The show was broadcasted live, so I haven’t been able to find a recording of it, but the band performed the single, Love Me Do, and a cover version of Richard Barret’s Some Other Guy. And even though, now, The Beatles are considered to be amazing by most, their fans back then weren’t blown away by their performance. Well, they didn’t feel that the live energy that oozes from them in the clubs got out well enough on the screen at least. But if we’re gonna interpret the hit lists and the effect the show had on them, one might say that the appearance did them well. Cause the day after it aired their single rose to #49 in Britain. If it actually had anything to do with their performance over at Granada Television though, I really can’t say.

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Outside of the music, in the real world, some things are happening as well. For instance an important event in regards to the Civil Rights Movement in the US. February saw James Meredith becoming the first African-American student admitted to the all-white, racially segregated University of Mississippi. This, of course, caused mayhem among the white Americans, and they started a full-fledged riot because of the simple (read: stupid) reason that they didn’t want a man of color to socialize with them or have the same opportunities.

But James wouldn’t be intimidated by a gang of morons and tried to register several times, even though the governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett, even had him thrown in jail just to stop him from doing exactly that. Of course, this entire ordeal turned to shit, and the riots started partially incited by the far-right general Edwin Walker. During the night two people died and over 300 were injured. All this because a man tried to get himself a decent education.

The morning after, Ross Barnett called the Department of Justice and offered to pay for James Meredith’s education anywhere else than in his own state, but the suggestion was rejected. That’s how awful this was for the state of Mississippi… But fuck them, cause on October 1st, 1962, James Meredith became the first African-American to attend classes at Ole Miss University. And while he had to be watched by the police 24/7, he graduated in 1963 and now there’s a statue of him outside the university.

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The Cold War was also as close as it ever was to become a nuclear war this month. On October 16th, JFK saw photo evidence that the Soviet Union had placed nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba and that the ramps were directed towards the US. Of course, the US had already done the same thing in Turkey and Italy, but I guess that’s beyond the point. Anyway, the Cuban Missile Crisis lasted for 13 days when JFK and the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrusjtsjov, agreed to dismantle their offensive weapons in Turkey and Cuba. I’m not sure if the ones in Italy were dismantled as well, but the important thing is that it didn’t turn into a full-blown nuclear war.

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On a happier note, half of the Red Hot Chili Peppers were born this month, with Flea being born on the 16th and Chad Smith on the 25th. Mötley Crüe drummer, Tommy Lee, also came to life this month. I guess there is a discussion here if he’s more famous for being a drummer or if it is the “porn movie” with Pamela Anderson that has taken over, but I’ll save that for later.

The book «The Man In The High Castle» by Phillip K. Dick was also published this month. Good book. Recommended!

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THE ALBUMS

Four albums didn’t make the cut this month, and the first one is from Frank Sinatra. The last two or three years have been bad for Frank in my opinion. He hasn’t released a single album that I felt was worth a second look, and even after he started Reprise Records, to gain complete control of his own career, things haven’t gotten any better. «All Alone», his latest addition, might well be his worst so far in the ‘60s.

Dean Martin has also struggled to convince me, and his latest album does nothing to change that. He’s got a thing going where he records albums with inspiration from different countries/continents and this time it’s the Latinos that get shot at. «Dino Latino» is a lot better than his pal Frank’s album, but as I’ve mentioned before, I’m having a hard time coming to terms with this genre. And even though there are a few good tracks on this album, like (All En) El Rancho Grande, it fails to hold my attention. I bore quickly, skip through songs, and find myself waiting for it to end. So nah, Dino won’t be running off with a pat on his shoulder this time around.

Another guy from the Rat Pack, Sammy Davis Jr., and his album «What Kind Of Fool Am I & Other Show Stoppers» finishes off the trio of buddies who didn’t quite make it this month. One could think that they all sat down and decided to record bad albums at the same time, but I kinda doubt that. Funnily enough, though, I do like these guys and have books on all of them at home, but I just don’t dig their music.

The last “honorable mention” is The Shadows’ «Out Of The Shadows». Not much to say about it though, it’s just not cool. There are some ok cuts, but even more tedious ones.

