It's my birthday, so I can post a chart if I want to. These were the most popular songs the week I was born. How many do you recognize?
40. FRANKIE AND JOHNNY, Sam Cooke 39. WHY DON'T YOU BELIEVE ME, The Duprees 38. HELLO HEARTACHE, GOODBYE LOVE, Little Peggy March 37. DENISE, Randy and the Rainbows 36. BLOWIN' IN THE WIND, Peter, Paul, and Mary 35. THAT SUNDAY, THAT SUMMER, Nat King Cole 34. DON'T THINK TWICE, IT'S ALL RIGHT, Peter, Paul, and Mary 33. DONNA THE PRIMA DONNA, Dion DiMucci 32. MEAN WOMAN BLUES, Roy Orbison 31. TALK TO ME, Sunny and the Sunglows
30. BUST OUT, The Busters 29. I CAN'T STAY MAD AT YOU, Skeeter Davis 28. MOCKINGBIRD, Inez Foxx with Charlie Foxx 27. HEY THERE LONELY BOY, Ruby and the Romantics 26. WHAM!, Lonnie Mack 25. ONLY IN AMERICA, Jay and the Americans 24. PART TIME LOVE, Little Johnny Taylor 23. YOU CAN NEVER STOP ME LOVING YOU, Johnny Tillotson 22. HEY, GIRL, Freddie Scott 21. PAINTED, TAINTED ROSE, Al Martino
20. HONOLULU LULU, Jan and Dean 19. SUGAR SHACK, Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs 18. HELLO MUDDAH, HELLO FADDUH! (A LETTER FROM CAMP), Allan Sherman 17. THE KIND OF BOY YOU CAN'T FORGET, The Raindrops 16. MARTIAN HOP, The Ran-Dells 15. LITTLE DEUCE COUPE, The Beach Boys 14. THE MONKEY TIME, Major Lance 13. BUSTED, Ray Charles 12. A WALKIN' MIRACLE, The Essex featuring Anita Humes 11. SURFER GIRL, The Beach Boys
10. IF I HAD A HAMMER, Trini Lopez 9. CRY BABY, Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters 8. MICKEY'S MONKEY, The Miracles 7. WONDERFUL! WONDERFUL!, The Tymes 6. THEN HE KISSED ME, The Crystals 5. MY BOYFRIEND'S BACK, The Angels 4. HEAT WAVE, Martha and the Vandellas 3. BE MY BABY, The Ronettes 2. SALLY, GO 'ROUND THE ROSES, The Jaynetts 1. BLUE VELVET, Bobby Vinton
Although I recognize quite a few, I'll attribute it to having older siblings rather than my age *cough cough*. However, "Honolulu Lulu" is a new one for me and no doubt my childhood was blemished by the absence of this classic in my life.
Do you think if these songs were on the radio as you lay in your crib that they affected your subconscious? Or was your mother the type to play Mozart for her newborn?
Although I recognize quite a few, I'll attribute it to having older siblings rather than my age *cough cough*. However, "Honolulu Lulu" is a new one for me and no doubt my childhood was blemished by the absence of this classic in my life.
Do you think if these songs were on the radio as you lay in your crib that they affected your subconscious? Or was your mother the type to play Mozart for her newborn?
I don't know what my mom listened to at the time. She had quite an extensive collection of singles, but most were from the '50s or very early '60s ("Sh-Boom" by the Crewcuts, "Wooden Hearts" by Elvis, etc.) She did have one record by Johnny Tillotson--"Dreamy Eyes" b/w "Well, I'm Your Man." I loved the latter song; still do.
As for any influence these songs have had on my life, there's a rather bizarre form of astrology called Musicology which posits that the No. 1 song on your birthdate has some influence on your life. But what influence "Blue Velvet" has on mine remains a mystery.
