Awesome 1960s

The surf rock sound of the 1960s relied heavily on instrumental electric guitar and lots of reverb. Musician Mathieu Terrade performed this enchanting cover version of Surf Rider by The Lively Ones on a different kind of electric string instrument called a Harpejji. Mathieu’s YouTube channel is packed with more great Harpejji covers.

Many of today’s popular toys are pretty different from those sold in the 1960s and 1970s. But in this video from Rhetty for History, you’ll see for as many things have changed, classics like NERF, Hot Wheels, and LEGO are still selling well today. And then there’s the Pet Rock.

You might not remember the band Hot Butter, but you’ve probably heard their tune Popcorn at some point. The 1969 instrumental track was one of the earliest examples of synth-pop. Elias Niemelä and Suvi Buckman of Drumorg replaced the original’s Moog synthesizer with a church organ and upgraded the drum kit.

A year before Sesame Street debuted, Jim Henson’s Muppets turned up on The Ed Sullivan Show. The fuzzy, smoke-blowing aliens repeated the phrase “Sclrap Flyapp!” while hunting an elusive snail creature whose only utterance was “Merp.” Yes, it’s as silly as it sounds.

Architecture and design nerds will recognize the shape of this lamp as the Futuro House by Matti Suuronen. This 1:32-scale version of the UFO-shaped home serves as an art piece and an ambient light. It comes in several lovely colors as well as a slick chrome-coated version, and a special yellow and blue Ukraine edition.

Not to be confused with the game of the same name, Joker and the Thief’s trippy playing cards are a nod to 1960’s psychedelia. Each cardback and face card is illustrated with the kind of artwork you might find on a vintage Grateful Dead concert poster. Choose from Standard or Art of Play editions.

When you think of pop music, it’s usually pretty upbeat stuff, but back in the 1960s, a strange trend emerged – pop songs about tragic accidents and death. Yesterday’s Papers offers an intriguing look back at this unusual fad and some of most popular “splatter platters”. It’s worth watching for Wayne Cochran’s epic hair helmet alone.

Jake Wegesin of Ambient Press created this wonderful CG short film about the space race of the 1950s and 1960s, offering a playful reinterpretation of the competition between the USA and USSR. Benjamin Widawksi’s music and the accompanying narration perfectly complement the black-and-white animation.

We always enjoy seeing how industrial machines are engineered. In this video from author and maker of things Theodore Gray, he shows off a 1963 Bunn packaging machine that was designed to quickly wrap items with string. What makes it really interesting is how it ties a knot and cuts the twine perfectly every time.

One of our favorite things about the ’60s Batman TV series was the celebrity cameos as the Dynamic Duo scaled a building with their grappling hook. Tommy Westphall’s Snowglobe compiled a reel of the 15 times a celeb popped out of the window. Is it just us, or does the second guy (George Cisar) sound like Peter Griffin?

Dig the look of objects from the early days of the Nuclear Age? UK-based Martin Metal Art creates unique lamps with an Atompunk aesthetic, incorporating objects like 1960s battery chargers, perforated metal, and glass for a great retrofuturist vibe. The Davenset Atomic Reactor is our favorite, but it’s also the most expensive.

We’re suckers for The Pixies song Where Is My Mind? and always love hearing fresh interpretations of the track. Vocalist Allison Young teamed up with Postmodern Jukebox to deliver a great cover version with a melodramatic style inspired by the late Roy Orbison, who gave us such great songs like Crying and Only the Lonely.

While you can’t park it your driveway in time for Halloween, you could still own this awesome bit of pop culture history – the coffin-shaped car that Grandpa raced in an episode of The Munsters. Barris Kustoms built five of these cars in the 1960s to promote the horror-sitcom, and it’s headed to Mecum’s 2022 Kissimmee car auction.

Postmodern Jukebox and vocalist Haley Reinhart turn in a great cover of No Doubt’s 1995 track Don’t Speak, performed with a sultry and soulful 1960s vibe. If you love the style of singers like Adele and Amy Winehouse, you’ll definitely want to give this a listen.

(Flashing images) Motorcycles take the spotlight in Paul Bush’s stop-motion short film, which pays tribute to the motorcycle design and culture of the 1950s and 1960s. Bush created the effects by swapping bikes between frames, and featured quite the assortment of motorcycles thanks to Jose Pereira’s Museu das Motas in Portugal.

Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Baby Driver) applies his cinematic magic to this horror film about a lonely design student (Thomasin McKenzie) whose dreams transport her to the 1960s. There, she lives as an alluring lounge singer (Anya Taylor-Joy), and the lines between reality and fantasy start to blur. In theaters 10.2021.

IK Multimedia’s virtual instrument can replicate the rich and emotive sounds of tape-based samplers like the Mellotron. SampleTron 2 comes with over 400 virtual tape tracks, including choir, strings, brass, organ, piano, bass, synths, and vocoders. You can also load your own samples and run them through the tape sound engine.

Etsy seller AstroVintageWood puts modern LCD TV screens and soundbars inside of 1960s-style wooden television cabinets. We love the mid-century modern details like the cloth speaker grille and “Selector” knob on the front. Each set is custom built to order and can be equipped with a 19″, 24″ or 32″ display.

We’ve always enjoyed the enchanting musical style of Luna Lee, who reinterprets popular rock music with traditional Korean instrumentation. Here, she takes on the Jefferson Airplane classic Somebody to Love, rocking out as usual on her 12-string gayageum.

We’re having a hard time resisting this retro alarm clock inspired by 1960s plastic-fantastic style. Created by Penco and TWEMCO, the battery-powered clock features a mechanical flip display, and a shiny orange ABS plastic case with white-on-orange flip tiles. There’s also a less expensive model with black tiles.

Talk box vocal effects reached their height of popularity in the 1970s thanks to Peter Frampton and Joe Walsh, but back in 1964, musician and record producer Pete Drake applied the unique sound to his pedal steel guitar, with this performance of his country blues track Forever. And then there’s this.

A limited-edition handpainted sculpture of the classic 1960s Batmobile, as the dynamic duo makes haste to jump in and chase down some villains. It headlights and taillights illuminate, and it plays the Batman TV theme song too. measures 5-3/4″ W x 8-1/4″ L x 4-3/4″ H.

The Rolling Stones are definitely getting up there in age, so it’s easy to forget what they were like in their youth. This 1964 newsreel is a perfect time capsule of the early days of the band. Is it just us, or was their entire audience 10 years-old?