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is an American rock band known predominantly for their extended rock arrangements of contemporary hit songs, most notably “You Keep Me Hangin’ On”.

The band’s original lineup—vocalist and organist Mark Stein, bassist and vocalist Tim Bogert, lead guitarist/vocalist Vince Martell, and drummer and vocalist Carmine Appice—recorded five albums during the years 1967–69, before disbanding in 1970. The band is currently touring with three of the four original members, Mark Stein, Vince Martell, and Carmine Appice with Pete Bremy on bass as Bogert retired in 2009.

The band has been cited as “one of the few American links between psychedelia and what soon became heavy metal.”

Stein and Bogert had played in a local band called Rick Martin & The Showmen. The pair were so impressed by the swinging sound and floods of organ of The Rascals they decided to form their own band in 1965 with Martell and Rick Martin’s drummer, Mark Dolfen, who was quickly replaced by Joey Brennan. Originally calling themselves The Electric Pigeons, they soon shortened the name to The Pigeons. In December 1966 Brennan moved on to The Younger Brothers Band and Bogert became very impressed with a young drummer named Carmine Appice he’d heard playing at the Headliner Club on 43rd Street in a cover band called Thursday’s Children. Appice was asked to join The Pigeons and in his 2016 autobiography, Stick It!, Carmine explained the name change to “Vanilla Fudge”: “In April 1967 the Pigeons got signed to Atlantic Records. But there was one drawback, however: Atlantic didn’t want to sign “The Pigeons”. Ahmet Ertegun, the label’s founder and president, didn’t like that name and told us we had to change it. We didn’t mind, in fact, I had always thought the Pigeons was a weird thing to be called but had just gone with it. We tried to think up a new name but were getting nowhere until we played a gig at the Page 2 club on Long Island and ended up talking to a chick named Dee Dee who worked there. She told us how her grandfather used to call her Vanilla Fudge. Then she looked at us and added ‘Maybe you guys should call yourselves that—you’re like white soul music’. We liked it. We told our manager, Phil Basile. He liked it. We told Atlantic and they liked it, too. So Vanilla Fudge it was”. A recording of the Pigeons was released by Scepter/Wand in 1970 under the title of “While the World was Eating Vanilla Fudge.”

Vanilla Fudge was managed by the aforementioned reputed Lucchese crime family member Phillip Basile, who operated several popular clubs in New York. Their first three albums (Vanilla Fudge, The Beat Goes On, and Renaissance) were produced by Shadow Morton, whom the band met through The Rascals. When Led Zeppelin first toured the USA in early 1969, they opened for Vanilla Fudge on some shows.

The band’s biggest hit was its cover of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” a slowed-down, hard rocking version of a song originally recorded by The Supremes. This version featured Stein’s psychedelic-baroque organ intro and Appice’s energetic drumming. It was a Top 10 hit in Canada, the US, and Australia and a Top 20 hit in the UK in 1967.

The members of Vanilla Fudge were great admirers of the Beatles, and covered several of their songs including “Ticket to Ride” and “Eleanor Rigby.” The self-titled debut album quotes “Strawberry Fields Forever” at the end, with the line “there’s nothing to get hung abou

Spencer Davis Group

are a British rock band formed in Birmingham in 1963, by Spencer Davis with Steve Winwood and his brother, Muff Winwood. Their best known songs include the UK number ones “Somebody Help Me” and “Keep on Running” (both written by reggae musician Jackie Edwards), “I’m a Man” and “Gimme Some Lovin'”, which reached #2 in the UK and #7 in the US.

Steve Winwood left in 1967 to form Traffic before joining Blind Faith, then forging a career as a solo artist. After releasing a few more singles, the band ceased activity in 1968. They briefly reunited from 1973 to 1974 and Davis restarted a new group in 2006.

The Spencer Davis Group was formed in 1963 in Birmingham when Welsh guitarist Spencer Davis recruited vocalist and organist Steve Winwood, and his bass playing brother, Muff Winwood. The group was completed with Pete York on drums. Originally called the Rhythm and Blues Quartette, the band performed regularly in the city. In 1964 they signed their first recording contract after Chris Blackwell of Island Records saw them at an appearance in a local club; Blackwell also became their producer. (Island was at that time a small label, so Blackwell got them on UK Fontana for distribution.) Muff Winwood came up with the band’s name, reasoning “Spencer was the only one who enjoyed doing interviews, so I pointed out that if we called it the Spencer Davis Group, the rest of us could stay in bed and let him do them.”

Breakthrough success

The group’s first professional recording was a cover version of “Dimples”; at the end of 1965 they gained their first number one single with “Keep On Running”. In 1966, they followed this with “Somebody Help Me” and “When I Come Home”. They had one single issued in the US on Fontana, as well as “Keep On Running” and “Somebody Help Me” on Atco, but due to lack of promotion, none of these 3 singles got airplay or charted.

For the German market the group released a medley of “Det war in Schöneberg, im Monat Mai” and “Mädel ruck ruck ruck an meine grüne Seite” (the first is from a 1913 Berlin operetta, the second is a Swabian traditional) as a tribute single for that audience, Davis having studied in West Berlin in the early 1960s.

By the end of 1966 and the beginning of 1967, the group released two more hits, “Gimme Some Lovin'” and “I’m a Man”. Both of them sold over one million copies, and were awarded gold record status. These tracks proved to be their two best-known successes, especially in the U.S. (where they had signed to United Artists). Jimmy Miller was their producer.

In 1966 the group starred in The Ghost Goes Gear, a British musical comedy film, directed by Hugh Gladwish, and also starring Sheila White and Nicholas Parsons. The plot involved the group in a stay at the childhood home of their manager, a haunted manor house in the English countryside

The Hollies

are an English pop/rock group best known for their pioneering and distinctive three-part vocal harmony style. The Hollies became one of the leading British groups of the 1960s (231 weeks on the UK singles charts during the 1960s, the 9th highest of any artist of the decade) and into the mid 1970s. It was formed by Allan Clarke and Graham Nash in 1962 as a Merseybeat-type music group in Manchester, although some of the band members came from towns north of there. Graham Nash left the group in 1968 to form the supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash.

They enjoyed considerable popularity in many countries (at least 60 singles or EPs and 26 albums charting somewhere in the world, spanning over five decades), although they did not achieve major US chart success until 1966 with “Bus Stop”. The Hollies had over 30 charting singles on the UK Singles Chart, and 22 on the Billboard Hot 100, with major hits on both sides of the Atlantic that included “Just One Look”, “Look Through Any Window”, “I Can’t Let Go”, “Bus Stop”, “Stop Stop Stop”, “On a Carousel”, “Carrie Anne”, “Jennifer Eccles”, and later “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”, “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress”, and “The Air That I Breathe”.

They are one of the few British groups of the early 1960s, along with the Rolling Stones, that have never disbanded and continue to record and perform. In recognition of their achievements, the Hollies were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.

The Band

was a Canadian-American roots rock group formed in Toronto, Ontario in 1968 by Rick Danko (bass guitar, vocals), Garth Hudson (keyboards, saxophone), Richard Manuel (keyboards, vocals), Robbie Robertson (guitar, vocals), and Levon Helm (drums, vocals). The members of The Band first came together as rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins’s backing group, the Hawks, which they joined one by one between 1958 and 1963.

