Up-to-dates

As we enter February, 2023 we’re already half way through 1960 in our journey through musical history. Let’s hear what it sounds like…

Songs of the month

“A Rockin’ Good Way” – Dinah Washington & Brook Benton
“Alley-Oop” – Dante & The Evergreens
“Alley-Oop” – Hollywood Argyles
“Because They’re Young” – Duane Eddy
“Burning Bridges” – Jack Scott
“Cathy’s Clown” – Everly Brothers
[new] “Don’t Come Knockin'” – Fats Domino
“Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” – Connie Francis
[new] “Feels So Fine” – Johnny Preston
[new] “Finger Poppin’ Time” – Hank Ballard
“Good Timin'” – Jimmy Jones
“Happy-Go-Lucky Me” – Paul Evans
“He’ll Have To Stay” – Jeanne Black
“I Really Don’t Want To Know” – Tommy Edwards
“I’m Sorry” – Brenda Lee
[new] “Image Of A Girl” – Safaris
[new] “It’s Now Or Never” – Elvis Presley
[new] “Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” – Brian Hyland
“Jealous Of You” – Connie Francis
[new] “Josephine” – Bill Black’s Combo
[new] “Look For A Star” – Billy Vaughn Orchestra
[new] “Look For A Star” – Deane Hawley
[new] “Look For A Star” – Gary Mills
“Love You So” – Ron Holden
“Mack The Knife” – Ella Fitzgerald
[new] “Mission Bell” – Donnie Brooks
“Mule Skinner Blues” – Fendermen
“My Home Town” – Paul Anka
“Only The Lonely” – Roy Orbison
“Paper Roses” – Anita Bryant
[new] “Pennies From Heaven” – Skyliners
“Please Help Me I’m Falling” – Hank Locklin
[new] “Question” – Lloyd Price
“Runaround” – Fleetwoods
“Swingin’ School” – Bobby Rydell
[new] “Tell Laura I Love Her” – Ray Peterson
“That’s All You Gotta Do” – Brenda Lee
[new] “Theme From ‘the Unforgiven'” – Don Costa
[new] “This Bitter Earth” – Dinah Washington
[new] “Trouble In Paradise” – Crests
[new] “Walking To New Orleans” – Fats Domino
[new] “When Will I Be Loved” – Everly Brothers
“Won’t You Come Home Bill Bailey” – Bobby Darin
“Wonderful World” – Sam Cooke
“Young Emotions” – Ricky Nelson

[new] = New to the chart this week.

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

This month in history

On July 11th Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird was first published.

I never expected any sort of success with Mockingbird. I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers, but at the same time I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I’d expected.

The film was released 2-years later, here’s a little time-travel to see the trailer:

The next day the the Etch-A-Sketch toy was first manufactured. Licensed to Ohio Art Company by French inventor André Cassagnes, it quickly became one of the most popular toys of all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dumiw4KsctA

Then on the 23rd the Soviet Union launched a space capsule with two dogs, Pchelka and Mushka, in advance of manned space flight. Korabl 3 burned up upon re-entry into the atmosphere…

What’d Sadie think?

A mix of tracks at the top this month. Firstly “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” by Connie Francis then “Alley-Oop” by the Hollywood Argyles for a week each before Brenda Lee’s “I’m Sorry” rounds out the month.

Loved ’em

• “It’s Now Or Never” – Elvis Presley
• “Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” – Brian Hyland
• “This Bitter Earth” – Dinah Washington
• “Trouble In Paradise” – Crests
• “Walking To New Orleans” – Fats Domino
• “When Will I Be Loved” – Everly Brothers

Liked ’em

• “Don’t Come Knockin'” – Fats Domino
• “Feels So Fine” – Johnny Preston
  “Finger Poppin’ Time” – Hank Ballard
• “Josephine” – Bill Black’s Combo
• “Look For A Star” – Garry Miles
• “Mission Bell” – Donnie Brooks
• “Pennies From Heaven” – Skyliners
• “Question” – Lloyd Price
• “Tell Laura I Love Her” – Ray Peterson

Leave ’em

• “Image Of A Girl” – Safaris
• “Theme From ‘the Unforgiven'” – Don Costa

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

It’s the wettest weekend on record in Auckland, 2023 and our much-looked-forward-to music festival has been cancelled… so let’s spend some time enjoying the sounds of June, 1960.

