It was packed with superstars, including The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand and two albums by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass.
The Beatles (L-R) Paul McCartney, George Harrison (1943 – 2001), Ringo Starr and John Lennon (1940 – 1980) at the BBC Television Studios in London before the start of their world tour, June 17, 1966.
Photo by Central Press/Getty Images
The Beatles’ Rubber Soul reenters the Billboard 200 at No. 4 on the chart dated Oct. 17, thanks to the release of an expanded, deluxe edition. The album first appeared in the top 10 on Jan. 8, 1966, when it shot from No. 60 to No. 1, dethroning Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass’ megahit Whipped Cream & Other Delights. Rubber Soul remained on top for six consecutive weeks before Whipped Cream returned to the top spot.
Rubber Soul contains numerous Fab Four classics, including “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown),” “You Won’t See Me,” “Michelle” and “In My Life.”
We thought it would be fun to take a look back at the top 10 the week Rubber Soul first cracked the region. It was jam-packed with superstars, including The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand and two albums by Alpert & the TJB.
Three of the albums in that top 10 that week received Grammy nominations for album of the year: Whipped Cream, Eddy Arnold’s country smash My World and the blockbuster soundtrack to The Sound of Music. In addition, Whipped Cream contained the record of the year Grammy winner, the zesty instrumental “A Taste of Honey.” Rubber Soul contained the song of the year winner the following year, “Michelle.” (Incredibly, that was the only Beatles song to ever win in that category.)
Let’s zoom back in time to look at the albums in the top 10 on Jan. 8, 1966. We show the producers of each album, the peak position each album attained and the date of the artist’s most recent appearance in the top 10.
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Various Artists, Welcome to the LBJ Ranch!
Image Credit: Photo by Keystone/Getty Images Album Producers: Alen Robin–Earle Doud of Sherwood, Inc.
Peak Position: No. 3 (three weeks)
Date of Artist’s Most Recent Appearance in Top 10: not applicable
Notes: Earle Doud, who co-produced this album, also co-produced Vaughn Meader’s The First Family, which topped the Billboard 200 for 12 weeks in 1962-63 and won a Grammy for album of the year. The First Family lightly spoofed President Kennedy and his family. This album tweaked his successor, Lyndon Johnson, as well as Lady Bird Johnson, and such other political figures of the era as Barry Goldwater, Robert F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. The album received a Grammy nod for best comedy album. Two years later, Doud and Robin returned with Lyndon Johnson’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It stalled at No. 176 on the Billboard 200.
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Barbra Streisand, My Name Is Barbra, Two…
Image Credit: Photo by Harry Benson/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Album Producer: Robert Mersey
Peak Position: No. 2 (three weeks)
Date of Artist’s Most Recent Appearance in Top 10: Sept. 24, 2016
Notes: This was Streisand’s fifth album to reach No. 1 or No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in a little more than two years. Streisand reached No. 2 in 1965 with two studio albums that tied into her first TV special, My Name Is Barbra. That program first aired on CBS on April 28, 1965, and brought Streisand her first Primetime Emmy, for outstanding individual achievements in entertainment. This second album contained just one track that had appeared in the special; the rest were newly recorded for the album.
So why did the album title call back to a special that had aired six months previously? The second album was released to coincide with CBS’ rebroadcast of the special. (This was long before VCRs and DVRs and on-demand streaming. If you missed something the first time around, or if you wanted to see it again, you had to wait until the network re-aired it.) The album logged 19 weeks in the top 10 (compared to 17 weeks for the first My Name Is Barbra album) and spawned two Hot 100 singles: “He Touched Me” and “Second Hand Rose.” The latter song, which Fanny Brice had introduced in the Broadway musical Ziegfeld Follies of 1921, became Streisand’s second single to crack the top 40, following the exquisite “People.”
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Elvis Presley, Harum Scarum
Album Producers: Gene Nelson, Fred Karger
Peak Position: No. 8 (two weeks)
Date of Artist’s Most Recent Appearance in Top 10: Nov. 1, 2003
Notes: This became Presley’s 21st album to make the top 10 on the Billboard 200. It was the soundtrack to his 19th feature film. His manager, Col. Tom Parker, kept him busy. The film and its soundtrack are considered among the low points of Presley’s career. Fortunately, Presley mounted a convincing comeback with his legendary 1968 TV special, which was followed by his Hot 100-topping 1969 classic “Suspicious Minds.”
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Eddy Arnold, My World
Album Producer: Chet Atkins
Peak Position: No. 7 (three weeks)
Date of Artist’s Most Recent Appearance in Top 10: Feb. 5, 1966
Notes: Arnold, whose string of country hits dates to 1945, received four Grammy nominations for this album and its smash single “Make the World Go Away.” In addition to an album of the year nod, My World was nominated for best country & western album (as the genre was still called then). “Make the World Go Away” was nominated for best country & western single and best country & western vocal performance, male. The irony: The smooth countrypolitan sound of “Make the World Go Away” played a big role in making the term “country & western” seem hopelessly dated. It would soon be dropped in favor of country. My World topped Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart for a then-record 17 weeks. The album spawned two No. 1 hits on Hot Country Songs: “What’s He Doing in My World” and “Make the World Go Away.” The latter track was voted into the National Recording Registry in 2019.
