McCartney is selling out arenas, cover versions of Beatles songs are heading straight into the charts, urban music is selling by the bucketload with the UK imitating the US soul scene, The Sound Of Music is still having an impact on the charts, to combat strikes the government are planning to introduce new measures to protect their interests. You could easily be mistaken for thinking i'm talking about the last 12 months, but i'm in fact talking about 1966 when all of these events actually happened and it's hard to believe that in nearly 40 years that the youth of today are still living exactly the same life as our parents generations - when did the idea of making our own history and our myths go out of the window instead of just regurgitating the rebel regulations of our parents.

1966 The Soundtrack gives as much of an indication of the times as you can in 50 tracks and to it's credit it doesn't just feature the usual suspects. While the Beatles were at number 1 for 9 weeks with "Rubber Soul", this compilation actually features The Truth's cover of "Girl" as the latest compilation in 2003 would feature Will & Gareth's cover of "The Long & Winding Road" rather than a McCartney original. The Alan Price Set's "I Put A Spell On You" is interesting to hear especially when there have been so many different versions since including a Bollywood version in recent years.

Presumably due to licensing deals there's an abundance of Kinks (Dedicated Follower Of Fashion, Sunny Afternoon, Dead End Street), Chris Farlowe (In The Midnight Hour, Out of Time, Ride On Baby) and The Alan Price Set (I Put a Spell On You, Headline News, Hi Lili Hi Lo) but there's still a great variety of styles and genre's included on this compilation. Female chanteuse such as Sandie Shaw and Petula Clark sit back to the classic guitar groups such as the Searchers and soul singers such as Percy Sledge. If the fact of 50 tracks doesn't entice you then memories of the original Batman TV series should manage to persuade you as the inlay cover takes you on a musical and cultural history tour with each months highlights taking you through nostalgic bliss.

Alex McCann