Songs of the month

[new] “A Rockin’ Good Way” – Dinah Washington & Brook Benton
[new] “Alley-Oop” – Dante & The Evergreens
[new] “Alley-Oop” – Hollywood Argyles
[new] “Another Sleepless Night” – Jimmy Clanton
[new] “Because They’re Young” – Duane Eddy
“Burning Bridges” – Jack Scott
“Cathy’s Clown” – Everly Brothers
“Cherry Pie” – Skip & Flip
“Cradle Of Love” – Johnny Preston
“Ding-A-Ling” – Bobby Rydell
“Doggin’ Around” – Jackie Wilson
[new] “Dutchman’s Gold” – Walter Brennan
“Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” – Connie Francis
“Fame And Fortune” – Elvis Presley
“Good Timin'” – Jimmy Jones
“Greenfields” – Brothers Four
[new] “Happy-Go-Lucky Me” – Paul Evans
“Happy-Go-Lucky-Me” – Paul Evans
“He’ll Have To Stay” – Jeanne Black
[new] “I Really Don’t Want To Know” – Tommy Edwards
[new] “I’m Sorry” – Brenda Lee
[new] “Jealous Of You” – Connie Francis
[new] “Jump Over” – Freddy Cannon
“Let The Little Girl Dance” – Billy Bland
“Lonely Weekends” – Charlie Rich
“Love You So” – Ron Holden
[new] “Mack The Knife” – Ella Fitzgerald
“Mountain Of Love” – Harold Dorman
[new] “Mule Skinner Blues” – Fendermen
[new] “My Home Town” – Paul Anka
“Night” – Jackie Wilson
[new] “Only The Lonely” – Roy Orbison
“Paper Roses” – Anita Bryant
[new] “Please Help Me I’m Falling” – Hank Locklin
[new] “Runaround” – Fleetwoods
“Sink The Bismark” – Johnny Horton
“Sixteen Reasons” – Connie Stevens
“Stairway To Heaven” – Neil Sedaka
“Stuck On You” – Elvis Presley
“Swingin’ School” – Bobby Rydell
[new] “That’s All You Gotta Do” – Brenda Lee
“The Old Lamplighter” – Browns
[new] “Won’t You Come Home Bill Bailey” – Bobby Darin
“Wonderful World” – Sam Cooke
“Young Emotions” – Ricky Nelson

[new] = New to the chart this week.

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

This month in history

We’ve been talking about television the whole of the 1950s here…but apparently down in New Zealand television was only introduced on June 1, 1960 as broadcasts started in Auckland on AKTV, Channel 2, at 7:30 pm and continued until 10:00 pm. The first program was an episode of The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Not a TV show, but a film reel entitled, “The Māori Today (1960)” is below. It’s about as 1960 as you can imagine on that topic and several other fronts.

The history records mention lots of “famous person X” was born on this day. I don’t bother to cover them as they’re not relevant to life in the year we’re listening to. But sometimes early ife events are … such as on June 6 when Barbra Streisand, an 18-year-old Brooklynite, began a professional singing career by winning $50 in a talent contest at “The Lion”, a nightclub in Greenwich Village. Here she is the next year on the Jack Paar Show where she talks about this.

Then on June 16th “Psycho”, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anthony Perkins as the killer at the Bates Motel, had its premiere, at two cinemas in New York City.

What’d Sadie think?

The Everly Brothers’ “Cathy’s Clown” is number 1 for 3 weeks before Connie Francis grabs it with “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool”.

Loved ’em

“Alley-Oop” by the Hollywood Argyles is about the main character fromthe V. T. Hamlin-created comic strip of the same name which started in 1932 and ran for four decades. I’ve never come across it before – apparently it was about a time travelling caveman, sounds great!

“I’m Sorry” is a classic by Brenda Lee who apparently recorded the song early in 1960, but her label, Decca Records, held it from release for several months out of concern that a 15-year-old girl was not mature enough to sing about unrequited love.

