I happened to stumble upon this song on YouTube and it really brought back memories of my youth when I was growing up in the 60'S. There were alot of fond memories. So, I'd like to start a thread with songs that stirred my heart in that era. Hopefully it will inspire you to place songs in this thread. Please try to keep them to one or two at the most at a time . Here's my first contribution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVkOXdfpvas&feature=related"]YouTube- Ronettes - Picture - Walkin' in the rain PAX
Just one more for now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMuWmC5urcI&feature=related"]YouTube- Last Kiss - original hit PAx
Strange - I was born in the early '60s, but dont really have any musical memories of the era. My parents were non-musical with a vengence and I was the first-born, so no older siblings with classic record collections... Consequently, anything I post in this thread will be what I think I ought to have been hearing back then ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRrxjk3qgRc"]YouTube- The Shirelles - Baby It's You
I lived in the country in 1965 when petula clarks "Downtown" was a hit and I thought it was a commercial that the radio was playing, to get people to the stores in Jacksonville Fla.lol Oh well simple times make simple people,huh?
It's too bad that you lived in the country- because if you had lived in the big city in the early 60's you would have found out that downtown was the place to go to meet people. All the stores closed at 6pm and the only things left open were restaurants, bars, movie theatres and also bowling alleys and pool halls with bright neon lights. It was definitely better than your local neighbourhood: you got to see new faces and new things. I was just a kid but I would go downtown all the time because I was a rebel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TE5cd5Z4y8"]YouTube - The Crystals - He's a Rebel PAX
The Tornados - Telstar Very early 1960s, written and produced by the extraordinary Joe Meek. I grew up no more than a dozen miles from Meek's home town, but dont reacall ever hearing of him...even his rather sordid death in the mid-60s raised no comment that I can recall hearing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGhxayGDa5Q"]YouTube- The Tornados - Telstar (1962)
Here's a little bit of trivia on Telstar [the record]. It was one of the first British number 1 hits in North America -before the Beatles. I suspect the reason for this was that it had to do with space exploration. The song that I'm going to add was one of the first songs that Cher sang as a backup singer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqPHb2aVBfM&feature=related"]YouTube- And Then He Kissed Me PAX
I shouldn't jump int this conversation because I was born in '75 but am a musician/scholar. One of the things that I find really amazing about alot of the songs associated with that time period is how many of them were written by Carol King/Jeff (?)Goffin: Up on the Roof Will you Still Love Me Tomorrow Natural Woman Those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head. But I think back to stories I've read about the Brill Building where you had Carol King, Neal Diamond, Paul Anka, Neil Sedaka, Leiber and Stoler etc. all working down the hall from each other writing about a song a week a piece writing a song on Monday and having it recorded on Friday and on the radio next Monday and these are songs we still treasure and talk about. When a movie wants evoke that time period these are the songs that get played. And their great songs. Who would've thought that in the early sixties they would've played "Will you Still Love me Tomorrow," on the radio given it was about a one night stand. To me it's amazing that Pearl Jam could have a hit in the mid 1990's with "Last Kiss" or that Ben Harper could build a carreer around that same chord progression. I grew up listening to my dad play alot of those old songs on his acoustic guitar and even stripped of the vocal harmonies an the string sections it still seems that nothing is missing. I'm sorry I got on a rant and got off topic but this is a subject that I'm passionate about. Peace Out, Rev J
I believe I'm right in saying it was the first Brit group record to make no.1 in the US singles. Joe Meek was fascinated with space exploration, and also produced what must rank as one of the first concept albums, utilising similar themes - I Hear A New World, credited to The Blue Men, who were, I think actually session musicians. The guy was ahead of his time all right, and deserves to be better known... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mhRt007VAg"]YouTube- Joe Meek "I hear a new world"
I was in the local public library last week and noticed a book about the Brill Building... looked interesting, but I already have a stack of reading, so I left it. Think I might have to go back now and get it out anyway ! Here's another Goffin/King composition... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8LmTaVrPl8&feature=related"]YouTube- ONE FINE DAY - The Chiffons
I love Carol King. You've got a Friend the whole thing. I read a review of Tapestry recently that pointed out that the album opened and closed with songs about orgasm (Opener:"I Feel the Earth Move" Closer:"Natural Woman"). Sorry again for skipping a decade But music is something we all have in common. Peace Out, Rev J
