When Pontiac first decided to introduce a three-deuce equipped performance version of their Tempest sedan, it was decided from that point forward that the musclecar era had been initiated. Unlike most factory upgrades, the GTO was a performance package for the medium-sized entry that was geared toward drag racing.

For this reason, one of the most epic ’60s songs to ever be written about a current musclecar was written about a Tri-Powered GTO wreaking havoc on the Pomona dragstrip, celebrating the whiny, 4-speed grunt of the high-performance variant. Pretty much every gearhead has heard the famous chorus of “Little GTO,” but did you know that the Chevy equivalent of the Pontiac midsize was also represented in the 1960’s pop music scene?

This was via Paul Revere and his “Raiders,” whose “ target=”_blank”>SS 396” sings of the Super Sport Chevelle’s aggressive stance, with its “redline tires” and “deep-breathing fours.” If “Little GTO” celebrated all of the Pontiac entry’s ’60s performance nuances, then Paul Revere and the Raiders met the decade’s drag race challenge with their Chevelle SS “national anthem.”

For anyone who’s ever had the opportunity to experience a Super Sport A-Body’s wrath firsthand, you already know what it is to listen to the sharp whine of a Muncie 4-speed, particularly when the outside air is cold. Paul Revere promptly urges his passengers to “Forget about their HEMIs and GTOs” while “strapping themselves into a bucket seat.”

That classic, Bowtie muscle combo of 396 and 4-speed is one that will always ring loudly in the hearts of every Chevy performance enthusiast, and Paul Revere apparently had the foresight to be able to see just how coveted the “SS 396” lineup would be. All of this in spite of the 1st-Gen, 389-powered Goat being heralded as the nation’s “first” in terms of real muscle, even in the midst of the very decade that started the horsepower trend!