We’re tuning our ears back to August, 1965 which is 55 years before Sadie is born…let’s hear a month of big hits!
Songs of the month
[new] “Action” – Freddy Cannon
[new] “Agent Oo Soul” – Edwin Starr
[new] “All I Really Want To Do” – Cher
“Baby I’m Yours” – Barbara Lewis
[new] “California Girls” – Beach Boys
[new] “Cara Mia” – Jay & The Ameircans
“Cara Mia” – Jay & The Americans
[new] “Catch Us If You Can” – Dave Clark Five
“Don’t Just Stand There” – Patty Duke
“Down In The Boondocks” – Billy Joe Royal
[new] “Eve Of Destruction” – Barry Mcguire
[new] “Hang On Sloopy” – Mccoys
[new] “Heart Full Of Soul” – Yardbirds
[new] “Help” – Beatles
“Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me” – Mel Carter
[new] “Houston” – Dean Martin
“I Can’t Help Myself” – Four Tops
“I Got You Babe” – Sonny & Cher
“I Like It Like That” – Dave Clark Five
“I Want Candy” – Strangeloves
[new] “I’m A Fool” – Dino Desi & Billy
“I’m Henry Viii I Am” – Herman’s Hermits
[new] “In The Midnight Hour” – Wilson Pickett
[new] “It Ain’t Me Babe” – Turtles
[new] “It’s The Same Old Song” – Four Tops
[new] “Ju Ju Hand” – Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs
[new] “Laugh At Me” – Sonny
[new] “Like A Rolling Stone” – Bob Dylan
[new] “Looking Through The Eyes Of Love” – Gene Pitney
[new] “Nothing But Heartaches” – Supremes
[new] “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” – James Brown
“Pretty Little Baby” – Marvin Gaye
[new] “Ride Your Pony” – Lee Dorsey
“Satisfaction” – Rolling Stones
“Save Your Heart For Me” – Gary Lewis & The Playboys
[new] “Save Your Love For Me” – Gary Lewis & The Playboys
“Seventh Son” – Johnny Rivers
[new] “Shake And Fingerpop” – Junior Walker & The All Stars
[new] “Since I Lost My Baby” – Temptations
“Sunshine Lollipops And Rainbows” – Lesley Gore
[new] “Sunshine Lollipops And Roses” – Lesley Gore
“Take Me Back” – Little Anthony & The Imperials
[new] “The ‘in’ Crowd” – Ramsey Lewis
“Theme From A Summer Place” – Lettermen
“To Know You Is To Love You” – Peter & Gordon
“Too Many Rivers” – Brenda Lee
[new] “Tracks Of My Tears” – Miracles
[new] “Unchained Melody” – Righteous Brothers
“What The World Needs Now Is Love” – Jackie Deshannon
“What’s New Pussycat” – Tom Jones
“Yes I’m Ready” – Barbara Mason
[new] “You Were On My Mind” – We Five
[new] “You’d Better Come Home” – Petula Clark
[new] = New to the chart this week.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
This month in history
On the 15th The Beatles performed the first stadium concert in the history of rock, playing before 55,600 people at Shea Stadium in New York City. An author would note later, “It was to be the first of a large number” of concerts played at sports stadiums, “as both promoters and musicians discovered that huge sums of money could be made literally overnight.” The total ticket sales added up to $304,000 of which the Beatles received $160,000. After paying $30,000 to rent the stadium, $14,000 to the city of 130 police to be present, $11,000 for insurance, and other expenses, promoter Sid Bernstein made a profit of $7,000 (or about $69,000 in today’s money.)
And on the 23rd “Dr. Who and the Daleks”, the first theatrical film ever based on a television series, was released in the United Kingdom during the closing weeks of the school summer holiday. In order to qualify for the U-certificate for viewing by universal audiences (equivalent to the “G” rating in the United States), the filmmakers “rather than trying to establish continuity or canonicity, transformed the principal characters and their relationships”, casting Peter Cushing rather than TV’s William Hartnell as a more cheerful version of The Doctor and making the story more suitable for children.
The next day, a new word, “hypertext” (or “blue underlined words on a webpage” as they’d be called decades later), entered the English language at the annual conference of the Association for Computing Machinery in Pittsburgh, as Ted Nelson presented his paper, “A File Structure for the Complex, The Changing and the Indeterminate”, and described his vision of “a body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not conveniently be presented or represented on paper”, making it possible for a global publishing system that could “grow indefinitely, gradually including more and more of the world’s written knowledge”. Here’s a slightly weird video of the inventor in his pyjamas talking about how the CIA tried to recruit him…
What’d Sadie think?
A week at the top for novelty song, “I’m Henry Viii I Am” by Herman’s Hermits before Sonny & Cher classic “i got you babe” takes it for 3 weeks – with the Beatles, “Help” rounding out the month. Here’s another video from that first concert of the Beatles singing that tune.
Loved ’em
I had to double-check this month, I was struggling to believe so many iconic songs came out in one month. But yep… Califonia Girls, Help, Like a Rolling Stone and Unchained Melody all came out in August, 1965!
- “California Girls” – Beach Boys
- “Catch Us If You Can” – Dave Clark Five
- “Hang On Sloopy” – Mccoys
- “Help” – Beatles
- “Like A Rolling Stone” – Bob Dylan
- “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” – James Brown
- “Tracks Of My Tears” – Miracles
- “Unchained Melody” – Righteous Brothers
Liked ’em
- “Action” – Freddy Cannon
- “Agent Oo Soul” – Edwin Starr
- “All I Really Want To Do” – Cher
- “Eve Of Destruction” – Barry Mcguire
- “Heart Full Of Soul” – Yardbirds
- “Houston” – Dean Martin
- “In The Midnight Hour” – Wilson Pickett
- “It Ain’t Me Babe” – Turtles
- “It’s The Same Old Song” – Four Tops
- “Laugh At Me” – Sonny
- “Looking Through The Eyes Of Love” – Gene Pitney
- “Nothing But Heartaches” – Supremes
- “Ride Your Pony” – Lee Dorsey
- “Shake And Fingerpop” – Junior Walker & The All Stars
- “Since I Lost My Baby” – Temptations
- “The ‘in’ Crowd” – Ramsey Lewis
- “You Were On My Mind” – We Five
- “You’d Better Come Home” – Petula Clark
Leave ’em
- “Cara Mia” – Jay & The Americans
- “I’m A Fool” – Dino Desi & Billy
- “Ju Ju Hand” – Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs
- “Sunshine Lollipops And Roses” – Lesley Gore
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.