5 Classic Rock Songs From The '60s That Are Worth A Head-Turning Amount Of Money

There are a few classic rock songs from the 1960s that you still hear today, and not just because people like them: they've also proven to be reliably lucrative. These are the '60s hits that can stir up emotions in boomers because they were the soundtracks of so many lives, as well as being foundational to modern pop and rock. They've been played, purchased, and streamed almost endlessly since their release roughly 60 years ago because they continue to hold up, and they're objectively great pieces of music.

It's basically a rule of thumb: The more a song entertains, the more money it can earn. Those classic rock songs of the '60s all went gold or even platinum, and then people bought them all over again after the introduction of "greatest hits" albums. Regular airplay on classic rock and oldies radio stations brings in money, too, as does an appearance on a movie soundtrack and a listen on a streaming service. All of the money from those sources goes to the song's performers, songwriters, publishers, and record labels, and these songs have been filling the virtual coffers for a long time now. These are the most enduring classic rock hits from the '60s that also happen to be worth a staggering amount of money.

Roy Orbison's hard-charging and flirtatious "Oh, Pretty Woman" took less than a month from its debut on the Hot 100 in 1964 to reach No. 1, a position it held for three weeks. Just after that run at the top, "Oh, Pretty Woman" was certified gold by the RIAA for sales of half a million copies, and then it just kept selling in a variety of ways. For one, it's a standard inclusion on Orbison's various greatest-hits albums, many of which have gone gold or platinum, the latter being for sales of a million copies. 

"Oh, Pretty Woman" never really left the public consciousness, which is why it could so easily and smartly be used as the title for a romantic comedy. In 1990, "Pretty Woman" did blockbuster numbers, and the soundtrack, featuring Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman," sold 3 million copies. In all, "Oh, Pretty Woman" has appeared in more than 100 films and TV shows, and those licensing fees add up. Via an arrangement with their music publisher, songwriters Orbison and Bill Dees, and now their estates, each earned as much as $100,000 a year in royalties as late as the 2010s. 

According to the BBC Four documentary "The Richest Songs in the World," which extensively researched and reported on the likely worth of some of the most famous tunes in history, "Oh, Pretty Woman" had generated at least £13 million, or around $18 million, by 2013.

Before Creedence Clearwater Revival made a "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?," a classic rock song from the '70s that's worth a head-turning amount of money, it released another song with tremendous financial value in the 1960s: the swamp-rock rave-up with a brutally satirical message, "Fortunate Son," in which CCR leader John Fogerty decried how America's most monied and powerful people got their sons draft deferments during the Vietnam War. Ironically, the song about what Fogerty felt was the smug, audacious, and ghastly behavior of the wealthy brought in a lot of money.

"Fortunate Son" was only a No. 14 hit in 1969, but it outperformed its relatively moderate chart placement. A single from the album "Willy and the Poor Boys," "Fortunate Son" sold 8 million copies. Another 12 million consumers bought CCR's best-of compilation, "Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits," which includes "Fortunate Son," while the track has been played more than 1.8 billion times on Spotify. For years, both the sales and streaming numbers for "Fortunate Son" have benefited from its use in movies and TV, usually when there's a sequence set during the Vietnam War. The song has appeared in some 70 projects, and each time it costs filmmakers a hefty licensing fee.

Instantly recognizable for its sweet and joyful opening guitar lick, "Brown Eyed Girl" is an earnest and affectionate gem of a pop-rock love song by bluesy folk singer Van Morrison. Written, recorded, and released soon after Morrison left the garage rock band Them, "Brown Eyed Girl" was the musician's first solo hit and remained one of his biggest ever, moving into the Billboard Top 10 in the fall of 1967.

For "Brown Eyed Girl" to have been that successful, it was necessarily a radio hit — and it never really faded away from that world. In fact, it's one of the most-played songs in the history of the American airwaves, spun by disc jockeys more than 13 million times as of 2020. That clearly wasn't enough for the scores of Morrison fans, with 1 million sales of "Brown Eyed Girl" launching it to platinum-record status. On Spotify, music streamers have grooved to the song more than 1.4 billion times, nearly a billion times more than Morrison's second-most popular song, "Into the Mystic."

"Hey Jude" is the biggest hit by the best-selling band of all time. No act has ever notched more No. 1 hits than the Beatles, and of those, "Hey Jude" was the most significant, spending nine weeks at No. 1 in 1968. The anthemic, inspiring singalong is anchored by a piano forcefully played by the song's primary songwriter, Paul McCartney, who composed it to comfort Julian Lennon, the young son of bandmate John Lennon, as he weathered his parents' divorce.

Very personal but clearly widely resonant, the iconic ballad held the No. 1 spot the longest in 1968 and sold 4 million copies, the most of any Beatles single ever. And nearly 60 years later, people still want to hear "Hey Jude" — with over 730 million plays on Spotify, it's one of the Fab Four's most enduring songs in the digital age. Even artifacts associated with "Hey Jude" are considered quite valuable. McCartney's handwritten lyric sheet for the song sold for $910,000 at a 2020 auction.

The Mamas and the Papas married the vulnerable vocals and songwriting of folk with big '60s rock 'n' roll production techniques — and exquisite harmonies — to create a sound all its own, best exemplified in "California Dreamin'." The haunting, melancholy song about searching in all its forms is as infectious as it is stirring, and the desire to belong, find peace, or just go somewhere warm was a theme that has connected with millions of listeners over the years.

"California Dreamin'" was the first hit single for the Mamas and the Papas, peaking at No. 4 on the Hot 100 in March 1966. While later hits like "Dedicated to the One I Love" and "Monday, Monday" would make it to higher chart positions, no Mamas and the Papas song stuck around the way "California Dreamin'" did. The single sold more than 3 million copies in the United States, on top of the sales of the group's studio album and best-of sets that include "California Dreamin'." It's been streamed more than 1.2 billion times on Spotify, too, or nearly five times the number of listens of the group's second-biggest digital track, "Dream a Little Dream of Me."