This is the next installment in my Top 25 PJJ tracks series for a year, which you can stream every track directly from Phish Just Jams. As with the previous installments, this is meant to be a list focused solely on the Phish Just Jams tracks from the year in question. I plan on going back and doing more of these lists because I find it pretty enjoyable to go back and visit a year at a time and see what kinds of themes and styles recur over the course of the year.

This is my version of the list for 1996. I'm not suggesting that it is the definitive list and there are a few choices that I could swap out with others depending on the day. I'm not ranking these 1 to 25 but just presenting the list as a whole because really what difference does it make which jam I think is 11th or 8th or 23rd or so on. The purpose of this list is just to provide a Phish Just Jams playlist of the best jams from the year. The list will be presented chronologically and can then be parsed and dissected from there. The list will also link to the full version of each song from the terrific resource that is www.phish.in for those want to take in the whole song instead.

1996 is a year that often gets overlooked due to the majesty of both 1995 and 1997 (you can throw in 1998 too) and while it may not always reach the heights of those other years it has some excellent jams that are not to be missed. From the start of Summer tour in Utah to the close of summer with Phish's first festival, The Clifford Ball, this tour delivered a number of great jams. And the Fall tour, being recapped so well over by our friend at Lost in My Reflection, does not let up in the number of true gems dropped. 1996 was year in which Mike's and Simple really shined throughout (though Simple tended to stand out more during the Fall) and saw the introduction of a new funk and groove jamming style post-Halloween (though it's true debut came in the 10-29 Mike's, included in this list) that would fully develop in 1997.

This playlist clocks in a little under 6 hours and can be downloaded here