As for me, the songs I remember from my childhood and later are the following:
36. BLOWIN' IN THE WIND, Peter, Paul, and Mary 28. MOCKINGBIRD, Inez Foxx with Charlie Foxx (though I'm more familiar with the James Taylor/Carly Simon cover) 27. HEY THERE LONELY BOY, Ruby and the Romantics 19. SUGAR SHACK, Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs (probably one of the most irresistible tunes ever) 18. HELLO MUDDAH, HELLO FADDUH! (A LETTER FROM CAMP), Allan Sherman (rock 'n' roll lost something when it lost its capacity for novelty songs) 15. LITTLE DEUCE COUPE, The Beach Boys 11. SURFER GIRL, The Beach Boys (Of course the Beach Boys were and remain legends--and, if you don't believe it, ask them.) 6. THEN HE KISSED ME, The Crystals (given new lease on life by its use in the 1980s movie, "Adventures in Babysitting") 5. MY BOYFRIEND'S BACK, The Angels (I will never look at this song the same way again after learning that it resulted in a member of the early Guess Who leaving the band.) 4. HEAT WAVE, Martha and the Vandellas 3. BE MY BABY, The Ronettes (given new lease on life by Ronnie Spector's guest vocal on Eddie Money's "Take Me Home Tonight") 1. BLUE VELVET, Bobby Vinton
I listened to a few bars of some of the others. "Sally Go 'Round the Roses" stands out as catchy and memorable. Oddly, I don't think I'd ever heard it before.
Happy Birthday, HWW! It's your party but I'll post about another boy if I want to -- but I don't think you'll mind, because it's Lash.
This is also about a girl: me, back when I was a subdeb in the 80s. I liked the (current) Top 40 like a lot of kids but I also listened to the oldies station sometimes. In this case, "oldies" meant the 60s, with maybe a little of the poppier '50s tunes and perhaps a hint of the early 70s. I won't say I have an exhaustive knowledge of '60s hits, but certainly a decent grounding.
The following are the songs from this chart that I heard all the time:
37. DENISE, Randy and the Rainbows 33. DONNA THE PRIMA DONNA, Dion DiMucci 19. SUGAR SHACK, Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs 18. HELLO MUDDAH, HELLO FADDUH! (A LETTER FROM CAMP), Allan Sherman 15. LITTLE DEUCE COUPE, The Beach Boys 11. SURFER GIRL, The Beach Boys 6. THEN HE KISSED ME, The Crystals 5. MY BOYFRIEND'S BACK, The Angels 4. HEAT WAVE, Martha and the Vandellas 3. BE MY BABY, The Ronettes 2. SALLY, GO 'ROUND THE ROSES, The Jaynetts 1. BLUE VELVET, Bobby Vinton
(It is possible that there are a few more that I know but did not recognize from just the title. There are also more I recognize from my later years.)
I just thought this was stuff everyone knew -- even if you just listened to talk radio, these were the songs played AT THE GROCERY. TV and movie use: hello Big Chill, Dirty Dancing, and, yes, Blue Velvet. Infomercials for Time Life nostalgia collections on LPs, cassettes, or 8 track tapes, call now to place your order! Hell, even Velveeta commercials.
So: our Mr. Lash. As he was glad to tell us in several threads including this one, when he was a wee lad he listened to AM Country. Still, I was surprised when he didn't know certain songs. See, sometimes when we were messaging we'd send each other YouTube links for accompaniment. I think his request was something like PICK OUT SOME CHICK GROUPS. I was floored when it turned out he'd never heard SALLY GO ROUND THE ROSES and he was floored at just how awesome it was. Not quite like anything else, and a bit mysterious. In the 90s I read a book that mentioned the various rumors concerning "what it really meant" -- check out its Wikipedia page. Note to HWW -- there's also a little nugget there I think you'll appreciate.
Last year, Lash and I did some mutual binge-watching of Mad Men. We made it to the middle of season 2 in just 2 or 3 sittings. I'd seen it all and he hadn't, so I liked hearing his fresh reactions to characters and events. I was also looking forward to what he'd have to say about the music as it became more recognizable (1962, not so much).
Of course, this chart is a year later and Mad Men was mostly about characters in their 30s or older, so perhaps pop music that skewed more towards 'pops' or 'easy listening' was more appropriate. But even in fall 1963 we have the surfers, the girl groups, and Motown; we're just months away from the Beatles and the British Invasion. Maybe next we should look at the same week in 1964 and see how much has changed?
PS: Speaking of oldies and shows... I tried to get Lash interested in Black Mirror, but he HATED the first episode, National Anthem. I think he hung in for Fifteen Million Merits and kinda liked it, and I was going to try to nudge him towards more. It didn't come out before he died, but I would've liked to have his opinion of San Junipero!
