The Fan And Critic Agree To Agree, Sometimes

Having started listening to the top 40 properly I have noticed that my critics hat and my music fan hat are oft in alignment. Granted at the time I wrote that line I had only heard about 60 songs. Also of note is how many of those 60 were not memorable. Or are memorable for reasons unrelated to the merits of the song as a song, specifically 7 Little Girls Sitting In The Backseat By The Avons. This song raised so many questions for me as I discussed in the live stream from episode one.

And this brings up another factor that must be addressed here in terms of my own feelings- Not only am a listening to these out of context of time as I mentioned in the intro I am also listening to them more or less all at once. I am not listening to radio, which in the 60s was the MAIN place to hear these songs unless you owned the records. So you didn’t hear the songs that often between, school work or whatever else occupied one’s day before all these flat screens or popular songs being blasted in every cafe mall and waiting room. Also your local DJ might not even play a certain hit depending the DJs own tastes (they had more control back then) and the market they catered to.

Then there is the fact I am not being, “beaten into submission” with repetitive play like to on I Heart Radio or streaming algorithms or just time itself. When it comes to growing to like a song, giving a it a second or third chance will not present here much. However, songs that get high marks from me will get a repeat listen as I gather the list of my favorites for each year and then of each decade.

But already I have found some songs I played again for various reasons that I felt were bad upon another listen but were not THAT awful and vice versa. So my scoring is ultimately my initial response. If I change my mind it likely won’t noted, I have 56 years of hits to get through.

But the takeaway here is I am seeing just how much one’s own personality (and not a teenager for whom this music was merketed) factors into my opinions on the music. We cannot avoid bias, so why try. You like what you like right? I guess so.

All of that is to say that the critic and the fan are often hard to separate. But would critics REALLY like the Nutty Squirrels song? Basically an instrumental with quasi-squirrel sounds that I actually liked a fair bit despite it totally cashing in on the Alvin & The Chipmunks trend. And would I like it if it was repeatedly blasted out every speaker in every car, cafe, and mall? Can’t say. But right now I am playing it again because it SWINGS!

Still, I hope on some level this adventure can help steer people away from music that might be an absolute waste of time. I mean 7 Little Girls In The Back Seat is not the kind of material I think needs a come back despite it being a total curiosity.

With regards to coming to most of these songs after the fact- This brings a lot of experience that would not have been around to music listeners at the time. Things like 20/20 hindsight or lyrics that would be questionable by today’s standards but where fine back in the early 60s. Most notable with The Viscounts, “Shortin’ Bread” and the singing of the word Mammy. Not that most listening audiences today would know why that is a problem outside of token social media flame wars. Or songs like, “Mr. Custer” even while a parody, is celebrating somebody who should not be celebrated. Much the Alamo in, “Ballad Of The Alamo” did not need some patriotic revisionist history song. And then there is “Running Bear” and “The Little White Bull”… I’ll just side step those.

But the main perspective that will affect my listening is I know what come after these songs, the styles and genres that build on and further revolutionize music. The obvious example being The Beatles who would elevate the kind of saccharine teen love common in 1960 to a high art. So listening to assembly line songs by teen idols for teen girls about love can be a slog to wade through as think I can’t wait for the British Invasion.

The Beatles I know are and will be a big part of the conversation of the 60s because while other acts like Zappa, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix even Laura Nyro and Joni Micthell were releasing music they were not having chart hits and I am solely focused on the songs that charted. I know this will also factor in when punk raises a fist n the 70s because not many “punk” songs charted despite punk being massively influential.

Though it should be noted, I predicted this will largely be a focal point of the US charts. In my personal experience the UK charts were more varied in styles and more open to different sounds and genres. And I predict will we see that influence crop up in the later 60s on into the 70s. But in 1960 the UK like much of the western world was trying to cop our rock ‘n’ roll and r ’n’ b. To say nothing of the artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Wanda Jackson, Big Maybelle, Big Mama Thronton etc who were huge influences on The Beatles and others that became part of the British Invasion.

