Let's discuss the pop music and jukebox hits of the '50s and '60s

My mother liked The Everly Brothers.

I liked Herman's Hermits, with the engaging Peter Noone.

Herman's Hermits - No Milk Today (1966)

I'm obsessed with pop songs from around 63 and 64 that have what I think is called the Brill Building sound. Distorted thick sound, double tracked vocals about teen drama, gun shot-like drums, pauses that allow the air to clear, funny guitar filter that I only hear in songs from from this era, foot stomps and claps, swings that swell up, and a false ending.

The Name Game!

Girly music was big in the early 60s. Ginny Arnell also did a song called "I Wish I Knew Which Dress To Wear".

Song satirizing teen slang. The cover includes a glossary of terms.

This one is seriously catchy. Sailor Boy by the Sherry Sisters. Perhaps capitalizing on Diane Renay's big hit "Navy Blue".

Then there's Soldier Boy by the Shirelles

Latin sounds were big, I think this song was inspired by Stand By Me.

I sometimes wonder how American pop music would have evolved if there had never been the Beatles and the British Invasion.

The Cascades and the number 4 song of 1963.

1963...up until November 22nd...was the last year of the 1950s.

[quote]So much of the pop music of this era has such a carefree sound and is pleasing on the ears in a way that you simply don't hear anymore.

Like this one. The number 1 song of July 1963 - Easier Said Than Done:

I love that big Phil Spector sound. This one capitalizes on the Leader of the Pack theme "One of Hell's Angels will be knocking at the door tonight!"

"Louie, Louie" by the Kinsmen, proto-garage rock hometown heroes of Portland, OR

Kingsmen--fucking autocorrect

The best song Phil Spector didn't produce. This one shoulda been a hit. I love the spoken word break, a common feature of 60s pop. "Listen now I'm! Nobody's Baby Now"

R9 That song reminded me of this one.

Love this era of music. This was not the popular version, but I prefer it over The Five Satins.

R15 That is so cool.

And this odd one from 1963.... number 1 in September:

Sally Go Round The Roses.

""Sally Go 'Round the Roses" was unlike other pop songs of the day, with a spooky, even ominous, musical ambiance heightened by the sometimes odd and opaque lyrics, which gave the song a mysterious feeling that probably accounted in part for its popularity, and which has led to speculation on the meaning of the song. "Sally Go 'Round the Roses" could be interpreted as a conventional song of heartbreak over cheating, or it could be – and has been – seen as alluding to deeper matters, including drug use, illegitimate motherhood, madness, suicide,] or, most especially, lesbianism."

I got detention for drawing a line of bare asses. I tried to get out of it bt saying it was the beginning of MR. SANDMAN.

I love "Sally Go 'Round the Roses"

"Sugar, aww honey honey"

I used to play this on the small juke boxes at Mel's Diner on Mission St. in San Francisco (late 90s/2000s)

Still love it. There is a video on YT of it being played on American Bandstand.

Ron Dante was really cute.

r10 Without the Beatles there still would've been Bob Dylan, Garage rock, bubblegum rock, Mamas and the Papas, Motown, increasingly dark girl group music like the Shangri-Las, Burt Bacharach, and the Phil Spector West Coast sound which was becoming increasingly complex and experimental even before the Beatles. This Julie Driscoll song from 1967 is kind of the final stage of Spectorian excess, with timpani and theremin.

Joe Meek was churning out some crazy sounding shit from his little apartment studio. Even before the Beatles, the desire to experiment was there.

Joe Meek's story was crazy

Don't forget the Ronettes' "Be My Baby."

Or the Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby." Brian Wilson loved "Be My Baby" so much, he wrote "Don't Worry Baby" as a response to it.

The opening chords here are so beautiful, it reminds me of driving home after a great date.

You don't have to be a baby to cry. Love those snappy outifits they're wearing.

Cherry Pie. The lyrics seem a bit risque.

Cum softly, darling.

I saw a Ludwig Von Drake cartoon about the history of music that featured this pastiche of the current pop sound. The lyrics are kind of bizarre "You're just ten and I'm fourteen, but to me you're a teenage queen" Great saxophone. Billy Storm was a great singer. He made an album on Disney's Vista label.

Here's a juke box favorite and a big international hit -- not to mention a real foot-stomper ()literally) -- from English beat group, The Homeycombs:

"Have I the Right?" (1964)

That's Honey Lantree on drums, one of the few female drummers from the era.

r32 That song was produced by Joe Meek, mentioned upthread. The foot stomping sound was produced by stomping a foot in a bath tub in Meek's apartment studio. I think their voices were sped up for the song, which the band resented. My favorite song produced by Meek is Johnny Remember Me, again utilizing the bathroom an echo chamber for the ghostly female vocals.

