Spring has sprung down under of 2023 as we tune our ears back to June of 1963…
Songs of the month
[new] “18 Yellow Roses” – Bobby Darin
“Ain’t That A Shame” – Four Seasons
“Another Saturday Night” – Sam Cooke
[new] “Birdland” – Chubby Checker
[new] “Blue On Blue” – Bobby Vinton
“Can’t Get Used To Losing You” – Andy Williams
[new] “Come And Get These Memories” – Martha And The Vandellas
“Da Doo Ron Ron” – Crystals
[new] “Easier Said Than Done” – Essex
“El Watusi” – Ray Barretto
[new] “Every Step Of The Way” – Johnny Mathis
[new] “First Quarrel” – Paul And Paula
“Foolish Little Girl” – Shirelles
[new] “Hello Stranger” – Barbara Lewis
“Hot Pastrami” – Dartells
“I Love You Because” – Al Martino
“I Will Follow Him” – Little Peggy March
[new] “If My Pillow Could Talk” – Connie Francis
“If You Wanna Be Happy” – Jimmy Soul
“It’s My Party” – Lesley Gore
“Killer Joe” – Rocky Fellers
[new] “Let’s Go Steady Again” – Neil Sedaka
“Losing You” – Brenda Lee
[new] “Memphis” – Lonnie Mack
[new] “My Summer Love” – Ruby And The Romantics
[new] “On Top Of Spaghetti” – Tom Glazer & Do-Re-Mi Childern’s Chorus
[new] “One Fine Day” – Chiffons
“Pipeline” – Chantays
[new] “Poor Little Rich Girl” – Steve Lawrence
[new] “Pride And Joy” – Marvin Gaye
“Prisoner Of Love” – James Brown
“Puff The Magic Dragon” – “Peter Paul And Mary”
“Pushover” – Etta James
“Reverend Mr. Black” – Kingston Trio
[new] “Shut Down” – Beach Boys
[new] “So Much In Love” – Tymes
“Still” – Bill Anderson
[new] “String Along” – Rick Nelson
“Sukiyaki” – Kyu Sakamoto
[new] “Surf City” – Jan And Dean
“Surfin’ Usa” – Beach Boys
“Take These Chains From My Heart” – Ray Charles
[new] “Take These Chains” – Ray Charles
[new] “The Good Life” – Tony Bennett
“The Love Of My Man” – Theola Kilgore
“This Little Girl” – Dion
“Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days Of Summer” – Nat King Cole
[new] “Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport” – Rolf Harris
“Two Faces Have I” – Lou Christie
[new] “Wildwood Days” – Bobby Rydell
“You Can’t Sit Down” – Dovells
[new] = New to the chart this week.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
This month in history
On June 3rd Pope John XXIII, 81, Italian Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church passed away. Here’s a news reel from that month…
On the 7th the Rolling Stones’ first single, “Come On”, was released in the UK, by Decca Records. The cover of “an obscure Chuck Berry ditty” would reach #21 on the British chart but not make it high enough into the Billboard US charts we mostly track here.
On June 12th The long-awaited film Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, had its worldwide premiere, in New York City. With a running time of 248 minutes, the epic historical drama lasted more than four hours. The production itself had run massively over time and budget, with plenty of other scandals like the reported affair between Taylor and Burton. The film ended up losing money because of production, distribution and marketing budgets in the equivalent of a $billion. Marketing alone was $44 million ($421 million in 2022 moneys).
The Telcan, the first system designed to be used at home for recording programs from a television set, was given its first demonstration. The system, shown in England in Nottingham, was seen to record programs onto a reel of videotape and then to play them back with “very fair video quality” on a 17-inch (430 mm) TV, could hold 30 minutes of programming, and had a suggested retail price of £60.
What’d Sadie think?
It’s two weeks at the top for “It’s My Party” by Lesley Gore before three for Kyu Sakamoto’s “Sukiyaki”. The latter was first released in Japan in 1961 but across the course of the next several years topped charts in many other counties to become one of the world’s best-selling singles of all time, selling over 13 million copies worldwide. The actual title is “Ue o Muite Arukō” (Japanese: 上を向いて歩こう, “I Look Up as I Walk”) and tells the story of a man who looks up and whistles while he is walking so that his tears will not fall, with the verses describing his memories and feelings.
The word sukiyaki doesn’t appear in the song’s lyrics, nor does it have any connection to them; it was used only because it was short, catchy, recognizably Japanese, and more familiar to English speakers as the name of a Japanese hot-pot dish with cooked beef…
Loved ’em
Setting aside the “two girls for every boy” lyric in “Surf City” by Jan and Dean it’s a fun song. I’d assumed it was the Beach Boys if i’ve heard it in the past, but not so. Except…kind of? The story, via Wikipedia,
The first draft of the song, with the working title “Goody Connie Won’t You Come Back Home”, was written by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. While at a party with Jan Berry and Dean Torrence, Wilson played them “Surfin’ U.S.A.” on the piano. Berry and Torrence suggested that they do the song as a single, but Wilson refused, as “Surfin’ U.S.A.” was intended for the Beach Boys. Wilson then suggested that the duo record “Surf City” instead, demoing the opening, verse, and chorus. Wilson had lost interest in the song and believed he was never going to complete it himself.
And despite the actual Beach Boys song,”Surfin’ USA” being in the charts, “Surf City” was the first song to reach no. 1 in the usa.
- “Pride And Joy” – Marvin Gaye
- “Shut Down” – Beach Boys
- “Surf City” – Jan And Dean
- “Take These Chains” – Ray Charles
Liked ’em
- “18 Yellow Roses” – Bobby Darin
- “Birdland” – Chubby Checker
- “Blue On Blue” – Bobby Vinton
- “Come And Get These Memories” – Martha And The Vandellas
- “Easier Said Than Done” – Essex
- “First Quarrel” – Paul And Paula
- “Hello Stranger” – Barbara Lewis
- “If My Pillow Could Talk” – Connie Francis
- “Memphis” – Lonnie Mack
- “My Summer Love” – Ruby And The Romantics
- “On Top Of Spaghetti” – Tom Glazer & Do-Re-Mi Childern’s Chorus
- “One Fine Day” – Chiffons
- “Poor Little Rich Girl” – Steve Lawrence
- “So Much In Love” – Tymes
- “String Along” – Rick Nelson
- “The Good Life” – Tony Bennett
- “Wildwood Days” – Bobby Rydell
Leave ’em
- “Every Step Of The Way” – Johnny Mathis
- “Let’s Go Steady Again” – Neil Sedaka
“Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport” by Rolf Harris is a difficult one to rate. Sonically its a very catchy-fun tune, and it had enormous presence in popculture through several decades. But the last verse is outright racist and then there are those revelations about Harris’ conduct. So… we’ll leave it down here. And take the edge off with one of the least controversial aspect of the song, “Harris originally offered four unknown Australian backing musicians 10% of the royalties for the song in 1960, but they decided to take a recording fee of £28 among them because they thought the song would be a flop.”. Oops!
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.