In 1964, they separated from Hawkins, after which they toured and released a few singles as Levon and the Hawks and the Canadian Squires. The next year, Bob Dylan hired them for his U.S. tour in 1965 and world tour in 1966. Following the 1966 tour, the group moved with Dylan to Saugerties, New York, where they made the informal 1967 recordings that became The Basement Tapes, the basis for their 1968 debut album, Music from Big Pink. Because they were always “the band” to various frontmen, Helm said the name “The Band” worked well when the group came into its own. The group began performing as The Band in 1968 and went on to release ten studio albums. Dylan continued to collaborate with The Band over the course of their career, including a joint 1974 tour.

The original configuration of The Band ended its touring career in 1976 with an elaborate live ballroom performance featuring numerous musical celebrities. This performance was filmed for Martin Scorsese’s 1978 documentary The Last Waltz. The Band resumed touring in 1983 without guitarist Robertson, who had found success with a solo career and as a Hollywood music producer. Following a 1986 show, Manuel committed suicide. The remaining three members continued to tour and record albums with a succession of musicians filling Manuel’s and Robertson’s roles; the final configuration of the group included Richard Bell (piano), Randy Ciarlante (drums), and Jim Weider (guitar). Danko died of heart failure in 1999, after which the group broke up for good. Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1998 and was unable to sing for several years, but he eventually regained the use of his voice. He continued to perform and released several successful albums until he died in 2012.

The group was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Traffic

were an English rock band, formed in Birmingham. The group was formed in April 1967 by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason. They began as a psychedelic rock group and diversified their sound through the use of instruments such as keyboards like the Mellotron and harpsichord, sitar, and various reed instruments, and by incorporating jazz and improvisational techniques in their music.^2] Their first three singles were “Paper Sun”, “Hole in My Shoe”, and “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”.

After disbanding in 1969, during which time Winwood joined Blind Faith, Traffic reunited in 1970 to release the critically acclaimed album John Barleycorn Must Die. The band’s line-up varied from this point until they disbanded again in 1974. A partial reunion, with Winwood and Capaldi, took place in 1994.

Traffic were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

Petula Clark

is an English singer, actress and composer whose career spans seven decades.

Clark’s professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II. During the 1950s she started recording in French and having international success in both French and English, with such songs as “The Little Shoemaker”, “Baby Lover”, “With All My Heart” and “Prends Mon Cœur”. During the 1960s, she became known globally for her popular upbeat hits, including “Downtown”, “I Know a Place”, “My Love”, “A Sign of the Times”, “I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love”, “Colour My World”, “This Is My Song” and “Don’t Sleep in the Subway”, and she was dubbed “the First Lady of the British Invasion”. She has sold more than 68 million records.

The Animals

are an English rhythm and blues and rock band, formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in the early 1960s. The band moved to London upon finding fame in 1964. The Animals were known for their gritty, bluesy sound and deep-voiced frontman Eric Burdon, as exemplified by their signature song and transatlantic No. 1 hit single, “House of the Rising Sun”, as well as by hits such as “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”, “It’s My Life”, “I’m Crying” and “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”. The band balanced tough, rock-edged pop singles against rhythm and blues-orientated album material. They were known in the US as part of the British Invasion.

The Animals underwent numerous personnel changes in the mid-1960s and suffered from poor business management. Under the name Eric Burdon and the Animals, the much-changed act moved to California and achieved commercial success as a psychedelic and hard rock band with hits like “San Franciscan Nights”, “When I Was Young” and “Sky Pilot”, before disbanding at the end of the decade. Altogether, the group had ten Top Twenty hits in both the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100.

The original lineup of Burdon, Alan Price, Chas Chandler, Hilton Valentine and John Steel reunited for a one off benefit concert in their home city of Newcastle in 1968. They later had brief comebacks in 1975 and 1983. There have been several partial regroupings of the original era members since then under various names. The Animals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

The Byrds

were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole consistent member, until the group disbanded in 1973. Although they only managed to attain the huge commercial success of contemporaries like the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Rolling Stones for a short period in the mid-60s, the Byrds are today considered by critics to be one of the most influential bands of the 1960s. Their signature blend of clear harmony singing and McGuinn’s jangly twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar was immediately absorbed into the vocabulary of popular music and has continued to be influential up to the present day.

Initially, the band pioneered the musical genre of folk rock on their album Mr. Tambourine Man (1965), by melding the influence of the Beatles and other British Invasion bands with contemporary and traditional folk music. As the 1960s progressed, the band was influential in originating psychedelic rock and raga rock, with their song “Eight Miles High” and the albums Fifth Dimension (1966), Younger Than Yesterday (1967) and The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1968). They also played a pioneering role in the development of country rock, with the album Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968) representing their fullest immersion into the genre.

The original five-piece lineup of the Byrds consisted of Jim McGuinn (lead guitar, vocals), Gene Clark (tambourine, vocals), David Crosby (rhythm guitar, vocals), Chris Hillman (bass guitar, vocals), and Michael Clarke (drums). However, this version of the band was relatively short-lived and by early 1966, Clark had left due to problems associated with anxiety and his increasing isolation within the group. The Byrds continued as a quartet until late 1967, when Crosby and Clarke also departed the band. McGuinn and Hillman decided to recruit new members, including country rock pioneer Gram Parsons, but by late 1968, Hillman and Parsons had also exited the band. McGuinn elected to rebuild the band’s membership and, between 1968 and 1973, he helmed a new incarnation of the Byrds, featuring guitarist Clarence White among others. McGuinn disbanded the then current lineup in early 1973, to make way for a reunion of the original quintet. The Byrds’ final album was released in March 1973, with the reunited group disbanding soon afterwards.

Several former members of the band went on to successful careers of their own, either as solo artists or as members of such groups as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the Flying Burrito Brothers and the Desert Rose Band. In the late 1980s, Gene and Michael both began touring as the Byrds, prompting a legal challenge from McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman over the rights to the band’s name. As a result of this, McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman performed a series of reunion concerts as the Byrds in 1989 and 1990, and also recorded four new Byrds’ songs. In 1991, the Byrds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an occasion that saw the five original members performing together for the last time. Gene Clark died of a heart attack later that year, while Michael Clarke died of liver failure in 1993. McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman remain active.

Dusty Springfield

as an English pop singer and record producer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s. With her distinctive sensual mezzo-soprano sound, she was an important blue-eyed soul singer and at her peak was one of the most successful British female performers, with six top 20 singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 and sixteen on the UK Singles Chart from 1963 to 1989. She is a member of the US Rock and Roll and UK Music Halls of Fame. International polls have named Springfield among the best female rock artists of all time. Her image, supported by a peroxide blonde bouffant hairstyle, evening gowns, and heavy make-up, as well as her flamboyant performances made her an icon of the Swinging Sixties.

Born in West Hampstead to a family that enjoyed music, Springfield learned to sing at home. In 1958 she joined her first professional group, The Lana Sisters, and two years later formed a pop-folk vocal trio, The Springfields, with her brother Tom Springfield and Tim Field. They became the UK’s top selling act. Her solo career began in 1963 with the upbeat pop hit, “I Only Want to Be with You”. Among the hits that followed were “Wishin’ and Hopin’ ” (1964), “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself” (1964), “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” (1966), and “Son of a Preacher Man” (1968).

