January: The Beatles' "I Feel Fine" still at #1 from Christmas. Churchill died. The entire nation mourned.

April: The Rolling Stones get their first UK #1 with "The Last Time" — a cover of a Staple Singers gospel song.

June: Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual" becomes the soundtrack of the summer. His lecherous wiggle becomes a TV staple.

August: The Beatles play Shea Stadium — 55,000 people, the biggest concert of the era. The sound was terrible. Nobody cared.

October: Ken Dodd's "Tears" reaches #1 for the second time. The comedian with the buck teeth and the tickling stick ruled the charts.

Ken Dodd — "Tears" — 5 weeks

The Beatles — "Help!" — 3 weeks

The Rolling Stones — "The Last Time" — 3 weeks

Sandie Shaw — "Long Live Love" — 3 weeks

The Hollies — "I'm Alive" — 3 weeks

The Seekers — "The Carnival Is Over" — 3 weeks

The Beatles — "Day Tripper / We Can Work It Out" — 3 weeks

1965 was the year British pop music went global. Not just the Beatles — though they were still the biggest thing on the planet — but an entire generation of British bands who proved that the UK wasn't just America's little music cousin.

The year kicked off with "I Feel Fine" still at #1 from 1964. That song started with feedback — deliberately recorded feedback, the first pop single to open with guitar feedback. It was a tiny, accidental moment that said everything about where music was heading.

The British Invasion Peaks

By mid-1965, the British Invasion of America was at its absolute height. The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Herman's Hermits, Petula Clark, Dusty Springfield — British artists dominated American radio. The Beatles' Shea Stadium concert in August was the loudest, biggest, most chaotic event pop music had ever seen. 55,000 people. Mostly teenage girls. Mostly screaming so loudly the band couldn't hear themselves play.

The Rise of the Singer-Songwriter

1965 saw the beginning of the singer-songwriter era. Dylan went electric at Newport in July. The Beatles released Rubber Soul in December — the album where they stopped being a pop band and started being artists. "Norwegian Wood" introduced the sitar to Western pop. Lennon wrote "In My Life" about real people, real places, real memories. Pop music was growing up, and 1965 was the turning point.

10. The Byrds — "Mr Tambourine Man"
Bob Dylan wrote it. The Byrds electrified it. The jangly 12-string Rickenbacker sound that launched a thousand imitators.

9. The Kinks — "Tired of Waiting for You"
A darker, slower Kinks than "You Really Got Me". Ray Davies proving he could write melancholy as well as mayhem.

8. Tom Jones — "It's Not Unusual"
Written for Sandie Shaw, who turned it down. Tom Jones made it one of the most iconic singles of the decade. That opening horn riff is instant 1965.

7. The Righteous Brothers — "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'"
Produced by Phil Spector at his most maximalist. The longest single ever released at the time. Radio stations thought it was too long. The public disagreed.

6. The Seekers — "I'll Never Find Another You"
A folk-pop masterpiece from Australia. Judith Durham's voice carried it to #1 on both sides of the world.

5. The Rolling Stones — "The Last Time"
The Stones' first UK #1. A gospel song turned into a snarling rock single. The beginning of the Jagger-Richards writing partnership.

4. Bob Dylan — "Like a Rolling Stone"
Six minutes long. Three chords. No chorus. Changed everything. "How does it feel?" indeed.

3. The Beatles — "Help!"
The title track from their second film. Written as a genuine cry for help — Lennon later admitted he was overweight, depressed, and overwhelmed.

2. The Rolling Stones — "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
That riff. That fuzz pedal. That song about commercialism and alienation that became the anthem of a generation. The defining single of 1965.

1. The Beatles — "Ticket to Ride"
Lennon's favourite Beatles single. A heavier, darker sound than anything they'd done before. The drums alone announced that pop music had changed forever.

The Moody Blues — "Go Now" (1964–65)
Their only #1. A soulful, piano-driven ballad. Within two years, Justin Hayward and John Lodge would join, the band would reinvent themselves as prog-rock pioneers, and "Go Now" would feel like a different band entirely (because it was).

Unit Four Plus Two — "Concrete and Clay" (1965)
A gentle, harmony-driven pop song that went to #1. The band had one more minor hit and disappeared. Thirty years later, a cover by Randy Edelman appeared on a compilation and nobody remembered the original.

The Walker Brothers — "Make It Easy on Yourself" (1965)
Scott Walker's voice was something else — a deep, dramatic baritone that belonged on a stage, not in a pop band. They had two more hits and split. Scott Walker went on to make some of the strangest, most beautiful music of the 20th century.

Jackie Trent — "Where Are You Now (My Love)" (1965)
A singer and songwriter who co-wrote for Petula Clark and others. This was her only #1 as a performer. She later moved to Australia and became a TV personality.

In the UK: Winston Churchill died on 24 January, aged 90. His state funeral was the largest in British history. The death penalty was abolished. The first Post Office Tower opened in London. The Moors Murders trial dominated the news.

In the world: The Vietnam War escalated dramatically with US ground troops deployed. Malcolm X was assassinated in February. The Selma civil rights marches took place in Alabama. The Voting Rights Act was signed in August.

By 1965, the British Invasion of America was in full swing. It started in 1964 with the Beatles on Ed Sullivan — 73 million viewers, the highest-rated TV event of the era. By 1965, it was a full-blown occupation.

The Rolling Stones broke through with "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" — a snarling, fuzzed-out masterpiece that felt dangerous in a way the Beatles never did. The Kinks had "Tired of Waiting for You". The Who hadn't broken America yet, but "My Generation" was just around the corner. Herman's Hermits, perhaps the least cool band of the era, somehow had three US #1s.

The Numbers

In 1965, British acts held the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for 22 weeks out of 52. The Beatles alone spent 11 weeks at #1. American radio was playing more British music than American music, and nobody seemed to mind.

The Backlash

Of course, the backlash came. American musicians complained that British bands were stealing their sound and their audience. The US musicians' union threatened to ban British acts from touring. It never happened. The British Invasion rolled on until 1967, when psychedelia and the Summer of Love changed everything again.

The biggest controversy in music in 1965 wasn't about the Beatles or the Stones. It was about Bob Dylan going electric at the Newport Folk Festival in July. The crowd booed. Pete Seeger reportedly tried to cut the power cables with an axe. Folk purists were outraged.

But Dylan didn't care. He'd already released "Like a Rolling Stone" a week before — six minutes of poetic fury that proved electric music could carry serious lyrical weight. The song reached #4 in the US and #2 in the UK. A song about a debutante who fell from grace, set to the most aggressive organ sound anyone had ever heard on a pop record.

The Byrds took Dylan's "Mr Tambourine Man", added harmonies and a 12-string Rickenbacker, and created an entirely new genre: folk-rock. The Seekers brought folk-pop from Australia. Simon & Garfunkel would arrive next year. 1965 was the crossroads where acoustic met electric, and both were changed forever.