3 Songs From 1968 That Baby Boomers Know Every Single Word To

Some classic songs truly define a generation, including some gems from 1968. Here are four songs from the year 1968 that baby boomers likely know every word to.

“Born To Be Wild” by Steppenwolf

Yeah, I know you know the words to this heavy metal anthem. Some even consider this to be the first heavy metal song ever. “Born To Be Wild” was penned by Mars Bonfire. He came up with the idea for the song while walking down Hollywood Boulevard.

“I was walking down Hollywood Boulevard one day and saw a poster in a window saying ‘Born to Ride’ with a picture of a motorcycle erupting out of the earth like a volcano with all this fire around it,” he explained, per Songfacts. “Around this time I had just purchased my first car, a little secondhand Ford Falcon. So all this came together lyrically: the idea of the motorcycle coming out along with the freedom and joy I felt in having my first car and being able to drive myself around whenever I wanted…”

“All Along The Watchtower” by The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Although Bob Dylan actually wrote and released his own version, it was the version of “All Along The Watchtower” by The Jimi Hendrix Experience that really made the song pop off. Apparently, even Dylan himself was fairly inspired by Hendrix’s take on the folk-rock tune.

“It overwhelmed me, really.” Dylan told John Dolen in an interview, “He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn’t think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day.”

“Hey Jude” by The Beatles

As Beatles fans know, “Hey Jude” was written by Paul McCartney and was intended to be a hopeful message for John Lennon’s son, Julian, amidst Lennon’s divorce from his first wife, Cynthia.

“I thought, as a friend of the family, I would motor out to Weybridge and tell them that everything was all right: to try and cheer them up, basically, and see how they were.” McCartney told The Beatles Anthology, “I had about an hour’s drive. I would always turn the radio off and try and make up songs, just in case… I started singing, ‘Hey Jules – don’t make it bad, take a sad song, and make it better…’”

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