As a fan of US soul music, she brought many little-known soul singers to the attention of a wider UK record-buying audience by hosting the first national TV performance of many top-selling Motown artists beginning in 1965. Partly owing to these efforts, a year later she eventually became the best-selling female singer in the world and topped a number of popularity polls, including Melody Maker‘s Best International Vocalist. Although she was never considered a Northern Soul artist in her own right, her efforts contributed a great deal to the formation of the genre as a result. She was the first UK singer to top the New Musical Express readers’ poll for Female Singer.

To boost her credibility as a soul artist, Springfield went to Memphis, Tennessee, to record Dusty in Memphis, an album of pop and soul music with the Atlantic Records main production team. Released in 1969, it has been ranked among the greatest albums of all time by the US magazine Rolling Stone and in polls by VH1 artists, New Musical Express readers, and Channel 4 viewers. The album was also awarded a spot in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Despite its current recognition, the album did not sell well and after its release, Springfield experienced a career slump for several years. However, in collaboration with Pet Shop Boys, she returned to the Top 10 of the UK and US charts in 1987 with “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” Two years later, she had two other UK hits on her own with “Nothing Has Been Proved” and “In Private.” Subsequently, in the mid-1990s, owing to the inclusion of “Son of a Preacher Man” on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, interest in her early output was revived.

Gary Lewis and the Playboys

were an American 1960s era pop and rock group, fronted by musician Gary Lewis, the son of comedian Jerry Lewis. They are best known for their 1965 Billboard Hot 100 number-one single “This Diamond Ring”, which was the first of a string of hit singles they had in 1965 and 1966. The band had an earnest, boy-next-door image similar to British invasion contemporaries such as Herman’s Hermits and Gerry and the Pacemakers. The group folded in 1970, but a version of the band later resumed touring and continues to tour, often playing for veterans’ benefits.

he group began life as Gary & the Playboys. Gary Lewis started the band with four friends of his when he was 18. Joking at the lateness of his bandmates to practice, Lewis referred to them as “playboys”, and the name stuck.

They auditioned for a job at Disneyland, without telling Disneyland employees about Lewis’ celebrity father. They were hired on the spot, audiences at Disneyland quickly accepted them, and the Playboys were soon playing to a full house every night.

The orchestra bandleader Les Brown, who had known Jerry Lewis for years, had told record producer Snuff Garrett that the younger Lewis was playing at Disneyland. After listening to the band, Garrett thought using Gary’s famous name might sell more records, and convinced them to add “Lewis” into their name.

Garrett brought them to a recording studio with the song “This Diamond Ring” in a session financed by Jerry Lewis’ wife Patti. It has been reported that The Playboys were not allowed to play their own instruments in the studio, but Lewis has since denied this. Garrett wanted to maximize the chances for a hit, so he insisted on using experienced session musicians for the overdubs, which included guitar and keyboard solos, additional bass and drum overdubs, and timpani.

These musicians included Mike Deasy and Tommy Allsup on guitars, Leon Russell on keyboards, Joe Osborn on bass, and Hal Blaine on drums, members of the larger group known as The Wrecking Crew. Session singer Ron Hicklin did the basic vocal track. Garrett then added Lewis’s voice twice, added some of the Playboys and more of Hicklin. “When I got through, he sounded like Mario Lanza”, Garrett commented.

Garrett got airplay in New York City for “This Diamond Ring” by making a deal with WINS disc jockey “Murray the K” Kaufman, who ran a series of all-star concerts at theaters around the New York area, promising that if he played Lewis’ record, the Playboys would do his shows. Garrett then had Jerry Lewis use his contacts to get his son onto The Ed Sullivan Show.

However, Sullivan had a general policy that all acts appearing on his show were to perform live. Since so many studio tricks had been used on the record, the Playboys could not recreate its sound. In compromise, Lewis sang along with pre-recorded tracks as the Playboys pretended to play their instruments.

The January 1965 broadcast made Gary Lewis and the Playboys instant stars. “This Diamond Ring” went to No. 1, sold over one million copies by April 1965, and became a gold disc. However, by the end of 1965 only West and Lewis remained in the band. Other later band members included Tommy Tripplehorn (father of actress Jeanne Tripplehorn), Carl Radle (died 1980), Jimmy Karstein, Randy Ruff, Pete Vrains, Bob Simpson, Adolph Zeugner, Les John, Wayne Bruno, and Dave Gonzalez.

The group was one of only two acts during the 1960s whose first seven releases on the Billboard Hot 100 reached that chart’s top 10 (The Lovin’ Spoonful was the other). The singles were “This Diamond Ring” (No. 1), “Count Me In” (the only non-British Commonwealth record in the Hot 100’s Top 10 on May 8, 1965, at No. 2), “Save Your Heart for Me” (No. 2), “Everybody Loves a Clown” (No. 4), “She’s Just My Style” (No. 3), “Sure Gonna Miss Her” (No. 9), and “Green Grass” (No. 8). Lewis was drafted into the U.S. Army in January 1967, with previously made recordings continuing to reach the Hot 100 but with decreasing success.

On his 1968 discharge Lewis immediately returned to recording, reaching the top 40 one last time with a top 20 remake of Brian Hyland’s “Sealed With A Kiss”, but unable to regain his group’s earlier momentum. Lewis continued touring, eventually marketing the band as a nostalgia act. He also appeared and performed on many of his father’s Labor Day telethons for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

In all, Lewis had eight gold singles, twelve Top 40 hit singles (but only fifteen Hot 100 entries (U.S.)), and four gold albums. In addition to The Ed Sullivan Show, he appeared on American Bandstand, Shindig!, Hullabaloo, The Sally Jessy Raphaël show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Mike Douglas Show, Nashville Now and Wolfman Jack. Despite the group’s US success, they made virtually no impact at all in the UK; their only UK Singles Chart appearance occurred in 1975, when a reissue of 1966’s “My Heart’s Symphony” peaked at No. 36. Nevertheless, at a time when British groups were dominating the American music scene, Gary Lewis & the Playboys was one of the few successful 1960s homegrown groups.

The post Music of the Sixties (Part 3) appeared first on The History of Rock and Roll Radio Show.

is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and recorded in October 1963, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track equipment.

With advance orders exceeding one million copies in the United Kingdom, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” would have gone straight to the top of the British record charts on its day of release (29 November 1963) had it not been blocked by the group’s first million seller “She Loves You”, their previous UK single, which was having a resurgence of popularity following intense media coverage of the group. Taking two weeks to dislodge its predecessor, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” stayed at number 1 for five weeks and remained in the UK top 50 for 21 weeks in total.

It was also the group’s first American number 1 hit, entering the Billboard Hot 100 chart on 18 January 1964 at number 45 and starting the British invasion of the American music industry. By 1 February it topped the Hot 100, and stayed there for seven weeks before being replaced by “She Loves You”. It remained on the Billboard chart for 15 weeks.^[5] “I Want to Hold Your Hand” became the Beatles’ best-selling single worldwide. In 2013, Billboard magazine named it the 44th biggest hit of “all-time” on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jenWdylTtzs[/embedyt]

My Guy: Mary Wells

is a 1964 hit single recorded by Mary Wells for the Motown label. Written and produced by Smokey Robinson of The Miracles, the song is a woman’s dedication to the goodness of her man (“There’s not a man today who could take me away from my guy”).

