The 25 best Classic Rock tracks of 1968
22 May 2026, 09:52
Radio X Classic Rock looks back to the progressive year of '68, which featured cuts by The Beatles, The Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks and The Doors, plus the iconic Born To Be Wild.
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Status Quo - Pictures Of Matchstick Men: release date 5th January 1968
This was actually the Quo's fifth single, but their first to break into the UK chart, peaking at Number 7 in late February of 1968. This would be the first of 22 UK Top 10 hits for the band, which featured Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt.
Status Quo - Pictures Of Matchstick Men (Official Top Of The Pops Video)
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Blue Cheer - Summertime Blues: release date 23rd January 1968
The Californian rock band had a hit in North America with this heavy, heavy cover of the 1958 single by Eddie Cochran. It peaked at Number 14 in the US, Number 3 in Canada and topped the Dutch chart!
Blue Cheer - Summertime Blues
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The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat: release date 30th January 1968
Like its predecessor, The Velvet Underground & Nico, this hugely influential album initially sold in very low numbers, but everyone who bought a copy was transformed by the music - a young David Bowie was a fan. Apart from the chugging title track, the LP includes Here She Comes Now, Sister Ray and Lou Reed's strange, shaggy dog story The Gift, read by John Cale.
White Light/White Heat
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Small Faces - Lazy Sunday: release date 5th April 1968
Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane's tribute to English music hall preceded the band's classic album Ogden's Nut Gone Flake. Lazy Sunday peaked at Number 2 in the Record Retailer and Melody Maker charts.
Small Faces • Lazy Sunday • Stereo Video
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Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger & The Trinity - This Wheel's On Fire: release date 5th April 1968
Written by Bob Dylan and Rick Danko when they were recording with The Band in 1967, this cover by singer Driscoll and jazz keyboardist Auger was a key British psychedelic hit in the Spring of '68 and made Number 5 in the UK charts.
Julie Driscoll Brian Auger & Trinity - Wheels On Fire (1968)
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The Zombies - Time Of The Season: release date 5th April 1968
Written by Rod Argent, this bewitching song was taken from the British band's album Odyssey And Oracle, issued four months after they'd split. Time Of The Season didn't chart at home, but gained enough traction in the USA for it to top the Cash Box charts in March of 1969.
The Zombies - Time Of The Season (Lyric Video)
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Simon & Garfunkel - Mrs Robinson: release date 5th April 1968
Originally written for the Mike Nichols film The Graduate, this Paul Simon classic was re-recorded for the album Bookends, with the single topping the Billboard Hot 100 and making Number 4 in the UK.
Simon & Garfunkel - Mrs. Robinson (Audio)
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The Rolling Stones - Jumpin' Jack Flash: release date 24th May 1968
After the legal troubles and musical doldrums of 1967, the Stones were back with a bang with this iconic hit. A reaction against the band's meandering psychedelic era, this dynamic track emerged from the sessions for the "back to basics" album Beggars Banquet and topped the UK chart, along with the American Cash Box listings.
The Rolling Stones - Jumpin' Jack Flash (Official Music Video) (With Makeup)
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Donovan - Hurdy Gurdy Man: release date 24th May 1968
The Scottish folk singer's seventh and final Top 10 single was written while Donovan was studying meditation in India with The Beatles - and it's said that George Harrison helped the musician with some of the lyrics. The psychedelic track was used to devastating effect in David Fincher's serial killer movie Zodiac in 2007.
NEW 📀 Hurdy Gurdy Man - Donovan {Stereo} Summer 1968
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Canned Heat - On The Road Again: release date 7th June 1968
No-nonsense blues rock from the Los Angeles band, featuring Alan Wilson on vocals and harmonica. Taken from the group's second album Boogie With Canned Heat, the single made Number 8 in the UK.
Canned Heat - On The Road Again [HQ]
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The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown - Fire: release date 14th June 1968
"I am the god of hellfire!" Brown's hard rocking psychedelic piece was accompanied by the singer wearing a flaming headpiece when he appeared on TV, a stunt that prompted this tune to reach Number 1 for a week in the UK, before Mony Mony by Tommy James knocked it off the top spot.
The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown - Fire (1968 Stereo)
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Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida: release date 14th June 1968
Named after organist Doug Ingle saying the phrase "In the garden of Eden" while drunk, this early progressive rock masterpiece lasts 17 minutes in its original version, which took up one side of Iron Butterfly's second album.
IRON BUTTERFLY - IN A GADDA DA VIDA - 1968 (ORIGINAL FULL VERSION) CD SOUND & 3D VIDEO
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The Kinks - Days: release date 28th June 1968
A glorious, wistful pop song by Ray Davies, recorded alongside the band's seminal album The Village Green Preservation Society - and some countries would add the single to the album. As there as no one "official" chart in 1968, Days made Number 10 in the NME chart, Number 14 in the Melody Maker chart and Number 12 on the Record Retailer list.
