If you are looking for a present for 1960s music fans and you have already exhausted the reissues, the coffee-table books, and the tote bags, this collection is where I would point you. My 1960s Music Tube Maps collection currently (Aug '26) holds fourteen discography maps, each one plotting every studio album and every credited musician as a connected tube line. The problem is not whether one of them will land. The problem is picking which one.
Four names kept landing in both the Byrds column and the Beach Boys column while I was checking one credit sheet against the other: Hal Blaine, Leon Russell, Larry Knechtel and Jay Migliori. Two bands with almost nothing else in common were booking the same room of players, and once I had seen it twice, I went looking for it across the rest of the decade.
So this guide is not a list. It is the thing I would tell you if you rang me up and said the person you are buying for likes sixties music and you need to narrow it down.
The Rolling Stones Discography Tube Map Art Print
Three guitarists across one continuous run of albums, drawn as three separate lines so the handovers are impossible to miss.
Explore This Art PrintNicky Hopkins Turns Up on Three of These Maps and Is a Member of None of Them
Nicky Hopkins played keyboards on The Kink Kontroversy in 1965 and stayed with the Kinks through Face to Face, Something Else and The Village Green Preservation Society. He is on the Who map for Who's Next in 1971 and The Who by Numbers in 1975. And he is on the Rolling Stones map from Their Satanic Majesties Request in 1967 all the way to Tattoo You in 1981.
Three maps, three bands, one man who was never in any of them. If the person you are buying for is the sort who reads the small print on a sleeve, that is the fact to lead with when you hand the print over.
The Names That Cross Between Maps in This Collection
These came from the credit sheets, not from a search engine. Every one of them is a person who appears on at least two different maps in this single collection.
| Musician | Maps they appear on | What puts them there |
|---|---|---|
| Nicky Hopkins | The Kinks, The Who, The Rolling Stones | Keyboards on four Kinks albums from 1965 to 1968, piano on Who's Next and The Who by Numbers, and keys on eleven Stones records from 1967 to 1981 |
| Leon Russell | The Byrds, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones | Electric piano on two Mr. Tambourine Man tracks, piano on Shut Down Volume 2, Today! and Summer Days, and piano on “Live With Me” for Let It Bleed |
| Hal Blaine | The Byrds, The Beach Boys | Drums on two Mr. Tambourine Man tracks and on The Notorious Byrd Brothers, plus five of the ten Beach Boys albums on that map |
| Jay Migliori | The Byrds, The Beach Boys | Saxophone on “Renaissance Fair” and on The Notorious Byrd Brothers, baritone saxophone across four Beach Boys albums from 1964 to 1965 |
| Larry Knechtel | The Byrds, The Beach Boys | Electric bass on two Mr. Tambourine Man tracks, piano and organ on Byrdmaniax, bass guitar on The Beach Boys Today! |
| Byron Berline | The Byrds, The Rolling Stones | Fiddle on “Country Honk” for Let It Bleed, then fiddle on three consecutive Byrds albums from 1969 to 1971 |
| Merry Clayton | The Byrds, The Rolling Stones | Co-lead vocal on “Gimme Shelter”, and a place in the female choir on the opening track of Byrdmaniax |
| Kenney Jones | The Who, The Rolling Stones | Drums on Black and Blue in 1976, then the Who drum chair from 1979 through Face Dances, Who's Last and It's Hard |
| Pete Townshend | The Who, The Rolling Stones | Backing vocals on track three of Tattoo You, which puts the Who's guitarist on the Stones map as a guest |
If you are buying for two people in the same house, or buying twice over a couple of years, that table is the argument for a pair rather than a single print.
The Byrds Map: Clarence White Arrives as a Guest and Leaves as the Lead Guitarist
Clarence White first appears on the Byrds' map in 1967, playing guitar on exactly two tracks of Younger Than Yesterday. By The Notorious Byrd Brothers, he is on the record properly, and he stays through Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde, Ballad of Easy Rider, Untitled, Byrdmaniax and Farther Along.
You can see that happen on the print. A short line at one station becomes a long one running to the end of the map.
The other Byrds detail I like is Hugh Masekela playing trumpet on “So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star”. One album, one horn part, one line that touches the map and stops. This is the map for the fan who cares about the folk rock lineage rather than the hits, and there is a fuller account in my Byrds gift guide.
The Beach Boys Map: Ten Albums in Four Years, and the Crew Behind Them
The Beach Boys map covers the first ten albums, from Surfin' Safari in 1962 to Beach Boys' Party! in 1965. That is ten records in under four years, and the print makes the pace obvious in a way a list never does.