At the session for the “My Guy” backing track the studio musicians were having issues completing the intro: with the musicians having been playing all day and a half-hour scheduled studio time left, trombonist George Bohanon pointed out to keyboardist Earl Van Dyke that the opening measure of “Canadian Sunset” could be perfectly juxtaposed on the intro’s chord changes, and Van Dyke, the session bandleader, expediently constructed an intro incorporating the opening of “Canadian Sunset” and also the “left hand notes” from “Canadian Sunset” composer Eddie Heywood’s rendition of “Begin the Beguine”. Van Dyke would recall: “We were doing anything to get the hell out of that studio. We knew that the producers didn’t know nothing ’bout no ‘Canadian Sunset’ or ‘Begin the Beguine’. We figured the song would wind up in the trash can anyway”.

When Wells recorded her vocal she sang over the song’s outro with a huskiness evoking the line delivery of Mae West: Wells would recall: “I was only joking but the producers said ‘Keep it going, keep it going’.”

“My Guy” became the biggest hit ever for Wells, Motown’s first female star, and reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart on 16 May 1964. The song led the Cashbox magazine R&B chart for seven weeks. “My Guy” was also Wells’ last hit single for Motown, except for duets she recorded with label mate Marvin Gaye. An option in her recording contract let Wells terminate the contract at her discretion after she reached her twenty-first birthday on May 13, 1964. Encouraged by her ex-husband, Wells broke her Motown contract and signed with 20th Century Fox in hopes of higher royalties and possible movie roles. However, Wells’ career never again reached the heights it had at Motown, and she never again had a hit single as big as “My Guy”.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1M5eEJeT38[/embedyt]

The House of the Rising Sun: The Animals

Is a traditional folk song, sometimes called “Rising Sun Blues“. It tells of a life gone wrong in New Orleans; many versions also urge a sibling to avoid the same fate. The most successful commercial version, recorded in 1964 by British rock group the Animals, was a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart and also in the United States and France. As a traditional folk song recorded by an electric rock band, it has been described as the “first folk rock hit.

The Animals’ version

An interview with Eric Burdon revealed that he first heard the song in a club in Newcastle, England, where it was sung by the Northumbrian folk singer Johnny Handle. The Animals were on tour with Chuck Berry and chose it because they wanted something distinctive to sing.

The Animals’ version transposes the narrative of the song from the point of view of a woman led into a life of degradation to that of a man whose father was now a gambler and drunkard, rather than the sweetheart in earlier versions.

The Animals had begun featuring their arrangement of “House of the Rising Sun” during a joint concert tour with Chuck Berry, using it as their closing number to differentiate themselves from acts that always closed with straight rockers. It got a tremendous reaction from the audience, convincing initially reluctant producer Mickie Most that it had hit potential, and between tour stops the group went to a small recording studio on Kingsway in London to capture it.

Recording and releases

The song was recorded in just one take on May 18, 1964, and it starts with a now-famous electric guitar A minor chord arpeggio by Hilton Valentine. According to Valentine, he simply took Dylan’s chord sequence and played it as an arpeggio. The performance takes off with Burdon’s lead vocal, which has been variously described as “howling,” “soulful,” and as “…deep and gravelly as the north-east English coal town of Newcastle that spawned him.” Finally, Alan Price’s pulsating organ part (played on a Vox Continental) completes the sound. Burdon later said, “We were looking for a song that would grab people’s attention.”

As recorded, “House of the Rising Sun” ran four and a half minutes, regarded as far too long for a pop single at the time. Producer Most, who initially did not really want to record the song at all, said that on this occasion: “Everything was in the right place … It only took 15 minutes to make so I can’t take much credit for the production”. He was nonetheless now a believer and declared it a single at its full length, saying “We’re in a microgroove world now, we will release it.”

In the United States however, the original single (MGM 13264) was a 2:58 version. The MGM Golden Circle reissue (KGC 179) featured the unedited 4:29 version, although the record label gives the edited playing time of 2:58. The edited version was included on the group’s 1964 U.S. debut album The Animals, while the full version was later included on their best-selling 1966 U.S. greatest hits album, The Best of the Animals. However, the very first American release of the full-length version was on a 1965 album of various groups entitled Mickie Most Presents British Go-Go (MGM SE-4306), the cover of which, under the listing of “House of the Rising Sun”, described it as the “Original uncut version.” Americans could also hear the complete version in the movie Go Go Mania in the spring of 1965.

“House of the Rising Sun” was not included on any of the group’s British albums, but it was reissued as a single twice in subsequent decades, charting both times, reaching number 25 in 1972 and number 11 in 1982, using the famous Wittlesbach organ.

The Animals version was played in 6/8 meter, unlike the 4/4 of most earlier versions. Arranging credit went only to Alan Price. According to Burdon, this was simply because there was insufficient room to name all five band members on the record label, and Alan Price’s first name was first alphabetically. However, this meant that only Price received songwriter’s royalties for the hit, a fact that has caused bitterness ever since, especially with Valentine.

Reception

“House of the Rising Sun” was a trans-Atlantic hit: after reaching the top of the UK pop singles chart in July 1964, it topped the U.S. pop singles chart two months later, on September 5, 1964, where it stayed for three weeks, and became the first British Invasion number one unconnected with the Beatles. It was the group’s breakthrough hit in both countries and became their signature song. The song was also a hit in a number of other countries, including Ireland, where it reached No. 10 and dropped off the charts one week later.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRXb7K7k7bQ[/embedyt]

Oh Pretty Woman: Roy Orbison

a song recorded by Roy Orbison, written by Orbison and Bill Dees. It was released as a single in August 1964 on Monument Records and spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 26, 1964 – the second single by Orbison to top the US charts.

It was also Orbison’s third single to top the UK Singles Chart (for a total of three weeks). The record ultimately sold seven million copies and marked the high point in Orbison’s career. Within months of its release, in October 1964, the single was certified gold by the RIAA. At the year’s end, Billboard ranked it the number four song of 1964.

The lyrics tell the story of a man who sees a pretty woman walking by. He yearns for her and wonders if, as beautiful as she is, she might be lonely like he is. At the last minute, she turns back and joins him.

The title was inspired by Orbison’s wife, Claudette, interrupting a conversation to announce she was going out. When Orbison asked if she had enough cash, his co-writer Bill Dees interjected, “A pretty woman never needs any money.”

Orbison’s recording of the song, which used four guitars, was produced by Fred Foster.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMXX4uUarEg[/embedyt]

You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’: The Righteous Brothers

is a song written by Phil Spector, Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil. It was first recorded by the Righteous Brothers in 1964, and was produced by Phil Spector.

Their recording is considered by some music critics to be the ultimate expression and illustration of Spector’s “Wall of Sound” recording technique.

It has also been described by various music writers as “one of the best records ever made” and “the ultimate pop record”.

The original Righteous Brothers version was a critical and commercial success on its release, becoming a number-one hit single in both the United States and the United Kingdom in February 1965.

It was the fifth best selling song of 1965 in the US. It also entered the Top 10 in the UK chart on an unprecedented three separate occasion

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03iSUjHaUxY[/embedyt]

Eight Days a Week: The Beatles

Is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. It was written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon based on McCartney’s original idea. The song was released in the United Kingdom in December 1964 on the album Beatles for Sale. In the United States, it was first issued as a single in February 1965 before appearing on the North American release Beatles VI.

The song was the band’s seventh number 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, a run of US chart success achieved in just over a year. The single was also number 1 in Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The Beatles recorded “Eight Days a Week” at EMI Studios in London in October 1964. The track opens with a fade-in, marking the first time that this technique had been used on a pop studio recording. The song was reissued worldwide in 2000 on the Beatles compilation album 1. I

t also provided the title for director Ron Howard’s 2016 documentary film on the band’s years as live performers, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week.

