fbpx

Posts

Posted on

Notes of Nostalgia 1962

Notes Of Nostalgia

By Dale

Back on memory lane looking back at what was a very different time for a lot of things and very interesting in the record industry and music in general. This year saw some big stars were just getting their careers going. Join with me now and let’s take a look at 1962

Top Thirty singles of 1962

  1. Stranger On The Shore by Acker Bilk
  2. I Can’t Stop Loving You by Ray Charles
  3. Mashed Potato Time by Dee Dee Sharp
  4. Roses Are Red (My Love) By Bobby Vinton
  5. The Stripper by David Rose and his Orchestra
  6. Johnny Angel by Shelley Fabares
  7. The Loco-Motion by Little Eva
  8. Let Me In by The Sensations
  9. The Twist by Chubby Checker
  10. Soldier Boy by The Shirelles
  11. Hey Baby by Bruce Channel
  12. The Wanderer by Dion
  13. Duke of Earl by Gene Chandler
  14. Palisades Park by Freddy Cannon
  15. Breaking Up Is Hard To Do by Neil Sedaka
  16. Wolverton Mountain by Claude King
  17. Slow Twistin by Chubby Checker and Dee Dee Sharp
  18. It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin by Johnny Tillitson
  19. The One Who Really Loves You by Mary Wells
  20. Good Luck Charm by Elvis Presley
  21. Rinky Dink by Dave “Baby” Cortez
  22. Green Onion by Booker T and the MG’s
  23. Peppermint Twist by Joey Dee and the Starlighters
  24. Sealed With a Kiss by Brian Hyland
  25. Young World by Ricky Nelson
  26. A Little Bitty Tear by Burl Ives
  27. Sherry by the Four Seasons
  28. Cindy’s Birthday by Johnny Crawford
  29. Venus In Blue Jeans by Jimmy Clanton
  30. Let’s Dance by Chris Montez

Top Ten Albums for 1962

  1. Blue Hawaii by Elvis Presley
  2. Breakfast At Tiffany’s by Henry Mancini
  3. West Side Story Soundtrack
  4. Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music by Ray Charles
  5. The First Family by Vaugn Meader
  6. Green Onions by Booker T and the MG’s
  7. Bob Dylan by Bob Dylan
  8. Howlin’ Wolf by Howlin Wolf
  9. Jazz Samba by Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd
  10. Tijuana Moods by Charlie Mingus

1962 in the music industry was interesting to say the least and here are a few highlights:

The Beatles auditioned at Decca Records in London as did Brian Poole and the Tremelos. Decca had the option of signing one group and you guessed it the Beatles were turned down mainly because the came from Liverpool and the others were Dagenham based, that of course was nearer London.

The first album on which The Beatles played, My Bonnie, was credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers. That album was produced by Bert Kaempfert and released on Polydor.

In January The Beatles singed Brian Epstein as their manager.

During the early part of the year Bob Dylan released his debut album featuring mostly folk standards. Then a recording was made of his concert at the Town Hall in New York City by Columbia Records and they later released Tomorrow Is A Long Time as a single from that concert. Almost immediately following that Dylan began the task of recording The Freewheelin. It was about that time that Robert Allen Zimmerman legally changed his name to Bob Dylan in the summer and then hired Albert Grossman as his manger. On September 22, 1962 Bob Dylan made is first appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York City as part of a Hootenanny. Back then a Hootenanny was primarily folk groups and singers.

The Beatles On June 6th of 1962 The Beatles played their first session at EMI’s Abbey Road Studio in London. In August they fired their drummer, Pete Best and replaced him with Ringo Starr. It was that same month they played their first live gig with John, Paul, George and Ringo, it was at Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight on the Wirral Peninsula. Later in the summer the Beatles recorded Love Me Do for Parlophone Records and the plan was to release it in October. October marked the Beatles first television appearance as a group, the show called People and Places.

Can you guess what the first song by a British group ever to reach the top spot on Billboards Top 100 list in the United States was? How about the group can you name them? Ok here is the answer the song was Telstar and the group was The Tornadoes. That song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 list in the US, at the same time it climbed to number one on the Belgian Charts, UK Charts, Irish Charts and South African Singles Charts. Telstar remained on the UK charts for 25 weeks and Five of those at number One. It was on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US for 16 weeks. Shortly after the success of Telstar, Aker Bilk had a chart topper in the US with Stranger On The Shore. Bilk was also British. Ironically both songs were instrumentals.

Peter, Paul and Mary’s debut album reached #1 on Billboards 200 album chart. The name of that album was simply Peter, Paul and Mary.

1962 was a huge year for Joan Baez as her first three albums were on the Billboard charts during 1962 and rapidly going toward Gold status.