“Mack The Knife” by Ella Fitzgerald is a live version from a concert album record in Berlin, Fitzgerald improvised lyrics for “Mack the Knife” after forgetting the original lyrics. In recognition of this, she received the Grammy for Best Female Vocal Performance (Single) and the Best Vocal Performance, Female (Album) at the 3rd Annual Grammy Awards.

“Only The Lonely” by Roy Orbison was was the first major hit for the singer. Apparently Orbison and Joe Melson wrote the song in early 1960 and y tried to sell it to Elvis Presley and the Everly Brothers, who turned it down – lucky for Orbison’s career. In the recording engineer Bill Porter tried a different approach, “building the mix from the top down rather than from the bottom up, beginning with close-miked backing vocals in the foreground, and ending with the rhythm section soft in the background. This combination was to become Orbison’s trademark sound.”

“Won’t You Come Home Bill Bailey” by Bobby Darin is the most successful version of a song written in 1902 by Hughie Cannon. He wrote it when he was working as a bar pianist at Conrad Deidrich’s Saloon in Jackson, Michigan. Willard “Bill” Bailey, also a jazz musician, was a regular customer and friend, and one night told Cannon about his marriage to Sarah (née Siegrist). Cannon “was inspired to rattle off a ditty about Bailey’s irregular hours. Bailey thought the song was a scream [i.e. very good], and he brought home a dashed-off copy of the song to show Sarah. Sarah couldn’t see the humor…. [but] accepted without comment the picture it drew of her as a wife.”

Liked ’em

• “A Rockin’ Good Way” – Dinah Washington & Brook Benton
• “Another Sleepless Night” – Jimmy Clanton
• “Because They’re Young” – Duane Eddy
• “Happy-Go-Lucky Me” – Paul Evans
• “I Really Don’t Want To Know” – Tommy Edwards
• “Jealous Of You” – Connie Francis
• “Jump Over” – Freddy Cannon
• “Mule Skinner Blues” – Fendermen
• “My Home Town” – Paul Anka
• “Please Help Me I’m Falling” – Hank Locklin
• “Runaround” – Fleetwoods
• “That’s All You Gotta Do” – Brenda Lee

Leave ’em

• “Dutchman’s Gold” – Walter Brennan

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

Finally a decent week of summer weather in Auckland of January, 2022 as we listen to the sounds of May, 1960…

Songs of the month

“Angela Jones” – Johnny Ferguson
[new] “Barbara” – Temptations
[new] “Burning Bridges” – Jack Scott
[new] “Cathy’s Clown” – Everly Brothers
[new] “Cherry Pie” – Skip & Flip
“Clementine” – Bobby Darin
“Cradle Of Love” – Johnny Preston
[new] “Ding-A-Ling” – Bobby Rydell
“Doggin’ Around” – Jackie Wilson
“Don’t Throw Away All Those Teardrops” – Frankie Avalon
[new] “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” – Connie Francis
“Fame And Fortune” – Elvis Presley
[new] “Footesteps” – Steve Lawrence
“Footsteps” – Steve Lawrence
[new] “Good Timin'” – Jimmy Jones
[new] “Got A Girl” – Four Preps
“Greenfields” – Brothers Four
[new] “Happy-Go-Lucky-Me” – Paul Evans
“He’ll Have To Go” – Jim Reeves
[new] “He’ll Have To Stay” – Jeanne Black
“I Love The Way You Love” – Marv Johnson
“Let The Little Girl Dance” – Billy Bland
[new] “Lonely Weekends” – Charlie Rich
[new] “Love You So” – Ron Holden
“Mama” – Connie Francis
“Money That’s What I Want” – Barrett Strong
[new] “Mountain Of Love” – Harold Dorman
[new] “Mr. Lucky” – Henry Mancini Orchestra
“Night” – Jackie Wilson
[new] “Nobody Loves Me Like You” – Flamingos
[new] “Ooh Poo Pah Doo” – Jessie Hill
[new] “Paper Roses” – Anita Bryant
“Puppy Love” – Paul Anka
“Sink The Bismark” – Johnny Horton
“Sixteen Reasons” – Connie Stevens
“Stairway To Heaven” – Neil Sedaka
“Step By Step” – Crests
“Stuck On You” – Elvis Presley
“Sweet Nothin’s” – Brenda Lee
[new] “Swingin’ School” – Bobby Rydell
[new] “The Madison” – Al Brown’s Tunetoppers
“The Old Lamplighter” – Browns
“Theme From A Summer Place” – Percy Faith
[new] “What Am I Living For” – Conway Twitty
[new] “What Am I Loving For” – Conway Twitty
[new] “When You Wish Upon A Star” – Dion & The Belmonts
“White Silver Sands” – Bill Black’s Combo
“Wild One” – Bobby Rydell
[new] “Wonderful World” – Sam Cooke
[new] “Young Emotions” – Ricky Nelson

