the best songs ever

[Eric the Green]

The Animals' big #1 hit favorite. Music by Bob Dylan, organ by Alan Price, lead vocal Eric Burdon. Go ahead, click on it. It's there.

[Eric the Green]

Girl groups! This was my favorite girl group song,* and one of my first big favorites. By great songwriters Barry and Greenwich, and brilliant snappy arrangement. Well, it wasn't a big hit, but I don't really care what the People Say. It was de best!





The Dixie Cups and Co. did have a big hit just before this one though, and I love that one too, even though I've never been to the Chapel of Love. To me though, it was already an oldie but goodie.





*aside from Motown, of course.

[Eric the Green]

Chuck Berry, great co-creator of rock'n'roll, gave us what to my ears is his best song that Summer 1964. Well, I know, he did some great things before, but it goes to show You Never Can Tell. C'est la Vie.





All the recordings on you tube leave the piano part too soft, though.

[Eric the Green]

Speaking of girls, The Little Old Lady From Pasadena (and Jan and Dean) proved you're never too old to have fun fun fun in the California sun. Now, this was my first favorite song; so before this, for me it's all oldies but goodies or second hand smoke. The California surf sound was what I liked the best, at first. My first pop musical wave; my opening ride. Forget the rest, I thought; for a week or two anyway. But, there was lots more to discover back further in time-- even just beyond the event horizon, as well as further ahead. For now though, this is a REALLY smooth ride. It still amazes me. Go granny go granny go granny go! oooh woooooh!

[Eric the Green]

Back into the underground; underwater, pre-natal we go. Lots of you younger guys are already down there. But from the roots, come the flowers.

Like this monster folk-pop hit from late Spring early Summer 1964, We'll Sing in the Sunshine by Gale Garnett; at least it was already gone here by July in the SF area, and was listed as a national top song of the year back then. It's not on my list (at least not yet), but sometimes later favorites remind me of this song. Not necessarily the words, which many Gen Xers or conservative Christians might hate, but the tone of voice, evoking what's natural, flowing, and not clinging.





I think she directly influenced Sonny & Cher, who made two songs soon afterward that might be considered answer songs to Gale's, with the words and voice tone similar, but saying the opposite.

Baby Don't Go
Just You (a 1965 best songs pick of mine from a few pages back)

and these, for example:

Come Share the Good Times with Me Julie Monday, 1966 (a best songs ever pick of mine)
Someday Soon Judy Collins, 1969
Linda Ronstadt can be mentioned too.

[Eric the Green]

Beach Boys big hit, May-July 1964





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

It's hard for me to hear the lyrics when they go falsetto; so:

Round round get around
I get around
Yeah
Get around round round I get around
I get around
Get around round round I get around
From town to town
Get around round round I get around
I'm a real cool head
Get around round round I get around
I'm makin' real good bread

I'm gettin' bugged driving up and down the same old strip
I gotta find a new place where the kids are hip

My buddies and me are getting real well known
Yeah, the bad guys know us and they leave us alone

I get around
Get around round round I get around
From town to town
Get around round round I get around
I'm a real cool head
Get around round round I get around
I'm makin' real good bread
Get around round round I get around
I get around
Round
Get around round round oooo
Wah wa ooo
Wah wa ooo
Wah wa ooo

We always take my car cause it's never been beat
And we've never missed yet with the girls we meet

None of the guys go steady cause it wouldn't be right
To leave their best girl home on a Saturday night

I get around
Get around round round I get around
From town to town
Get around round round I get around
I'm a real cool head
Get around round round I get around
I'm makin' real good bread
Get around round round I get around
I get around
Round
Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah

Round round get around
I get around
Yeah
Get around round round I get around...........

[Eric the Green]

The great flip side of I Get Around, "Don't Worry Baby"





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Worry_Baby

[Eric the Green]

If you didn't like the lyrics to We'll Sing in the Sunshine, you'd like these better. A real heart-warming song about loyalty, and with music and performance most spectacular, as only Smokey Robinson, Mary Wells and Motown could do. I'm telling you from the start, I can't be torn apart from this song!





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

Interesting irony though; after this big hit, her man took Mary away from Motown, and it didn't work out happily!

[Eric the Green]

Early 1964-late 1963 is the Summer Solstice of the saeculum. It was also the biggest explosion ever of great pop music to come on the scene all at once; I would contend (especially in the USA). So, it will take a little while to get through all of my "best songs ever" picks from these 2 or 3 months. They aren't in the top parts of my list; it's just that there are so many in so little time. The national Top 40 hit parade was very, very crowded.

