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The Cryan’ Shames perform in concert in 1966. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)\n<\/p>\nChicago is, to its core, a music city, with a heritage that extends far beyond the reputation of, say, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Many musical historians credit the city as the birthplace of gospel music and of unique forms of both the blues and jazz, and note it as home base to such influential artists as Muddy Waters and Jelly Roll Morton. But that rich legacy never fully evolved to include rock \u2019n\u2019 roll music, which primarily developed in Memphis, New York City and Los Angeles.\n<\/p>\n
That is, until the culturally transcendent summer of 1966, when Chicago briefly became the epicenter of a rock \u2019n\u2019 roll world that was transitioning from the Wall of Sound and the British Invasion to hard rock and psychedelia. It was a snapshot in time when the popularity of the music, amazing live concerts, the success of local garage bands, and the influence of local AM radio stations combined to shine a spotlight on the city.<\/p>\n
The musical bookends for the summer were performances by The Beach Boys: the album \u201cPet Sounds\u201d in late spring and the single \u201cGood Vibrations\u201d in the early fall. As the weather warmed, The Rolling Stones had a huge hit in \u201cPaint It Black.\u201d The Monkees released their breakout single, \u201cLast Train to Clarksville.\u201d Paul Revere and the Raiders\u2019 \u201cHungry\u201d was a chart topper. But the anthem of the summer was The Lovin\u2019 Spoonful\u2019s \u201cSummer in the City.\u201d Its nod to the heat, humidity and congestion of summer days, and to the cool air, darkness and freedom of summer nights emotionally resonated with the music-buying public.\n<\/p>\n
Against that backdrop was the summer concert presence in Chicago of the biggest bands in the rock \u2019n\u2019 roll world. The Velvet Underground appeared in June. The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys and the Dave Clark Five all performed July shows at the Arie Crown Theater in old McCormick Place. The Beatles were at the International Amphitheatre for two Aug. 12 shows, as part of the band\u2019s final tour. The Turtles appeared at both the Amphitheatre and Highland Park High School. Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and The Yardbirds played the Civic Opera House on Aug. 6.\n<\/p>\n
The summer\u2019s focus also fell on several emerging Chicagoland bands. Early on, The New Colony Six, from Chicago\u2019s St. Patrick\u2019s High School, charted high with \u201cI Confess.\u201d The Shadows of Knight, from Mount Prospect, scored with \u201cGloria (G-L-O-R-I-A)\u201d in the spring. By June, the Berwyn-bred The Ides of March succeeded with \u201cYou Wouldn\u2019t Listen.\u201d The Buckinghams began their career run when \u201cKind of a Drag\u201d went to No. 1 later that year. The Cryan\u2019 Shames, from Hinsdale, hit with \u201cSugar and Spice.\u201d And the garage band and DePaul connections of Terry Kath, Danny Seraphine, Walt Parazaider, and Lee Loughnane would soon lead them to form the band first known as The Chicago Transit Authority.
\nThe Cryan’ Shames perform in concert in 1966. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)\n<\/p>\n
But the personality of the summer was provided by the great Top 40 AM radio stations, WLS and WCFL, separated by only a few turns on the radio dial. Their pocket-sized weekly reports, the \u201cSilver Dollar Survey\u201d and the \u201cSound 10 Survey,\u201d kept fans up to date on the latest hit records. With concert sponsorships, great promotions, MC gigs and a collection of engaging DJs, their competition fueled the music. Clark Weber in the morning, young Larry Lujack. Jim Stagg followed the Beatles on tour. The ubiquitous Ron Riley. \u201cHey, baby, they\u2019re playing our song on the Art Roberts show.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
But times change, and the music often changes with it. The summer sounds of 1966 offered a distraction from darkening clouds of social and political upheaval. But they couldn\u2019t forestall the eventual arrival of storms. Over 380,000 young men were inducted into military service in 1966, with over 6,000 U.S. service members killed in Vietnam action. Both the draft and the casualty numbers would surge in 1967. The city\u2019s violent West Side civil rights protests of July 1966 would be vastly surpassed by what became known as \u201cThe Long Hot Summer\u201d of 1967. The message of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll music would understandably turn much harsher.\n<\/p>\n
Yet 60 years later, Chicago has become entrenched as a popular musical powerhouse. As industry publications note, the city\u2019s thriving sound scene reflects the gamut of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll genres, among other forms of music. In a recent survey, Seatpick.com rated Chicago as the third-best city<\/a> in the world for music lovers. It would seem that the rock \u2019n\u2019 roll seeds that were sown in the summer of 1966 have indeed borne much fruit.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n And as it were an endless summer, the great stars of that time enjoy continued popularity. Paul McCartney recently completed his \u201cGot Back\u201d North American tour, with a stopover at the United Center. Mike Love still fronts The Beach Boys on their busy 2026 touring schedule. The Rolling Stones just released their 25th studio album. Bob Dylan is in the middle of his 2026 tour. And The Ides of March\u2019s Jim Peterik and The Buckinghams\u2019 Dennis Tufano continue to make appearances.\n<\/p>\n In the summer, in the city.<\/p>\n Michael Peregrine is a retired Chicago lawyer and a graduate of Oak Park High School.<\/p>\n Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here<\/a> or email letters@chicagotribune.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chicago is, to its core, a music city, with a heritage that extends far beyond the reputation of,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":973426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[29],"tags":[390692,390691,171,975,390694,9346,978,390696,390695,380107,3719,40010,207820,67,132,68,390693,188548],"class_list":["post-973425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1966-rock-n-roll-summer","tag-chicago-rock-n-roll","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-paul-revere-and-the-raiders","tag-rock-n-roll","tag-the-beatles","tag-the-buckinghams","tag-the-ides-of-march","tag-the-lovin-spoonful","tag-the-monkees","tag-the-rolling-stones","tag-the-velvet-underground","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wcfl-the-beach-boys","tag-wls"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117020104591957492","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=973425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/973426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=973425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=973425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=973425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}