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Herman’s Hermits, The Best of Herman’s Hermits
Image Credit: Getty Images Album Producer: Mickie Most
Peak Position: No. 5 (two weeks)
Date of Artist’s Most Recent Appearance in Top 10: March 26, 1966
Notes: This compilation contains the pop group’s first six top 10 hits on the Hot 100, including the No. 1 smashes “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” and “I’m Henry VIII, I Am.” The album logged 16 weeks in the top 10. The group received three Grammy nominations in 1966 – best new artist (they lost to Tom Jones) and two nods for “Mrs. Brown” – best performance by a vocal group and best contemporary (R&R) performance by a group. R&R stood for rock & roll, which “Mrs. Brown” most definitely wasn’t, but it was a charming pop tune.
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Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, !!Going Places!!
Image Credit: Getty Images Album Producer: Herb Alpert & Jerry Moss
Peak Position: No. 1 (six weeks)
Date of Artist’s Most Recent Appearance in Top 10: Dec. 8, 1979
Notes: This was Alpert and the TJB’s second No. 1 album. It logged 48 weeks in the top 10, second-most among all TJB albums. It includes such signature Alpert hits as “Tijuana Taxi,” “Spanish Flea,” “3rd Man Theme” and “Zorba the Greek” – all of which made the Hot 100. “Spanish Flea,” composed by Julius Wechter, leader of the Baja Marimba Band, was one of several Brass tunes that were heard regularly on The Dating Game. Note: The artist billing on Alpert’s first five studio albums varied between Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass and Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass before settling on the former.
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The Rolling Stones, December’s Children (and Everybody’s)
Image Credit: Getty Images Album Producer: Andrew Loog Oldham
Peak Position: No. 4 (three weeks)
Date of Artist’s Most Recent Appearance in Top 10: July 25, 2026
Notes: This was The Stones’ fourth album to make the top five on the Billboard 200. It includes “Get Off My Cloud,” which became the group’s second No. 1 on the Hot 100, as well as the group’s follow-up single, “As Tears Go By,” which climbed to No. 6. Marianne Faithful had the first Hot 100 version of that classic Mick Jagger/Keith Richards song. December’s Children also features their version of Bobby Troup’s classic “Route 66.”
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Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass, Whipped Cream & Other Delights
Album Producer: Herb Alpert & Jerry Moss
Peak Position: No. 1 (eight weeks)
Date of Artist’s Most Recent Appearance in Top 10: Dec. 8, 1979
Notes: This became Alpert and the TJB’s first of five No. 1 albums. It logged 61 weeks in the top 10, from July 1965 to March 1967. It features one of the most famous album covers in music history, depicting a beautiful woman (model and artist Dolores Erickson) apparently nude and covered in whipped cream.
The album was loosely built around the theme of food treats, with songs including “A Taste of Honey,” “Green Peppers,” “Tangerine,” “Lemon Tree,” “Whipped Cream,” “Ladyfingers” and “Lollipops and Roses.” “A Taste of Honey” made the top 10 on the Hot 100 and won three Grammys: record of the year, best instrumental arrangement and best instrumental performance, non-jazz. “Whipped Cream” also made the Hot 100.
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Soundtrack, The Sound of Music
Image Credit: Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images Album Producer: Neely Plumb
Peak Position: No. 1 (two weeks)
Date of Artist’s Most Recent Appearance in Top 10: not applicable
Notes: This was the second soundtrack to a film starring Julie Andrews to reach No. 1 in 1965. Mary Poppins had led for 14 weeks that year. This soundtrack’s modest number of weeks at No. 1 doesn’t tell the full story. The album logged 109 weeks in the top 10, from May 1965 to January 1968. Many of the songs became standards, including “My Favorite Things,” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” “The Sound of Music” and “Edelweiss.” The Sound of Music received 10 Oscar nominations and won five Oscars, including best picture. In 2001, the film was voted into the National Film Registry. In 2018, the soundtrack was voted into the National Recording Registry.
Three songs from the original 1959 Broadway production were replaced in the film by two new songs, “I Have Confidence” and “Something Good.” Richard Rodgers composed the music and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote the lyrics for the original stage musical. Rodgers wrote both music and lyrics for the new songs, as his collaborator had died in 1960, nine months after the musical opened on Broadway.
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The Beatles, Rubber Soul
Album Producer: George Martin
Peak Position: No. 1 (six weeks)
Date of Artist’s Most Recent Appearance in Top 10: Oct. 17, 2026
Notes: When Rubber Soul shot from No. 60 to No. 1 in its third week on the Billboard 200, it became the band’s seventh No. 1 album, which put them just one behind Elvis Presley for most No. 1 albums since the Billboard 200 was introduced in March 1956. The Beatles pulled even with Presley in July 1966 with their next album, “Yesterday”…And Today and set a new record in September 1966 with Revolver. (They have held the record ever since, and currently have 19 No. 1s.)
Beyond the chart numbers, Rubber Soul kicked off a string of landmark Beatles albums that included Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road. Rubber Soul, which logged 14 weeks in the top 10, contains numerous classics, including “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown),” “You Won’t See Me,” “Michelle” and “In My Life.” Anne Murray had a top 10 Hot 100 hit in 1974 with a spunky version of “You Won’t See Me.”
