Last Updated on March 15, 2026 by Black Sunshine Media
Updated in 2025. Originally published in 2015.
The news of the day in 1967 was The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, but emerging from a haze of marijuana smoke is a battalion of up-and-coming artists with a series of must-hear albums. The marriage of drugs and music was consummated in culture. Thus, we enter the true dawn, the aurora of psychedelic rock.
The super-cool kids have been using recreational substances since the beginning of time. The real junkies of the crew had been down in the basement for years, shooting up and playing jazz.
The term “psychedelic” is talking about kids taking LSD, smoking weed, snorting coke, and ingesting a litany of other substances, and then making records. A sizable portion of the records you are about to hear were either recorded under the influence or categorically influenced by experiences the artist endeavored to express; music designed to “expand the consciousness.”
We can argue about it all day, but the best album of the modern era (1955–1991)—the untouchable creative achievement—is The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). It may not be your favorite or even something you’re familiar with, but very few people will offer an alternative champion.
I’ve met dudes who claim to hate this record, and yet they refused to say it sucks. They just don’t like the Beatles. That’s fine. But, Sgt. Pepper stands out against almost any other album of the era, the exception being The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (1966), and there’s no discussion. Either your contender falls short, or it doesn’t show up for the gig.
Rock music is splintering into multiple genres like art pop, acid rock, blues rock, folk rock, psychedelic rock, and more. Soon, we’ll hear terms like country rock, progressive rock, British folk, and heavy metal.
Let’s dig into the list and see how many must-hear albums we can find.
Must-Hear Albums Rating Key:
- Strikethrough indicates what you probably think it does
- Green indicates highly recommended listening
- Underlined indicates questionable but ultimately acceptable record
- Red indicates a generally hazardous material
- Blue bold italic indicates ABSOLUTELY MUST HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE
Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not (1967)
Note: Suggested alternatives are from the same year as the contested entry unless otherwise indicated.
Aretha Franklin – I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You (1967)
Two things: Aretha Franklin is awesome, especially in the ’60s. Twenty-five minutes of I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You is plenty.
Buffalo Springfield – Buffalo Springfield Again (1967)
Buffalo Springfield is notable for who was in the band, as opposed to the quality, appeal, and endurance of their jams. The whole did not equal the sum of its parts. Yes, Again has a couple of smokin’ Neil Young joints (“Mr. Soul” and “Broken Arrow”), but not enough to fill one side of an album. Regardless, several dudes in the band went on to make music featured prominently on the list, so don’t think I’m being stingy.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band – Safe As Milk (1967)
When blues rock took a bunch of ketamine and fell down a flight of stairs, it got up sounding like Safe As Milk.
Country Joe & The Fish – Electric Music For The Mind And Body (1967)
If you consider reverb and Farfisa organ to be the two key characteristics of psychedelic music, then Country Joe and the Fish are gonna be the trippiest thing you’ve ever heard. Until we get to Jefferson Airplane, who kinda-sorta knew what they were doing.
Granted, Electric Music was pretty far-out for 1967. Wait a minute. The fuck am I talking about? This Country Joe crap doesn’t come anywhere near Beefheart’s Safe As Milk.
Cream – Disraeli Gears (1967)
Disraeli Gears is by far the best thing that involves Eric Clapton.
Frank Sinatra – Frank Albert Sinatra And Antonio Carlos Jobim (1967)
Sinatra was desperate to stay relevant at this point. He railed against rock n’ roll and lost. Fifty-two years old. “That’s Life” topped the charts a year earlier. Fresh out of good ideas, Sinatra partnered with Brazilian jazz and samba legend A.C. Jobim. This album of bossa nova standards and originals went to #19 on the Billboard Pop charts and #4 on the U.S. Jazz charts.
