1963, What an interesting year for rock and pop music. Although we are only one year away from the British Invasion, many of the American pop songs form this era act as the bookend to the safe era of Rock and Roll. After this year, many of the teen idol and dance music artists who had huge hits in the previous years, would find themselves considered old fashioned. However, this year did produce some noteworthy tunes and many important bands started up as well.
In America, the girl group sound reached its apex with many famous songs, forgotten gems, and sugar overdoses from the genre being released this year. In fact, the genre had practically blossomed into separate sub-genres of its own. From the more Brill Building pop category, you had Lesley Gore with "It's My Party", and the proto-feminist "You Don't Own Me"). The Angels also put out "My Boyfriend's Back".
In the R&B category Motown gave us Martha And The Vandellas' "Come And Get These Memories" and "Heatwave". Finally, from Phil Spector's wall of sound category, you had The Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron" and what is easily the greatest song of the genre - "Be My Baby" by The Ronettes, a song which just missed this list by peaking at #2 on the charts. Needless to say, it would have easily been voted top hit of the year by me had it been a #1.
In terms of more underground hits, there was The Jaynetts' "Sally Go Round The Roses" which contained reverb-heavy vocals and rather flowery lyrics which almost pre-date psychedelic pop by some 3-4 years. As mentioned, there were also quite a few songs which turned the saccharine level up to 11. I'm sure encounter some of those songs on the list.
Surf music also reached its peak with endless instrumental and vocal songs being recorded. Most notably, The Beach Boys gave us the albums "Surfin' USA" and "Surfer Girl", both which were practically concept albums about surfing and the California coast. However, by the middle of the year, Brian Wilson had decided to slowly branch off into other areas of songwriting such as the introspective "In My Room". It is ironic that a band most stereotyped as being a surf band would write only a couple more songs about the subject until their ill advised mid 1970's nostalgic comeback.
In Folk, we had The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, which was mostly an underground hit at the time, but would in subsequent years be critically acclaimed. Peter Paul And Mary would release a very successful cover version of Bob's "Blowin' In The Wind" this year. The trio would also perform at the Civil Rights March in Washington on August 28th 1963.
Garage rock began to sprout with The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" recorded and released this year. The song's simple three chord pattern and rough sound quality inspired countless musicians and genres over the years. Interestingly, another similar band, Paul Revere And The Raiders, recorded their own version of the song within days of The Kingsmen and at the exact same studio too.
As for the UK, The Rolling Stones recorded their first singles including "Come On" and a cover of Lennon/McCartney's "I Wanna Be Your Man". The latter would inspire the group to start writing their own material. Another British band who started releasing material this year was The Hollies featuring Graham Nash on acoustic rhythm guitar. Finally The Yardbirds, with lead guitarist Eric Clapton, and The Ravens, (Soon to be better known as The Kinks), recorded their first demos in the latter months of the year.
Lastly, The Beatles grew into major British superstars with two smash hit albums, Please Please Me and With The Beatles, not to mention several UK #1's such as "From Me To You", "She Loves You" and of course, "I Want To Hold Your Hand". When the latter was released in the US late in the year, both the band, the world, and music, would change forever.
Some may argue that the British Invasion killed off many of the American genres mentioned. However, it is worth mentioning that Surf music, though it reached a peak early in the year, was already in a bit of an ebb tide by year's end. There was not much new ground left to cover in the genre and so many people had jumped on the bandwagon that much of the genre's originality was drifting away.
As for girl groups, the more R&B ones managed to survive another 2-3 years, especially those signed to Motown. Phil Spector would also still see success for that same amount of time. It would be the more Brill Building sounding groups that would slowly become antiquated as the following year went on. But Folk and Garage Rock? Those two genres got even better during and after the British Invasion!
Quite a mouthful for just one year and yet, this is only the beginning. Let's see just how this year played out in terms of chart toppers. Were there plenty of songs that caught that wave of fresh new sounds, or were there still a bunch of cobweb covered, overly-sentimental ballads left to hit the top? Let's find out...
First Up For 1963 - "Go Away Little Girl" by Steve Lawrence.
Until Next Time - I'm Dr. Rock -
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