209 US Pop Culture 1964 Part 5
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- čas přidán 10. 09. 2024
- Today, we pick up with a look at the summer of 1964! Frankie and Annette hit Bikini Beach, some Animals go to the House of The Rising Sun, after a hard day's night, the Beatles tour America and the Beach Boys get around!
So many great artists mentioned in this video, with the Dave Clark five becoming a close second to The Beatles in popularity during the British invasion. The Drifters and The four Seasons in particular were very popular here in the UK in 1964. Like everyone else in the the UK I was an avid listener to a radio program every Sunday called "Pick of the pops" introduced by Alan Freeman, we would have a rundown of the top 20 best selling songs each week, I can still remember on this show back in 1964 The Beach Boys making it to the Top Ten for the very first time with "I get around". 60 years ago Wow!!!.
So great to that you were there to hear the Beach Boys in the UK top ten for the first time! I didn't realize "I Get Around" had been their "breakthrough" in the UK until researching this. (What a great record to break through with!) 60 years is hard to believe! I keep thinking I must have accidentally added a decade or two in there some where. Thanks for the UK perspective! Always great to hear from you, John!
The summer of '64 was about the time I started listening to Top 40 radio, nonstop. "I Get Around" was the 1st 45 I ever purchased. It was a landmark in so many ways. I played it endlessly and became a lifetime fan of the group. Some of the other hits during that time I remember fondly. How could you NOT like "Lollipop," "Memphis, "Sun," "Chapel," "and especially, Rag Doll"--(my fave 4 Seasons hit of all of theirs), "Bad" and "Can't You See" have been special likes as well. "Pasadena" was the 2nd 45 I bought and remains my fave J&D song, ever. "Dang Me" is so iconic for us boomers (as is "King of the Road.") "Everybody" had a great swing beat behind Dino. "Where Did" was sweet and catchy. "Walk 64" is yet another 45 I managed to buy on a 12 year old's very tight budget. It was SO much better to my ears than the (stale by comparison) 1960 original. I remember a few years later on, borrowing several Ventures LPs but NONE of those other tracks grabbed me like "64" !
LPs: I didn't have access to the "ASL" album until a few years later. It's a substantial collection and was well worth purchasing when I finally could! I know it seems weird to younger people (obviously pre-Internet or home-taping) but unless you could afford the $5 to BUY an album, gambling that you'd actually like much of the content (usually 2 hits & the rest, filler) & listen to it endlessly, you had to find a friend to borrow it from. (Or you never HEARD those other tracks!) The BBs were far less popular in the Midwest than the Moptops, so that LP was relatively rarer. The "33" that I most likely heard in our home was "Mary Poppins." Dad had a copy and we 4 kids likely requested it often.
I've said this before, but it was long ago in these "Basement" show comments: I found most of the Beatles' music pleasant but not to the degree that I'd want to see them in concert, live, if they'd come through. They were all the rage with GIRLS, however! That's what I clearly remember. Also they received HEAVY airplay. If you talked "records" with friends at school, people thought you were odd if The Beatles WEREN'T automatically your favorite group !
I look back now and see 1964 as a brief span of relative peace between JFK's assassination just prior to its beginning, and the ramping up of the very divisive issues of VietNam and the Warren Report. In 1965, I would officially become a teen, and things changed forever (although the music WAS overall much improved!) Thanks, Steve!
Thanks so much for the feedback, Bill! It's especially great coming from someone who's ear was so attuned to Top 40 at the time. It's interesting to be reminded that, at least in the early days, the Beatles were sometimes seen as more of the rage among girls...and that an album was a serious purchase for kids and teenagers and had to be approached cautiously. (I went through the same thing when I was first buying albums. If an album contained two songs I loved, I would consider it but, at $5.99 or whatever it was at the time, it took a LOT of consideration to plonk down the money.) Excellent point about 1964 being a brief span of relative peace too! I've just started putting together research for "1965" episodes and already in the first quarter of the year, things are escalating in Vietnam. The research has made me very aware of how true that is! Thanks, as always, Bill, for the excellent feedback and perspective! Looking forward to your thoughts on "All Summer Long!"