First of all, with this song released in Feb 1964, the Rolling Stones invaded the USA after hitting big in the UK, on the heels of The Beatles-- with this Buddy Holly song, Not Fade Away. And the music of this era will not fade away.





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_Fade_Away_(song)

The outstanding thing about this saeculum's Summer Solstice, which came right after JFK's assassination, is a level of consensus and agreement that would never exist again, both in politics (after his victory LBJ called it a uniquely-positive time), and in music. Notice how many of the songs posted in the 1964-65 period on this thread, by both me and by others, are both big hits (often #1) and favorites of mine and others. There was frequent agreement about which songs were the best, and many of the songs of these years remain standards forever. And almost everyone listened to the same music.

In 1966-67, music became a Rock Revolution, and reached its greatest heights of inspiration, but that meant getting ahead of some of the people. Later, as Top 40 radio declined, culture had been fragmented into special interests as never before by the time the 3T began. There were huge hits in the 70s and into the 80s, both singles and albums, but few that I would choose as best ever, and it's not likely you'd get as much agreement on those hits all across the culture and the population, and places where everyone listened to the same songs at once (or watched the same TV shows) were disappearing. The best music was found on the fringes where few people heard it. Nowadays, few would suggest that the songs that make it to the top of the charts are necessarily the best-- or any better than those which don't. Certainly, if a good proportion of those are rap, then we're not even talking music, but angry slam poetry with a beat, which many of us would not even consider listening to for more than a few seconds.

So, the Summer Solstice was a unique moment. Perhaps other moments, like the "era of good feelings," or the 1880s awakening ("la belle epoche"), had a similar feeling; I don't know. It would be great if we could just stay there. The Sun is shining bright, everything's all right, and people feel free and alive at a Summer Solstice. It's a time of awakening, and also of lingering stability and consensus. But, the cycle moves on, and we are always in the eternal moment. Each time seems to have its meaning and purpose, for every thing there is a season. We sing in the sunshine for one year, then we go away, and it's soon out of sight.

And after this explosion, we sink further back, (in my review; (I am posting in very close backwards chronological order) into the First Turning, when the streets were too dead for dreaming.

And jazz and musicals/movies must be considered the further we go back, along with pop, in eras which I have less knowledge about. I hope a few people can help fill us in, but I do have some clues. Before this millennial saeculum began, classical music was increasingly a part of the mix.

[Eric the Green]

I knew this one second hand very well; it was more popular at school than the Beatles' songs. I guess you could call it the little young lady from LA. It was Fun Fun Fun.

[Eric the Green]

The opening guitar riff of Fun Fun Fun is often compared to that of the contemporary Beatles' cover of Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven," showing how influential the rock pioneer was on both bands. But George and The Beatles certainly did the best version of this "classic." Chuck Berry even performed it with symphonies, including ours in San Jose (his birthplace, actually). Sweet irony, especially since (as maybe we'll see, if we ever get that far back) Beethoven rocks too!





well, how about a little preview!
https://youtu.be/VLkZvsp62iU

Roll over, George!

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

[Ragnarök_62]

     Legalize it, man.


Post about latest POTUS candidate jarred this stuff out.  





We also have Hotel California.  You can check out any time, but you can never leave.

[Eric the Green]

The ridiculous place I live in. There needs to be lower income housing available in the Bay Area, if we want real cities with real people here. We might as well put up a sign-- no vacancy, go away! It's not so much that you can't check out of Hotel California; it's that you can't check in. Unless you are a wealthy foreign investor, perhaps.

Not my favorite Eagles songs though; I posted my favorite one when I was reviewing the best songs ever from the 70s some pages back. But no doubt lots of folks would pick Hotel California. I could never credit it.

[Eric the Green]

Speaking of impossible situations, something we can always hope for! That the Times they'll be a-Changin' "And don't speak too soon, for the wheel's still in spin!" (the saeculum cycle, the planetary cycles, etc.). Prophet Bob stood up at the saecular Summer Solstice and forecast everything that was about to happen! And he even quotes that other great prophet, Jesus the Christ!





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_...%27_(song)

[Eric the Green]

Recorded and released in England in 1963, their first big hit, then released in America, and it didn't do anythin', and it was released later (right as Beatlemania hit), and it did something, you know! Something Pleasing.

Beatlemania!

My favorite early Beatles song





I love to sing this and Dancing in the Street karaoke!