Jefferson Airplane – Surrealistic Pillow (1967)
If we made a checklist for essential psychedelic rock properties, Surrealistic Pillow might tick off most boxes. They didn’t have a keyboard player, but neither did Hendrix. It’s a record with several different characters. We get biker rock (“Somebody to Love”), folk (“My Best Friend”), and proto-garage blues (“Come Back Baby”) covered in blankets of reverb. “White Rabbit” is the only true psychedelic track.
Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced? (1967)
Jimi Hendrix – Axis: Bold As Love (1967)
For people of certain demographics, “Where were you when you heard Jimi Hendrix for the first time?” is more than nostalgia. It’s a question with historical implications. Every top musician of the mid-to-late 1960s had a Hendrix moment. Some got to see Hendrix live. He sucked the air out of the room.
Neither record has a weak song, but Axis is the more psychedelic of the two.
Loretta Lynn – Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind) (1967)
Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ is an awesome album title and a great song (her first #1 on the U.S. Country charts), but I just can’t see anybody at BSM HQ ever listening to Hendrix and Loretta Lynn back-to-back.
Love – Da Capo (1967)
Love – Forever Changes (1967)
Love is the reigning champion of unfortunately short-lived but otherwise pioneering bands that will never get the props they deserve. Both records are worth repeated listens, but Da Capo has a few moments that made record company executives wince at each other (“Orange Skies”, ¡Que Vida!, etc.). Forever Changes is widely considered the superior effort, but with a shift toward folk and baroque pop.
[Editor’s note: Da Capo was released in November 1966.]
Merle Haggard – I’m A Lonesome Fugitive (1967)
If you’re interested in country music, it doesn’t get any more authentic than I’m a Lonesome Fugitive.
Moby Grape – Moby Grape (1967)
Moby Grape was an extension of Jefferson Airplane, leaning more towards country rock and power pop. Great band name, for sure.
Nico – Chelsea Girl (1967)
Nico appears on the Velvet Underground’s first record, making Chelsea Girl beyond expendable. It’s one of those orchestral pop records I would go out of my way to warn somebody about. “This record really really stinks. Avoid it at all costs.” Nico said the album makes her cry:
Pink Floyd – The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967)
The epitome of psychedelic rock, featuring unorthodox song structures, abstract lyrical themes, experimental sound effects, and extended instrumental sections. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios at the same time as Sgt. Pepper’s, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn doesn’t sound quite as “professional.” Pink Floyd didn’t have three of the best songwriters in popular music, so fair enough. Syd Barrett did his best.
The Beatles – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Not coincidentally, Sgt. Pepper is the prototypical psychedelic record, defining the genre.
The Beau Brummels – Triangle (1967)
Beau Brummels, yet another irrelevant, insufferable, white-bread, San Francisco quasi-psychedelic band? Nuh-uh. There’s one vaguely cool jam on this Triangle record. It’s called “Magic Hollow.”
[Editor’s note: The Beau Brummels were considered America’s response to the British Invasion. Their highest charting LP was their debut album (1965) at #24, and “Just a Little” hit #8 on the pop charts in the same year.]
The Byrds – Younger Than Yesterday (1967)
The 1-2 punch of “So You Want to Be a Rock n’ Roll Star” and “Have You Seen Her Face?” isn’t sustainable when we get to the David Crosby songs. The Byrds peaked on Mr. Tambourine Man (1965). I’d skip Younger Than Yesterday (1967), but I’m not telling you how to live your life.
The Doors – The Doors (1967)
Psychedelic rock has been fairly innocuous until now, safe in the zone of “free your mind with love and peace.” But it has a dark and dangerous side, too. The Doors’ debut album is among the finest rock albums of the era.
The Electric Prunes – I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) (1967)
A record like I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night pops up, and just as I’m getting ready to scratch it off, I think, “Wait, no. Give it another spin. You haven’t heard this in at least a decade.” And that’s exactly what happened with the Electric Prunes.
The Kinks – Something Else By The Kinks (1967)
The Kinks could have rolled over after “All Day and All of the Night”, but they chose to explore a psychedelic folk path with distinctive British music-hall nostalgia. “Waterloo Sunset” is one of the most beautiful songs of the decade. Something Else is a wonderful album.