I also am trained as an audio engineer and there is a company still making recording equipment based on Joe Meek's designs. Peace Out, Rev J
The early sixties was really a great time for music for alot of reasons. The one that I really appreciated was that blacks were finally getting airtime. the city that I grew up in didn't have a black radio station. When I wanted to listen to black music I had to wait until midnite to listen to KAAY a 50,000 WATT station in Little rock, Arkansas that was a thousand miles away but was the only station that I could get, that had real good rock and roll. After all that being said, the next song that I'm going to post is one of the few foreign language songs that became a number one hit in the US. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtsXEJOlKwU"]YouTube- Sukiyaki - KYU Sakamoto PAX
I used to sit in my gramma's '49 Ford in the very early 50's and listen to gospel from "the Mighty XERB" from LA. I wondered why that great soulfull black music wasn't available on regular radio. As the 50's progressed,more black music started playing ,but Pat fuck Boone was still "cleaning up" the good black songs. "Roll with me Annie" (which was obviously about sex)--was turned into "Rock with me Henry" (which obviously protected me and the rest of the whites from--uh--blacks ,I guess). When I heard "The Right Time" by Ray Charles,I knew it was going to be over for the white boys keeping the airwaves safe for us whites. The sight and sound of Little Richard (my favorite,along with Jerry Lee) was enough to make parents heads blow right up! Long live rock 'n roll.
Sorry--I know this is about the 60s,but there wouldn't have been a 60s music scene as there was, without what went before. The early 50s was a progression from pop & big band to all that we have today.
Scratcho: Here in Canada our radio stations were really threatened by black artists. You didn't get to hear very many of them in the early 60's. They started to play more black artists after the British Invasion. I don't know if you remember, but alot of the artists- the Beatles and so on said that they got their inspiration from listening to black rock and roll. Even so, male black artists were still not played very often, it was mainly female artists like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1M5eEJeT38&feature=related"]YouTube- Mary Wells - My Guy PAX
Things were a bit different in Britain...no seperation of "white" or "black" music, really no pop music stations at all in the early 60s, just the BBC, which was about 20 years behind the times when it came to "light entertainment", as pop was classed. Radio Luxembourg, broadcasting from Europe in English was a pop station, but reception wasn't always great. Then came the offshore pirate stations in the mid-60s, which were commercial [and corruptable !] and pure pop...again reception would depend on where you lived. It wasn't long before the government outlawed them, but a side-effect was the reorganization on the BBC stations into something more in tune with the times, notably BBC Radio 1, pop channel staffed mainly by ex-pirates. I sometimes wonder how most people actually got to hear a lot of the records in the charts in the early 60s in Britain. Perhaps they bought them on spec ? Beatles, Stones, Who, etc were influenced by black American artists, from Muddy Waters through to the Miracles. The black British population in the early 60s would mainly have come from the West Indies post-war. As a result, the occasional Jamaican artist would make the charts. Like this from 1964... Millie Small - My Boy Lollipop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzAhZS8gZ3g&feature=related"]YouTube- My boy lollypop - Millie Small (1964)
Mr. Frankenstein: How a lot of the 45's with black artists came to Britain was from British sailors who brought them back after their overseas trips to the US. This was one of the ways that they supplemented their income and probably one of the reasons why alot of artists who made it big in the being were from Liverpool, which is a seaport . I understand that 45's were going for at least a pound a piece back then. Here's a couple of examples of black artists songs and their British covers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLD5H4uQ1xs&feature=related"]YouTube- Chuck Berry - Roll Over Beethoven https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePePlTIWFZ4"]YouTube- The Beatles-Roll Over Beethoven PAX
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiFnleuNULQ&feature=related"]YouTube- Rolling Stones - Little Red Rooster (1965) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXrwiJEj7eg"]YouTube- Howlin- Wolf - Little Red Rooster.avi PAX
There were also alot of white rock and roll musicians that the British covered. Like this fellow. Who when he died Don McLean believed it was the day the music died. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veyPHzxNjog"]YouTube- Buddy Holly - Not Fade Away and here's the British cover https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1CzJSlYwcM&feature=related"]YouTube- The Rolling Stones - Not Fade Away (Official Music Video) PAX