I Hear a Symphony: The Supremes

Is a 1965 song recorded by The Supremes for the Motown label. Written and produced by Motown’s main production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland, the song became their sixth number-one pop hit on Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in the United States for two weeks from November 14, 1965 through November 27, 1965. On the UK pop chart, the single peaked at number thirty-nine.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T9SEY8eLyk[/embedyt]

Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter: Herman’s Hermits

is a popular song written by British actor, screenwriter and songwriter Trevor Peacock. It was originally sung by actor Tom Courtenay in The Lads, a British TV play of 1963, and released as a single on UK Decca.

The best-known version of the song is by Herman’s Hermits, who took it to number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 in May 1965, and number one in Canada the month before. The single debuted on the Hot 100 at number 12 — the third highest debut of the decade (after the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” and “Get Back”).^[3] The Hermits never released the track — or their other US 1965 number one, “I’m Henry VIII, I Am” — as a single in their native Britain. “Mrs Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” was recorded as an afterthought in two takes and featured unique muted lead and rhythm guitar by Derek Leckenby and Keith Hopwood and heavily accented lead vocals by Peter Noone, with backing vocals from Karl Green and Keith Hopwood. The band never dreamed it would be a single let alone hit number one in the US. According to Noone the song was well known to British bands; it would often be performed at birthday parties, substituting the surname of the girl whose party was being celebrated, i.e., “Mrs. Smith” or “Mrs. Jones” instead of “Mrs. Brown”

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv8k0VI9tBc[/embedyt]

I Can’t Help Myself: The Four Tops

a 1965 hit song recorded by the Four Tops for the Motown label.

Written and produced by Motown’s main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, the song is one of the most well-known Motown tunes of the 1960s. The song reached number one on the R&B charts and was also the number-one song on the Billboard Hot 100 for two non-consecutive weeks, from June 12 to June 19 and from June 26 to July 3 in 1965. It replaced “Back in My Arms Again” by labelmates The Supremes, was first replaced by “Mr. Tambourine Man” by The Byrds, then regained the top spot before being replaced by “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 2 song of 1965. It was also the Four Tops first Top 40 single in the UK, reaching #23 on its original release, and a 1970 reissue peaked at #10 in the UK charts.

The song finds lead singer Levi Stubbs, assisted by the other three Tops and The Andantes, pleadingly professing his love to a woman: “Sugar pie, honey bunch/I’m weaker than a man should be!/Can’t help myself/I’m a fool in love, you see.” The melodic and chordal progressions are very similar to the Supremes’ “Where Did Our Love Go”. AllMusic critic Ed Hogan claims that the song uses the same chords as The Supremes’ 1964 hit “Where Did Our Love Go,” also written by Holland-Dozier-Holland.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3bksUSPB4c[/embedyt]

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction: Rolling Stones

is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released in 1965. It was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and produced by Andrew Loog Oldham. Richards’ three-note guitar riff‍—‌intended to be replaced by horns‍—‌opens and drives the song. The lyrics refer to sexual frustration and commercialism.

The song was first released as a single in the United States in June 1965 and was also featured on the American version of the Rolling Stones’ fourth studio album, Out of Our Heads, released that July.

“Satisfaction” was a hit, giving the Stones their first number one in the US. In the UK, the song initially was played only on pirate radio stations, because its lyrics were considered too sexually suggestive. It later became the Rolling Stones’ fourth number one in the United Kingdom.

I Got You Babe: Sonny and Cher

Is a song written by Sonny Bono. It was the first single taken from the debut studio album Look at Us, of the American pop music duo Sonny & Cher. In August 1965, their single spent three weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States where it sold more than 1 million copies and was certified Gold. It also reached number 1 in the United Kingdom and Canada. In 1985, a cover version of “I Got You Babe” by British reggae/pop band UB40 featuring American singer Chrissie Hynde, peaked at number one in the UK Singles Chart and reached number 28 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. A 1993 version by Cher with Beavis and Butt-Head bubbled under the Hot 100 chart.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BERd61bDY7k[/embedyt]

Turn Turn Turn: The Byrds

 is a song written by Pete Seeger in the late 1950s. The lyrics, except for the title, which is repeated throughout the song, and the final two lines, are adapted word-for-word from the English version of the first eight verses of the third chapter of the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes. The song was originally released in 1962 as “To Everything There Is a Season” on folk group the Limeliters’ RCA album Folk Matinee and then some months later on Seeger’s own The Bitter and the Sweet.

The song became an international hit in late 1965 when it was adapted by the American folk rock group the Byrds. The single entered the record chart at number 80 on October 23, 1965, before reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on December 4, 1965. In Canada, it reached number three on Nov. 29, 1965, and also peaking at number 26 on the UK Singles Chart

“Turn! Turn! Turn!” was adapted by the Byrds using a folk rock arrangement. Columbia Records released it as a single on October 1, 1965, with the Gene Clark original composition “She Don’t Care About Time” as the B-side. The song is included on the band’s second album, Turn! Turn! Turn!, which was released on December 6, 1965. The Byrds’ single is the most successful recorded version of the song, having reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts and number 26 on the UK Singles Chart. The book of Ecclesiastes was written between the 3rd and 10th centuries BC, thus “Turn! Turn! Turn!” is the number one pop hit with the oldest lyrics.

The song had first been arranged by the Byrds’ lead guitarist Jim McGuinn in a chamber-folk style during sessions for Judy Collins’ 1963 album, Judy Collins 3. The idea of reviving the song came to McGuinn during the Byrds’ July 1965 tour of the American Midwest, when his future wife, Dolores, requested the tune on the Byrds’ tour bus. The rendering that McGuinn dutifully played came out sounding not like a folk song but more like a rock/folk hybrid, perfectly in keeping with the Byrds’ status as pioneers of the folk rock genre. McGuinn explained, “It was a standard folk song by that time, but I played it and it came out rock ‘n’ roll because that’s what I was programmed to do like a computer. I couldn’t do it as it was traditionally. It came out with that samba beat, and we thought it would make a good single.”

The master recording of the song reportedly took 78 takes, spread over five days of recording, to complete.

The song’s plea for peace and tolerance struck a nerve with the American record buying public as the Vietnam War escalated. The single also solidified folk rock as a chart trend and, like the band’s previous hits, continued the Byrds’ successful mix of vocal harmony and jangly twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar playing. Pete Seeger expressed his approval of the Byrds’ rendering of the song.

During 1965 and 1966, the band performed the song on the television programs Hollywood A Go-Go, Shindig!, The Ed Sullivan Show, and Where the Action Is, as well as in the concert film, The Big T.N.T. Show. Additionally, the song would go on to become a staple of the Byrds’ live concert repertoire, until their final disbandment in 1973. The song was also performed live by a reformed line-up of the Byrds featuring Roger McGuinn, David Crosby and Chris Hillman in January 1989. In addition to its appearance on the Turn! Turn! Turn! album, the song also appears on several Byrds’ compilations, including The Byrds’ Greatest Hits, History of The Byrds, The Original Singles: 1965–1967, Volume 1, The Byrds, 20 Essential Tracks From The Boxed Set: 1965-1990, The Very Best of The Byrds, The Essential Byrds and There Is a Season.