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LITTLE STEVIE WONDER – TRIBUTE TO UNCLE RAY

This little guy has turned twelve by now and he’s ready with his second album in two months. I don’t know why this one is released so quickly after his debut, but I would guess that they wanted to show off that he could sing as well. «A Tribute To Uncle Ray» is probably just an attempt to associate Little Stevie with the other blind musician out there though, cause there ain’t many similarities in the music, and the songs aren’t necessarily written by Ray Charles either. So I’m left with the notion that this is a desperate attempt to try to figure out what to do with this wunderkind. And it’s pretty obvious that Berry Gordy and Motown have failed with this album.

I gotta point out that I’m not saying they failed because it sucks, but they have failed to find the type of music that works for this little guy. Some of the songs are obviously out of Stevie’s range, especially the song Don’t You Know (a pretty weird Youtube video, but it was the only one I found). It almost comes off as a novelty song, as he doesn’t have a chance in hell to reach as deep as he should with his prepubescent voice, and it actually just sounds like a joke.

There are some good cuts here though. Like Ray Charles’ Hallelujah (I Love Her So) (I thought Brenda Lee’s version was good as well, so I might have to give the song credit here and not the artists), Ain’t That Love, and Sunset, which Stevie has co-written, is probably my favorite. So the album doesn’t suck, but it doesn’t really work either.

RAY CHARLES – MODERN SOUNDS IN COUNTRY AND WESTERN MUSIC VOL. 2

Ok, I guess it’s unfair to compare young Stevie’s tribute to the real thing, but I kinda have to, and even though I’m not gonna make a big deal about it, I have to say that they are worlds apart for now.

Ray Charles is back with the follow-up to the record he released in April, roughly six months ago. «Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music Vol. 1» was such a big hit that Ray Charles and producer Sid Feller decided to go for a second one straight away, and they’ve of course chosen a bunch of country and western classics and Ray has made them his own. He’s giving these songs a new life and a brand new look, and he’s doing so expertly. Some of them are even better than the originals. Of course, I’m not gonna pretend that I knew all these songs from before, but I have checked them out in order to boast such a statement.

The best track on the album is Don’t Tell Me Your Troubles, but it’s not that much better than the original by Don Gibson. I’m a country fan, so I like the old-timey country feel almost as much as I like the Ray Charles thing. I’d also like to highlight Your Cheatin’ Heart (Hank Williams) and another Don Gibson song, Oh, Lonesome Me.

Ray Charles is unstoppable at the moment, and right now it’s unthinkable that it will ever come to an end. Let’s cross our fingers and hope that it never will.

TORNADOS – THE SOUND OF THE TORNADOS

If I’ve got this correct then Tornados is Joe Meek’s band, but he’s first and foremost the songwriter and producer. The band is put together by him, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t play anything himself. I could be blowing smoke here, but from what I’ve read about this band that’s the conclusion I’ve reached. Anyway, Tornados is the band that is supposed to challenge The Shadows as the best instrumental British band in a genre that isn’t very exciting. This makes everything about this band sound awfully dull, but fear not, cause there is some good stuff here. I’ve already written about their single Telstar back in August, and with that single, the Tornados did something no other British band has done before them; reaching the top of the Billboard chart. So it took the Tornados two singles to do something The Shadows has never managed, and with that, they already started to prove that they are the better of two evils within this genre in the UK.

Telstar was cool in a lot of ways. The science-fiction vibe is more than enough to make it interesting, but it has a lot more to offer as well. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about all of the tracks on this album. Some might be better than the rest, like My Babe (not an instrumental track by the way), but I won’t pretend that this is an album I would want in my collection. Telstar should find its way there, however, like with so many others from this genre, an entire album is just too much. It just gets boring after a while, and I always end up skipping through it or just turning it off completely.

Tornados might be a tiny breath of fresh air, but not much more than that.

THE ISLEY BROTHERS – TWIST AND SHOUT

They started out as a quartet but were reduced to a trio in 1957, when one of the brothers, Vernon Isley, was killed in a car accident. The trio, consisting of O’Kelly, Rudolph, and Ronald Isley, moved to New York after they lost their brother and focused on singles up until they were signed by RCA Records. With roots in gospel music, they developed a way of singing that could remind you a lot of how they sang in church (you know, the ‘shout and answer’ thing they do), and it could have become really cool with the right material. Their first hit Shout, which I believe was released in ‘59, is one of the tracks where this thing works really well.

