Later this company went public and John and Paul’s ownership went down another 5%, and considering that I don’t believe I will be able to follow what happens here while writing, I’m just gonna finish the story right now. Within 1966 the company had published 88 songs written by Lennon/McCartney, and there were 2900 versions of these songs, so I can only imagine that there is talk of a lot of money here already. A lot of money John and Paul won’t see.

After Epstein’s death (spoiler), and a botched attempt at renegotiating the publishing deal by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the relationship between them and Dick James soured. This resulted in James selling his part of the company to Associated Television without warning, and without Lennon and McCartney being able to bid. ATV also tried to buy out Lennon and McCartney, but they rejected it and decided to try to take ownership of the entire company themselves.

This attempt was unsuccessful. The financial muscles of ATV, and their main man Lew Grade, were too big and it all ended with ATV practically owning all the songs written by Lennon/McCartney. John and Paul kept trying to get investors involved, but that stopped after Lennon’s comment: “I’m sick to death of being fucked about by men in suits sitting on their fat arses in the City!”. Lennon and McCartney sold their shares in the company in October 1969, realizing that the battle was lost.

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In literature, a book called «Feminine Mystique», written by Betty Friedan, is published and will be an important piece of writing for the feminist movement. It gets a lot of the credit for the second wave of feminism in the US, and it quickly sold over 1 million copies. The book challenged the widely shared belief that women were content with their role as housewives. Friedan did research on this topic and found that it was not the case, so she wanted to write an article about it but ended up with a book. I haven’t read the book myself, and it’s probably not next on my reading list, but I feel like the book is important and wanted to share that it existed.

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Some good people were born this month as well, especially when it comes to sports. Michael Jordan, who will become an icon within basketball, Charles Barkley, who’s also gonna be a legend in the NBA, and a golf legend, Vijay Singh (yeah, I like golf). Musically speaking we’ve got Seal, Eva Cassidy, and Noodles, the guitar player from The Offspring.

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THE ALBUMS

The actor George Maharis released an album called «Just Turn Me Loose», and it’s not impressive. He has a nice voice though. Maharis is best known for his part in the TV show «Route 66», for which he won an Emmy in 1962. Brenda Lee, who has released a bunch of stuff since I started writing, where she’s only impressed me sporadically, is out with her new album «All Alone Am I». To be honest, I haven’t even listened to this one. I heard the single and title track All Alone Am I, and I kinda figured that was enough. Ray Coniff’s «Happy Beat» will pass by in silence, and I’m not gonna get too much into Paul Winter’s «Jazz Premiere Washington». Not because I don’t like it, but I have to cut some albums just because of the sheer amount of them.

CHICO HAMILTON QUINTET – PASSIN’ THRU

Chico (my dog is named Chico) was originally named Foreststorn. I’ve never seen or heard that name before, and I gotta admit that I’m struggling to pronounce it. I think it is the ‘s’ after Forest that fucks me up. Anyway, Chico started his career playing in bands with people like Charles Mingus and Dexter Gordon and really started to make a name for himself playing with people like Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, and Count Basie. After this journey, he was able to try out as a band leader, and he managed to get someone to release his debut in 1955. What’s unusual about Chico (at least I think so) is that he is a drummer. And if it’s not unusual, it’s at least what made me write about him and this record. The same year as he released his debut, he also started a quintet which is proclaimed to be one of the last important West Coast bands (within the jazz genre I presume).

I hadn’t heard about Chico until I played his album, «Passin’ Thru», and even though it still takes me some time to realize if I like certain jazz albums or not, I’d say this one sat right with me pretty quickly. They have a cool vibe going that makes me want to set this album on repeat and just lay down and listen. It’s also pretty refreshing, and weird, with the flute solos.

I wouldn’t say that Chico is the best drummer in the world, but the quintet he has assembled for this is, if not the best in the world, at least really good at what they’re doing. Check out the title track, Passin’ Thru, and Transfusion for a little taste. But I recommend listening to this from beginning to end to understand why I like it.

