The spring of 1966 was a turning point in British pop. The clean-cut sound of the early sixties was giving way to something deeper, stranger, and far more colourful. By May 1966, guitars were beginning to buzz, Eastern scales were creeping into the charts, and pop music was stretching its imagination to new and exotic places.
Let’s take a trip back to May 1966, a month filled with sitars, fuzz guitars, and a flurry of iconic — and sometimes forgotten — British singles that defined the moment when pop began to turn psychedelic.
The Rolling Stones – “Paint It Black”
May 1966 belonged to the Rolling Stones, thanks to the haunting brilliance of “Paint It Black.” Alongside The Yardbirds’ “Shapes of Things” and The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High,” it stood as one of the first truly psychedelic singles, and the first pop hit to feature a prominent sitar.
The Beatles had already introduced the instrument on “Norwegian Wood” from Rubber Soul, but that was an album cut. The Stones brought the sitar to the top of the charts — and with it, a new sound that fused Western rock with Eastern melody.
While “Norwegian Wood” used the sitar to add colour, “Paint It Black” wove its sinuous tones deep into the song’s core, creating something dark and hypnotic. Lyrically, it was equally bold — steeped in grief, loss, and nihilism, and often cited as an early precursor to gothic rock.
When Beat Instrumental asked Brian Jones about learning the sitar, he said:
“There’s this fellow in the States, his name is Hari Hari, and he taught me the basic history of the sitar. He studied under Ravi Shankar for 12 years and yet he still considers himself a pupil. These people dedicate their lives to the instrument.”
Not everyone was convinced at first. Disc magazine’s Penny Valentine admitted she had to “battle through an incredibly Indian backing” before realising its brilliance, but eventually praised Mick Jagger’s “splendid” vocal and called it “naturally a number one.”
And a number one it was — topping the charts in both the UK and the U.S., and breaking into the Top 5 across Europe. A song about darkness became one of the brightest moments in the Stones’ career.
The Yardbirds – “Over Under Sideways Down”
If the Stones were going East, The Yardbirds had already been there. Their 1965 single “Heart Full of Soul” had pioneered the use of Indian-style melodies, with Jeff Beck using his guitar to mimic the sitar’s shimmering tones.
By May 1966, they pushed the experiment further with “Over Under Sideways Down.” The riff was exotic and elastic, the rhythm driving and complex — a snapshot of a band on the edge of innovation.
Penny Valentine wrote in Disc:
“I can only suppose that on the next record The Yardbirds will have the entire Dagenham Girl Pipers playing pick and shovels! Things have got to quite a pitch in their search for new sounds.”
The single, released to quiet rumours of the band’s breakup, reached No. 10 in the UK and No. 13 in the U.S. Around the same time, frontman Keith Relf released a solo folk-tinged single, “Mr. Zero,” but it failed to chart. The Yardbirds, however, remained firmly at the heart of the British pop revolution.
Lord Sutch – “The Cheat”
Ever the showman, Screaming Lord Sutch had made his name in the early ’60s with horror-themed stage antics. But May 1966 brought a surprise: the release of “The Cheat,” a bizarre, psychedelic-tinged reinvention of a Lee Hazlewood song originally recorded by Sanford Clark.
Sutch — now performing simply as Lord Sutch — took the song into new, dreamy territory. The B-side, “Black and Hairy,” was classic Sutch: a macabre rocker about graveyard adventures.
Record Mirror described “The Cheat” as “almost purring through a teen-slanted ballad… it might click.” It didn’t, but it remains one of the oddest and most intriguing singles of the month.
The Animals – “Don’t Bring Me Down”
By May 1966, The Animals were evolving fast. “Don’t Bring Me Down” was a powerhouse single — gritty, urgent, and driven by Dave Rowberry’s swirling organ riff and Eric Burdon’s impassioned vocal.
The B-side, “Cheating,” written by Burdon and Chas Chandler, showed the same energy. Both songs were recorded in Nassau, and Record Mirror praised their “dynamic beat” and Burdon’s ability to build from “quietness to wild abandon.”
The single reached No. 6 in Britain and No. 12 in the States, though it would be one of the band’s final hits before their original lineup split later that year.
The Small Faces – “Hey Girl”
The Small Faces were in transition in May 1966. Their fourth single, “Hey Girl,” written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, was a compromise — more commercial than the band preferred, but pushed by their manager Don Arden.
Even so, the track was irresistible. Record Mirror hailed it as “perhaps the boys’ best yet,” with “great singing from Steve Marriott” and “a big instrumental sound.”
The flip side, an energetic instrumental influenced by Booker T. & the MG’s, showed where their hearts really lay. “Hey Girl” became their first self-written Top 10 hit, reaching No. 10 in the UK — though the success sparked real-life drama when Arden violently confronted Robert Stigwood over trying to poach the band.
The Favourite Sons – “Walkin’, Talkin’, Kissin’, Doll”
One of the hidden treasures of May 1966 came from The Favourite Sons, a teenage band once known as The Juniors, featuring a young Mick Taylor, later of The Rolling Stones.
Spotted by producer Mike Hurst while supporting Tom Jones at the Marquee Club, they rebranded as The Favourite Sons and recorded their only single — a potent mix of mod energy, fuzz guitar, and psychedelic touches.
Neither side of the record troubled the charts, but its scarcity has made it a highly prized collector’s item, fetching over £500 today — a testament to its cult status among mod and freakbeat fans.
The Rolling Stones’ “Aftermath” Covers
The Stones’ groundbreaking album “Aftermath” dominated the music press in May 1966. Whenever The Beatles or Stones released new material, other artists rushed to record cover versions — and Aftermath inspired a flood.
Gene Latter released “Mother’s Little Helper”, Wayne Gibson covered “Under My Thumb”, and both Tony Merrick and David Garrick took on “Lady Jane.”
Garrick’s version reached No. 28 in the UK, though his theatrical stage antics divided opinion.
Disc magazine described him as a man who “rehearsed his stage movements before a bewildered night watchman” and “ate puce-coloured yogurt with the help of the lid.”
The most notorious of these covers came from The Attraction, whose “Stupid Girl” was so poor that the band sent a mocking open letter to Mick Jagger, suggesting he was “too old” and should “go roll your Stones somewhere else.” Unsurprisingly, their single flopped.
One cover, however, would rise above the rest: Chris Farlowe’s “Out of Time”, released in June 1966 — a story for another month.
Twice As Much – “Sitting on a Fence”
The final Stones connection of May came via Twice As Much, a duo signed to Andrew Loog Oldham’s Immediate label.
Their single “Sitting on a Fence” was penned by Jagger and Richards during the Aftermath sessions but held back from the Stones’ own release until 1967’s Flowers.
For Twice As Much, it was a perfect vehicle — light, melodic, and unmistakably of its time. It marked the closing note of a month when the lines between pop, art, and experimentation blurred forever.
May 1966: The Sound of Transformation
May 1966 was more than just another month in pop. It was a cultural hinge — when British rock shifted from its beat roots to something stranger, darker, and infinitely more creative.
From “Paint It Black”’s sitar-driven melancholy to “Over Under Sideways Down”’s restless experimentation and the birth of psychedelic pop, this was the sound of a generation opening new doors — and never looking back.
