Our second playlist for 2023, and we’re listening to the sounds of March, 1960. But before we do another brief update on 4xLife automation.
As of last week I had automated the creation of the weekly list of songs and the actual Youtube playlist. But I still had to create a new blog post in WordPress, link in the playlist and paste the content in. As of this week I have it streamlined to a single command (which just requires me to enter “3-1960” for this week say) and the YouTube playlist is created and then the song list and links to the YT playlist are inserted into it and automatically uploaded to WordPress.
So now I just need to hope here into WordPress, do some history write-up and categorise and annotate any songs I want to.
More time for the music…speaking of which, here we go!
Songs of the month
[new] “Am I That Easy To Forget” – Debbie Reynolds
“Baby You’ve Got What It Takes” – Dinah Washington & Brook Benton
[new] “Beatnik Fly” – Johnny & The Hurricanes
“Beyond The Sea” – Bobby Darin
“Country Boy” – Fats Domino
[new] “Delaware” – Perry Como
“Down By The Station” – Four Preps
[new] “Footsteps” – Steve Lawrence
“Forever” – Little Dippers
[new] “Greenfields” – Brothers Four
“Handy Man” – Jimmy Jones
“Harbour Lights” – Platters
“He’ll Have To Go” – Jim Reeves
[new] “I Love The Way You Love” – Marv Johnson
“Lady Luck” – Lloyd Price
“Lady Luck” – Lloyd Price
“Let It Be Me” – Everly Brothers
[new] “Little Bitty Firl” – Bobby Rydell
“Little Bitty Girl” – Bobby Rydell
“Lonely Blue Boy” – Conway Twitty
[new] “Mama” – Connie Francis
“Midnight Special” – Paul Evans
[new] “Money That’s What I Want” – Barrett Strong
[new] “O Dio Mio” – Annette
[new] “Outside My Window” – Fleetwoods
“Pretty Blue Eyes” – Steve Lawrence
[new] “Puppy Love” – Paul Anka
“Rockin’ Little Angel” – Ray Smith
“Running Bear” – Johnny Preston
[new] “Sink The Bismark” – Johnny Horton
[new] “Sixteen Reasons” – Connie Stevens
[new] “Starbright” – Johnny Mathis
“Sweet Nothin’s” – Brenda Lee
[new] “Tall Oak Tree” – Dorsey Burnette
[new] “Teddy” – Connie Francis
“Teen Angel” – Mark Dinning
[new] “Theme From A Summer Place” – Percy Faith
“Theme From A Summer Place” – Percy Faith Orchestra
[new] “This Magic Moment” – Drifters
“Tracy’s Theme” – Spencer Ross
[new] “Welcome New Lovers” – Pat Boone
“What In The World’s Come Over You” – Jack Scott
“Where Or When” – Dion & The Belmonts
[new] “White Silver Sands” – Bill Black’s Combo
“Wild One” – Bobby Rydell
“You Got What It Takes” – Marv Johnson
[new] = New to the chart this week.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
This month in history
Now, I have considered looking at how I can get GPT3 to help write some history for this section. But a simple test asking it for important historical events of March, 1960 shows its limitations.
“The first historical highlight from March 1960 was the election of John F. Kennedy, who was elected president of the United States on March 8.”
Err, no! Whilst he would go on to win, on this date the actual event was, “The New Hampshire primary, first of the nominating primary elections, saw U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy win the state’s Democratic Party delegates, and U.S. Vice-President Richard M. Nixon win on the Republican ticket, each with a record number of registered voters from their parties.”
Meanwhile on March 8th, Lucille Ball filed for a divorce from Desi Arnaz. While “I Love Lucy” had ended in 1957, the couple had appeared later in 13 one-hour specials airing under the title “The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour”. The final episode would air on April 1, 1960.
On March 5th the iconic image of Che Guevara was taken by photographer Alberto Korda, who was on assignment from the Cuban government newspaper “Revolucion to cover a protest rally the day after the explosion of the freighter La Coubre.
And on March 13th in more Kennedy news author Ian Fleming was a dinner guest at his home, and described to the assemblage some humorous suggestions for how James Bond would get rid of Fidel Castro, including causing Castro’s beard to fall out. CIA official John Bross, another dinner guest, called agency director Allen Dulles afterward and reported Fleming’s “ideas”, some of which were apparently tried later…
What’d Sadie think?
It’s the whole month at number 1 for “Theme From A Summer Place” by Percy Faith Orchestra. It written for the 1959 film A Summer Place, which starred Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue. It was recorded for the film as an instrumental by Hugo Winterhalter but this version by Percy Faith was the most popular.
Loved ’em
- “Am I That Easy To Forget” – Debbie Reynolds
- “I Love The Way You Love” – Marv Johnson
- “Money That’s What I Want” – Barrett Strong
“Money” was definitely the favourite from the week and is an undeniable classic. Apparently the song developed out of a spontaneous recording session at the Hitsville studio A in Detroit. Authors Jim Cogan and William Clark only identify the guitarist and bass guitarist as “two white kids walking home from high school [who] heard the music out on the street and wandered in to Hitsville [and] asked if they could play along.” They add “Strong claimed he never saw the two boys who played bass and guitar again.” (However, the guitarist has also been identified as Eugene Grew, who claimed that Barrett showed him what to play.)
Liked ’em
- “Beatnik Fly” – Johnny & The Hurricanes
- “Delaware” – Perry Como
- “Greenfields” – Brothers Four
- “Mama” – Connie Francis
- “Outside My Window” – Fleetwoods
- “Puppy Love” – Paul Anka
- “Sixteen Reasons” – Connie Stevens
- “Starbright” – Johnny Mathis
- “Teddy” – Connie Francis
- “This Magic Moment” – Drifters
- “Welcome New Lovers” – Pat Boone
- “White Silver Sands” – Bill Black’s Combo
Leave ’em
- “Footsteps” – Steve Lawrence
- “O Dio Mio” – Annette
- “Sink The Bismark” – Johnny Horton
- “Tall Oak Tree” – Dorsey Burnette
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.