In July that year, The Rolling Stones performed their first formal gig at London’s Marquee Club. They were the opening act for Long John Baldry. It is hard to believe that after all these years they are still super stars in this music industry.

During the year The Kingston Trio recorded one of Pete Seegers songs, “Where Have All The Flowers Gone and it reached #21 on Billboards chart. Peter, Paul and Mary recorded “If I Had A Hammer”, another of Seegers songs and it went up the charts to #10.

The hot dance craze in 1962 was the Mashed Potato.

Outside the music industry 1962 was the year the Navy Seals were established. Prior to the Seals being established the Navy had a group of trained specialists known as Frogmen.

Actress Marilyn Monroe died of an accidental overdose but the cause of death never was confirmed as such. Conspiracy theories still surface from time to time. Even this long after her passing she still is a collectible icon that is known to all.

1963 was the year that Britain and France signed an agreement to develop the Concorde supersonic airliner greatly reducing flying time.

The epic movie film “Lawrence of Arabia” premiered in 1962 in London. The cast included Peter O’ Toole, Omar Shariff, Alec Guiness, Jack Hawkins and Anthony Quinn.

US spacecraft Mariner II flew by Venus making it the first space probe to successfully transmit data from another planet.

Here are some stats about finances in 1962:


The average income was $5,556.00 per year

The average cost of a new house was $12,500.00

The average monthly rent was $110.00 per month

Eggs sold for $.32 per dozen

Gas per gallon was $.28

Average cost of a new car was $3,125.00

Tuition to Harvard University was $1,520.00

Post your memories of 1962 in the comments below!
Enjoy the memories-many more to come.

Dale
Dalescollectibles.com

Posted on

Notes Of Nostalgia 1969

Notes Of Nostalgia
By Dale

Where were you in 1969? I thought it might be fun to take a short trip down memory lane and talk about music and who was and what was in the record industry in 1969.

The top 20 singles for the entire year of 1969 according to Billboard Magazine were:

1.  Sugar Sugar – The Archies
2.  Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In – 5th Dimension
3.  I Can’t Get Next to You – The Temptations
4.  Honky Tonk Women – The Rolling Stones
5.  Everyday People – Sly and The Family Stone
6.  Dizzy – Tommy Roe
7.  Hot Fun in The Summertime – Sly and The Family Stone
8.  I’ll Never Fall in Love Again – Tom Jones
9.  Build Me Up Buttercup – The Foundations
10. Crimson and Clover – Tommy James and The Shondells
11. Hair – The Cowsills
12. Too Busy Thinking About My Baby – Marvin Gaye
13. Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet – Henry Mancini
14. Get Together – The Youngbloods
15. Grazing in The Grass -The Friends of Distinction
16. Suspicious Minds – Elvis Presley
17. Proud Mary – Creedence Clearwater Revival
18. What Does It Take to Win Your Love – Jr Walker and The All Stars
19. Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond
20. Jean – Oliver

A lot went on in and around the music industry in that year. Here are a few of the things that were interesting to me and may just be to you as well:

Altamont Concert 1969 Rolling StonesTwo of the now infamous musical events of that year were the Rolling Stones concert in December at Altamont, California where it was reported that the Stones had hired some of the Hells Angels as security for the event despite that this concert was best known for a lot of violence, including the stabbing death of Meredith Hunter by a member of the Hells Angels who was later acquitted of a murder charge as Hunter had a pistol, two more deaths by a hit and run and one more by LSD induced drowning in an irrigation canal. Many people were injured and a number of cars were stolen and then abandon, plus there was extensive property damage.

It was reported that 300,000 attended the concert to hear Santana, The Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Grateful Dead and The Rolling Stones. The Grateful Dead refused to play because of all the violence. Some people thought that this violence had signaled an end to the hippie movement of the sixties.

The other and even more famous event of 1969 was the Woodstock Festival set for August 15th through 17th but ran over into the 18th. . That festival is still considered one of the largest concerts in the history of the World. The promoters of the event had a permit for an attendance they thought would be near 50,000. Once it was all said and done it was estimated that the crowd was very close to 500,000.

Here is a list of the entertainers that performed during that huge four-day festival:

Richie Havens
Sweetwater
Bert Sommer
Tim Hardin
Ravi Shankar
Melanie
Arlo Guthrie
Joan Baez
Quill
Country Joe McDonald
Santana
John Sebastian
Keef Hartley Band
The Incredible String Band
Canned Heat
Mountain
Grateful Dead
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Janis Joplin with the Kozmic Blues Band
Sly and the Family Stone
The Who
Jefferson Airplane
Joe Cocker and the Grease Band
Country Joe and the Fish
Ten Years After
Blood Sweat and Tears
The Band
Johnny Winter
Cosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Sha Na Na
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Jimi Hendrix

At least 24 more acts were asked to be part of this festival but for what ever reason declined. The story has it that the promoters were having some difficulty signing any big names until in April of 1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival one of the hottest acts that year agreed to sign a contract for the four day event. They agreed to play for $10,000, once Creedence signed, everyone else seemed to get in line to come on board.