The Kinks - Days
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Pink Floyd - Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun: release date 28th June 1968
A pivotal track from the Floyd's second album A Saucerful Of Secrets, released in the summer of '68. Written by Roger Waters, it's reportedly the only recording to feature all five members of the band: Waters, drummer Nick Mason, keyboard player Rick Wright, new guitarist David Gilmour and original frontman Syd Barrett, who'd officially left the band by the time this album hit the shelves.
Pink Floyd - Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (Forum Musiques)
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The Beach Boys - Do It Again: release date 19th July 1968
A standalone single released between the Wild Honey and Friends albums, this sentimental call-back to The Beach Boys' surfing days topped the UK charts in the summer of 1968.
The Beach Boys "Do It Again" on The Ed Sullivan Show
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The Beatles - Hey Jude: release date 30th August 1968
After spending the Spring in India on a meditation retreat and the summer locked in Abbey Road making the "White Album", this was one of The Beatles' biggest (and longest) hits of all time, going four times Platinum in the US and launching their own Apple label in style. Backed with John Lennon's politcally-charged Revolution, this McCartney classic spent two weeks at Number 1, before it was toppled by Mary Hopkin's Those Were The Days - also on the Apple label!
The Beatles - The Beatles - Hey Jude (Official Music Video) [Remastered 2015]
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Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild: release date 30th August 1968
Written by former Sparrows man Mars Bonfire (not his real name), this song used the phrase "heavy metal thunder", which would come to be adopted for the new, harder rock style that emerged at the end of the 1960s. Born To Be Wild made Number 2 in the US and a meagre Number 30 back in the UK, but the song's inclusion on the soundtrack to the film Easy Rider in 1969 ensured its status would grow over the years.
Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild (1969)
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The Doors - Hello, I Love You: release date 30th August 1968
One of the LA band's earliest songs was dusted down for their third album Waiting For The Sun, where it sat uncomfortably alongside such counterculture anthems as Five To One and The Uknown Soldier. It remains, however, one of The Doors' most popular songs, topping the US charts and peaking at Number 15 in the UK, the biggest British hit during the band's lifetime.
NEW * Hello I Love You - The Doors {Stereo} Summer 1968
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The Band - I Shall Be Released: release date 6th September 1968
A Bob Dylan song that was recorded with The Band during the heavily bootlegged "Basement Tapes" sessions in Woodstock in 1967, which would go on to appear on the latter's album Music From Big Pink the following year. The video here is The Band's all star version from their 1975 film The Last Waltz. Dylan would eventually another version of the song on his Greatest Hits Vol. II collection.
The Band: I Shall Be Released (The Last Waltz)
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Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends: release date 27th September 1968
The Sheffield-born vocalist had a UK Number 1 with this cover of The Beatles' Sgt Pepper track, giving the tune a blues-gospel spin and memorably performing it at Woodstock the following year.
Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends (Live From Mad Dogs & Englishmen)
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Cream - Sunshine Of Your Love: release date 27th September 1968
The blues-rock supergroup of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker made Number 25 in the UK with this track from their second album, Disraeli Gears.
Cream - Sunshine Of Your Love (Farewell Concert - Extended Edition) (1 of 11)
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Big Brother & The Holding Company - Piece Of My Heart: release date 27th September 1968
Originally recorded by soul singer Erma Franklin in 1967, this song became a calling card for Texan singer Janis Joplin when it was included on Big Brother & The Holding Company's second album, Cheap Thrills.
Janis Joplin - Piece of My Heart (live Gröna Lund 1969)
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The Monkees - Porpoise Song: release date 2nd October 1968
Written by the ace songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, this psychedelic pop epic is used over the opening sequence of The Monkees' film Head. Released as a promotional single for the movie, Porpoise Song only made Number 62 in the US and was relegated to the b-side of the more conventional Daddy's Song back home in the UK.
The Monkees - Porpoise Song
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Jimi Hendrix Experience - All Along The Watchtower: release date 18th October 1968
A year of excellent Bob Dylan covers is capped off by one of the greatest ever: the guitar superstar's take on the John Wesley Harding album track. All Along The Watchtower is the penultimate track on Hendrix's landmark double set Electric Ladyland and the single peaked at Number 5 in the UK. Incredibly, this song is the legend's only American Top 40 hit.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - All Along The Watchtower (Official Audio)
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Fleetwood Mac - Albatross: release date 22nd November 1968
Back when he was the leader of the British blue collective, Peter Green wrote this beautiful instrumental, which topped the charts for one week in January 1969. The tune is still popular enough to be used in TV adverts and has been certified Platinum by the BPI.
Fleetwood Mac Albatross 1969