On this album though, the songs aren’t there. The title track, Twist and Shout, is definitively good, and I’m partial to Hold On Baby, but the rest just feels like fillers. And if there are any killers at all, then the title track is the closest one to it, but with so much varying quality to the tracks, the albums just don’t cut it. Too bad really, cause it’s easy to hear that if they did have the right material, this could have sounded really fucking cool. The Isley Brothers have a massive potential, both in rock and R&B, but so far they’re far away from reaching it.

BOOKER T. & THE MG’S – GREEN ONIONS

Booker T. & The MG’s debut single, Green Onions, really set the standard for how instrumental music should sound. If you think about the fact that the other bands that do kinda the same thing only manage to put out a couple of good songs every now and then, I would say that Booker T. & The MG’s’ debut single proves that this band will easily take over the throne as the best band out there without a vocalist. But can they deliver an album that is worth listening to, or will they become yet another band that has to rely on some hit singles once in a while?

I can start off by saying that this works a whole lot better than Tornados, The Shadows, The Ventures, etc. Not only because Booker T. & The MG’s plays a different kind of instrumental music, but mainly because this shit’s got soul, and it’s funky as hell. Where The Shadows sounds like a bunch of white boys who learned guitar at school, Booker T. & The MG’s sounds like they learned to play with their heart. I guess that would be the main difference between these bands in my opinion.

But the album «Green Onions» isn’t packed with amazing tracks, as there are some that are just ok, and none of them can match their debut single and the title track. The other two tracks written by the band are pretty good though. Mo’ Onions, which does resemble Green Onions in style, is great, and Behave Yourself, a slower and maybe a tad bit more boring, fits well on here as well. But I would say that they do it best on some of the tracks they haven’t written themselves. Like the Ray Charles tune I Got A Woman, where Booker’s Hammond organ kinda takes care of the vocals, Twist and Shout which is pretty good (and quickly covered), they manage to upgrade Acker Bilk’s Stranger On The Shore, and Rinky Dink, originally recorded by Dave ‘’Baby’’ Cortez, sounds a lot better than the original. The last one that made an impression is One Who Really Loves You, but there aren’t any bad tracks here. It’s a solid debut album where the band gets to test the waters a bit, and I’m expecting this band to get better and better.

BEACH BOYS – SURFIN’ SAFARI

Ok, so here we go. The Beach Boys is here with their debut album, and the rise to superstardom has begun. But I have to say that it’s probably good that these guys didn’t know that yet, cause if they had that pressure on them from the start this album would probably have been shit. Cause this debut isn’t all that even without the pressure. But hey, they are just some young white boys from Suburbia, California, so I guess we can’t expect too much from them right off the bat.

I can’t really fault the tracks here, cause there’s a lot that could work. But what’s really at fault, and what fucks up this debut, is the complete lack of attitude. Mike Love sounds like a kid devoid of self-confidence, and on most of the tracks, I can picture him looking awkwardly down at the ground, hands in his pockets, and kicking his feet anxiously into the gravel. So yeah, this isn’t a vocal masterpiece, but the harmonies are somewhat on point, and even though the Beach Boys has got some way to go still, the album isn’t all bad.

The album opens with Surfin’ Safari, the title track, which is one of their best-known songs and it gives the album a solid start. It features the debut single Surfin’ and the B-side 409, and I guess those three songs are the ones with real quality on this debut album. The rest of them kinda just sit there and are at best a bit cute, so it’s fair to say that the Beach Boys still has got a lot to prove. That journey though is one that I’m very happy that I’m able to follow. And I gotta mention that they have written most of the song themselves, with Brian Wilson doing most of the work, and that is worthy of a high five.

BUCK OWENS – YOU’RE FOR ME

Buck Owens is delivering some country gold early in the ‘60s, and that makes me wonder why I haven’t listened to this guy before. And it makes me wonder why my Dad never introduced this to me. I mean, he introduced me to almost all of the old country heroes, but I can’t recall that he ever played me some Buck Owens. Could be that it’s way too country for him, cause it sure sounds a bit old-timey, but this is just Buck Owens and his Bakersfield sound that he popularized during his career. And I gotta say that it sounds pretty damn good.