But sticking with 1960 specifically, we have the appearance of two versions of, “Hot Rod Lincoln” neither of, which are the 1956 original. And neither of which are the now iconic version by Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen from 1971. Yeah knowing the 1971 version definitely colored my experience of the two versions from 1960, which while I felt were not as good as the ‘71 version they also did not live up to the version from 1956!

Side note: As I write this I admit that getting through the songs of 1960 was not “easy” and I will touch on that more later. But I off ramp here to say my whole body feels alive and joyous (and no it is not the GIANT cappuccino wiring me up). Whatever I may feel about the songs, just the sheer act of listening to them and taking this journey is so fabulous and exciting and reminds me again of the magic of music in general and of the acts I love. And how it must have been for listeners back then get the first taste of Elvis or The Ventures. Or Roy Orbison, who logs one of his most iconic hits in 1960 “Only The Lonely (Know How I Feel)”. OK let’s get back on the highway and crank the stereo.

Bobby, Johnny, And Elvis Oh My!

1960 did not just arrive and drop the sounds of 1959 like a poisoned cocktail. OG rock ‘n’ roll, was still very much reigning supreme, again with teen idols a plenty. Most of whom were -ahem- not teenagers… *sides eyes Johnny Burnette*.

One surprising thing for me was how much the teen idol boom totally dominated to the point R ‘n’ B hit makers of the 50s were almost non existent. Jackie Wilson and Brook Benton being the two exceptions this year. Dinah Washington and Della Reese also had hits but were not charting at the same level as Jackie and Brook. In fact outside of Connie Francis and Brenda Lee NO women were charting with any kind of strong regular presence. Shirley Bassesy of he UK makes her first appearance sounding not quite like the icon we would come to know in the later 60s. And Tina with Ike shows up like like a flamethrower from the get go. And the firebrand Etta James was preset but not dominating. Likely at the time nobody thought Tina or Etta or even Shirley would become the icons they became.

It also feels like most of these songs were made with only teen girls in mind not guys at all. Teen girls was the demo for all these teen love songs much like TRL in late 90s. Maybe the teen guys wanted to BE Elvis or Ricky Nelson to get girls but outside of Duane Eddy or The Shadows most of this music seems made to get girls to swoon. Much of the remainder seems made to get people dancing.

Also surprising is how little doo-wop there was in 1960 due the dominance of teen idols. At least the kind of stuff I remember from oldies radio or Soundtracks like Stand By Me. The Drifters logged one of their most iconic hits in 1960, “Save The Last Dance For Me”, which I did not know had a response song, “I’ll Save The Last Dance For You” by Damita Jo another hit that year.

Side note: Sometime in the past few months I came to a realization about doo-wop and rock ‘n’ roll lyrics of the period. All the, “bama lama bama loo” and “be-bop-a-lu-la” lyrical nonsense- Well those are words that are stand ins for the inexplicable feeling of; butterflies, love, horniness etc. That Yabba Dabba Doo cloud nine concoction that swirls inside that Paul Anka sang as, “puppy love” or Freddy Cannon sang as “The Urge”. And with that in mind it makes many of the songs of the era slightly less silly to me.

With the dominance of teen idols there is dominance of “I love you. You love me,” types of lyrics and so going through every hit of the year did start to feel like a bit of a slog due to the lack of variety in styles and lyrical content among most of the hits. They all seemed to follow the teen idol assembly line. And most of the lyrics on their own attain possibly some passable level of Hallmark quality.

But added music and singing and the right production can sometimes turn the pedestrian into the superlative. But as I predicted in the prescript, most songs would be average. And in 1960 most songs where average. Competent but not highly memorable in my opinion at least in comparison to the other songs of that year.

However, what quickly became apparent as I went on through the year is that there is a reason why the icons are Icons. Or read the lyrics to, “I’m Sorry” the Brenda Lee mega-hit. They are very basic and probably would not pass even a middle school poetry class today. But add the production and Brenda’s delivery… BAM! Iconic and superlative in my opinion. The same with a song like “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” or “Only The Lonely” with Elvis and Roy respectively delivering them.

