#1 for weeks of June 26th, and July 3rd, 1961.
Gary U.S. Bonds' "Quarter To Three is quite an unusual and unique sounding record. However, I'm not referring to its music but rather the way it sounded in terms of fidelity. After dozens of youtube searches where each recording sounded like a bootleg tape recording from an outdoor show, I eventually learned that this is how Gary intended the song to sound. It's quite interesting to say the least.
Putting aside the unusual sound quality, the song is another example of early 1960's dance music. However, unlike "Pony Time" or other similar dance-specific songs from the time period, "Quarter To Three" is more of a general dance song like "Twisting The Night Away", which just encourages its listeners to dance to it without devoting all the lyrics to teaching one how to do the dance.
I really find it hard to make out individual instruments among the lo-fidelity of the recording. There is a prominent sax which takes the solo, and there are very prominent hand claps which are even more audible than the drums. If there is guitar in the song, it is buried deep in the mix. Finally, the vocal is very reverb-heavy. Again, the whole song sounds like a fan-recorded tape from a live show, even though the song was apparently recorded in a regular recording studio.
While this song doesn't blow me away like some other true classics from this year such as "Running Scared", I am still impressed mostly by its very unique sound, which I really haven't heard done on a recording before. It is perhaps this uniqueness which helped the song reach #1, and I for one always appreciate artists who try something different.
Final Verdict - A very unique sounding song which certainly has enough soul and spunk to warrant a repeated listen.
Coming Up Next - "Tossin' And Turnin" by Bobby Lewis.
Until Next Time - I'm Dr. Rock, and I'm staying up till Quarter To Three.
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