On his third studio album, «You’re For Me», Buck follows the recipe he’s done most of his career, mainly good, down-to-earth, heartfelt country music about love, heartbreak, loneliness, etc. Pretty standard shit really, but Buck has something that I haven’t found in any other country artist so far in the ‘60s. His voice is perfect for this kinda music, his band is swinging and the songs are catchy, danceable, and worthy of a repeat button.

He scored three hit singles from this album; the title track You’re For Me, Nobody’s Fool But Yours, and Under The Influence Of Love. All three made the Country chart and the latter made it all the way to #2, but it’s three great songs that deserve all the praise they received. I could have said that these are the best songs on the album, but the fact is that there aren’t any bad ones to choose from. I’m thoroughly enjoying myself from beginning to end here, which I’ve done with the two earlier ones as well (even though the last one wasn’t perfectly awesome), and I actually think that Buck Owens is one of the artists that I’m most grateful for finding through this project so far.

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THE SINGLES

The Four Season is back with another hit, this time it’s Big Girls Don’t Cry, and I’m still struggling with Frankie’s falsetto. The track is catchy and whatnot, but I just can’t understand how people can listen to this over and over without coming down with a bad case of tinnitus. Anyway, there are enough people out there who love this, so The Four Seasons is back on top with their second single in a row.

We’ve also been blessed with another song from Chubby Checker, Limbo Rock, which is obviously about another dance. This time it’s the limbo that is put on the chopping board, and the song is originally written by Billy Strange on a bet that he could write it in five minutes. Billy named it Monotonous Melody, and I believe he was on to something there. Chubby’s manager was allowed to use the melody and change the lyrics, so he sat down and wrote the lyrics just putting limbo in front of other words like ‘’Limbo World’’, ‘’Limbo Girl’’, ‘’Limbo Whirl’’ etc., and just like that they had a hit. It really hurts my heart and soul knowing that this became a hit, as it showcases just how easy it can be to make money on shit music, cause this is an awful example of songwriting. Sadly enough, it is catchy, but it should never have been a hit.

The Swedish band, The Spotnicks, sets out to rival bands like The Ventures and The Shadows with more instrumental music. I’ve made it pretty clear that I’m not a fan of this kind of music lately, but Orange Blossom Special isn’t all bad. The song is originally from 1938 and it has been called ‘the fiddle player’s national anthem’, but there isn’t much fiddle playing in the Swedes’ version. This is all about electric guitars, space suits, and action, and from time to time it works pretty well. It will never be one of my go-to songs, but it did well all around the world (#1 in Australia and Top 30 in the UK) and was probably the one that gave The Spotnicks their international breakthrough. It’s cool that The Spotnicks are breaking some barriers and showing the world that Scandinavia has something to offer when it comes to music as well, and hopefully they will deliver something more awesome in the future and not just become another tedious instrumental band.

Dion follows up in the same fashion he usually does; with a good song that is easily recognized as his. He’s one of the few artists that hasn’t really released any shit songs lately, and I believe he deserves some kind of credit for that. Love Came To Me is not the exception, but it’s not his best either. He has a good thing going though, and hopefully, he can keep it up.

Paul Peterson (whoever that is) releases his biggest hit in the form of My Dad, and I’m thinking it’s good for everyone involved that this turned out to be his only one. It’s a terribly boring ballad that I’m hopeful I’ll never hear again unless it’s forced upon me or someone tricks me into it. Another song that I’ll try my best to stay away from is Neil Sedaka’s Next Door To An Angel. This track is way too goody-two-shoes for me. It’s actually a bit laughable how bubblegummy this song is, and it’s making me a bit sick. Just listen to that intro, the ‘du-ba-pa-du-ba-pa’ thing, I mean, I’m at a loss for words…I can just picture these guys recording this stuff in the studio with their knitted sweater vests, the pique shirts, the suburban-dad-hairdo, standing around snapping their fingers and waving their arms around like Carlton from «Fresh Prince In Bel Air». This shit is just too white man, and I’m actually a bit embarrassed. Luckily Neil Sedaka won’t have another hit for ten years or so.

