Welcome to a new year, and decade, here on "Dr. Rock's Hit Or Miss". For those just joining in, check out my very first post on this blog. Here, we look at every US single that sold enough copies to hit #1 on Billboard's Hot 100, and judge them as either being great classics, lost gems, or terrible songs. Remember, this list is NOT about what was the best songs from each year, although I will touch up on that occasionally throughout this blog.
Now, to get an idea just how much the music scene changed in this one decade, go listen to Johnny Burnette's 1950's style pop-rock classic, "Dreamin", which was one of the earliest recorded songs in 1960. Then, go listen to Crosby, Stills & Nash's amazing, "Carry On/Questions", which was recorded during the final days of 1969. You'll probably say to yourself, "What in the world happened in this one decade to change the music world so much?!?".
The answer, according to the cynical, would be, "Drugs". However, that answer is far from being the main reason why the 1960's were full of new ideas and great music. Let's not forget just how much the non-music world changed during this turbulent decade. We had the assassinations of several famous and beloved leaders, the country entered an increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam, and there were violent riots which led to cities burning.
However, let's not forget the good things that happened. Martin Luther King helped lead the civil rights movement to new heights, and finally our country started to stop being seen as a segregated nation, (Although it would still take a while for that to change in the South, even today unfortunately . We also had many people striving to look at the world with an optimistic view and sought peace not just among individual Americans, but the world. A far cry from the pessimistic, cynical, and condescending internet age of today. And what about the music?
The 1950's only major music change in the pop market was Rock And Roll. The 1960's saw so many musical genres formed, many due to The British Invasion, and later, due to the rapidly increasing Psychedelic age. First though, we'll cover the very first year of this radical new decade, 1960.
Musically, many aspects of the late 1950's are still present. Soft-pop ballads, safe easy listening tunes. Some new styles and sounds emerged in this year, mainly dance-specific songs, with Chubby Checker's, "The Twist", igniting a whole craze of similar songs, which gradually wore out their welcome in the coming two years.
Another genre to emerge was what later would be known as "Girl Groups", which were all-girl vocal bands, most of whom did not write their own songs, but which all contained immaculate music production. The first true classic of this genre being The Shirelles' "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and its B-side, "Boys".
R&B continued to evolve with Motown, though still in its early history, giving us Smokey Robinson's fantastic, "Shop Around". Non-Motown artist Sam Cooke gave us, "Chain Gang", and former Drifter Ben E. King gave us a host of classic tunes such as, "Stand By Me". Not to mention the late great Etta James recorded her timeless, "At Last".
Surf Rock, while also still in its infancy, gave us, "Moon Dawg", an instrumental by The Gambler's. Two musicians on that song were future Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, and future Mother Of Invention/Fraternity Of Man/Captain Beefheart rhythm guitarist Elliot Ingber. Talk about two totally different worlds/people!
Rock And Roll continued to both remain in a dark age, and started changing its sound for the new decade. The Everly Brothers gave us, "Cathy's Clown", and Elvis, who had started concentrating his efforts and sounds on films, gave us, "Stuck On You". Meanwhile, way over in Britain, Johnny Kidd And The Pirates gave us the early British Rock song, "Shakin' All Over". However, it would still be a few years before British Rock made a huge commercial impact. The band that would be the harbingers of this movement, had also formed this year, first known as The Silver Beetles, and then as The Beatles...
So join me as we determine which songs that sold enough copies to reach #1 this year were worthy hits, and which ones were not.
First up for 1960 - "El Paso" by Marty Robbins.
Until Next Time - Dr. Rock -
No comments:
Post a Comment