MCOY TYNER TRIO – REACHING FOURTH

McCoy joined John Coltrane’s quartet in 1960 and will be a part of multiple legendary Coltrane albums. From 1961 he will almost constantly be on tour with Coltrane, but amidst all this Coltrane stuff he’ll record some solo albums as well. «Reaching Fourth» is one of them. I missed his debut album, «Inception», and listening to «Reaching Fourth» made me realize that I should check it out.

Tyner is mentioned in multiple places as being one of the most influential jazz pianists of all time, and even though I can’t weigh in on that, I gotta say that there is something to him that makes him a lot cooler to listen to than the other pianists I’ve checked out so far. And this is only his second album, so he might even get better. It’s also said that he is very inspired by his time with John Coltrane, which I can only see as a good thing.

I think the reason I like this album as much as I do is because of the flow, that it sounds awesome, and that it’s plain and simply a delight to listen to. I’m still not sure what appeals to me in jazz music. It’s just that some things are easier to listen to than others, and that’s where McCoy Tyner is. Just check out his self-composed tracks Reaching Fourth and Blues Back.

JOHN LEE HOOKER – DON’T TURN ME FROM YOUR DOOR

From the beginning of the ‘40s to the end of the ‘50s, Hooker released loads of music that all sold well. He released classics like Crawling King Snake, In The Mood, and Shake Holler And Run. But John Lee wasn’t happy with how he was compensated and decided to release music using pseudonyms. Not just a couple, but many; John Lee Booker (pretty obvious), John Lee Cooker (also pretty obvious), Johnny Williams, Delta John, Sir John Lee Hooker (this one shouldn’t have worked, right?), Little Pork Chops, Texas Slim, Birmingham Sam, Boogie Man, etc. He finally got out of the contract at Modern Records in 1955 and started releasing music at Vee Jay Records, a record company he would work with for a long time. The success continued at Vee Jay, and together with great record sales, the tours followed. With hits like Dimples, Maudie, and Boom Boom his reputation kept growing, and at the start of the ‘60s, he even started touring internationally.

The albums I’ve listened to so far in the ‘60s however, haven’t been able to convince me. I’ve even thought that they were incredibly boring, and kinda started to wonder why the hell this guy has managed to make such a good name for himself. But that was before I listened to «Don’t Turn Me From Your Door». I like how it’s so minimalistic and chill. There’s so much soul and heart in this album, and if you pair that with some great songwriting skills, well, then you’ve got yourself a recipe for something good. It could be because it’s a compilation as well of course. I like the opening track Stuttering Blues, the instrumental Misbelieving Baby, and Drifting Blues, and there are a lot of others that deserve a mention as well.

Considering that this is a compilation without his biggest hits, I guess there are a lot of gems I haven’t heard yet. So I probably shouldn’t write John Lee Hooker off just yet.

BOBBY DARIN – YOU’RE THE REASON I’M LIVING

I would say that Bobby Darin is best known for his 1959 hit, Dream Lover, but he’s got some other hits that are worth mentioning, like Splish Splash (his first hit) and Queen Of The Hop. But Bobby isn’t cool enough to become a favorite of mine. He was seen as a so-called teen idol but considered himself a serious artist and songwriter. He supposedly said that he was gonna become bigger than Sinatra, so even though he shouldn’t have been, he was pretty cocky (spoiler alert: he never became bigger than Sinatra). He did, however, manage the feat of receiving an Academy Award nomination for his part in the movie «Capt. Newman, M.D.», so he could have figured that he was on his way to superstardom.

He did rid himself of the ‘teen idol’ moniker when he started to record songs that were more big band-oriented, though not with the same crooner approach as Frank Sinatra. He did get a couple of gigs in Las Vegas though, and a couple of minor hits like Clementine and Artificial Flowers with his new sound, but it never really blew up.

