Welcome to 1961 here on Dr. Rock's Hit Or Miss. For those of you who are just tuning in, I encourage you to read the very first post which acts as an introduction. And a special hello if you are joining me from John Covach's History Of Rock course on Coursera!
1961 saw many of the styles of music that were previously brewing in the underground start to rise up and make chart impact on the pop charts. The most prominent of these new styles came from Motown Records. Two years after its formation, "Please Mr. Postman" would be a major success for the label. Motown would continue to flourish in the upcoming years.
Surf rock started to make some waves across the country with Dick Dale's "Let's Go Trippin'" and "Surfer's Stomp" by The Mar-Kets. However, the biggest new act to emerge via the genre was The Beach Boys who recorded and released their first single, "Surfin'". Due to the song featuring vocals, the Beach Boys essentially invented the surf "pop" genre. Most surf rock was strictly instrumental. Interestingly, due to the only instrumentation being unplugged guitar, stand up bass, and trash can percussion, the song is more of a surf-folk song! Regardless, the five piece still had a way to go till Pet Sounds and SMiLE.
The Girl Group sound started to emerge as well, helped in part by the Brill Building songwriting team, Phil Spector's early productions, and hit songs such as "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" by The Shirelles. Dance-specific music started to become a dominant sound throughout the year to the point of over-saturation.
The Beatles recorded some songs as Tony Sheridan's backing band and one single "My Bonnie" would be later released from this collaboration. By year's end, the band now had Brian Epstein as a manager and were booked an audition at Decca records on New Years Day of 1962...
Finally, although it hasn't been mentioned too much on this list, folk music continued a resurgence and renaissance. The future harbinger of the genre's mainstream success, a certain folk singer/songwriter formerly known as Robert Zimmerman, recorded his debut self-titled album over two days in November '61.
However, despite the rather vast melting pot of styles, cultures, and themes, I am expecting much of this year's #1 hits to be dance-specific pop music, teen idol singers, with the occasional and always welcome R&B song. I have a feeling there will be some unfunny novelty song mixed in there as well. Regadless, 1961 is when the American music scene started drifting further from the 1950's. Let's find out just how much the pop charts had changed for this year...
First Up For 1961 - "Wonderland By Night" by Bert Kaempfert.
Until Next Time - I'm Dr. Rock -
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