Ride is a lot better than both Neil Sedaka’s contribution this month and Paul Peterson’s one-off. It was released by Dee Dee Sharp, and even though she’s caught up in that dance craze thing, her songs have actually been possible to enjoy from time to time, unlike Chubby Checker’s contributions. This time she was trying to restart the ‘pony dance’, and I caught myself wondering if it was common with drug references in music yet until I realized that she was singing about a dance. Unfortunately, that made me like this song a bit less, but it’s good enough anyway. Guess I just like drugs more than dancing.

I believe Don’t Hang Up is the second song by The Orlons that I’ve written about, and it is their biggest hit, plus an icon of an early ‘60s song. And yeah, it still works. Catchy, danceable, and all that stuff, but it’s not gonna get an icon status from me. It’s good though, and I’ll leave it at that.

And now, let’s give a big welcome to The Beatles and their debut single, Love Me Do, paired with the B-side, P.S. I Love You. The fact that the band has written both songs themselves is awesome, cause that wasn’t very normal at this time. Take Bob Dylan for example, he had just two or three self-composed songs on his debut album, and even though Beach Boys wrote most of the songs on their debut album themselves, they weren’t really all that. Beatles however, starts pretty damn well.

Love Me Do climbed up to #49 after the live performance I wrote about earlier, but the song kept going up and stopped at #17 on the UK chart, which is pretty good for a band virtually unknown outside of Liverpool, Manchester, and Hamburg. And that’s a funny thing to write really, almost unbelievable, that The Beatles started out as a completely random band like everyone else. But this debut was the end of that though, cause from here on out they were even welcome over at EMI who finally realized that they hadn’t completely fucked up when they signed this band from Liverpool. That’s at least how it felt, according to George Harrison.

So, the Beatles’ first single did become a minor hit, but it wasn’t obvious that «Love Me Do» was gonna be their first single. George Martin, the producer, was adamant that the Lennon/McCartney songs weren’t good enough, and he wanted them to release a cover song, «How Do You Do It?», as the first single (it was later released as Gerry And The Pacemakers’ first single), but George eventually got on board and gave them the thumbs up to release their own material. And who knows, this could have been a pivotal moment already in their career, cause who knows how they would have been received if it had been just another band who releases someone else’s songs…

I’m not gonna say too much about the tracks, but Love Me Do is a great song compared to everything else released around the same time. It’s not groundbreaking, but it has that little something that could easily make it my favorite song at the moment. It has a great composition, it is perfectly performed, and of course, catchy as hell. P.S. I Love You however is not one of my Beatles favorites. It’s definitively a good one, and won’t be forgotten, but it’s a more ‘’normal’’ song in the sense where that makes sense. I’m very fond of the part where John Lennon comes in and sings ‘You know I want you to remember…’ but that’s the biggest highlight of this song as well.

Anyway, the Beatles machine is up and running, the debut single is released, and a monster is let loose in this world. Love Me Do is (per 2022) their 19th best-selling single, so there are a lot of amazing songs coming, and I can’t fucking wait!

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THE CHARTS

Two new songs enter the charts this month, and none of them really does anything to convince me. The first one is Venus In Blue Jeans by Jimmy Clanton, a guy I’ve never heard about. He started his first band, Rockets, in 1956, and was one of the few white artists coming out of New Orleans at the time. He was popular among the teenage audience at the end of the ‘50s/start of the ‘60s and had his first hit in 1958 with the song Just A Dream as Jimmy Clanton and the Rockets. He has charted with a couple of songs between then and now as well, but I can’t say that this made me wanna check them out. Just A Dream is better than Venus In Blue Jeans, but none of them are great.

Frank Ifield (another guy I don’t know much about) is something as curious as an Australian-British country artist. That fact alone is enough that I want to check him out, but I can’t say that he delivers anywhere close to my expectations. I Remember You is his first hit, a pretty mediocre tune if you ask me, and I guess he was more successful as an artist in the UK and Australia. This track however did well in the US as well.

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Petter Milde

This Band Could Be Your Life