The recording has been featured in numerous movies and TV shows, including 1983’s Heart Like a Wheel, 1994’s Forrest Gump and 2002’s In America. Following Joe Cocker’s cover of “With a Little Help from My Friends”, the song was the first to play on the first episode of the television series The Wonder Years. It was also used in a Wonder Years parody, during The Simpsons episode, “Three Men and a Comic Book”. In 2003, it was used in the closing sequence of the Cold Case episode “A Time to Hate” (Season One, episode 7).

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX6SuX0Z6AQ[/embedyt]

We Can Work It Out: Beatles

Is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. It was first issued as a double A-side single with “Day Tripper” in December 1965. The release marked the first time in Britain that both tracks on an artist’s single were promoted as joint A-sides. The song was recorded during the sessions for the band’s Rubber Soul album. The single was number 1 in Britain (where it was also the top-selling single of 1965), America, Australia, Canada and Ireland.

“We Can Work It Out” is a comparatively rare example of a Lennon–McCartney collaboration from this period in the Beatles’ career, in that it recalls the level of collaboration the two songwriters had shared when writing the group’s hit singles of 1963. This song, “A Day in the Life”, “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” and “I’ve Got a Feeling”, are among the notable exceptions.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qyclqo_AV2M[/embedyt]

These Boots Are Made for Walkin’: Nancy Sinatra

is a hit song written by Lee Hazlewood and recorded by Nancy Sinatra. It charted January 22, 1966^[ and reached No. 1 in the United States Billboard Hot 100 and in the UK Singles Chart.

Nancy Sinatra was encouraged by Lee Hazlewood to sing the song as if she were “a sixteen-year-old girl who fucks truck drivers”. Sinatra’s recording of the song was made with the help of Los Angeles session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew. This session included Hal Blaine on drums, Al Casey, Tommy Tedesco, and Billy Strange on guitars, Ollie Mitchell, Roy Caton and Lew McCreary on horns, Carol Kaye on electric bass and Chuck Berghofer on double bass, providing the notable bass line. Nick Bonney was the guitarist for the Nelson Riddle Orchestra.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbyAZQ45uww[/embedyt]

Monday, Monday: The Mamas and The Papas

is a 1966 song written by John Phillips and recorded by the Mamas & the Papas using background instruments played by members of The Wrecking Crew for their 1966 album If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears. It was the group’s only #1 hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Phillips said that he wrote the song quickly, in about 20 minutes. The song includes a false ending, when there is a pause before the coda of the song, and goes up a half note for the bridges and refrains of the song. It was the second consecutive #1 hit song in the U.S. to contain a false ending, succeeding “Good Lovin'” by the Young Rascals, and the first time this novelty had occurred between consecutive #1 hits.

On March 2, 1967, The Mamas & the Papas won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for this song.

Arguably the best live or studio version of the song was performed at the Monterey Rock Festival (California) in 1967. The performance was recorded for film at the time but not in a solo album.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h81Ojd3d2rY[/embedyt]

Paint It Black: Rolling Stones

is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. Jointly credited to songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was first released as a single on 6 May 1966 and was later included as the opening track to the US version of their 1966 album, Aftermath.

“Paint It Black” reached number one in both the Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart. The song became the Rolling Stones’ third number one hit single in the US and sixth in the UK. Since its initial release, the song has remained influential as the first number one hit featuring a sitar, particularly in the UK where it has charted in two other instances, and has been the subject of multiple cover versions, compilation albums, and film appearances.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BcJaUYE5Jw[/embedyt][embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BcJaUYE5Jw[/embedyt]

The post #1 Hits Singles in the US on Billboard Hot 100, from the 50s, 60s and 70s part 2 appeared first on The History of Rock and Roll Radio Show.

The post The Ed Sullivan Show Pt 2 appeared first on The History of Rock and Roll Radio Show.

The Righteous Brothers: You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’

The Righteous Brothers: You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ is a song written by Phil Spector, Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil. It was first recorded by the Righteous Brothers in 1964, and was produced by Phil Spector. Their recording is considered by some music critics to be the ultimate expression and illustration of Spector’s “Wall of Sound” recording technique.[3] It has also been described by various music writers as “one of the best records ever made” and “the ultimate pop record”.

The original Righteous Brothers version was a critical and commercial success on its release, becoming a number-one hit single in both the United States and the United Kingdom in February 1965. It was the fifth best selling song of 1965 in the US. It also entered the Top 10 in the UK chart on an unprecedented three separate occasions

The Lefte Banke: Walk Away Renee

The Lefte Banke: Walk Away Renee is a song written by Michael Brown, Bob Calilli, and Tony Sansone for the band the Left Banke, released as a single in July 1966. Steve Martin Caro is featured on lead vocals. After its initial release, it spent 13 weeks on the US charts, with a top spot of number 5.

The song features an oboe solo played during the instrumental bridge of the middle portion of the song. Brown got the idea from the flute solo from the Mamas & the Papas song “California Dreamin'” which had been recorded in November 1965 but wasn’t a hit and in heavy rotation until early 1966.

The arrangement also includes a lush string orchestration, a jangling harpsichord part, and a descending chromatic bass melody. Its production was credited to World United Productions, Inc., but the session was produced by Brown’s father, jazz and classical violinist Harry Lookofsky, who also led the string players

Cream: Sunshine of Your Love

Cream: Sunshine of Your Love is a 1967 song by the British rock band Cream. With elements of hard rock, psychedelia, and pop, it is one of Cream’s best-known and most popular songs. Cream bassist and vocalist Jack Bruce based it on a distinctive bass riff or repeated musical phrase he developed after attending a Jimi Hendrix concert. Guitarist Eric Clapton and lyricist Pete Brown later contributed to the song. Recording engineer Tom Dowd suggested the rhythm arrangement in which drummer Ginger Baker plays a distinctive tom-tom drum rhythm, although Baker has claimed it was his idea.

The song was included on Cream’s second album Disraeli Gears in November 1967, which was a best seller. Atco Records, the group’s American label, was initially unsure of the song’s potential. After recommendations by other label-affiliated artists, it released an edited single version in January 1968.[a] The song became Cream’s first and highest-charting American single and one of the most popular singles of 1968. In September 1968, it became a modest chart hit after being released in the UK.

Cream performed “Sunshine of Your Love” regularly in concert and several live recordings have been issued, including on the Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6, 2005 reunion album and video. Hendrix performed faster instrumental versions of the song, which he often dedicated to Cream. Several rock journals have placed the song on their greatest song lists, such as Rolling Stone, Q magazine, and VH1. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included it on its list of the “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll”.

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Proud Mary

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Proud Mary is a rock song written by John Fogerty and first recorded by his band Creedence Clearwater Revival. The song was released by Fantasy Records as a single from the band’s second studio album, Bayou Country, which was released by the same record company in January 1969.

The single is generally considered to have been released in early January 1969 although at least one source states that it came out just before Christmas 1968. The song became a major hit in the United States, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1969, the first of five non-consecutive singles to peak at #2 for the group

The post Best Songs of the 60s Pt-3 appeared first on The History of Rock and Roll Radio Show.

The British Invasion was a phenomenon that occurred in the mid-1960s when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom, as well as other aspects of British culture, became popular in the United States, and significant to the rising “counterculture” on both sides of the Atlantic. Pop and rock groups such as the Beatles, the Dave Clark Five, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, Herman’s Hermits, the Animals, and the Who were at the forefront of the invasion.