[new] = New to the chart this week.

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

This month in history

On May 6th President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960 into law. The bill had passed the House 288–95, after being amended and passed by the Senate 71–18. Yes, 18 people were against people having the vote whatever their race. Here’s a classic Nixon campaign ad from later in the year on that topic.

Also on the 6th Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II, married Antony Armstrong-Jones (Lord Snowden) in a royal wedding at Westminster Abbey.

By months end Jane Goodall had begun her study of chimpanzees in the wild, arriving at Lolui Island in Kenya after her original plans, to go to the Gombe Reserve, were thwarted by a political dispute.

What’d Sadie think?

It’s three weeks at number one for “Stuck On You” by Elvis before new track to the charts, “Cathy’s Clown” by the Everly Brothers takes the top for the last two.

Loved ’em

“Good Timin'” by Jimmy Jones is just a really fun song. I didn’t listen to the lyrics properly the first few times, but its about historical figures who had “good timings” as an analogy for relationships.

Who in the World would have ever known
What Columbus could do
If Queen Isabella hadn’t hocked her jewels
In 1492? But she had timin’
A-ticka, ticka, ticka, good timin

“He’ll Have To Stay” by Jeanne Black is an excellent answer song to Jim Reeves’ 1959 hit “He’ll Have to Go” (last seen on our charts in January 1960). Which appears on our “new” list this month because it appears to have started selling again after Black’s song came out. (My code for “new” isn’t sophisticated enough to tell if a song has ever appeared on the charts, it just compares one month to the previous.)

“Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” by Connie Francis needs no introduction, such a great tune. But…I did not know that polka-style version in German, “Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel”, was the first German single recorded and released by Connie Francis, and it reached No. 1 on the single chart in 1960 in West Germany.

Fascinating story behind this one,

In her autobiography Francis mentioned that in the early years of her career the language barrier in certain European countries made it difficult for her songs to get airplay, especially in Germany. Francis continued that Germany’s most popular singer, Freddy Quinn, often sold two to three million records per song, equivalent to about twelve million in the United States. Using this as the basis for her April 1960 recording, “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool”, which had initially been written as a ballad, Francis convinced the songwriters to speed up the song’s tempo and revive the innovative drum rhythm from Guy Mitchell’s 1959 hit recording “Heartaches by the Number”, which had been a No. 1 in Germany in its German cover version “Ich zähle täglich meine Sorgen” for Peter Alexander.

Now that’s reading the market! Here’s that version:

“Wonderful World” by Sam Cooke is another real classic. If you’d asked me I couldn’t have told you the song name though and would have said, “Don’t know much”. Apparently the original writers (Lou Adler and Herb Alpert) version was less about school subjects and more about the theme that “neither knowledge nor education can dictate feelings, but that love “could make the world a wonderful place.”. Cooke ramped up the ‘don’t know much…’ aspect.