The Monkees – Headquarters (1967)
The Monkees started as a fictional band for the NBC television series of the same name. Technically, one of the first boy bands. In mid-1967, the Monkees were the most popular band in America, not named the Beatles. Following a drawn-out dispute with their music publisher, Don Kirschner, the Monkees were finally allowed to produce and record their own albums.
The result is Headquarters, a surprisingly excellent collection of pop rock with occasional bits of psychedelia, folk, and just a hint of country (“Sunny Girlfriend).
The Mothers Of Invention – We’re Only In It For The Money (1967)
Recorded in March 1967, it wasn’t released until a year later. It’s an avant-garde concept album satirizing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and hippie subculture. It’s funny, but it lacks standout musical performances. The pastiche gets stale after a while. The Who will have this problem with Sell Out (1967)
The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground And Nico (1967)
“Venus in Furs” changed the landscape of psychedelic rock forever.
The Velvet Underground – White Light/White Heat (1967)
Two wildly different but must-hear albums.
The Who – The Who Sell Out (1967)
I love the Who, and Sell Out is no doubt a fun record, but the novelty wears off, leaving two jams (“Armenia City in the Sky” and “I Can See For Miles”) and a pocketful of clever bits. It’s also their most psychedelic effort.
On one hand, you should hear this album because few bands were making records like Sell Out in 1967. Or you can wait until 1968’s Tommy to suck down a tall drink of the Who, mainly because a bunch of their early great tracks are non-album singles (e.g., “Substitute”, “Pictures of Lily”, etc.).
The Young Rascals – Groovin’ (1967)
The Young Rascals are fine, but you really should be listening to the The Turtles’ Happy Together (1967) and especially Battle of the Bands (1968).
Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not (1968)
Note: Suggested alternatives are from the same year as the contested entry unless otherwise indicated.
Alexander “Skip” Spence – Oar (1968)
This cat was a special case, and this album was recorded after Spence spent six months in a mental hospital following an attempt to kill a couple of dudes in his band, Moby Grape.
For my listening dollar, Spence’s cult of personality outweighed his musical talent and/or genius. Time and time again, I go back to Oar, and I feel like I’m missing something. The opening cut, “Little Hands”, is messy good, lo-fi fun. And then it’s downhill from there.
Oar has been called “one of the most harrowing documents of pain and confusion ever made.”1 But if you really want to hear some poor kid spiral into madness, you should hold off until Syd Barrett releases The Madcap Laughs (1970).
Aretha Franklin – Aretha: Lady Soul (1968)
The Queen of Soul. Do we need another album? You might.
Astrud Gilberto – Beach Samba (1968)
[Clears throat. Sits up in chair.] Samba. The only sound I dislike more than samba is bossa nova, which is a form of samba. Music piped into trendy restaurants for “sonic wallpaper.” I would rather listen to Jimmy Buffett, Dire Straits, Madonna, and Randy Travis, all at the same time—locked in a room chilled to a temperature of 55ºF, all four in quadraphonic sound at fighter jet decibel levels, naked, starving, and surreptitiously dosed with lab-grade LSD—than hear anything even resembling boss nova. Or samba.
Beach Samba is by far the most tepid, offensively inoffensive, disingenuous form of music in existence. Theme songs to children’s television shows have more substance.
Big Brother & The Holding Company – Cheap Thrills (1968)
Another contentious decision here, but I hold that you don’t need an album’s worth of Janis Joplin and her half-assed backup blues band. Let me put it to you this way. If you’ve heard one Janis Joplin track, you’ve heard them all. Cheap Thrills is 10 songs too long.
Blue Cheer – Vincebus Eruptum (1968)
Some might argue that heavy metal starts right here on the first note of “Summertime Blues”, but I think Blue Cheer was much more of a heavy garage, proto-punk outfit. Too psychedelic and hippie for true metal. “Parchment Farm” is the standout cut on Vincebus Eruptum.