Sung by Ellie Greenwich. She wrote many a hit in the early 60s including "Be My Baby" and "Do Wah Diddy". She also sang backing vocals in many songs like Neil Diamond's "Cherry Cherry". She kinda reminds me of Carole King, another woman songwriter with a husky voice. When I first heard this I thought it was a man singing, perhaps a secret gay song that never got released.

Brother and sister duo Nino and April (who sang the sexy "Love Kitten"). I wouldn't mind having Nino as a brother.

Les Paul and Mary Ford, harmonizing with herself through the magic of multi-track tape. This must've been quite radical in 1951.

Pull a tree in motion. There was a game show at the time where people rate new songs and predict whether it's going to be a hit. I remember Deborah Kerr was the guest when this song was played and she scoffed at the "dirty sax" as she called it and thought it wouldn't be a hit.

Roy Orbison. I'm thankful to David Lynch for turning me on to him. The strings suggest a Latin theme, which seems to be common in the music of the time.

I love Roy Orbison.

R35 Nino Tempo died back in April of this year. Handsome guy. BTW: that's a toupee he's wearing.

The NYTimes did a nice obit.

Oh...and Nino Tempo never married, never had kids...

I was a soldier in Vietnam in '65 and the USO lady was having a bunch of us play a "guess who sang this song" contest at the Enlisted Men's club at the Bien Hoa airbase, just north of Saigon. I won a free dinner at a local restaurant by correctly guessing that the Cascades sang "Rhythm Of The Rain." The French onion soup was delicious, lots of gooey, melted cheese on top!

[quote]I won a free dinner at a local restaurant by correctly guessing that the Cascades sang "Rhythm Of The Rain."

"Rhythm Of The Rain" really has a nice melody and lyrics. Decades later it worked beautifully in this version by Dan Fogelberg

R42, great story!

The Vogues with the brilliant "Five O'Clock World"

Shelley Fabares' hit "Johnny Angel" as performed on The Donna Reed Show (1962):

Soon followed by Paul Petersen singing "Can't Find Her Keys" on The Donna Reed Show as well:

I love Timi Yuro, she sounds like she could tear you to pieces.

What the world needs is Jackie DeShannon. Another song with that vaguely Latin infused sound. Kind of reminds me of Uptown by the Crystals.

R49 I hear zero "Latin infused sound" with the song nor in that arrangement.

The hit version was by the Searchers with a very British Invasion sound.

This is a beautiful sharp video of their performance...perhaps Ed Sullivan?

^ The drummer is gorgeous

Our choir director was a huge Petula Clark fan. ?He made us sing 'I Know a Place' until we began to hate it. Eric Storm always sang,"my mama's place" instead. He later blew his brains out during a police chase down I75.

r50 I guess it's because of the maracas. I feel like there's a common thread between many of these songs that can be traced back to Ben E. King's Spanish Harlem in 1960.

The early 60s did have a Latin thing going. Calypso too.

Yes, Latin.

Oops the post at R54 is by me R50.`

Also the was the phenomenal success of West Side Story in 1961. And the "Cha Cha' became a popular dance.

r49 and r50, the sound of Jackie De Shannon's "Needles and Pins" and the Crystals' "Uptown" should sound somewhat alike, as both were produced by Jack Nitsche, a member of the Wrecking Crew, who probably played on both records.

And yes, r51, the Searchers' drummer is gorgeous.

Jeanette, Get Your Hair Done

Shame that if Petula Clark is remembered these days, it's likely only for Downtown, but she made a lot of great records during the 60s.

Here's a performance of Sign Of The Times that couldn't be any more 60s, with Michael Bennett dancing and likely his choreography

Guantanamera

1966 - I remember hearing this on a cafe jukebox in Alamosa, CO. Whenever I hear it, I think of that.

Johnny Rivers had a lot hits during the 60s - Seventh Son was one of his more rocking ones

The Beatles and Stones were the best of the 60s.

The Weight by The Band is a favorite of mine.

Pop music was so popular among the "younger set" that even Lawrence Welk had to occassionally feature it - The Lennon Sisters - Wah Watusi

[quote]Johnny Rivers had a lot of hits during the 60s

He did a lot of covers.

I love the art direction on this one. The camera work. Clothing , hair, make-up. The whole thing is so 1966- early1967 before the '67 "Summer of Love" and the revolution of 1968.

Each year of the 1960s was like its own decade.

^ That is probably Peter Gennaro's choreography.

Devil or Angel

R46's clip. I never realized how much Shelley Fabares looked like Donna Reed (or maybe it's just cause of the hair).