Liked ’em

• “Barbara” – Temptations
• “Burning Bridges” – Jack Scott
• “Cathy’s Clown” – Everly Brothers
• “Cherry Pie” – Skip & Flip
• “Get A Girl” – Four Preps
• “Lonely Weekends” – Charlie Rich
• “Love You So” – Ron Holden
• “Mountain Of Love” – Harold Dorman
• “Mr. Lucky” – Henry Mancini Orchestra
• “Nobody Loves Me Like You” – Flamingos
• “Ooh Poo Pah Doo” – Jessie Hill
• “Paper Roses” – Anita Bryant
• “Swingin’ School” – Bobby Rydell
• “The Madison” – Al Brown’s Tunetoppers
• “What Am I Living For” – Conway Twitty
• “When You Wish Upon A Star” – Dion & The Belmonts
• “Young Emotions” – Ricky Nelson

Leave ’em

• “Ding-A-Ling” – Bobby Rydell
• “Footsteps” – Steve Lawrence
• “Happy-Go-Lucky-Me” – Paul Evans

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

It’s back-to-work here in New Zealand, 2023 but we’re headed to April of 1960 to hear what it sounded like…

Songs of the month

[new] “Angela Jones” – Johnny Ferguson
[new] “Apple Green” – June Valli
[new] “Baby You’ve Got What It Takes” – Brook Benton & Dinah Washington
“Baby You’ve Got What It Takes” – Dinah Washington & Brook Benton
“Beatnik Fly” – Johnny & The Hurricanes
“Beyond The Sea” – Bobby Darin
[new] “Big Iron” – Marty Robbins
[new] “Clementine” – Bobby Darin
[new] “Cradle Of Love” – Johnny Preston
[new] “Doggin’ Around” – Jackie Wilson
[new] “Don’t Throw Away All Those Teardrops” – Frankie Avalon
[new] “Fame And Fortune” – Elvis Presley
“Footsteps” – Steve Lawrence
“Forever” – Little Dippers
“Greenfields” – Brothers Four
“Handy Man” – Jimmy Jones
“Harbour Lights” – Platters
“He’ll Have To Go” – Jim Reeves
“I Love The Way You Love” – Marv Johnson
[new] “Just One Time” – Don Gibson
“Lady Luck” – Lloyd Price
[new] “Let The Little Girl Dance” – Billy Bland
“Little Bitty Girl” – Bobby Rydell
“Mama” – Connie Francis
“Money That’s What I Want” – Barrett Strong
[new] “Mr. Lucky” – Henry Mancini
[new] “Night” – Jackie Wilson
“O Dio Mio” – Annette
“Puppy Love” – Paul Anka
“Sink The Bismark” – Johnny Horton
“Sixteen Reasons” – Connie Stevens
[new] “Stairway To Heaven” – Neil Sedaka
“Starbright” – Johnny Mathis
[new] “Step By Step” – Crests
[new] “Stuck On You” – Elvis Presley
[new] “Summer Set” – Monty Kelly
“Sweet Nothin’s” – Brenda Lee
“Teddy” – Connie Francis
[new] “The Old Lamplighter” – Browns
“Theme From A Summer Place” – Percy Faith
“This Magic Moment” – Drifters
“Welcome New Lovers” – Pat Boone
“What In The World’s Come Over You” – Jack Scott
“White Silver Sands” – Bill Black’s Combo
“Wild One” – Bobby Rydell

[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 first of the month the United States launched the first weather satellite, the 270 pound TIROS-1, from Cape Canaveral. The name was an acronym for Television Infra-Red Observation Satellite. The same evening, satellite weather photos were introduced to the world, on television, for the first time. Taken from an altitude of 450 miles, the pictures of cloud cover confirmed the spiral pattern of winds in a storm.

Then on the fourth at the 32nd Academy Awards ceremony, Ben-Hur won a record eleven Oscars, including Best Picture.

On the stage on the fourteenth, “Bye Bye Birdie”, the first Broadway musical to acknowledge rock ‘n roll as part of its score, opened at the Martin Beck Theatre, and introduced such songs as “Put On A Happy Face”. See that performed lived on the Ed Sullivan show below.

And on the 20th Elvis Presley returned to Hollywood for the first time since his return from military service in Germany, to begin filming “G.I. Blues”.

What’d Sadie think?

“Theme From A Summer Place” by Percy Faith has the top spot for 3 weeks before Elvis celebrates his return to the states with a number one with “Stuck On You” becoming his first number-one single of the 1960s and thirteenth overall.

