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OLD 55's Yearly Top 10 Singles Of The Rock Era


OLD 55

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Laur, if you saw La Bamba the movie ended with the funeral procession and Santo and Johnny's Sleepwalk playing.

My favorite cover of the song is by Larry Carlton.

Great stuff Joe. :thumbsup: I'd completely forgotten that.

The Top Song for 1962 will have to be a Love Song.:grin:

The Sixties ! I think it was the greatest ever decade in Pop Music. Can't wait to see what we'll find. Joe and RonJon will have a lot to contribute I'm sure - as will Kids like Laurie and Shawna when we get to the 70s !

:)

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HERE'S THE TOP 12* SINGLES OF 1960

1. THE THEME FROM A SUMMER PLACE / PERCY FAITH (Instrumental)

2. Are You Lonesome Tonight / Elvis Presley

3. It's Now Or Never / Elvis Presley

4. Cathy's Clown / The Everly Brothers

5. Stuck On You / Elvis Presley

6. Running Bear / Johnny Preston

7. I'm Sorry / Brenda Lee

8. Save The Last Dance For Me / The Drifters

9. El Paso / Marty Robbins

10.Teen Angel / Mark Dinning

11.Everybody's Somebody's Fool / Connie Francis

12.Guess My Heart Has A Mind Of It's Own / Connie Francis

.................................................

* I stretched it to 12, because it would be grossly unfair to leave out the Top Female Artist of 1958, 59, 60. These were her only two #1s in the U.S. (and they were just beaten for 10th place on a countback using my rating system).

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Some Trivia:

* "Are You Lonesome Tonight" was a much recorded song, first appearing in the Charts in 1927.

* "It's Now Or Never" uses the melody of the classic Italian 19th Century song "O Sole Mio".

* Elvis returns home (promoted to Sergeant) after his stint in the Army.

* "Cathy's Clown" was the first release on the "Warner" label in the U.K.

* "Running Bear" was written by Mercury records labelmate The Big Bopper (J.P.Richardson). He and Country Star George Jones supplied the Indian whooping noises and backing vocals for Johnny Preston.

................................................

In the U.K. "It's Now Or Never" just tips out "Cathy's Clown" for the Top Song.

Here in Australia Elvis has the Top 2 Songs with "Are You Lonesome Tonight" and "It's Now Or Never". The biggest song by an Australian artist is "Little Boy Lost" / Johnny Ashcroft, based on a true story of a child lost (and, happily, found) in the Australian bush.

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For much of the early 60's the best rock and roll could be found on the R&B Charts.

That's probably true of the 1950s too Joe, until a few of the mainstream DJs started to play "black" music, and then came some whites who rocked, notably Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Just an aside, but I've always admired Elvis and The Beatles because they openly spoke out against segregation of their audiences. The Beatles threatened not to play at one venue in America if it was done.

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Here's the TOP 10 SINGLES OF 1961

1. TOSSIN' AND TURNIN' / BOBBY LEWIS

2. Big Bad John / Jimmy Dean

3. Runaway / Del Shannon

4. Wonderland By Night / Bert Kaemfert & Orchestra (Instrumental)

5. Pony Time / Chubby Checker

6. The Lion Sleeps Tonight / The Tokens

7. Take Good Care Of My Baby / Bobby Vee

8. Blue Moon / Marcels

9. Will You Love Me Tomorrow / The Shirelles

10.Calcutta / Lawrence Welk (Instrumental).................................................

Isn't it good that we all have different tastes ? That makes for variety in the Charts. "Tossin and Turnin" was such a big Hit in America, but hardly dented the Charts in the U.K. or Australia. We liked it here in Brisbane (my home city) where it reached #6.

* "Big Bad John" was a worldwide Hit and deservedly won the 1961 Grammy for Best C & W Song.

* "Runaway": one of my personal favorites - in my Top 5 songs of all time. It was re-recorded in 1967 with minor success. A quarter of a Century later a reworded version was used as the theme for the TV series "Crime Story" starring Dennis Farina. Del Shannon was more popular in Australia and the U.K. than at home. He had the first U.S. Chart Hit of a Beatles' song in the U.S. with a cover of "From Me To You".

* Speaking of The Beatles, Hamburg born Bert Kaemfert produced their first recording session (with Tony Sheridan) in Germany this same year.

* "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" has a long history. It was originally recorded in 1939 as "Mbube" by a South African Zulu Group, then by Pete Seeger and The Weavers in 1952 as "Wimoweh". The Tokens' version is a gem, and was later used in the 1994 Disney Movie "The Lion King".

* I won't go into the others in depth. Just to say that the Gerry Goffin / Carole King penned "Take Good Care Of My Baby" is also one of my all time favorites, and it's great to see Doo-Wop and Girl Group songs in the List.

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NOT an Elvis song amongst them ! However, the U.K. had the good sense to make Elvis Presley songs their TOP 5 of the Year:

1. Wooden Heart (not released as a single in the U.S.! Joe Dowell took advantage of that to have a #1 Hit with it). 2. Are You Lonesome Tonight 3. Surrender 4/5. (Marie's The Name) His latest Flame / Little Sister.