Thanks for the reflections about you and Lash, Teeds.
Coincidentally, I just came from a Steak & Shake, a '50s themed restaurant, where one of the songs playing was "A Walking Miracle." I probably wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't posted this chart and listened to the song on YouTube. A lot of these oldies sound the same after a while. They were probably in the background of my childhood, as they were yours, but I didn't notice them unless they really stood out or unless my mother had a strong association with them. My mother once told me that after she became a mother, she stopped listening to the radio as it made her nervous. That's probably why she had none of these songs in her collection.
Thanks for the Wikipedia link. I had already looked it up and the Jaynett's own entry, so I saw that Grace Slick recorded "Sally" with her pre-Jefferson Airplane band, The Great Society. Her version is available on YouTube, as is a version by the British folk-jazz group Pentangle.
Lash's story reminds me that not everyone grew up with the same cultural references, and a lot of things we take for granted just aren't shared by others. A group of my colleagues have decided to unofficially call themselves the A-Team because their chair is named Amy, but someone pointed out that the younger faculty members might not get the reference. Even people who grow up contemporaneously may listen to and watch very different things--or nothing at all. I'm currently reading "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls, whose itinerant childhood was bereft of television and other ordinary things like Christmas and birthday presents. Oddly enough, she lived in a town where the brothel was called The Green Lantern. She doesn't mention if she drew the connection with the comic book character.
I'll see what I can do about posting the '64 chart; meanwhile, it's available at the link I posted.
About that last paragraph, the internet's made it much harder for yesterday's news/culture to be buried forever. Or for it to be thought the province of only one lone weirdo typing in her kitchen when she really ought to be about her chores.
No matter how obscure a show, comic, or song might seem to me: there's probably someone online who's got a link, tribute, and/or obsessive analysis of it-- and the people responsible for its existence.
This is both a blessing and a curse, I think.
Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on DeviantArt! Drop by and tell me that I sent you. *updated often!*
When I was in grad school, cle, I thought the same thing about some of the professors: They were obsessive geeks over Irish drama, Arthurian legends, or particular poets.
In a way, the Internet has enabled us all to be scholars.
I have a little bit of free time, so here's the one-year-later chart (9/26/64):
40. SAY YOU, Ronnie Dove 39. GIRL (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue), The Temptations 38. UNDER THE BOARDWALK, The Drifters 37. IT'S ALL OVER NOW, The Rolling Stones 36. C'MON AND SWIM, Bobby Freeman 35. YOU'LL NEVER GET TO HEAVEN (If You Break My Heart), Dionne Warwick 34. SOMEDAY WE'RE GONNA LOVE AGAIN, The Searchers 33. ALWAYS TOGETHER, Al Martino 32. SLOW DOWN, The Beatles 31. CLINGING VINE, Bobby Vinton
30. FROM A WINDOW, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas 29. LAST KISS, J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers 28. RHYTHM, Major Lance 27. LET IT BE ME, Betty Everett and Jerry Butler 26. YOU MUST BELIEVE ME, The Impressions 25. IN THE MISTY MOONLIGHT, Jerry Wallace 24. OUT OF SIGHT, James Brown and His Orchestra 23. MATCHBOX, The Beatles 22. I'M ON THE OUTSIDE (Looking In), Little Anthony and the Imperials 21. WHEN I GROW UP (to Be a Man), The Beach Boys
20. SELFISH ONE, Jackie Ross 19. A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, The Beatles 18. A SUMMER SONG, Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde 17. BECAUSE, The Dave Clark Five 16. FUNNY, Joe Hinton 15. EVERYBODY LOVES SOMEBODY, Dean Martin 14. WE'LL SING IN THE SUNSHINE, Gale Garnett 13. BABY I NEED YOUR LOVING, The Four Tops 12. MAYBELLINE, Johnny Rivers 11. HAUNTED HOUSE, Gene Simmons
10. SAVE IT FOR ME, The Four Seasons 9. IT HURTS TO BE IN LOVE, Gene Pitney 8. DANCING IN THE STREET, Martha and the Vandellas 7. WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO, The Supremes 6. DO WAH DIDDY DIDDY, Manfred Mann 5. REMEMBER (Walkin' In the Sand), The Shangri-Las 4. G.T.O., Ronny and the Daytonas 3. THE HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN, The Animals 2. BREAD AND BUTTER, The Newbeats 1. OH, PRETTY WOMAN, Roy Orbison
Lash's story reminds me that not everyone grew up with the same cultural references, and a lot of things we take for granted just aren't shared by others. A group of my colleagues have decided to unofficially call themselves the A-Team because their chair is named Amy, but someone pointed out that the younger faculty members might not get the reference.
