What were the top three songs in 1966?

Answer 1

According to Billboard:

1. Ballad of the Green Berets by SSgt. Barry Sadler
2. Cherish by The Association
3. (You're My) Soul and Inspiration by The Righteous Brothers

Yes, seriously. I can't argue with #2, and I suppose #3 is okay (though nowhere near as good as their breakout hit the previous year), but Ballad of the Green Berets beat You Keep Me Hanging On (#30), Good Vibrations(#33), and I Am a Rock (#51), not to mention nearly a hundred other songs that you've actually, you know, heard of?

Here's a quiz with some opening lines:

• (#10) All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey...
• (#20) When a man loves a woman...
• (#96) In the town where I was born lived a man who sailed to sea...
• (#1?) Fighting soldiers from the sky...

How many of those can you put a melody to? If the answer is "3", I bet the one you can't is the last, but it beat out the others, all released in the same year.

Shame on you, people of 1966.