Some points of interest. 1. Bobby Freeman's C'mon and Swim was co-written by Sly Stone. 2. There's a really interesting CZcams playlist of some 700 songs of the first recordings of future hits, and it includes Me and Bobby McGee, first sung, in his trademark comedic and jaunty style, by Roger Miller. 3. Speaking of American Tour by the Dave Clark Five, there's a unique Canadian DC5 album called Across Canada. I love that album mostly because there's a hilarious photo montage on the back cover of the band coming to Canada, including one shot of some Mounties holding back a horde of (actually less than 15) girls. Actually, one Mountie is seemingly being pushed while his fellow officer is smirking. The captions under the photos are also way over the top. LOL.
Thanks for sharing the great info, Joel! I didn't notice the Sly Stone credit on "C'mon and Swim." Thanks for pointing it out! I've GOT to hear "Me and Bobby McGee" done but Roger Miller. I will definitely be checking that out. Thanks for the info on Canadian Dave Clark Five releases! It completely makes sense that, with their American album covers being so "USA-centric," that they'd have needed a separate release for the Canadian market. That's something else I'll definitely be checking out! Great info! Thanks again, Joel!
Wow what memories. I was only 2 but my sisters were teenagers then. Our dad owned a bowling alley and back in the day every time the 45 records in the jukebox were changed the jukebox guy gave my dad the records. He then gave them to my sisters.. long story short after our mom passed in 2004 and Dad 1999… guess who found them 😅! I have a big box of all the classic rock n roll records of late 50’s to late 60’s!! My mom god rest her in our 20th year in heaven had both of those Dino Albums . I have them still all though they are pretty beat up. Historical 1964 was a big year all around !
Wow! What a great stash of records that must be and what a great way to have gotten them! (Something about them having come from your dad's bowling alley juke box makes them seem even cooler!) I turned 4 in '64, so my memories are pretty vague too. It was definitely an amazing time and I envy your sisters having been teenagers at such a perfect time for it! Thanks, as always, for sharing the memories and for the excellent feedback, Mike!
absolutely!
Hi Steve / Dave Clark 5 was a popular group as many have commented already. Don't worry baby became one of the Beach Boys top songs and it was a flip side as you displayed. Only those who purchased Shutdown Vol 2 discovered it ahead of I get around being released. Thanks again for another flash back on a year that had many great songs.
"Don't Worry Baby" is one of my all-time favorite songs...by anybody, ever. It definitely deserved to be a single release rather than just an album track.Thanks for the feedback, Don! Always great to hear from you!
Yes, as I mentioned, IGA/DWB was the 1st 45 I ever prurchased at 12 yrs. old. It seemed all BBs 45s were double-sided hits!
Looking back i am so glad i was around in 1964 , be it very young, but the music at the time was so inspiring as is proven by most of the records you show here Steve, are still regularly played and i remember very vividly going to visit my cousin who was older than me by about 8 years and he would talk about the current chart and would tell me all about the latest sounds to look out for and i remember the huge impact of " Merseybeat " on the top 40 in 1964 and even to this very day my cousin (John ) is an expert on the charts , even now aged 74 and will talk openly about those early days when he kept a log of the charts, which he has kept for all these years and he can knock any knowledge i have into a cocked hat.
The UK record chart was presented every sunday on the BBC Light Programme and was presented by Alan Freeman and was called Pick of the Pops and today this has a cult following as " Fluff " as he became known as he often wore thick woven fluffy pullovers , was Australian and wasnt anywhere near as staid as most of the BBC Jocks at that time and nobody could rundown the chart at the speed that he could , or make it as exciting. and even the pirates respected Fluff Freeman.
It was a great era and I envy you having been there for it! (I was around and have some vague recollections; like seeing The Beatles, The Kinks and, later, Herman's Hermits on "Ed Sullivan" and hearing the records on the car radio. It wasn't until late '66 and the advent of The Monkees that I really started paying attention.)
Thanks for the great info on the UK record chart and Fluff Freeman. It's a name I hadn't heard before and, I'll bet, now that I'm aware of him, I'll start running across references to him all over the place! Have a great week, Chris, and, as always, the feedback is greatly enjoyed and appreciated!
Loved hearing your recollections of "Fluff" !
