the best songs ever

[Eric the Green]

Another song from the Fall of 1964 competed with Baby Love for #1, and on one station they were even almost tied. I was routing for the Supremes, of course, but this British invasion group started a trend which I celebrate on my web page: bewitched music. I got to like it better, and post it here now.

Here's what I wrote on my page:

"Bewitched Music entered rock'n'roll in the mid-1960s, just as the pagan and occult revival began in our culture. A SF Bay Area DJ of the time, "Morgan," noticed around Halloween 1964 that songs of a darker, ghostlier style had become popular. This was when a whole group of performers with mysterious-sounding names came on the scene simultaneously: The Zombies, The Searchers, The You Know Who Group, The Who, and The Guess Who. Then in 1965 came Them, and also the Yardbirds, the pioneering predecessor to Led Zeppelin, many of whose members were themselves occultists. The psychedelic years, 1966-67, produced many great examples of bewitched tunes, and I had already noticed the similarities among them. In 1966 I used Lee Mallory's "That's the Way it's gonna Be" as the basis for a spooky, home-made Halloween tape which I played for approaching trick-or-treaters. Since then, many other fine and rather obvious examples of Bewitched Music have appeared in rock."

This song was at the fount of this trend in rock music. It's called "She's Not There" by the Zombies.





https://youtu.be/CKBRc8zNQ30

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She%27s_Not_There

I don't think I need to post all the lyrics, but for years I mis-heard this line. You know, they're British and all...
"The way she acts and the color of her hair"

video comment:

This is one of those songs that just takes root in your brain and never goes away. I remember when it was a hit in 1964, and 51 years later, I sometimes find that I am singing it to myself as I walk down the street -- and I still know the lyrics. Oh yes, it is firmly implanted in my brain. I assume at some point, I will be lying in a nursing home, not quite sure who I am, unable to recognize visitors, but in some quiet moment, I will be singing this song to myself, and I will still be word perfect on the lyrics. It's a great song, but beware of it.

My comment: That's because it's bewitched! As I wrote on my webpage, "bewitched music casts a spell on you as you listen"

more typical comments on the video (the second one): (lol!)

LeoSlikk 3 months ago
This song is better than 99.5% of music these days.

Jason Desjardins 1 month ago
Hell yeah and I was born in 1997

idcaf 2 weeks ago
I was born in the wrong century!! CURSE YOU 21st century!!!

Jeff Zekas 2 weeks ago
Heard this song last night at LaVelle Vineyards, played by a local band... very cool... memories....

Daniel Muniz 2 days ago
The Zombies > The Beatles

John Walker 4 months ago
112 Bieber fans got lost (referring to the dislikes on the video)

Hilmi krzB 12 months ago
lol

[Eric the Green]

WatchMojo's picks for the top Bob Dylan songs
https://youtu.be/BG8y0rRYjEI

[Eric the Green]

Two more happy and upbeat British invasion goodies from the Fall of 1964:

Have I The Right by the Honeycombs
Do Wah Diddy Diddy by Manfred Mann

Cockney Red 2 years ago
everyone stamped their feet at the chorus,same as the dave clark five and glad all over.great memories as a kid,fantastic music was everywhere,in everyones house.the tv was never on and there were parties at someones house every weekend.

[Eric the Green]

Roy Orbison was one of the greatest singers ever. This was his last #1 hit, and it was a biggie. But it was also known for its guitar riff and pretty piano sounds, as well as it cool melody and pounding rhythm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh,_Pretty_Woman





The original Orbison song inspired the title for the 1990 feature film, Pretty Woman starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. The film featured the song, licensed from Orbison's publisher Acuff-Rose.

I also liked this imitation song by Bobby Goldsboro a lot: Little Things (Spring 1965)
https://youtu.be/rcJjuKiB0Dk

It was my favorite song by him. The girl singers add a neat touch.

[Eric the Green]

Crying is one of my picks, but it goes back to 1961 I believe. I'll listen to the others. Great singer.

wikipedia says: The song was released as a 45-rpm single by Monument Records in July 1961 and reached No. 1 on the United States Cashbox chart for a week on October 7, 1961, and peaking at No. 2 on the rival Billboard Hot 100. Despite not reaching the summit in the latter publication, Billboard ranked the record as the No. 4 song of 1961
Crying was a big hit!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crying_(Roy_Orbison_song)
I might try to find a video with a better speaker balance when we get to 1961.

Leah-- pretty good. vaguely remember.

The flip side of Crying was "Candy Man", also a hit, and the one written by Fred Neil (who did "The Dolphins," my #4 all-time, 1966).
The Crying wikisite also lists "Running Scared" and "Dream Baby, How Long Must I Dream" as his hit records that preceded and followed "Crying" I liked those too. An early favorite was "Only the Lonely."