Caetano Veloso – Caetano Veloso (1968)
Another fucking bossa nova record from 1968. Well. I guess the 1001 critics panel has a collective hard-on for Brazilian music. I’d rather listen to the sound of my own heart breaking than this…nonsense.
Iron Butterfly – In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968)
The more you know about Iron Butterfly, the less likely you’ll bother listening to them. They had one idea for a rock song, and they pounded it. Into. The. Ground. Meanwhile, they’re not some heavy psychedelic outfit, either. Side one of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida sounds like Tom Jones.
Jeff Beck – Truth (1968)
Truth is your one chance to hear Rod Stewart with Jeff Beck.
Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland (1968)
In all due respect, I’m not sitting through 15 minutes of pentatonic blues guitar soloing on “Voodoo Chile”, which is the slow version of “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”. And the 13-minute “1983…(A Merman I Should Be)” has 5–8 minutes of filler. Otherwise, Electric Ladyland is a lovely record.
Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison (1968)
With commercial fortunes waning, Johnny Cash got off drugs and attempted to revitalize his career. Personnel changes at Columbia Records put Bob Johnston in charge, and he green-lit the prison live album idea. It was a smart move. At Folsom Prison was so successful that Cash had a late-night TV show on ABC by 1969.
Laura Nyro – Eli And The Thirteenth Confession (1968)
Laura Nyro’s influence on popular musicians can be heard in the work of such artists as Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Kate Bush, Elton John, and Todd Rundgren. She didn’t sell many records, but other groups had big hits with covers from this record and her debut album (1967). As far as Eli And The Thirteenth Confession is concerned, Three Dog Night and The 5th Dimension had top 10 hits with “Eli’s Coming” and “Stoned Soul Picnic”, respectively.
Like Little Richard > Paul McCartney, Laura Nyro > Tori Amos.
Leonard Cohen – The Songs Of Leonard Cohen (1968)
Across six editions, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die has listed five Leonard Cohen records, this being the first. I think Leonard Cohen is another greatest hits artist, but I can’t argue with numbers. After listening to (most of) all five albums, Songs of Leonard Cohen is a must-hear.
Os Mutantes – Os Mutantes (1968)
Enough with the fucking Brazilian jazz. For shit’s sake, it’s congas and timbales and fuckin’ tribal chants in Creole. Enough!
Ravi Shankar – The Sounds Of India (1968)
You’re not going to make it through this record unless you forget it’s on the turntable, and fuck off to take a bath or something. I love Shankar, sitar, and ragas as much as the next guy, but even George Harrison put the instrument down now and then. Imagine an entire album of didgeridoo. The Sounds of India is a slightly more interesting and engaging listening experience only because it opens with a 4-minute explainer about Indian music (“An Introduction to Indian Music”).
Scott Walker – Scott 2 (1968)
Have you ever seen a terrible lounge singer, or worse, a comedian pretending to be a washed-up lounge singer? OK, then you’ve heard and seen what Scott 2 has to offer. Funny lyrics, though. The first use of “stupid ass” in popular music (“Jackie”).
Move on. Next.
Shivkumar Sharma – Call Of The Valley (1968)
The soundtrack to nothing.
Simon & Garfunkel – Bookends (1968)
Paul Simon could do in one song, “America”, what took other songwriters two albums to express. The rest of Bookends is fantastic, too.
The Band – Music From Big Pink (1968)
“Chest Fever” is the hot jam on this Music From Big Pink.
The Beatles – White Album (1968)
With over 24 million copies sold to date, The White Album is far and away the best selling Beatles album.2 By no means a perfect album. It’s got some filler: “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?”, “Wild Honey Pie”, and “Revolution No. 9”. Otherwise, I’ll take the White Album over any other Beatles album.