@@burlingtonbill1 Alright ?......Right.....Stay Bright
Great Job! Really enjoy these reviews! Keep Singing!
Thanks for the encouragement on the singing! (Looking back, I feel like I wasn't in particularly "good voice" (even for me!) when I recorded this one...though I do think I hit "Everybody Loves Somebody" fairly well!) Thanks for the comments and feedback, Thomas!
Some good memories there -- I did see Mary Poppins Hard Day's Night, and Ride the Wild Surf in the movie theatre then. I had all the Beatles albums, and wanted more, so I asked for and got the Chipmunks Beatles album. Also, in between movies at the theatre, over the PA they played the Hollyridge Strings Beatles album. I liked it and ended up getting that too. (They put out a 2nd Beatles album, but I didn't get it). Good times
Thanks for sharing the great memories, Paul! I'm especially impressed that you saw "Ride The Wild Surf" at a theater. I wasn't sure how well-distributed it was. Your comments also make me wonder how many people bought the Chipmunks' Beatles album mainly because they'd run out of other Beatles product to buy and still wanted more. I was "around," but not yet paying much attention to music. I envy you getting to experience those records as they were released! Always great to hear from you, Paul! Thanks again!
The Dave Clark Five were pretty unstoppable, including top 15 hits, "Everybody Knows" and a remake of The Contours, "Do You Love Me". "Mary Poppins", definitely one of my favorites from the year. The Four Seasons also held their own with 6 top 20 hits! "House of the Rising Sun" was good but wait until 1970, as Frijid Pink would take that song to whole different level. I'm looking forward to the next chapter!
Thanks for the feedback and info, Angelique! I especially appreciate you reminding us of the great year the Four Seasons were having in '64. I should have taken more time to talk about them. Always great to hear from you and thanks again for the excellent comments!
My pleasure I should've added this: on a much later Barbara Streisand album, the "People" album cover was recreated somewhat, the cover added her husband, James Brolin, on it. I wonder if Goldner worked with Roulette Records, alleged to have been ran by some, unsavory characters. @@thebeachboysbasementwithst6444
Imma check out The Hollyridge Strings album, which I think was produced by Stu Phillips, who I think was the music producer of The Donna Reed Show.
@@sexymama1966 Cool! I hope you'll let me know what you think when you've heard it!
@@thebeachboysbasementwithst6444I've heard side A and I liked it. They were trying to cash in on Beatlemania. I get the elevator music feeling, if I were in a department store back then.
As usual, great rundown of popular music, movies and what was going on politically at the time. Always learn a lot watching these, enjoy finding out about artists have never heard of! Sad to find out Harpo Marx passed away at this time. Bikini Beach has been one of my favorite Frankie/Annette Beach movies. Didn't know the Beatles only performed three full concerts when they first came over here in February, 1964, that August of 1964 was their first full concert tour here. Their performances that month at the Hollywood Bowl were recorded (And possibly filmed?). Some of these performances were paired up with their 1965 Hollywood Bowl performances, and released years later as a live album.
"Bikini Beach" (along with "Beach Blanket Bingo") are my favorite "Frankie and Annette" beach party movies too. They both seem to have "all the elements" you want in one of those movies. I was surprised by the Beatles US concert history, too, when I really started to research it. I found it really surprising that, having "cracked the American market" in February, they didn't return until August. I'm guessing they already made too many other commitments (including filming "A Hard Day's Night" and the "World Tour" that took in Australia) to have any real chance to exploit the opening they had made in the American market until then.
Thanks for mentioning those Hollywood Bowl performances! It reminds me that we've still never had a really "definitive" official release of those recordings. I'd love see a "Hollywood Bowl 1964, 1965 Complete" set one of these days! Thanks, as always, for the great feedback, Robert!
@@thebeachboysbasementwithst6444I think a number of years ago, when Ron Howard did his Beatles documentary about the Beatles concert years, a CD was released along with the film (Possibly as a Bonus) which had performances from their Hollywood Bowl concerts on it. The live album I was talking about was called The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl, which came out on vinyl in 1977, which I have a copy of. This album has not been officially released as a CD. Several years ago, I bought a CD of it ( From someone who had copied it). Listened to the Millie Small song "My Boy Lollipop". Didn't mind the music, but not too impressed with her voice lol!
