|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 11:52:25 GMT 1
1960s best songs which didn't reach UK top 40OK, A concept I started on just after Christmas (I've completed the 1980s, but will post them later in chronological order). But thought I'd go back to the 1960s and the comments via the Haven Time Machine decades threads, to help others with ideas outside of the box (i.e the UK top 40). As you can imagine it is fairly slim pickings to begin with, but I may well end up doing Top 50s before I get to the 1980s decade. So I'm going to start with a Top 25 from 1960 where I'd argue the UK public got it wrong (admittedly in most cases because the records were not released in the UK).
But from 1965 onwards I'm going to attempt to compile a Top 50.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 11:56:52 GMT 1
25 Ruth Brown - Don't Deceive Me USA #62
The Virginia born "Queen Of R&B" was noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic. Records in the 1950s. Brown was a 1993 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
This was her 21st & final USA R&B top ten hit in the USA. UK listeners will most know her 1956 song "Lucky Lips" via the inferior 1963 Cliff Richard & The Shadows cover version.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 12:01:16 GMT 1
24 Jackie Wilson - Night USA #4
The soul singer's biggest hit in his native country, was this powerful R&B #3 crooner reworking of the aria "Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix" from the opera Samson and Delilah by Camille Saint-Saëns, with lyrics by Johnny Lehmann. This was a successful effort for Jackie Wilson to sing in an operatic voice.
In the UK he was most well known at the time for his 1957 UK #6 (only USA #62) hit "Reet Petite".
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 12:06:05 GMT 1
23 Safaris - Image Of A Girl USA #6
This American vocal harmony pop group of the early 1960s from Los Angeles, California. They reached the top ten stateside with this debut single.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 12:10:54 GMT 1
22 Joe Jones - You Talk Too Much USA #3
Written by Fats Domino's brother-in-law, Reginald Hall. Domino passed the song on to New Orleanns born/based singer Joe Jones who reached R&B #9 as well as the Billboard top 3 singles. It was produced by Sylvia Vanderpool Robinson who was half of the duo Mickey & Sylvia, but she was not credited for the session.
I've certainly heard it played on Tony Blackburn's The Sound of the 60s a few times.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 12:14:39 GMT 1
21 Charlie Rich - Lonely Weekends USA #22
Over a decade before his string of international country pop crossover hits; the Arkansas born singer/musician was an Elvis Presley type singer as this track highlights. This was his third release, and first hit single.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 12:19:42 GMT 1
20 Brook Benton - Kiddio USA #7 UK #41
The South Carolina smooth soul singer scored a string of USA hits between 1958 & 1964. Written by Brook Benton & Clyde Otis it became his third top ten hit from 1960. (Spoiler: the other two will appear higher up in this countdown).
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 12:25:03 GMT 1
19 Jerry Butler - He Will Break Your Heart USA #7
This solo single by the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group the Impressions. It was written by Jerry Butler, Calvin Carter, and Curtis Mayfield (who replaced him as the Impressions lead singer). Subsequent cover versions of "He Will Break Your Heart" were released by artists such as Margie Singleton and Lulu (both regendering the song to She Will Break Your Heart), The Righteous Brothers and Freddie Scott. Whilst Tony Orlando & Dawn scored a USA #1 hit with it in 1975 when retitled as "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)".
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 12:29:55 GMT 1
18 Dion & The Belmonts - Where Or When USA #3
The Bronx, New York City vocal quartet cover of the 1937 Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart show tune. This was their biggest hit in their home country. In October 1960, Dion DiMucci decided to quit for a solo career.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 12:34:05 GMT 1
17 Marty Robbins - Big Iron USA #26 UK #48
The Country singer had been charting in his home country since 1952. This C/W #5 was his follow up to his 1959 USA #1 & C/W #1 signature tune "El Paso".
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 12:42:36 GMT 1
16 Rosie & The Originals - Angel Baby USA #5
An early example of a Rock & Roll rip off:
Lead singer Rosalie "Rosie" Méndez Hamlin was raised in Anchorage, Alaska before moving to California; she was of Mexican and English descent. She was trained on piano in her youth, and started singing with a band at thirteen. She wrote the lyrics for "Angel Baby" as a poem for "[her] very first boyfriend" when she was 14 years old, still attending Mission Bay High School in San Diego, California. When she was 15, she and some friends rented the only recording studio they could find within 100 miles of San Diego located in San Marcos, California to record the song. The studio was owned by an airplane mechanic who had taken part of his hangar to make it. After taking the master to a department store, they convinced a manager to play it in the listening booth of the store's music department.The song received positive reactions from teenage listeners, and a scout from Highland Records offered the group a recording contract, under the condition that the company take possession of the master recording, and that David Ponce be named as the author of the song, as he was the eldest member of the group.