When the single You’re The Reason I’m Living became a hit, the idea for this album came to life. «You’re The Reason I’m Living» (the album) is packed with country songs accompanied by a big band. Dean Martin did something similar last month, but I believe that I like Bobby’s effort better. He does some good versions of songs like Sally Was A Good Old Girl (Harlan Howard), Oh, Lonesome Me (Don Gibson), (I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle (Hank Williams), It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin’ (Johnny Tillotson), and Under Your Spell Again (Buck Owens), and one of the two self-composed ones, Now You’re Gone, is probably the best cut on the album.

Let’s be real though, this isn’t gonna end up as the best album of the year, but I was surprised at how much I liked it. So Bobby deserves some recognition for that.

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Pete Seeger has released a kid’s album called «Children’s Concert At City Hall». I guess I decided to mention this one because I’m trying to figure out what kind of music my son likes at the moment. He hasn’t shown any interest in this one, but I would say that this is a lot better than most of the music aimed at kids nowadays.

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THELONIOUS MONK – MONK’S DREAM

Thelonious Sphere Monk is a jazz pianist who is considered one of the most influential pianists of all time in jazz music. He is said to be brilliant and original, as well as being one of the best composers of the century.

That intro should probably be enough, but I think I can keep going a bit longer. Thelonious started playing piano at the age of six and started playing in bands at the end of the ’30s when he was roughly twenty years old. After playing with the likes of Coleman Hawkins and Dizzy Gillespie at the start of the ’40s, he started running his own bands at the end of the same decade. And together with Art Blakey they/he started creating music that has served as teaching books for future generations. For example Round Midnight which has become one of the most recorded jazz cuts in history, as well as Ruby My Dear, Well You Needn’t, and In Walked Bud have all become standards with time.

And just now it’s dawning on me that some of these jazz dudes at the start of the ’60s, were the first punk rockers, the first rock stars, the first to dare to make the music their own. At this time people (most of them) just created music from what others had done before, but guys like Thelonious composes, creates, and experiment. This is soul, this is feeling, this is a goddamn beating heart. I’m listening to Bright Mississippi as I’m writing this, but the thought process started at the beginning with Monk’s Dream and continues throughout the album. When I started this project, writing about music from 1960, I considered jazz to be a black hole. A genre it was impossible to figure out, and something that I wouldn’t dare to talk about. But after listening through almost four years worth of jazz (probably missed a lot of good shit), it feels like I might be starting to get a tiny grasp of what this is all about.

And Monk, even though this is the first album of his I’m writing about, should get a lot of credit for helping me figure out what I think I just figured out. I mean, jazz is still a bitch, but at least it’s starting to make sense. The music these guys make has demanded space in my head and my heart. It’s been a long journey already, but I guess it’s only just beginning as well.

BARBRA STREISAND – THE BARBRA STREISAND ALBUM

Barbra Streisand, i.e., Babura, Mecha-Streisand, wanted to be an actress, but because of the lack of opportunity, she decided to sign up for a talent show at The Lion, a gay club in New York. She sang, she won, and she got to play live at The Lion which resulted in more bookings at other clubs, and eventually an engagement at Bon Soir. After that followed some appearances in off-Broadway musicals, and not long after she released her debut album (this one) on Columbia Records.

It took her roughly two weeks to become the biggest-selling female artist in the US, and we’ve been stuck with this woman ever since. I’ve already kinda mentioned that she’s been immortalized as Babura and Mecha-Streisand (in South Park), and I’m not gonna pretend that I’m a bigger fan of her than Matt Stone and Trey Parker are. But I don’t share the same hate as they apparently have for her, so I’m gonna give this album a fair chance.