@@robertzastrow4648 I bought the 1977 album when it came out. It was cool. Later, I started to wish they hadn't mixed the '64 and '65 recordings together. I actually skipped buying the CD that went along with the Ron Howard film (which was a pretty excellent film!) At the time, I suspected some more definitive release of the Hollywood Bowl would be coming soon and the CD would be, largely, obsolete...of course, I'm still waiting! Great that you listened to "My Bob Lollipop." I definitely know what you mean about Millie Small's voice! Thanks for the follow-up, Robert!
2:00 I just checked: the picture sleeve for I Get Around as the A-side shows the guys in suits and ties as they're sitting in some white chairs. Is this sleeve hard to find for some reason? You always see the Don't Worry Baby as A-side sleeve as shown here. Am I missing something...?
This is one of your jam-packed eps that almost literally makes my head spin. Maybe it's odd for me to fixate on this, but If I was going to play a game of One of These is Not Like the Others...I'd say I'm most surprised by the chart success of Al Hirt of all people. Maybe you just had to be there...
I don't know if the "I Get Around" sleeve is hard to find. It's kind of an odd one though. Seems like most picture sleeves in those days were the same on both sides, maybe just with the order in which the titles appeared switched around. "I Get Around" gives "Don't Worry Baby" "top billing" on one side and the other side is a sort of "thank you message" from the group with no picture.
I agree about Al Hirt. He sure had a great year! Wonder who was buying those albums? Wonder if he'd have stayed big if Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass hadn't come along? Very strange times! Good to hear from you, as always, rangergrrrl!
Wow, that's a lot of good stuff! I always liked The Dave Clack Five because my mom had a few of their singles. I've heard of most of music from this time and of course I'm a big Jan And Dean fan. I'm surprised how some albums don't have a real title, like so and so's first album, second album, third album and so on. I did watch A Hard Days Night in 4k within the last six months and thought it looked and sounded pretty good.. I have always loved Mary Poppins and am surprised that Dick Van Dyke still doing great at 98. I really like the Marx Brothers as well. Speaking of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, I recently saw Ocean's 11 at my local theater. They played it the night before their annual Valentine's Day dinner and a movie, which was Viva Las Vegas. If you had tickets for the dinner and a movie, they let you in to see Ocean's 11 free. Great stuff as always Steve. I can't wait till next week's episode.
Thanks fort the comments and insights, Michael! Now that you mention Dick Van Dyke, there aren't many movies like "Mary Poppins" where both principle stars (Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews) are still with us sixty years on. (If I might digress: one of the most surreal experiences of my life took place shortly after the big California earthquake in January, 1994. A few days after the quake, as life was getting back to normal for most people, I went to Santa Monica to go shopping. Across one of the sidewalks was a huge pile of bricks that hadn't been cleared up yet. I climbed over it and who did I run into climbing up from the other side but Dick Van Dyke! Climbing a pile of bricks in Santa Monica with Dick Van Dyke seems like some weird thing that would happen in a dream. Still hard to believe that particular scene was real!) Great that you got to see "Ocean's 11" (and "Viva Las Vegas") on a big screen! I wish someone would offer that deal around here! Thanks again for the feedback, Michael! Have a great week!
@@thebeachboysbasementwithst6444 Cool Steve! Climbing up a pile of bricks with any celebrity would be Great, let alone a legend. P.S. That same theater is having their silent movie night with a live orchestra soon. Of course I have my tickets already.
@@michaelthemovieattic Man! Sounds like a great theater to have in the area! I'm definitely envious!
Big year for Al Hirt!
Yes! Pretty eclectic group of artists having "banner years" in '64; the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Dave Clark Five, Nancy Wilson, Dean Martin...Al Hirt...to quote John Lennon, "Strange days indeed!" Thanks, Andrew!
Yes - Cotton Candy and Java were both huge crossover hits. Back then, Top 40 and adult M.O.R. charts rarely shared songs.
Good one Steve 👍
Thanks, Jamie! I see you've got a new episode up too. I'll be checking out your talk with George Perez later on today. Keep up the good work and thanks again for the comment, Jamie!