Loved ’em

• “Baby You’ve Got What It Takes” – Brook Benton & Dinah Washington
• “Big Iron” – Marty Robbins
• “Doggin’ Around” – Jackie Wilson
• “Stuck On You” – Elvis Presley

Apparently “Baby You’ve Got What It Takes” was first recorded in 1958 by Dorothy Pay but was just called “You’ve Got What It Takes” and didn’t meet with the success of this month’s version. So there you go baby!

Liked ’em

• “Angela Jones” – Johnny Ferguson
• “Apple Green” – June Valli
• “Clementine” – Bobby Darin
• “Cradle Of Love” – Johnny Preston
• “Just One Time” – Don Gibson
• “Let The Little Girl Dance” – Billy Bland
• “Mr. Lucky” – Henry Mancini
• “Night” – Jackie Wilson
• “Stairway To Heaven” – Neil Sedaka
• “Step By Step” – Crests
• “Summer Set” – Monty Kelly
• “The Old Lamplighter” – Browns

Leave ’em

• “Don’t Throw Away All Those Teardrops” – Frankie Avalon
• “Fame And Fortune” – Elvis Presley

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

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.

Happy new year folks! We missed a week of the newsletter last week due to the holiday break and spending some time on pulling together future playlists for 4x Life. A little longer intro this time to explain…

It was a happy coincidence that we had playlists prepared right through to December, 1959 that ended the end of 2022. I had spent a couple of days last Xmas break generating the playlists for the whole year so I didn’t have so much admin to do every week.

But when I say “playlist prepared” what I mean is the first part of this – a chart that combines all 4/5 weeks of a month into a single list of top songs. I’ve previously described the arduous process just to get there – I have all the individual weekly Billboard charts as a PDF that I extract tabular info from and then run a script over the month’s worth to turn them into a de-duplicated song list.

I still then had to actually go to Youtube and manually search for each song and add it to a playlist. Then I had to go through and compare this week’s playlist to the previous one to identify the new songs.

I’ve managed to automate a lot more of this. Unfortunately the very first bit I couldn’t – I had to spend a day cutting and pasting from a 4000 page PDF (40 years of charts) into individual 10 page PDFs (monthly) and then select the tables in each of these to save off the songs. I decide just to go for it and did 40 years worth of charts (1960-1999) – which will last me the next 10 years of real-time at 4x Life.

But from this point on I was able to start automating more. In the past I had a script that I had to run for each monthly PDF. Faced with 480 PDFs this time I automated it so it churned them all out in 5 seconds. Then I scripted something to compare each monthly list to the previous one and write [new] next to each new song. Again…5 seconds total, for what took me several minutes manually each week.

Next I wrote a script that searched on Youtube Music for each song in a monthly playlist and added it to an appropriately named new playlist. This took me a good 15-20 minutes each week in the past. Now, I’m not going to go through and create all the Youtube playlists for the next decade in advance as there is a good chance that the songs files I find now might disappear before I’m meant to listen to them in 2030 say. But I can just press the button each week. (This does now make me think i could consider scripting something to create the playlist on Spotify for people who prefer that – I’ll have a look at that at some point maybe.)

A caveat – when I say “I scripted” – I was ably assisted this year by the AI known as GPT3. It has a remarkable ability to write code when presented with a good description of the task. It isn’t necessarily great code – but it gets the job done, and does it faster than myself who tends to only code a few times a year so is always out-of-practice.

Anyway, I now have a lot of the admin of the next decade sorted for 4xLife – so even more time to enjoy listening to the music itself with the family. Go listen to January 1960 here, and then enjoy the sounds of February, 1960 below!

