Cheers Rob - I agree on the songs too, it's starting to get interesting!Superb write-up. Interesting that three of the headliners from our 1962 list are the headliners here. But in all three cases, the songs are much better in 1963.
Just a minor note, I don't think Americans were drafted to serve in Vietnam until 1964 (must admit, I thought that it was much later, given that US involvement before 1965 was limited to an advisory and training capacity).
Minor note to self: I don't know how, given that I visited Berlin last summer, but nobody mentioned the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961).
That's why it's good we get to nominate stuff :) your picks are great and justified i just thought it was an interesting song if we are talking evolutionThat's a remarkable collection of songs. There is something about these simple songs that are authentic despite being "factory produced". The Wall Of Sound could make anything sound good!
I considered and rejected this song. Whilst I love Stevie Wonder, I think he comes into his own in the 70s. I think his career in the 60s is "nice" but maybe not as good as the 10 I'd picked. In some way I think at this stage he's like the Stones - nice, good but it sounds like anything else but if course at 13 that's something else.
I genuinely found it hard picking these and once we get into the "real 60s" and 70s it's going to be utterly impossible :)
It's another example of the classical world influencing the pop world :) whilst we're focussing on rock, we're already seeing Wagner and the Avant Garde are pretty influential on 60s pop music!Sometimes people think the Wall of Sound was produced by electronic trickery.
That is not so. Spector was a huge fan of Wagner and the Wall was his way of reproducing the big sound of that composer. His method was to use several instruments playing the same part. So a piano part would be played on an acoustic piano, an electric piano and a harpsicord. He rehearsed the musicians for about four hours and they would then crowd into the studio and together play the piece. Bonkers, really.
Bonnie Raitt beavered away for twenty years with little recognition. Then, at the age of forty she sang Nick of Time and became a star. My bet is that some gave up after a while who might have made it had they been able to stick it out.This thread has made me think about some of the many artist who maybe didn't make it the way they perhaps deserved. Why did it work out for one artist but not another ? The reasons are myriad and complicated but there are more artists in that boat than the ones who made it big.
Jumping ahead, to then come back, in 1969 Stax released an album called the Many Grooves of Barbara Lewis, an album which pretty much finished Lewis's career. For me it's one of the great 'lost' albums, despite being supposedly more 'gritty' than her previous work, there are times on it when the groove is so smooth it makes Marvin Gaye sound like Jimmy Nail. Rewind to 1963 and Lewis is 20 years old, the previous year whilst still a teen she had written ALL the songs on her 63 debut album Hello Stranger. The title track gets to #3 on the billboard chart and it looks like it's going to be the launchpad for a great career, but, despite some further minor successes, by the end of 1969 she's been written off having just produced an album that shows how she's evolved and quite how good she is.
Her sound has retrospectively been recognised as having a big influence on a number of artists, and she's known on the Northern Soul circuit, but I suspect she'd have traded that for a longer career that gave her her due at the time.
Barbara Lewis - Hello Stranger
The 60s are littered with underappreciated black female musicians. Before we even move off the Barbaras there's also Barbara Lynn (who I should have nominated in 62 for You'll Lose A good Thing) who as a song writing blues guitarist should be as well known as Hooker or Guy. Barbara George could have made the '61 list with "I Know You Don't Love Me No More" which Ike and Tina covered. Maybe talented black women writing their own stuff was simply a step too far for the era but there are loads who should be more famous than they are.
Also need to add Fingertips by Little Stevie Wonder. This was Motowns second number one and featured a 13 year old Stevie Wonder showcasing his bongo and harmonica playing. It's got James Jamerson on bass and Marvin Gaye on drums. Like Spector, Stevie Wonder was also a genius in the studio and despite being a part of What About The Children probably didn't kidnap a woman and force her to raise two kids adopted as Christmas presents
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Bonny Raitt beavered away for twenty years with little recognition. Then, at the age of forty she sang Nick of Time and became a star. My bet is that some gave up after a while who might have made it had they been able to stick it out.
I really don't want to encourage you - but you might find its 1963.I must google what year "Puff the magic dragon" is
That may well be but did Buffalo die in the frozen fields and did snow fall without a break?The worst winter in living memory is how 1963 starts. For 3 months - yes, 3 months, Britain was ravaged by the hardest winter for around 150 years. Temperatures plummeted to -20 in parts and barely topped 0. Snow drifts as high as houses, frozen rivers and even the sea made the start to the year incredibly miserable. The long winter even left large areas of the sea around Britain frozen for miles around. There were genuine fears that parts of the country would be cut off completely without food or medical supplies.
ok...one very early Blue Beat / Ska record...'Luke Lane Shuffle / Little Honey'...Rico Rodriques and Prince Buster. 1961.
Calypso was morphing into Ska...some big ska records were to follow early 6t's.