After location problems the festival promoters came to an agreement with Max Yasgur who owned a Dairy Farm near Bethel, New York. Billed as “An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music”, it was held at Max Yasgur’s 600-acre dairy farm near White Lake in Bethel, New York, 43 miles southwest of Woodstock. The promoters obtained a permit to hold the festival assuring the town that no more that 50,000 would show up. In the end this little festival drew near 500,000 people and will go down in history as a once in a lifetime event.

Some of the other events were:

David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” became a huge hit that year, being released at the time that our astronauts first landed on the moon.

Johnny Cash’s at San Quentin album included his top ten hit, “A Boy Named Sue” was a sequel released from his 1968 release of At Folsom Prison.

Creedence Clearwater Revival made their success rock solid following their number 11 single from 1968 of “Suzie Q”, they released their second, third and fourth studio album all in 1969. First came Bayou Country which gave them the US number 2 hit “Proud Mary”. In 1969 they had Proud Mary, Green River and Bad Moon Rising all of which were number two hits. They also had Down On The Corner and Fortunate Son that were number three hits

Elvis RecordsElvis Presley went back to live performances at the International Hotel in Las Vegas; he went on to break all attendance records in a 57-concert tour. He also had great success with In the Ghetto and Suspicious Minds that year. Suspicious Minds hit #1 in 1969.

Pete Best won his defamation lawsuit against The Beatles. He sought 8 million dollars but ended up settling for much less and about that same time Led Zeppelin released their debut album.

On January 30th of 1969 the Beatles performed for the last time in public on the roof of the Apple building in London. In February Eric Burdon and the Animals disbanded.

Jim Morrison of the Doors was arrested for allegedly exposing himself during a show at Miami’s Dinner Key Auditorium in March and the WHO released Pinball Wizard as a single and Paul and Linda McCartney were married in London. Also in March John Lennon and Yoko Ono were married in Gibraltar while George Harrison and wife Pattie were arrested in the UK on charges of hashish possession.

1969 also found The Beach Boys filing a lawsuit against their record label, Capital Records for over two million dollars in unpaid royalties and producer’s fees for Brian Wilson. Capitol then deleted most of its Beach Boys catalog putting a huge dent in the bands income.

The Who’s rock opera Tommy had its first complete performance in Dolton, Devon, UK and Chicago released their debut album, The Chicago Transit Authority.

Jimi Hendrix was arrested by Canadian Mounties at Toronto’s International Airport for possession of narcotics (heroin). He was released on $10,000 bail.

Sly & the Family Stone released their breakthrough album Stand. The album became one of the best selling albums of the decade and rocketed the group to being one of the most popular rock and soul acts at the time. The Who released their rock opera, Tommy.

In July, Brian Jones was found dead in the swimming pool at his home in Sussex, England, almost a month after leaving The Rolling Stones. The Stones proceeded with a free concert in Hyde Park, London as a tribute to Brian Jones and that was their first concert with guitarist Mick Taylor.

On August 9th of 1969 Charles Manson’s family as they were called murdered film star Sharon Tate and others in Tate’ Home.

Janis Joplin released “I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!” which was her first solo album since leaving Big Brother and the holding Company and just a couple of days later John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band perform at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival a 12 hour music festival featuring such notables as Eric Clapton, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Klaus Voormann, Bo Diddley, Alan White and up and coming Chicago.

Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra perform the Concerto for Group and Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in London and that was the first elaborate collaboration between a rock band and an orchestra.

The very next month saw the release of the final single by Diana Ross & The Supremes, “Someday We’ll Be Together” that went to number 1.

On November 7th that year The Rolling Stones opened their US tour in Fort Collins, Colorado.

In 1969 a reported 500,000 people marched on Washington, D.C. for peace, which was marked as the largest anti-war rally in US history. Some who attended Pete Seeger, Peter Paul and Mary, John Denver, Mitch Miller and Arlo Guthrie.

Billboard magazine changed its policy of charting the A and B sides of 45 singles on its pop chart this year. The original policy charted the two sides separately, but the new policy was to consider both sides as one chart entry. The Beatles were the first beneficiary of that policy as their current hit Come Together and Something garnered enough combined points to make the single a #1 pop hit. The same thing happened for Creedence Clearwater Revival with the 45 of Fortunate Son and Down On The Corner it gathered enough combined points to reach number 3.

Enjoy the memories—many more to come

Let me know in the comments what you remember most about 1969!

Dale
dalescollectibles.com

PS: Don’t forget to check out our selection of collectible Vinyl Albums and Singles! We add more every day!