The rebellious tone and image of US rock and roll and blues musicians became popular with British youth in the late 1950s. While early commercial attempts to replicate American rock and roll mostly failed, the trad jazz–inspired skiffle craze, with its ‘do it yourself’ attitude, was the starting point of several British Billboard singles. Young British groups started to combine various British and American styles, in different parts of the U.K., such as a movement in Liverpool during 1962 in what became known as Merseybeat, hence the “beat boom”. That same year featured the first three acts with British roots to reach the Hot 100’s summit, including the Tornados’ instrumental “Telstar”, written and produced by Joe Meek, becoming the first record by a British group to reach number one on the US Hot 100.

Some observers have noted that US teenagers were growing tired of singles-oriented pop acts like Fabian. The Mods and Rockers, two youth “gangs” in mid-1960s Britain, also had an impact in British Invasion music. Bands with a Mod aesthetic became the most popular, but bands able to balance both (e.g. the Beatles) were also successful.

The Beatles arriving in New York, February 1964.

Beatlemania Takes Hold

On October 29, 1963, The Washington Post published the first story in the USA about the frenzy surrounding the rock group the Beatles in the United Kingdom. The Beatles’ November 4 Royal Variety Performance in front of the Queen Mother sparked music industry and media interest in the group. During November a number of major American print outlets and two network television evening programs published and broadcast stories on the phenomenon that became known as “Beatlemania”.

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On December 10 CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite, looking for something positive to report, re-ran a Beatlemania story that originally had aired on the 22 November 1963 edition of the CBS Morning News with Mike Wallace but shelved that night because of the assassination of US President John Kennedy. After seeing the report, 15-year-old Marsha Albert of Silver Spring, Maryland, wrote a letter the following day to disc jockey Carroll James at radio station WWDC asking, “Why can’t we have music like that here in America?”

On December 17 James had Miss Albert introduce “I Want to Hold Your Hand” live on the air. WWDC’s phones lit up, and Washington, D.C., area record stores were flooded with requests for a record they did not have in stock. James sent the record to other disc jockeys around the country sparking similar reaction. On December 26 Capitol Records released the record three weeks ahead of schedule. The release of the record during a time when teenagers were on vacation helped spread Beatlemania in the US.

On December 29 The Baltimore Sun, reflecting the dismissive view of most adults, editorialized, “America had better take thought as to how it will deal with the invasion. Indeed a restrained ‘Beatles go home’ might be just the thing.” That comment proved prophetic. In the next year alone, the Beatles would have 30 different listings on the Hot 100.

On January 3, 1964, The Jack Paar Program ran Beatles concert footage licensed from the BBC “as a joke” but watched by 30 million viewers. While this piece was largely forgotten, Beatles producer George Martin has said it “aroused the kids’ curiosity”. In the middle of January 1964, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” appeared suddenly, then vaulted to the top of nearly every top 40 music survey in the United States, launching the Fab Four’s sustained, massive output. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” ascended to number one on the January 25, 1964, edition of Cash Box magazine (on sale January 18) and the February 1, 1964, edition of the Hot 100.

On February 7, 1964, the CBS Evening News ran a story about the Beatles’ United States arrival that afternoon in which the correspondent said, “The British Invasion this time goes by the code name Beatlemania. Two days later (Sunday, February 9) they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Nielsen Ratings estimated that 45 percent of US television viewers that night saw their appearance.

According to Michael Ross, “It is somewhat ironic that the biggest moment in the history of popular music was first experienced in the US as a television event.” The Ed Sullivan Show had for some time been a “comfortable hearth-and-slippers experience.” Not many of the 73 million viewers watching in February 1964 would fully understand what impact the band they were watching would have.

The Stones and the Rebels

The Beatles soon incited contrasting reactions and, in the process, generated more novelty records than anyone – at least 200 during their 1964-1965 takeover and many more later (during Paul’s “death” hoax, their break-up, etc.). Among the many reactions, favoring the hysteria, British girl group The Carefrees’ “We Love You Beatles” (#39 on 11 April 1964) and, on Tuff Records, the Patty Cakes’ “I Understand Them”, subtitled “A Love Song to the Beatles”.

The grittier side of the invasion: The Rolling Stones.

Disapproving the pandemonium, American group the Four Preps’ “A Letter to the Beatles” (#85 on 4 April 1964) and American comedian Allan Sherman’s “Pop Hates the Beatles” (in reaction to the Beatles’ “Pop Go the Beatles”).

On April 4, the Beatles held the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and to date no other act has simultaneously held even the top three. The group’s massive chart success, which included at least two of their singles holding the top spot on the Hot 100 during each of the seven consecutive years starting with 1964, continued until they broke up in 1970.

One week after the Beatles entered the Hot 100 for the first time, Dusty Springfield, having launched a solo career after her participation in the Springfields, became the next British act to reach the Hot 100, with “I Only Want to Be with You.” Released in late 1963, this successful hit peaked at number 12 on the Hot 100 right around the time The Beatles began to dominate the U.S. airwaves. She soon followed up with several other hits, becoming what AllMusic described as “the finest white soul singer of her era.”

On the Hot 100, Dusty’s solo career lasted almost as long, albeit with little more than one quarter of the hits, as the Beatles’ group career before their breakup. During the next two years or so, Peter and Gordon, the Animals, Manfred Mann, Petula Clark, Freddie and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, Herman’s Hermits, the Rolling Stones, the Dave Clark Five, the Troggs, Donovan, and Lulu in 1967, would have one or more number one singles in the US. Other Invasion acts included the Searchers, Billy J. Kramer, the Bachelors, Chad & Jeremy, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Honeycombs, Them (and later its lead singer, Van Morrison), Tom Jones, the Yardbirds (whose guitarist Jimmy Page would later form Led Zeppelin), the Spencer Davis Group, the Small Faces, and numerous others.

The Kinks, although considered part of the Invasion, initially failed to capitalize on their success in the US after their first three hits reached the Hot 100’s top 10 (in part due to a ban by the American Federation of Musicians) before resurfacing in 1970 with “Lola” and in 1983 with their biggest hit, “Come Dancing”. On May 8, 1965, the British Commonwealth came closer than it ever had or would to a clean sweep of a weekly Hot 100’s Top 10, lacking only a hit at number two instead of “Count Me In” by the US group Gary Lewis & the Playboys. That same year, half of the 26 Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers (counting the Beatles’ “I Feel Fine” carrying over from 1964) belonged to British acts.

The British trend would continue into 1966 and beyond. British Invasion acts also dominated the music charts at home in the United Kingdom. As 1965 approached another wave of British Invasion artists emerged which consisted usually of either of groups playing in a more pop style, such as the Hollies or the Zombies or with a harder-driving, blues-based approach such as the Who. The musical style of British Invasion artists, such as the Beatles, had been influenced by earlier US rock ‘n’ roll, a genre which had lost some popularity and appeal by the time of the Invasion.

However, a subsequent handful of white British performers, particularly the Rolling Stones and the Animals, would appeal to a more ‘outsider’ demographic, essentially reviving and popularizing, for young people at least, a musical genre rooted in the blues, rhythm and black culture, which had been largely ignored or rejected when performed by black US artists in the 1950s. Such bands were sometimes perceived by American parents and elders as rebellious and unwholesome. This image marked them as separate from artists such as the Beatles, who had become a more acceptable, parent-friendly pop group. The Rolling Stones would become the biggest band other than the Beatles to come out of the British Invasion, topping the Hot 100 eight times.

