We’re going to offend some people here but honestly, some of the worst American music ever was written during the 1960s. We’re not talking about the great groups - Creedence Clearwater, the Grateful Dead, Dylan, Jimi Hendri, Janis Joplin - but about the trite and trivial junk. Some of it was just god awful.
In between the trash and the immortals though there was also a level of music that was pretty great. You could go for Sam and Dave or Carolina Beach music or Clarence Carter, almost anything out of FAME studio.
But one of the more under appreciated bands of the era was the Rascals, aka the Young Rascals.