Nah, it's fine, they'll just think of the Ed Sheeran song and figure everybody does hard drugs.
Was Hard Day's Night on the way up or down? It was just five month's prior that the Beatles held all five top slots in the chart for the week, the only group to ever do so.
More vaguely-related recollections and half-baked connections? I'm your debutante.
Another Lash thingie: don't remember if it was here or the Facialbook, but he posted a YT video of the 1977 country-charting version of Come A Little Bit Closer. I had no idea that version existed. He had no idea it was a cover of the Jay and the Americans hit. Neither of us knew that the (original) song would be used in a eye-popping scene in a mega-blockbuster movie starring Marvel Comics fifth-stringers, as it hadn't happened yet.
Speaking of Jay and the Americans, here they are on the 1963 chart with Only In America. I've heard the title before, but I'm not sure I've heard the actual song. She Cried, CALBC, and Cara Mia are very familiar, but where did this one go? Likewise from this chart -- Honolulu Lulu has a pretty distinct (memorable) title and was #11 for Jan & Dean, guys with a few other big hits, namely Dead Man's Curve and Little Old Lady From Pasadena.
Still working on why some hits from a group stick around and others don't, but I fell into the internet today re: how oldies radio (and radio in general) playlists are manufactured. This wiki page is a decent primer.
So I start to look over the 1964 chart and I'm thinking maybe it isn't that different. Beatles not even in the top 10, must be having a breather after the initial deluge. Oh wait, there's A Hard Day's Night. And...a Beatles song I don't recognize AT ALL? No, TWO Beatles songs I don't recognize AT ALL. Check in at YouTube...nope, no recognition. I am no expert, you could easily trip me up on Beatles deep cuts, but hits are the opposite of deep cuts. This is just weird, sentients.
When I looked again, I saw that the British Invasion is pretty well represented here. (Feel free to add or correct)
37. IT'S ALL OVER NOW, The Rolling Stones 34. SOMEDAY WE'RE GONNA LOVE AGAIN, The Searchers 32. SLOW DOWN, The Beatles 30. FROM A WINDOW, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas 23. MATCHBOX, The Beatles 19. A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, The Beatles 18. A SUMMER SONG, Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde 17. BECAUSE, The Dave Clark Five 6. DO WAH DIDDY DIDDY, Manfred Mann 3. THE HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN, The Animals
Quick review of the 1963 chart: I think the number of British acts is 0.
Motown looking really good -- many (most?) of their top acts are here. Surfers, girl groups, car songs, teenage tragedy also accounted for. I'm surprised the crooners are still hanging in there.
The Beatles had so many hits and so many at the same time that it's not surprising some are forgotten today.
Here's a trivia question: What's the lowest-ranking Beatles song on the Hot 100?
Answer: "Sie Liebt Dich," the German language version of "She Loves You." It spent a solitary week at No. 97. The fact that it made the Hot 100 at all is a testimony to how promoters and record companies would try to cash in on anything with the Beatles name. There were quite a few Beatles tribute records, such as "We Love You, Beatles" by the Carefrees.
What's interesting to me about the '64 chart is that there were at least six artists who had hits on the '63 chart. Quite a few of these artists, such as the Four Seasons, the Beach Boys, and Jerry Butler had chart careers which lasted many years beyond '64. The popular narrative is that the Beatles and other British acts swept previous artists away, but, if this chart is any indication, the sweeping was neither total nor immediate.
I don't know if any of the '63 artists were British, but it's worth noting that two British artists topped the US chart before The Beatles: Mr. Acker Bilk with "Stranger on the Shore in May 1962 and The Tornados with "Telstar" in December '62. Both were instrumentals.
In other news, a song that I had been indifferent to for the past 30 years or so is now stuck in my head: 18. A SUMMER SONG, Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde
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