It also shows the moment the studio crew arrives. The first four albums are essentially the band. From Shut Down Volume 2 onwards, Hal Blaine, Leon Russell, Jay Migliori, Plas Johnson, Carol Kaye and Tommy Tedesco start appearing, and the map gets visibly busier.
Buy this one for someone who thinks of the Beach Boys as a singles band. My Beach Boys gift guide goes further into that first decade.
The Kinks Map: Jimmy Page and Jon Lord Are Both at the First Station
The 1964 debut on the Kinks map has nine credited musicians, and two of them went on to be somebody else entirely. Jimmy Page plays a twelve-string acoustic guitar on two tracks. Jon Lord plays organ on one.
The same album also has Bobby Graham on drums for eight of its tracks, with Mick Avory credited on five. The Kinks map opens with a session drummer sharing the first station with the band's own.
This is the map for the fan who likes an argument. If you want the album-by-album version of that story, I wrote it up in The Kinks Albums Ranked.
The Who Map: Al Kooper Leaves in 1967 and Comes Back in 1971
Al Kooper plays on The Who Sell Out in 1967, then vanishes from the Who map for four years, then reappears on Who's Next. Gaps like that are why I map credits rather than list them, because a gap has a shape and a list does not.
Who's Next also carries Dave Arbus playing the violin on “Baba O'Riley”, a single credit on a single track that most people can hum without knowing whose bow it was. Later on, Zak Starkey picks up the drums, which means Ringo Starr's son is a station on this map.
Good present for a drummer, frankly. There is more in my gift guide for Who fans.
The Rolling Stones: Two Different Maps, Two Different Buyers
There are two Stone prints in this collection, and they answer different questions. The full Rolling Stones discography map runs from the 1964 debut to Foreign Tongues, every studio album, and every credited player.
That debut is worth knowing about before you buy. “Little by Little” alone has Gene Pitney on piano, Phil Spector on maracas, and Graham Nash and Allan Clarke of the Hollies on backing vocals. Four guests on one track of a first album.
The Goats Head Soup map does the opposite. One album, track by track, for the fan who already owns everything and wants depth rather than breadth. I wrote both up separately, in the Stones gift guide and the Goats Head Soup guide.
Why Two Producers Get a Line, and Most Do Not
My rule is simple. A producer only gets a musician line if the credits also show them playing something.
Terry Melcher produced the early Byrds records, and he earns his line because he played organ on “He Was a Friend of Mine”, sang backing vocals on “Ballad of Easy Rider”, and played piano on “Untitled” and “Byrdmaniax”. Shel Talmy produced the Kinks, and he earns his because he played guitar on “It's Too Late”.
Everyone else who only sat behind the glass stays off the map. It keeps the print honest, and it means every line you can trace belongs to someone who actually made a sound.
Choosing a Present for 1960s Music Fans: Size, Frame and Who Gets Which
Every map comes in A2 (420 x 594mm) and A1 (594 x 841mm) sizes, from £42, with an optional black wood frame. All are printed as Giclée art prints.
A2 suits a hallway, a landing or a desk wall, and it suits the casual fan who will enjoy recognising the album names. A1 is for the person who will stand in front of it and read the small credits, because at that size, the guest musicians are legible from a normal viewing distance.
If it is a milestone birthday or a retirement, go A1 and framed. If you are buying for someone who moves house often, go for A2 unframed and let them choose.
If They Are a Beatles Person Before Anything Else
The Beatles have their own maps in this collection, including a black edition, and enough of them that I wrote a separate guide to choosing between them. Start with the ideal present for Beatles fans and come back here if the answer is really the Byrds.
Questions I Get Asked About the Sixties Maps
Which one is safest if I do not know what they already own? The Byrds map. Almost nobody has one; it is the least-merchandised band in this collection, and the Clarence White line gives you something to say when you open it.
Do the maps stop in 1969? No. These are artists who defined the decade, but the maps follow each discography wherever it goes, which is why the Kinks map reaches 1993, and the Stones map reaches 2026.
Can I hang two together? Yes, and the cross-map names above make a good pairing logic. The Byrds and Beach Boys share four session players, so those two side by side actually mean something.
Is the Goats Head Soup map a duplicate if they own the main Stones map? Not really. One is the whole career at album level, the other is a single record at track level, so they read as a pair rather than a repeat.
Where to Start
Browse the full 1960s Music Tube Maps collection, or widen the search across every era in the Music Wall Art Prints collection.
If you are still stuck, tell me who it is for and roughly what they play on repeat. I have the spreadsheets open most days anyway.