In Australia, we loved Runaway and Wooden Heart (the Elvis version).

:)

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Happy Birth Year Laurie. I thought it was 1960 (sorry). :)

There were vocal versions of each of those songs by (a) Anita Bryant and (B) The Four Preps.

I don't know the lyrics, but the first line of each was:

"Stars hung suspended....." and "The ladies of Calcutta....".

Somebody may be able to help ?

:)

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Old55 wrote:

NOT an Elvis song amongst them !

Even though Elvis didn't make the year's Top 10 in the US in 1961, I would put him ahead of The Shirelles and Lawrence Welk in my book.

Elvis's single "Surrender" only stayed on the US Top 40 charts for (11) weeks compared to The Shirelles(15) and Lawrence Welk(13), but it held the #1 spot for the same number of weeks(2) plus it sold Platinum compared to Welk's only selling Gold and the Shirelle's single didn't even reach Gold status.

Elvis Presley :rockon:

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Good to hear from you Brad. That's fair ! (Like Elvis vs. JXL's "A Little Less Conversation". It tops the Best Sellers list for 3 weeks, but only places #50 on the Billboard Hot Hundred ?).

:doh:

I just use a simple formula of number of weeks at #1, then weeks in the Top 100, and as a tiebreaker, weeks in the Top 10.

:)

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* "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" has a long history. It was originally recorded in 1939 as "Mbube" by a South African Zulu Group, then by Pete Seeger and The Weavers in 1952 as "Wimoweh". The Tokens' version is a gem, and was later used in the 1994 Disney Movie "The Lion King".

wasn't this song also recorded in the early '70s, by Neil Sedaka - or somebody with a voice like that, anyway - ??

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Right you are, Shawna.

It was also recorded by Robert John, the same guy that had the hit "Sad Eyes".

It entered US Billboard's Top 40 chart in 1972.

It didn't reach the #1 spot as did the Tokens version but it was a major hit for him, hitting the #3 spot and selling gold.

The tokens version sold gold also.

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Happy Birth Year Shawna and everyone else born in 1962 !

Here's the TOP TEN SINGLES OF 1962.

1. I CAN'T STOP LOVING YOU / RAY CHARLES

2. Big Girls Don't Cry / The 4 Seasons

3. Sherry / The 4 Seasons

4. Roses Are Red (My Love) / Bobby Vinton

5. The Peppermint Twist / Joey Dee & The Starliters

6. Telstar / The Tornados (Instrumental)

7. Duke Of Earl / Gene Chandler

8. Hey!Baby / Bruce Channel

9. Soldier Boy / The Shirelles

10.The Twist / Chubby Checker

.................................................

The #1 Hit in the U.K. for 1962 (and also the Decade) was the beautiful Instrumental "Wonderful Land" by The Shadows, who'd started as Cliff Richard's backing band. To this day, I can't fathom why they never had a Hit in the U.S.

In Australia we also liked an Instrumental best: "The Lonely Bull" / Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass.

..................................................

The year of the Twist dance craze. First popularised by Chubby Checker with his cover of Hank Ballard and The Midnighters' song "The Twist" in 1960. As far as I know, it's the only record by the same Artist to go to #1 in the U.S. on two different occasions more than a year apart - first in 1960 and then again in 1962.

Joey Dee and The Starliters were the resident Band at New York's Peppermint Lounge and wrote and recorded the great "Peppermint Twist" (later covered by The Sweet). Members of the Group at different times included Actor, Joe Pesci, three of the founders of "The Young Rascals" and Jimi Hendrix.

.................................................

The Tornados (an "e" was added to their name in the U.S.) were the first U.K. Group to have a #1 record in the U.S. ! (I should have kept that in case I ever start the Quiz up again).

Heinz, who had a big U.K. and Australian Hit in 1963 with "Just Like Eddie" (a Tribute to Eddie Cochran) was a member of the Group before going solo.

.................................................

I'll leave any other trivia to you guys/girls if have something you think would be of interest. Maybe when we get to the 70s we'll have more to share.

:)

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OK, this time I know them all... :) ...though maybe not a couple of original versions...

Man is "Runaway" a good song....that keyboard is hot.

That´s MY classic... my dad bought me the single when I was...3 or 4??? I even dreamed of that Hammond or Farfisa or whatever...

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Hi Laurie, Edna and RonJon. :)

Yes, a couple of great songs. I had the 1958 Don Gibson version of "I Can't Stop Loving You" on the flip side of his big Hit "Oh Lonesome Me", but Ray Charles made the song all his own, didn't he ? Just beautiful.

When we first heard "Runaway" we thought it was an electric violin / fiddle doing that unforgettable solo. Then the DJs said it was a keyboard called a "Musitron", which we'd never heard of.

I just googled now and came up with this:

Max Crook was called in for an audition. He brought along a miniature custom-built keyboard, which he called a Musitron, and plugged it in beneath the club's piano. What Crook played on that mini three octave keyboard sounded like violins, flutes, saxes, and a variety of "other worldly" sounds. Liking what he had heard, Shannon exclaimed, "Man! You are hired!"

I can't take any credit for that - I just cut and pasted it. :P

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