The 60's turned out to be a great decade for music and went off in a lot of different directions. It stretched from "Surf Music" to the "British Invasion" to "Psychedelic" music, but I am an unabashed lover of the genre of "Garage Rock", especially that unleashed in the 60's. To take it a step further, I'm an unabashed lover of what might be termed West Coast Garage from the 60's.  So I got to thinking about my favorite garage rock songs from that era. Here's a list of what I came up with:

1) LOUIE LOUIE-The Kingsmen



The all time party song by probably the best all time garage band. So many bands did this before and after the Kingsmen, but this is the version we all loved, and most bands emulated.

2) GLORIA - Them



Them might be one of the most underrated bands of all time, fronted by Van Morrison. You couldn't really call Them a Garage Band, but Gloria became a Garage Rock Classic, and believe it or not was the "B" side of a record where the chief single was "Baby Please Don't Go"

3) HEY JOE- The Leaves



Here's another song that was done by others before and after. In fact, Jimi Hendrix' version is far more famous. This however, was a West Coast regional hit and was a total rocker.

4) TALK TALK-Music Machine



This song really cooked. Musicd Machine was fronted by Sean Bonniwell, and Talk Talk was a massive hit in 1967. Unlike the three bands above however, Music Machine never really had another big hit.

5) PUSHIN' TOO HARD-The Seeds



Sky Saxon was the driving force behind this song and this band. The Seeds became a pretty strong touring garage band and had a couple of other hits, but Pushin' Too Hard was thier signature song, and an iconic song of the garage era.

6) LIES- The Knickerbockers



The Knickerbockers were not West Coast Garage, they came out of New Jersey, but their big hit, Lies, was a national hit and cracked the Top Twenty. A great sound, reminiscint of The Beatles, but unlike The Beatles, were one-hit wonders.

7) MONEY-The Kingsmen



Second big hit by The Kingsmen to crack my Top Ten. The Beatles made it an even bigger hit later, but Kingsmen had, in my mid, the better version. They also had other hits like "Little Latin Lupe Lu" and "Jolly Green Giant". Legit success as a garage band who lasted longer than most.

8) LIAR LIAR-The Castaways



Great rockin' beat, for what was almost a novelty song. The Castaways were a one-hit wonder, but Liar Liar was so good that Deborah Harry covered it many years later and turned it into a Top-20 hit.

9) WHY DO I CRY-The Remains



Quintessential garage rock song that faded into obscurity but was then resuscitated by the movie Superbad and appears on its soundtrack. This is what garage rock was all about.

10) TOO MANY PEOPLE-The Leaves



The Leaves had a few other hits besides Hey Joe, and this was the best of the rest of them. More proof that being a garage band was a pretty good gig.