Another great episode, Steve! It never ceases to amaze me about how popular those musicals were back then and how a lot of those soundtracks had impressive staying power on the chart. The fact that Hello Dolly reigned over The Beatles and other British Invasion albums was a testament to that. I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that those were more geared towards an adult audience and with them having more money than kids and teens, they were album to accelerate those albums just because they had more spending power. Just an idea. Great work once again!
Good points on those soundtrack albums, Mike, and I think you're absolutely right about the adults having more spending power being the driving force. I would guess that another factor was that adults would "put on" a record and do something else; like have a dinner party or do housework. Kids, I think, were more likely to "play a song." The short format of singles probably worked better for them (in addition to being cheaper.) By the time the album came out, kids would often already have the best tracks on singles, so buying the album would be less attractive (especially with so many early rock 'n' roll albums containing a lot of "filler" tracks.) It certainly seems like the singles charts were driven by teens and the album chart driven by adults in those days. (The dynamic is slowly starting to shift in '64 but it won't really change, in the USA at least, until around '67, when rock albums will really take over the charts.) Thanks for the feedback and for raising a really interesting point, Mike!
@@thebeachboysbasementwithst6444you're welcome, as always Steve! And I believe your theory is correct as well. Until albums became the focal point of artists in the mid-60s, it really was singles that appealed to the younger demographic as pop albums before that were just the last few singles with filler tracks padding it out. It still blows my mind how those soundtrack albums stayed in the upper reaches of the charts for sometimes over a year, that's obviously impressive from a sales perspective. Thank you for another insightful response, Steve!!
@@novim9 Yes! I absolutely agree about those soundtrack albums. It's hard to believe there were still people who wanted those albums and didn't have them after they'd been topping the charts for three, four, five years. Strange times! Thanks for the great response, Mike!
@@thebeachboysbasementwithst6444 Very good points! You should realize that there were no VCRs so the only way you could drum up memories of seeing the movie in the theatre was to play the soundtrack.Those LPs didn't always come out right after the movie, either. Sometimes there big gaps. I grew up hearing "My Fair Lady" and "Oklahoma" many times -- later, Mary Poppins," "Music Man" and "Sound of Music."
@@burlingtonbill1 That's a major, and excellent, point I hadn't considered, Bill! The soundtrack would have been about the only way to re-experience or re-connect with a movie that you enjoyed. I'm sure that was a huge factor in the popularity of soundtracks! Thanks, Bill!
Steve great Job. I have a question for you, you mentioned the Animals, the House of the Rising Sun. My question is because the Animals version becoming so popular, is that why Bob Dylan stopped singing it live., his version is on his first album.
That's a good question, Mark! I definitely couldn't say for sure. After reading your comment, I looked up Dylan's performance history with the song. According to what I found, Dylan has played "House of The Risin' Sun" in concert a grand total of eight times. He played it twice before the Animals' version: once on June 1, 1960 and again on April 12, 1963. After that, he didn't perform it until 1986. He did it four times between mid-86 and late-87. He did it once more in 2000 and one more time in 2007. My guess would be that he dropped it, initially, in favor of his growing catalog of original material. I would bet the song becoming so closely associated with the Animals was a factor in him not returning to it for 23 years though. Really interesting question, Mark, and thanks for doing it! Always great to hear from you.
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Nice one, Steve! Interesting, you pronounce it "Lewis" Armstrong, I've always thought it was "Lewie". Is that a USA/UK thing? Also my dad (who came to England from Trinidad) knew Millie when he first came here in the 60s.
Good point about "Louie" v. Louis Armstrong. When I was a kid, I always heard him called "Louie." Somewhere along the line, seemingly long after he passed away, everybody seemed to, for some reason, start calling him "Louis." I went with "Louis" but I'll bet there wasn't one person in a thousand who wouldn't have said "Louie" in 1964. It'd be interesting to know why this (seeming) change came about. Very cool that your dad knew Millie Small! I picture Trinidad-ex-pats in England as having quite a cool music scene going on in those days. Great that your dad was there for it! Thanks for the great comments, NPP!
A few of their hits were just OK, but I never bought the DC5 as they were Beatle wannabes. They paled in every way.
Pretty hard not to pale in comparison with the Beatles! (Seriously though, I definitely know what you mean.) Great to hear from you, Bill!