Sometimes, there would be a clash between the two styles of the British Invasion, the polished pop acts and the grittier blues-based acts due to the expectations set by the Beatles. Eric Burdon of the Animals said “They dressed us up in the most strange costumes. They were even gonna bring a choreographer to show us how to move on stage. I mean, it was ridiculous. It was something that was so far away from our nature and, um, yeah we were just pushed around and told, ‘When you arrive in America, don’t mention the [Vietnam] war! You can’t talk about the war.’ We felt like we were being gagged.”

“Freakbeat” is a term sometimes given to certain British Invasion acts closely associated with the mod scene during the Swinging London period, particularly harder-driving British blues bands of the era, that often remained obscure to US listeners, and who are sometimes seen as counterparts to the garage rock bands in America. Certain acts, such as the Pretty Things and the Creation, had a certain degree of chart success in the UK and are often considered exemplars of the form. The emergence of a relatively homogeneous worldwide “rock” music style marking the end of the “invasion” occurred in 1967, but not without one final comment from America, when one-hit wonder The Rose Garden’s “Next Plane to London” peaked at #17 during the last week of that year.

Impact Beyond Music

The impact of the invasion on American fashion and culture.

Outside of music, other aspects of British arts became popular in the US during this period and led US media to proclaim the United Kingdom as the center of music and fashion. The Beatles movie A Hard Day’s Night marked the group’s entrance into film. Mary Poppins, released on August 27, 1964, and starring English actress Julie Andrews as the titular character, became the most Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated Disney film in history, and My Fair Lady, released on December 25, 1964, starring British actress Audrey Hepburn as Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle, won eight Academy Awards.

Besides the Bond series which commenced with Sean Connery as James Bond in 1962, films with a British sensibility such as the “Angry Young Men” genre, What’s New Pussycat? and Alfie styled London Theatre. A new wave of actors such as Peter O’Toole and Michael Caine intrigued US audiences. Four of the decade’s Academy Award winners for best picture were British productions, with the epic Lawrence of Arabia, starring O’Toole as British army officer T. E. Lawrence, winning seven Oscars in 1963.

Fashion and image marked the Beatles out from their earlier US rock and roll counterparts. Their distinctive, uniform style “challenged the clothing style of conventional US males,” just as their music challenged the earlier conventions of the rock and roll genre. “Mod” fashions, such as the mini skirt from “Swinging London” designers such as Mary Quant and worn by early supermodels Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton and other models, were popular worldwide. John Crosby wrote, “The English girl has an enthusiasm that American men find utterly captivating. I’d like to import the whole Chelsea girl with her ‘life is fabulous’ philosophy to America with instructions to bore from within.”

Even while longstanding styles remained popular, US teens and young adults started to dress “hipper”. The evolution of the styles of the British Invasion bands also showed in US culture, as some bands went from more clean cut to being more hippies. In anticipation of the 2013 50th anniversary of the British Invasion, comics such as Nowhere Men, which are loosely based on the events of it, have gained popularity.

The British Invasion had a profound impact on popular music, internationalizing the production of rock and roll, establishing the British popular music industry as a viable center of musical creativity, and opening the door for subsequent British performers to achieve international success. In America the Invasion arguably spelled the end of the popularity of instrumental surf music, pre-Motown vocal girl groups, the folk revival (which adapted by evolving into folk rock), and (for a time) the teen idols that had dominated the American charts in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Television shows that featured uniquely American styles of music, such as Sing Along with Mitch and Hootenanny, were quickly canceled and replaced with shows such as Shindig! and Hullabaloo that were better positioned to play the new British hits, and segments of the new shows were taped in England. It dented the careers of established R&B acts like Chubby Checker and temporarily derailed the chart success of certain surviving rock and roll acts, including Ricky Nelson, Fats Domino, and Elvis Presley. It prompted many existing garage rock bands to adopt a sound with a British Invasion inflection and inspired many other groups to form, creating a scene from which many major American acts of the next decade would emerge.

The British Invasion also played a major part in the rise of a distinct genre of rock music and cemented the primacy of the rock group, based around guitars and drums and producing their own material as singer-songwriters. Though many of the acts associated with the invasion did not survive its end, many others would become icons of rock music. The claim that British beat bands were not radically different from US groups like the Beach Boys and damaged the careers of African-American and female artists was made about the Invasion. However, the Motown sound, exemplified by The Supremes, The Temptations, and the Four Tops, each securing its first top 20 record during the Invasion’s first year of 1964 and following up with many other top 20 records, besides the constant or even accelerating output of The Miracles, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Marvin Gaye, Martha & The Vandellas, and Stevie Wonder, actually increased in popularity during that time.

Other US groups also demonstrated a similar sound to the British Invasion artists and in turn highlighted how the British ‘sound’ was not in itself a wholly new or original one. Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, for example, acknowledged the debt that American artists owed to British musicians, such as The Searchers, but that “they were using folk music licks that I was using anyway. So it’s not that big a rip-off.” The US sunshine pop group the Buckinghams and the Beatles-influenced US Tex-Mex act the Sir Douglas Quintet adopted British-sounding names, and San Francisco’s Beau Brummels took their name from the same-named English dandy. Roger Miller had a 1965 hit record with a song titled “England Swings”. Englishman Geoff Stephens (or John Carter) reciprocated the gesture a la Rudy Vallée a year later in the New Vaudeville Band’s “Winchester Cathedral”.

Even as recently as 2003, “Shanghai Knights” made the latter two tunes memorable once again, in London scenes. Anticipating the Bay City Rollers by more than a decade, two British acts that reached the Hot 100’s top 20 gave a tip of the hat to America: Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas and the Nashville Teens. The British Invasion also drew a backlash from some American bands, e.g., Paul Revere & the Raiders and New Colony Six dressed in Revolutionary War uniforms, and Gary Puckett & The Union Gap donned Civil War uniforms. Garage rock act the Barbarians’ “Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl” contained the lyrics “You’re either a girl, or you come from Liverpool” and “You can dance like a female monkey, but you swim like a stone, Yeah, a Rolling Stone.”

In Australia, the success of the Seekers and the Easybeats (the latter a band formed mostly of British emigrants) closely paralleled that of the British Invasion. The Seekers had two Hot 100 top 5 hits during the British Invasion, the #4 hit “I’ll Never Find Another You” in May 1965 and the #2 hit “Georgy Girl” in February 1967. The Easybeats drew heavily on the British Invasion sound and had one hit in the United States during the British Invasion, the #16 hit “Friday on My Mind” in May 1967.

According to Robert J. Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, the British invasion pushed the counterculture into the mainstream. It’s unclear when the British Invasion can be said to have “ended,” if it ever ended at all. American bands regained prominence on the charts in the late 1960s in the face of changing cultural norms; even so, British bands continued to have consistent success alongside their American counterparts on the U.S. charts throughout the decade. Into the 1970s, bands such as Badfinger, The Raspberries, and Sweet were playing a heavily British Invasion-influenced style deemed power pop. In 1978 two rock magazines wrote cover stories about power pop and championed the genre as a savior to both the new wave and the direct simplicity of the way rock used to be.

New wave power pop not only brought back the sounds but the fashions, be it the mod style of the Jam or the skinny ties of the burgeoning Los Angeles scene. Several of these groups were commercially successful, most notably the Knack, whose My Sharona was the number 1 U.S. single of 1979. A backlash against the Knack and power pop ensued, but the genre over the years has continued to have a cult following with occasional periods of modest success. Another wave of British artists, dubbed the “Second British Invasion”, became popular in the 1980s as music video showcases began to appear on American television.

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