[Eric the Green]

Considered one of the greatest Motown songs, Dancing in the Street was co-written by Marvin Gaye. DJ Morgan (whom I quoted on the Bewitched page) said "you hear it everywhere." It reached #2 on the US national charts in early Fall 1964. It was meant (according to several interviews with Martha Reeves that I heard) to encourage people who were going through a long hot summer of riots to be peaceful and dance instead. She considered it an honor to have participated in this song. Ironically, The Rolling Stones in 1968 made an answer song called "Street Fighting Man," using a few words from the Motown song, to celebrate the revolutions of that year. But the Mamas and Papas covered the song in 1966 and used it as theme music for love ins in 1967. Mike Jagger of the Rolling Stones later teamed up with David Bowie for a hit cover in 1985. Different folks have used the song for their own purposes, but clearly it's for getting together whether for peace [/i]or[/i] for rebellion.





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_in_the_Street

Like the other songs from Motown/Gordy that I heard at first, it took some time for me to appreciate this one, but it finally struck me as extraordinarily experiential immersion experience into what the words describe. It is perhaps the most elaborate, sensitive and expertly produced example of the Motown Sound, which is appropriate, considering its idealistic purpose to bring folks together in celebration. Martha Reeves gave the song its distinctive melodic shape with her vocal styling. It's a lot more than the usual song about lost love or romance. It's a landmark in music, and it's right up there on my list along with my favorite two Supremes songs.

Among other things, it's the most recognizable example of the mixolydian mode, because of the lower 7th tone.

[Eric the Green]

(08-06-2016, 02:50 AM)taramarie Wrote: I dread to think what a "love in" is....

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/love-in

It's certainly portrayed in the music, like a lot of the ones I've posted here from 1964-1967

[Eric the Green]

Be careful, Jose is coming, manana you're in trouble plenty!

[Eric the Green]

When I look back, I remember that this was the first 45 RPM single that I ever bought. My first album was All Summer Long. The Beach Boys were big! The keyboard riff on this neat song is great.

Will I ever grow up? Will Taramarie?





lyrics:

When I grow up to be a man
Will I dig the same things that turn me on as a kid?
Will I look back and say that I wish I hadn't done what I did?
Will I joke around and still dig those sounds
(Will I still joke around and still dig those sounds?)
When I grow up to be a man?

Will I look for the same things in a woman that I dig in a girl?
(Fourteen, fifteen)
Will I settle down fast or will I first wanna travel the world?
(Sixteen, seventeen)
Now I'm young and free but how will it be
(I'm young and free, how will it be?)
When I grow up to be a man?

Ooh, ooh, ooh
Will my kids be proud or think their old man is really a square?
(Eighteen, nineteen)
When they're out having fun yeah, will I still wanna have my share?
(Twenty, twenty-one)
Will I love my wife for the rest of my life
(Will I love my wife rest of my life)
When I grow up to be a man?

What will I be when I grow up to be a man?
(Twenty-two, twenty-three)
Won't last forever
(Twenty-four, twenty-five)
It's kind of sad
(Twenty-six, twenty-seven)
Won't last forever
(Twenty-eight, twenty-nine)
It's kind of sad
(Thirty, thirty-one)
Won't last forever
(Thirty-two)

Songwriters
WILSON, BRIAN DOUGLAS / LOVE, MIKE E.

Published by
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

posted comment:

The first 21 years seem like eternity. The next 21 years is establishing your life. The 3rd 21 years come and go faster than you can remember. If you're very lucky you go into your 4th 21 years which is where I'm at now ! I heard it when I was young and I'm telling young people now. Don't rush your life. Live for the moment. Because when you reach the later years and look back it just seems like a short time since you were waiting on that 1st 21 ! Love, enjoy and respect your life and others and it will be a good life !
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_I_Gro..._Be_a_Man)

[Eric the Green]

As I go backwards in my posts of the best songs ever, I come to what I call the first generation; the songs which we on the radio when I first tuned in on a regular basis to a rock n roll station in July 1964. Before this I call "pre-natal" (oldies but goodies) that I may have heard playing somewhere, or heard on the weekends when the station played the "oldies but goodies." I probably heard this one the first night. I've come to appreciate it more and more as one of the Motown greats, and has become my favorite by the 4 Tops. The songwriting team of Brian and Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier were amazing in the number of songs they wrote for the Supremes, the 4 Tops, the Temptations and other groups, together with the top-flight group of over a dozen musicians and arrangers (called the Funk Brothers, I have learned) who made the Motown Sound. "Baby I Need Your Lovin' " also helped inspire the Righteous Brothers' mega hit "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"





"Simply put it's one of the greatest songs ever written and performed. It was released in the fall of 1964 and composed by Holland Dozier Holland, and was the Four Tops first hit. It reached No.11 on the billboard charts and has now passed into folklore as classic definitive motown. Masterfully led by the great Levi Stubbs and atmospherically backed by Fakir, Payton and Benson." unquote the uploader of this video:
https://youtu.be/joqjBAJx4ZA

When I started listening, "Where Did Our Love Go" by The Supremes had just become #1. I believe the first song I heard was "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters.

