Like most mid-1960s British rockers, the Kinks started out as an R&B group before they helped invent hard rock and ventured into sardonic, Beatles-inspired pop and refreshingly unpretentious rock opera with an English music-hall tinge. Ray Davies' bi…

The Yardbirds started out in 1963 as part of the first wave of British blues groups, paying homage to their beloved Chicago blues. After the departure of original guitarist Eric Clapton in 1965, the group turned to a heavier, more psychedelic pop-roc…

From the youthful arrogance of their early 1960s recordings to their ambitious rock operas and the more introspective FM rock staples of their mid-1970s albums, the Who raged like a rock-&-roll inferno. Pete Townshend's guitar fireworks and Keith Moo…

Originally part of the early 1960s British blues/R&B scene, the Rolling Stones rapidly ascended the heights of fame with a perfect combination of hit singles and media-grabbing scandals. By the '70s, Keith Richards had become a bona fide guitar hero,…

In 1963, the Zombies began as an R&B-inspired British Beat group, but the band soon developed into psychedelic popmeisters of the first order. With Colin Blunstone's breathy vocals and Rod Argent's keyboard colorations, the group made pop history unt…

No other band has had quite the same impact as the four lads from Liverpool. Over the course of eight years and more than a dozen albums, the Beatles changed popular music and culture forever, spearheading the 1960s British Invasion and shaping rock …

The party line on the Pretty Things is that they were early British blues-rockers as good as (or better than) the Stones but never got the same breaks. While this notion has merit, it overlooks the fact that in the late 1960s, they went on to create …

One of the quintessential British psych-pop bands of the 1960s, the Move was fronted by pop visionary Roy Wood, and racked up numerous UK chart hits. Unlike many of their contemporaries, they were stylistically adventurous, and occasionally dipped in…

Love's first three albums are the bridge between the Byrds and the Doors. Masterminded by Arthur Lee, the group's garage-folk hybrid hid a dark underbelly that hinted at menace in the midst of the peace-and-love era. Their sturdy songs were boldly wr…

The Jam were at the forefront of two musical movements at once in late-'70s England--punk and the mod revival. While the young trio posessed just as much brashness and raw energy as the Sex Pistols or the Clash, they also had the pop smarts and soul …

He began as a Guthrie/Dylan-style folkie, but soon Donovan Leitch adopted a more psychedelic flower-power stance. His knack for sunny, wistful pop songs produced a batch of giant 1960s hits. His fragile manchild voice and image made him a hippie pinu…

The Beatles just barely beat them to the punch, but in the 1960s the Hollies were still one of the very first (and most popular) British "beat" groups, heavily inspired by American R&B and '50s rock & roll. Like the Beatles, they soon delved into mor…

Adding ringing electric guitars to Bob Dylan songs, the Byrds helped invent folk-rock, as well as becoming early proponents of psychedelia and popularizing country-rock with the help of alt-country saint Gram Parsons. Led by Roger McGuinn and his dis…

From their early days as the house band for Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable, the Velvet Underground were the antithesis of late-1960s Flower Power optimism. Lou Reed's decadent lyrics and dour vocals proved to be the perfect match for the …

One of the U.K.'s premier Mod bands of the 1960s, the Creation had a less blues influenced approach to their sound than many of their British invasion contemporaries. Funneling an experimental art-pop sensibility through fuzzed-out R&B, the Creation …

Underdogs of the 1960s British Invasion to heavy favorites like the Kinks, the Zombies, and the Stones, the Troggs nonetheless wrote some truly stellar garage rock. In addition to penning hits such as "With a Girl Like You" and "Can't Control Myself,…

The mercurial David Bowie is the original pop chameleon. He's been everything from inoffensive pop singer to glam icon to white soul man to art-rocker and more in the course of his long, prolific career. Although Bowie's first hit was 1969's "Space O…

In their classic mid-1960s lineup, the Animals were one of the most formidable British blues groups, helping to spearhead the British Invasion led by the Beatles. Though heavily influenced by American blues artists, the Animals created their own voic…

Admired for both their infectious surfer music and their sophisticated, multi-tracked pop productions, the Beach Boys created a lasting impression on popular music through their complex harmonies and Brian Wilson's genius for composition and arrangem…

Without Cream, rock as we know it might sound very different today. The London-based band were only together for a brief couple years (1966-1968), but their success opened the door for subsequent generations of blues-rockers and power trios. The jazz…