It’s January, 1960

New year, new decade! We’re entering the 1960s in our project as we enter 2023. A quick write-up today as we missed an email due to doing work automating things over the holiday break as you can read here.

Songs of the month

“Among My Souvenirs” – Connie Francis
“Be My Guest” – Fats Domino
“Bonnie Came Back” – Duane Edd*
“Come Into My Heart” – Lloyd Price
“Down By The Station” – Four Preps*
“El Paso” – Marty Robbins
“First Name Initial” – Annette With The Afterbeats
“Go Jimmy Go” – Jimmy Clanton
“Handy Man” – Jimmy Jones*
“He’ll Have To Go” – Jim Reeves*
“Heartaches By The Number” – Guy Mitchell
“Hound Dog Man” – Fabian
“I Wanna Be Loved” – Ricky Nelson
“In The Mood” – Eugene Fields
“It’s Time To Cry” – Paul Anka
“Let It Be Me” – Everly Brothers*
“Lonely Blue Boy” – Conway Twitty*
“Lucky Devil” – Carl Dobkins Jr.*
“Mack The Knife” – Bobby Darin
“Not One Minute More” – Della Reese*
“Oh Carol” – Neil Sedaka
“Pretty Blue Eyes” – Steve Lawrence
“Running Bear” – Johnny Preston
“Sandy” – Larry Hall
“Scarlet Ribbons” – Browns
“Smokie (Part 2)” – Bill Black’S Combo*
“So Many Ways” – Brook Benton
“Tear Drop” – Santo & Johnny
“Teen Angel” – Mark Dinning*
“The Big Hurt” – Miss Toni Fisher
“The Little Drummer Boy” – Harry Simeone Chorale
“The Village Of St. Bernadette” – Andy Williams
“Theme From A Summer Place” – Percy Faith*
“This Friendly World” – Fabian
“Tracy’s Theme” – Spencer Ross*
“Uh-Ho (Part 2)” – Nutty Squirrels*
“Way Down Yonder In New Orleans” – Freddy Cannon
“We Got Love” – Bobby Rydell
“What In The World’S Come Over You” – Jack Scott*
“Where Or When” – Dion & The Belmonts*
“Why” – Frankie Avalon
“You Got What It Takes” – Marv Johnson

* = New to the chart this week.

You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.

This month in history

On January 5th, 1960 the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that a trust fund, set up by Benjamin Franklin’s will in 1791 to assist “young married artificers”, could not be divided before its 1991 maturity date, despite the fact that there were no more artificers who would benefit. Started by Franklin with the deposit of 1,000 pounds sterling, the fund had grown to $1,578,098 by 1960. By the time it was split between Massachusetts and Pennsylvania in 1991, the Fund was worth more than $6.5 million.

On January 31st Joseph McNeill, a 17-year-old college freshman, was turned away by a waitress with the words, “We don’t serve Negroes,” when he tried to get something to eat at the bus terminal in Greensboro, North Carolina. When he talked about it with three friends at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, the four African-American students decided that they would take a stand against segregation. The next day, the four would sit down at the Woolworth’s Department Store lunch counter and refuse to get up until they were served, and the “sit-in” was created as a form of civil disobedience.

What’d Sadie think?

It’s two weeks at number one for “El Paso” by Marty Robbins before Johnny Preston’s “Running Bear” takes it for the rest of the month.

Loved ’em
  • “He’ll Have To Go” – Jim Reeves
  • “Let It Be Me” – Everly Brothers
  • “Lonely Blue Boy” – Conway Twitty
  • “Not One Minute More” – Della Reese
  • “Theme From A Summer Place” – Percy Faith

Liked ’em
  • “Bonnie Came Back” – Duane Eddy
  • “Down By The Station” – Four Preps
  • “Handy Man” – Jimmy Jones
  • “Lucky Devil” – Carl Dobkins Jr.
  • “Smokie (Part 2)” – Bill Black’s Combo
  • “Teen Angel” – Mark Dinning
  • “Where Or When” – Dion & The Belmonts

Leave ’em
  • “Tracy’s Theme” – Spencer Ross
  • “What In The World’s Come Over You” – Jack Scott

Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.