There is a reason we still talk about “The King”. He just had something many of the other idols did not. He just did, period. Great though the others might be. And that is why some music or artists are just well, factually better. You can’t quantify it but you know it when you hear it or see it, especially in the proper context.

Hell, even Bobby Darrin proved to be more of a powerhouse than I expected on every track he cut. Sure he did, “Splish Splash” but in 1960 he’d mastered whatever “it factor” and channeled it into some swinging hits that for 1960 overshadowed elders like Nat King Cole and Sinatra (who logged one of the years… um… biggest hits from hell IMO).

Another reason for the pedestrian lyrics is in part because songwriters and music makers were condescending to teens (especially girls) with simple lyrics because teenagers are not that deep to begin with, right?

Also, many of the songwriters, if not teenagers, were certainly very young themselves. And this point, will really showcase the genius of certain artists to come later who were just as young but writing songs so above average they became legends.

The overarching production style favored studio string sections even on the rock ‘n’ roll ravers. Though, we are not yet into the Spector “wall of sound” dominating era yet despite the Shirelles’ iconic hit “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” being released at the end of 1960. Another example of me knowing what is coming that in 1960 they did not know was coming.

With regards to the string section specifically- The music history I was handed down told me that George Martin convinced The Beatles to add strings to, “Yesterday’. The Beatles thought the idea I was horrible as they were a rock band. But we know how that turned out.

But I was sold the idea that this bit of history is what shifted the rock music landscape to more artists getting more symphonic. Acts like the Moody Blues for example. But in fact it had been the format for years prior on many Elvis hist and others! To say nothing of Motown or the “Wall Of Sound” material on the rise. So why is it The Beatles and George Martin get all the slices of that piece of music history pie?

Also many songs seem to try to repeat the success of or follow the format of Bobby Darrin’s mega hit, “Mack The Knife” with a modern big band swing feel. That starts mellow and then goes epic. I even noted his own hit, “Clementine” was a lesser, “Mack The Knife”.

There seemed to be very few straight up “rock ‘n’ roll acts” outside Duane Eddy and Johnny and the Hurricanes and some proto-surf with The Shadows and The Ventures and Wanda Jackson popping to say hello. For even Elvis, as I said above, had lots of strings and percussion as opposed to just guitar slinging.

Speaking of strings being everywhere- bongos were everywhere too!

Some teen of tragedy songs common to the era make an appearance. A favorite from the year being, “Tell Laura I Lover Her” wherein a the boy loses his life in a drag race trying to win some money to afford a wedding ring. A song that was new to me. Showing the lengths a male will go to get laid…

There were lots of story songs that ended badly actually, especially in the country department.

In UK there some VERY British songs that would not translate well to US audiences. And well, as I said before when the UK logs a stinker it STINKS. Maybe that is my US bias and not having the cultural context for a song like,, “Fings Ain’t Like What They Used To Be” or some of the skiffle hits of Lonnie Donegan. But “7 Girls Sitting In the Backseat” almost got my award for worst song of the year because it just makes ZERO sense and what little sense I could make of it made the song come off weirder and creepier. But the production was decent so I gave it a passing grade.

The winner of the “hit from hell” award was Perry Como with, “Delaware” a song that was MUCH bigger in the UK even though Perry is one of ours. And yeah the songs we think of today as “hits from hell” nah… the true hits from hell are so bad even I (super seasoned music fan) don’t know many of them because they got buried until in a swamp. Until I dug them up. So bad we don’t want to remember them or hear them EVER again.

MVPS 1960:

There were 452 new Singles on the chart in 1960. Of those 452 songs I knew 56 songs, mostly from the US.