"Angel Baby" made its radio debut in November 1960, before the group had even received their contract. When the contract finally came, Hamlin found that she was ineligible to collect record royalties from the song because she was not listed as the songwriter. This led to the group's break-up, and although Hamlin secured the copyright to her music in 1961, decades of battles over royalties followed.
In 1995, Rosie & the Originals were portrayed in the film My Family, performing "Angel Baby." Hamlin's part was played by Jeanette Jurado of the group Expose.
I also know this song via its Beatles connections. Lennon recorded a studio version of "Angel Baby" for his 1975 Rock 'n' Roll album. Their other single was "Give Me Love". The 2021 Peter Jackson 3 part documentary of the making of the aborted Get Back album showed George Harrison working on an embryonic version of his 1973 USA #1 hit "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)", which Lennon (un)helpfully sung the Rosie & The Originals song melody over the top of.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 12:46:07 GMT 1
15 Little Willie John - Sleep USA #13
The Detroit, Michigan 1950s R&B singer (name checked by Robbie Robertson "Somewhere Down The Crazy River") cover of a 1923 composition. It reached R&B #10.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 12:48:46 GMT 1
14 Jackie Wilson - Doggin' Around USA #15
The 1960 vocal showcase song written by Lena Agree, topped the USA R&B charts. Michael Jackson also covered this song for his 1973 album, Music & Me.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 12:53:21 GMT 1
13 Annette with The Afterbeats - Pineapple Princess USA #11
Fronted by the original Disney Mouseketeer Annette Funicello. She later established herself as a film actress, popularizing the successful "Beach Party" genre alongside co-star Frankie Avalon during the early/mid-1960s. Written by The Sherman Brothers this Hawaiian sounding number was a sizeable hit; and has been reused in a number of Disney animated films since.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 13:00:34 GMT 1
12 Howlin' Wolf - Spoonful DNC
The Chicago blues singer born Chester Arthur Burnett, is most famous for his 1956 Chess recording "Smokestack Lightning". But this 1960 recording with his Les Paul guitar playing (a major influence on HF10 flops Led Zeppelin) comes close.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 13:03:23 GMT 1
11 John Coltrane - Giant Steps DNC
The title track of the seminal February 1960 Atlantic records jazz album by the North Carolina jazz saxophonist and composer.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 13:06:59 GMT 1
10 Dinah Washington & Brook Benton - A Rockin' Good Way USA #7
Nearly a quarter of a century before this song was murdered by Bonnie Tyler & Shakin' Stevens The R&B #1 song was written by Benton, Clyde Otis and Luchi de Jesus. It also reached the top 20 in Canada & top 30 in Australia.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 13:09:06 GMT 1
9 Folkes Brothers - Oh Carolina DNC
This 1958 song by Jamaica's the Folkes Brothers, produced by Prince Buster and released in 1960, after which it became an early ska hit. It was covered by many various artists, including most famously Shaggy in 1993.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 13:12:09 GMT 1
8 Etta Jones - Don't Go To Strangers USA #36
The South Carolina born singer's cover of the 1954 song by Arthur Kent with lyrics by Redd Evans. She was an American jazz singer whose critical success and relative commercial obscurity earned her a reputation in her lifetime as a "jazz musician's jazz singer". A highly underrated singer who rarely received the recognition she richly deserved, perhaps the salient mark of her obscurity was the number of times even followers of the female jazz vocal scene would confuse her with a more popular singer, Etta James. Etta Jones is noted for her elegant interpretations of standards, ballads, and blues. Her characteristic inflections have sometimes prompted comparisons to stylistic devices employed by Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington.
|
|
|
Post by raliverpool on Jan 23, 2022 13:14:52 GMT 1
7 Etta James - All I Could Do Was Cry USA #33
The doo-wop/rhythm and blues R&B #2 single recorded in 1960, and released in March that year by the Los Angeles born singer. It was written for James by Chess songwriter Billy Davis, Berry Gordy and his sister Gwen Gordy.
Beyoncé Knowles covered the song while filming her role depicting James in the 2008 film, Cadillac Records.
|
|