[Eric the Green]

The best of the Summer of 1964 was "A Hard Day's Night;" The Beatles' first movie, and the great "award-winning" music from it. At least for now, the movie clips are allowed on you tube and the actual recordings are heard in the videos (although the final guitar riff is not heard).





When I first heard them on their second visit to the Ed Sullivan show (Feb 1964), I thought, "just like any other rock n roll group." But after a while I decided I needed to tune in to what's going on and see what all the fuss was about (just like I later checked out Justin Bieber). When I did, 6 months later, this title song, it's flip side, and the other songs from the album were on the radio. Before long, I was a big fan, and this song and its flip side were my favorites. A Hard Day's Night brought the whole phenomenon of the music and the Beatlemania scene to life for me, and I saw the movie too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hard_Day...ght_(song)

"The American and British singles of "A Hard Day's Night" as well as both the American and British albums of the same title all held the top position in their respective charts for a couple of weeks in August 1964, the first time any artist had accomplished this feat."

[Eric the Green]

Before I replaced it with Baby Love, the flip side of A Hard Day's Night was my all time favorite, because of its really exhuberant and grand melody and John's harmonica. It's super catchy. According to wikipedia, this song was the flip side in America, while in the UK it was "Things We Said Today" which I posted above and came out on the Something New album, not the movie soundtrack. Well, in the UK, they "should have known better"





And I love Her

If I Fell (not the soundtrack version)
https://youtu.be/IN2u8c3DFRg?t=32m19s soundtrack version

[Ragnarök_62]

It's been a while.   Soo.. Let's have some W.A.S.P  









Here's to all the neoCONS out there, man.  

[Ragnarök_62]

Oh, how awesome, the spirit of the big 80's.

lyrics Wrote:id It For The Money"

Down on the corner, walkin' the streets.
She smiles for ev'ryone she meets.
He's not a man, no, he's just another trick.
She'd do it all just to get that fix.
Did you do it for love?
Did you do it in the name of love?
No, it ain't love she's gonna find.
She's got just one thing on her mind:

Money. She did, she did it for the money.
All in the name of money.
All for the dirty green.

Cold in the city with the traffic slow.
He's got nobody, no place to call home.
Takin' hard earned money from a poor, helpless soul.
Didn't do it for love.
Didn't do it in the name of love.
No, it ain't love he's out to find.
He's got just one thing on his mind:

Money. He did, he did it for the money.
All in the name of money.
All for the dirty green.

[Bridge]
And the young girl, she gets down on her knees, she's there to please.
She wants her money.
And then the young man says, "Now, put your hands in the air.
Give me what I want, Give me what I need. Now don't you see?
All I want, all I want, all I want is your money, yeah. Give it to me!"

He's got the money, left the scene of the crime.
Not a clue would he leave behind.
One's bad misfortune make for another's eats.
And now the young girl's trick's his treat.

Money. He did, he did it for the money.
All in the name of money.
All for the dirty green.
For the money. He did it, did it for the money.
All in the name of money.
All for the dirty green.

[Ragnarök_62]

Ooohhh,  ohhhh.   I have a present for Odin.  

Here's Tesla, no not that money losing electric care company, but another awesome band from the 1980's still jamming into the 4T.

So again,   here's to Odin, in Minnesota.  Rock out, man.

[Eric the Green]

Of course, there is the other thread you can post this "stuff" on....... you know, the lost years......, the 80s thread....

[Eric the Green]

Well, I guess I'd better post something else to keep us on course...... let's see, Summer 1964..... I'm not afraid of you guys.... let's go surfin'

[Eric the Green]

Get on board and ride!
Rags, you want us to ride a Tesla for an hour and a half? OK, but there's nothing like riding with a girl on a Honda!





Jack roper1 month ago
Summer Time 1964 with the Beach Boys. I lived it. Corvettes, Hotrods, surfing, girls, Hot weather, and the beach. malt shops, drag racing, The Endless Summer---West coast cruising with friends in our hot rods in northern Calif. there will never be a time in American history like that again. it was California Dreaming. having a crush on a girl.

[Eric the Green]

Summer Means Fun!!!

Bruce Johnston and Terry Melcher. Also performed with the Beach Boys, and became record producers in Hollywood.

[Eric the Green]

I'm goin' surfin'!