Icons of the Summer Solstice of the Saeculum. You look at a picture of them, and you feel like they belong to all of us. John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammed Ali. And John Lennon. At his peak, with all these charismatic, uplifting melodies.

[Eric the Green]

She Loves You, yeah yeah yeah!





The wiki article notes "The electric instruments are mixed higher than before, especially McCartney's bass, adding to the sense of musical power that the record provides." Their 2nd biggest Beatlemania hit, it became a favorite of mine. The Beatles were famous for singing "yeah yeah yeah" ("the yeah yeahs"), but this was the main song they sang it on. And the woooos were charismatic too. It was their biggest hit in the UK. Their biggest hit overall, though, was the biggest of the decade, their breakout American hit (She Loves You was their 3rd #1 in Britain)-- I Want to Hold Your Hand. Their performance on the Ed Sullivan show broke ratings records and helped this song stay #1 for 7 weeks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_Loves_You
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Want_to_Hold_Your_Hand

It's powerful, uplifting melody that swept the young boomer girls away was matched and well-surpassed in my opinion by the B side to "Do You Want to Know A Secret," and was entitled "Thank You Girl."





But where's John's harmonica? It was added later:
https://youtu.be/j5qeu4V8V-o

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

I had my Beatlemania experience 6 months to a year or so after the bulk of my generation. But that's par for my course! Like my experience of the guy in my siggie.

[Eric the Green]

Beatlemania at its wildest is this cover of an Isley Brothers hit, in turn a cover of an earlier record.

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

According to the article, it kicked off Beatlemania in Britain in Oct. 1963. It became a US hit in March 1964, one of the five Beatles records to occupy the top 5 positions in the US national chart simultaneously in April. It was also performed on Ed Sullivan in February.

[Eric the Green]

I knew this hit from Jan-Feb 1964 when we went over to the beach-boardwalk in Santa Cruz 1964 and watched the kids have fun fun fun there. The guitar and organ riff is famous, and very cool I thought. Later it became the theme song for the beach-boardwalk itself, used in all their commercials. Maybe the song has helped raise the prices so that you have to be a multi-millionaire to move here now, as the video above relates. But I visited the boardwalk recently, and it's doing just fine with lots of young kids of all ethnicities that don't look like millionaires' kids to me. Not too many lusty teenagers dancing on the beach there now, though. Of course, there's lots of little old motels and hotels just up the street.





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

[Eric the Green]

The New Girl in School is about the hippest, swinginest teeeniebopper song imaginable; the epitome of 60s SoCal cool, which Jan and Dean and even today's young white guys (and maybe Latinos too? Someday? ) embody. Even sexier than Taramarie's or today's teeniebopper songs, even Party in the USA; at least from a guy's point of view. This was only a B-side, but it also made the charts; both sides making it during the saecular "Summer Solstice" that I am traversing.





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

Ironic and iconic, however, was the A-side (not a fave of mine), Dead Man's Curve, which told of a sting ray hot-rodder's dare-devil racing accident, perhaps on (I assumed) the famous Mulholland Drive, or probably Whitter at Sunset Blvd.; ironic because Jan Berry himself had an accident a few years later in his own sting ray sports car from which he barely recovered (near the alleged site of the "curve" on Whitter Blvd).
https://youtu.be/ukunx21UHCA

The lyrics (which I don't always pay close attention to) specifically mention Sunset Blvd.
http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/j/jan_d...curve.html

Brian Wilson was also involved in writing both songs, as was Roger Christian who co-wrote the Little Old Lady from Pasadena.

Dead Man's Curve/New Girl in School was released on the very same day as The Beatles performed on the Ed Sullivan show!

Think SoCal cool is out of style? Get a load of this guy:
Jackson Guthy

The first 8 songs on this good oldies playlist are car songs, mostly from this era.
https://youtu.be/oc6FmZCT0Zc?list=PLPd2Y...oaCWmEe8jU

Hey Little Cobra was a big hit by The Ripcords in this "Summer Solstice" period, and featured Bruce and Terry ("Summer Means Fun" posted earlier). Terry Melcher was Doris Day's son, and later producer for The Byrds.

[Eric the Green]

You Can't Do That!

reposted to recover from the copyright sharks!

Spring 1964, flip side of "Can't Buy Me Love" and featured on The Beatles Second Album in the USA.





another version:
https://youtu.be/0896vcCXnOg starts at 1:14

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can%27t_Do_That