Songs of the month

“Among My Souvenirs” – Connie Francis
[new] “Baby You’ve Got What It Takes” – Dinah Washington & Brook Benton
[new] “Beyond The Sea” – Bobby Darin
[new] “Bulldog” – Fireballs
[new] “Country Boy” – Fats Domino
“Down By The Station” – Four Preps
“El Paso” – Marty Robbins
“First Name Initial” – Annette & The Afterbeats
[new] “Forever” – Little Dippers
“Go Jimmy Go” – Jimmy Clanton
“Handy Man” – Jimmy Jones
[new] “Harbour Lights” – Platters
“He’ll Have To Go” – Jim Reeves
“Heartaches By The Number” – Guy Mitchell
“Hound Dog Man” – Fabian
“It’s Time To Cry” – Paul Anka
[new] “Lady Luck” – Lloyd Price
“Let It Be Me” – Everly Brothers
[new] “Little Bitty Girl” – Bobby Rydell
“Lonely Blue Boy” – Conway Twitty
“Lucky Devil” – Carl Dobkins Jr.
[new] “Midnight Special” – Paul Evans
“Not One Minute More” – Della Reese
“Pretty Blue Eyes” – Steve Lawrence
[new] “Rockin’ Little Angel” – Ray Smith
“Running Bear” – Johnny Preston
“Sandy” – Larry Hall
[new] “Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko-Bop” – Little Anthony & The Imperials
“Smokie (Part 2)” – Bill Black’s Combo
[new] “Sweet Nothin’s” – Brenda Lee
[new] “T.L.C. Tender Love And Care” – Jimmie Rodgers
“Teen Angel” – Mark Dinning
“The Big Hurt” – Miss Toni Fisher
“The Village Of St. Bernadette” – Andy Williams
“Theme From A Summer Place” – Percy Faith Orchestra
[new] “Time And A River” – Nat King Cole
“Tracy’s Theme” – Spencer Ross
“Way Down Yonder In New Orleans” – Freddy Cannon
“What In The World’s Come Over You” – Jack Scott
“Where Or When” – Dion & The Belmonts
“Why” – Frankie Avalon
[new] “Wild One” – Bobby Rydell
“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 February 1 in Greensboro, North Carolina, four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University began a sit-in at the Woolworth’s department store, at a lunch counter that, like many in the South, would not serve African-American customers except for take-out orders. After their classes, the four young men entered Woolworth’s, made some purchases, and at 4:30, took seats at the counter and politely placed orders for desserts and coffee. When the waitress told them they could not be served, they stayed until closing time. The next morning, at least 20 students came to Woolworth’s and began taking up seats as they became available. By Wednesday, the sit-ins were national news, and the next week, spread to other cities. By summer, most chain stores ended their whites-only policy.

Before a session of the Parliament of South Africa in Cape Town on February 3rd, Britain’s Prime Minister Harold Macmillan made the “Wind of Change” speech, telling the all-white assembly that “The wind of change is blowing through this continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact, and our national policies must take account of it” – indicating the Conservative government was coming to accept the growing voices for independence from the colonies.

On the 16th the nuclear submarine USS Triton submerged upon departure from New London, Connecticut, and, with 184 people on board, began “Operation Sandblast”, an underwater voyage around the world that would end 83 days later on May 10. Though forced to broach its sail above the surface on March 5 in order to transfer a seriously ill sailor to another ship, USS Triton would spend the rest of the circumnavigation entirely undersea.

What’d Sadie think?

One more week at the top for Johnny Preston’s “Running Bear” before two at the top for “Teen Angel” by Mark Dinning. Then a week for “Theme From A Summer Place” by Percy Faith Orchestra.

Loved ’em

• “Baby You’ve Got What It Takes” – Dinah Washington & Brook Benton
• “Beyond The Sea” – Bobby Darin
• “Little Bitty Girl” – Bobby Rydell
• “Midnight Special” – Paul Evans
• “Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko-Bop” – Little Anthony & The Imperials

Liked ’em

• “Bulldog” – Fireballs
• “Forever” – Little Dippers
• “Harbour Lights” – Platters
• “Lady Luck” – Lloyd Price
• “Rockin’ Little Angel” – Ray Smith
• “Sweet Nothin’s” – Brenda Lee
• “Wild One” – Bobby Rydell
• “Country Boy” – Fats Domino
• “Time And A River” – Nat King Cole

Leave ’em

• “T.L.C. Tender Love And Care” – Jimmie Rodgers

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