from the Fab Four, but I decided to roll with “Revolution”. This hard rock and roll classic is one of the best songs out there, and it’s technically three different songs. Multiple versions of this tune have seen the light of day.
The first version, “Revolution 1”, is a bluesy mix that was included on the White Album. The second version, the abstract (and frightening to some) song “Revolution 9”, appeared on that same album. The third version is a similar version to “Revolution 1” that was released as the B-side of the famous song “Hey Jude”. It’s a song all about the protests going on in early 1968, and it’s both a sympathetic and critical song about activism.
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