Looking at 1960 as a whole I would I say my MVPs of the year were Brenda Lee and Jackie Wilson. Brenda’s hits were all knock outs and bangers on a level few others were achieving. And that voice was fierce. And Jackie Wilson… maaannnnn… that cat took simple lyrics and just blew the roof off with his belting. In fact I am sure Jackie would mop the floor with any modern belter of the last 35 years. And if I were to pick only one… I’d give it to, “Little Miss Firecracker” simply for the fact so few women were having hits. Let alone rock ‘n’ roll hits that were upbeat, and gritty like, “Sweet Nothin’s”.

Honorable mentions would go to Connie Stevens, Elvis, Bobby Darrin, Neil Sedaka, and Duane Eddy.

Surprising to me is that Duane Eddy was bigger in the UK with all the fired up instrumentals. I LOVE Duane Eddy he is one of my favorite guitarists. But the UK also seemed to favor more instrumental hits in general with Johnny and The Hurricanes logging several bangers in the top 40. The MVP in the UK would be Cliff Richard hands down. But personally… the songs were fine. Nothing really stood out to me and it felt like the UK trying to have their own Elvis. In fact many f the UK idols felt like lesser attempts at what the US had been doing for a few years by that point. Adam Faith, Anthony Newly all hit makers but didn’t do much for me personally.

Bigger n UK:
Cliff Richard
Anthony Newley
Adam Faith
Duane Eddy
Johnny and the Hurricanes

Bigger In US:
Don & The Belmonts
Connie Francis
Paul Anka
Frankie Avalon
Jackie Wilson

10 Songs Of 1960 Every Music Fan Should Know

1. Brenda Lee – I’m Sorry
2. Dinah Washington – This Bitter Earth
3. Elvis – Are You Lonesome To-night?
4. Marty Robbins – El Paso
5. Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs – Stay
6. Ray Charles – Georgia On My Mind
7. Roy Orbison – Only The Lonely (Know How I Feel)
8. Sam Cooke – Chain Gang
9. Shirelles – Will You Love Me Tomorrow
10. Ventures – Walk Don’t Run

Winner For 1960: U.S.A.

Some Odds And Ends

Multiple singles by a single artist on the chart at the same time. Similar to modern times where streaming sees the same artists charting multiple songs at once and even more so than in 1960s with sometimes four or more songs in the top 40 or even top 10. They were not worried about competing singles back then because the assumed the teenagers would just dispose of them and move when the next hit came out.

Several songs with multiple versions, especially instrumentals. Not exactly cover versions so much as trying to milk more money out of a hit song (i.e. Never On A Sunday, Exodus)… Or the UK taking a US hit and trying to make a UK hit with their own artists and idols. To the last point almost 100% of the time when the UK covered a US hit the cover charted significantly lower in the UK than the original and did not chart at all in the US.

Payola Roll Blues is 1st hit, calling out music business and first overtly political song to chart. But it only charted in the UK.

The UK has stronger appreciation for legacy and dead artists and US black artists, such as Nat King Cole, Buddy Holly, and Sinatra. We seemed to just drop Buddy Holly the moment he died.

I love Jeanne Black Telling a dude off over the phone in the song, “He’ll Have To Stay”.

And while many of the songs sing by female acts were written by men or teams of them. I was surprised by how many lyrics of the time were pretty forward in terms of giving women agency and telling off men. A song like “Robot Man” by Connie Francis where she expresses that with she would rather have a Robot than a man because she wouldn’t have to deal with all the BS a man brings to the table. And it was presented in a fun way, not overtly angry and bitter.

Paul Revere and the Raiders with their first chart hit so early in the 60s is surprising to me. I did not know they started this early.

“Alley Oop”, is first song to have two versions in the top 20

There were not as many girl groups as I expected for 1960.

Average of 40 new charting songs each month between both the US and UK.

Songs are averaging about 2:40 in length.

Lyricists use words like boy, guy, and man when it is a male/female situation in a song. However, the females are ALWAYS girls never a woman or a lady, occasionally mama.

Link to list of every top 40 hit for 1960
in the US and UK with comments and ratings.