The Byrds – Sweetheart Of The Rodeo (1968)
The Byrds – The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1968)
The Byrds are the Byrds in name only at this point. Gene Clark and David Crosby are gone, and so are the hits. Yet the Byrds continue to vie for relevance by pestering us with records, and I guess if you’re really interested, you can listen to what they’re up to on Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Or I can tell you. Country rock and Gram Parsons. And The Notorious Byrd Brothers is a notoriously overrated album.
The Incredible String Band – The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter (1968)
Two things throw me off about this band. First, they aren’t particularly incredible other than having a ridiculous number of members. Second, they have more than one song that features kazoo. Does the name Licorice McKechnie mean anything to you? If not, a full dose of psychedelic folk is probably not in your best interests, and I’m not saying it should be.
The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter is quintessential hippie music: Peace, love, communal living, esoteric mysticism, sitar, gimbri, shenai, oud, harpsichord, panpipes, penny whistles, and 13-minute suites about molecular biology.
The Kinks – The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society (1968)
The Kinks made psychedelic folk rock in their own very surreal and whimsical British way. The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society is a good detour from all the hippie shit of the late ’60s.
The Pretty Things – S.F. Sorrow (1968)
S.F. Sorrow is a frequent guest on the best “lost albums” of the 1960s.
The Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet (1968)
Beggars Banquet is the best Stones album and the only one I still listen to regularly.
The Small Faces – Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake (1968)
The Small Faces were too gritty and smart to get caught up in the psychedelic hype, but dumb enough to release Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake, a concept album only the “heads” would appreciate. “Afterglow” sounds an awful lot like “My Way of Giving.”
The United States Of America – The United States Of America (1968)
The United States of America is one of the all-time great obscure albums, and there’s a reason for that. It was too far ahead of its time. The band survived long enough to make this one album, which, from start to finish, is the most vivid collage of avant-garde, psychedelic, and art rock to date. And they didn’t have a guitar player.
On the other hand, it’s one of the most topically dated records ever made, with lyrical themes rooted in 1960s contemporary society. If you don’t quite get the cultural significance of old-time music halls, then most of this record will sail over your head.
The Who – Tommy (1968)
Double albums are typically a slog, but Tommy keeps things interesting through four sides.
The Zombies – Odessey And Oracle (1968)
Colin Blunstone is the greatest unsung lead vocalist in rock. Odessey is a wonderful psychedelic chamber pop record. Highly recommended.
Tim Buckley – Happy Sad (1968)
Tim Buckley – Goodbye And Hello (1968)
I desperately wanted to dig Tim Buckley, I really did. Having been suitably impressed by his son’s debut album, Jeff Buckley, Grace (1994), I reckoned I ought to hear the old man. But I didn’t know that I had already heard plenty of Tim Buckley. I don’t like his jazz folk stylings.
Traffic – Traffic (1968)
Traffic is a greatest hits band.
That concludes our review of the must-hear albums from 1967–1968. Did you hear anything you liked? Anything you hated? Let us know in the comments!
1 Comment
I’ve been listening my way through this list. (The original list, not just specifically this 1967-68 list.) I’ve discovered a number of things — for instance, that I hate Bob Dylan music.
I’m busting up here, though, because the kazoo thing threw me for a loop, too. As in, I literally stopped in my tracks and went, “wait, is that a KAZOO?” and had to head off to google it to make sure I was hearing correctly. The fact that they have not only one, but multiple, kazoo solos is just so bizarre I don’t know what to make of it. (Although it’s not terrible.)
The Shankar album is not bad if you’re using it AS an “introduction to Indian music.” That is, I find it valuable as a teaching tool, but not as something I would just throw on as music.
But by far my least favorite music so far throughout the 60s (and it may be slightly beyond the time frame of this list) is The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. The whole thing is like the auditory version of a Halloween Fun House. Which I suppose is apt — the whole thing *sounds* like a bad trip (not that I would really know, having never dropped acid) but that is not my idea of a good time, let alone my idea of “musical.”