But seriously, there’s no chance in hell that I that I’m ever gonna like this album. Barbra, with her distinct vocals, feels like an ice pick hammered into my ears. And songs like Cry Me A River, Happy Days Are Here Again, and Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf make me think that I’m listening to a musical from rural Alberta. I just can’t take it. But like I said, she had big success with this album. It just didn’t sell like crazy, she even won two Grammys (Best Album and Best Female Vocalist). So yeah, even though I can’t stand it, she’s probably doing something right.

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A guy called Carl Butler released an album called «Don’t Let Me Cross Over», and even though I kinda like it I’m not gonna say much about it. The title track Don’t Let Me Cross Over is really good though. He’s a country dude, and if you’re into the traditional kind, then this album is worth checking out.

Art Blakey started out as a pianist but eventually ended up behind the drum set. He played with the legendary Billy Eckstine band that included Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk. That band sounds fucking amazing! And even though Art has been an important part of jazz history, I couldn’t find time for his latest release, «Caravan». It’s a good record, but lacking that little something.

Bill Henderson, a jazz vocalist, recorded an album with the Oscar Peterson Trio, «Bill Henderson With The Oscar Peterson Trio» (zero points for effort on the title), and while it’s an ok listen, it’s just gonna get a mention here. I do enjoy their version of You Are My Sunshine, and some other cuts as well, but that’s about it. Bill released some records during the sixties, but I’m not so sure that I’ll get back to him as his career seems to go into hiatus as he goes on to become an actor or something.

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BUDDY HOLLY – REMINISCING

It doesn’t matter that Buddy Holly has been dead for about four years, cause death has never stopped any man from releasing music. And yeah, this might be a compilation, but there are still some unreleased tracks on here, so it’s not just a bunch of songs everyone has heard before.

Buddy Holly’s career actually just spanned a mere 18 months in the late ‘50s. And he became an icon in rock’n’roll, a legend that will never die, and a source of inspiration for a multitude of musicians to come. Just thinking about that gives me goosebumps from head to toe. Seriously, a guy who was known by the rest of the world for no more than a year and a half managed to make such an impression that his legacy will probably live on forever. That’s pretty god damn insane. Of course, the fact that he died in a plane crash, only 22 years old, when most rock stars fucked themselves up with drugs and alcohol, makes him even more special. The impact at the time he died was also massive, and the fact that no white rock’n’roller of significance had died before was also devastating to the kids who loved him, and probably only helped to lift Buddy into the superstardom he has enjoyed since then. There was a guy called Johnny Ace who died in ‘54, but he shot himself backstage in a game of Russian roulette, so I guess he falls into the same category as other young rock stars who will pass away in the coming years.

Charles Hardin Holley started out playing music as a young kid, and by the time he was fifteen, he could play guitar, banjo, mandolin, violin, and piano. He was the musical prodigy in his family, and by that time he had formed a duo with his friend, Bob Montgomery. Buddy And Bob was a bluegrass duo that became popular in and around Lubbock, Texas, where Buddy was born, and eventually ended up with their own program at a radio station called KDAV. They mostly performed country material but occasionally performed an R&B track by artists like Hank Ballard. They even ended up as the opening act for Elvis Presley when he played the area around Lubbock in early 1955, and some say that that’s when Buddy Holly decided he wanted to play rock’n’roll.

By 1956 the duo had turned into a group, adding Larry Welborn on bass and Jerry Alisson on drums, and was ready for their first professional recording session at Decca Records in Nashville. They cut songs like Midnight Shift and Rock Around With Ollie Vee, but nothing really came of it. After Decca’s rejection (Decca rejected both Buddy Holly and The Beatles, just sayin’), Buddy and his band (now with Niki Sullivan on rhythm guitar) met up with a guy called Normann Petty who had a studio down in New Mexico. Here they started recording the songs from the Decca session that Petty felt were the most promising ones, and what turned out to be the best one was That’ll Be The Day. Petty started to shop around for labels, and ended up at Coral Records, a subsidiary of Decca, with a guy called Bob Thiele who saw the record as a potential hit. A lot of legal mumbo jumbo happened, and the song ended up being released on the Brunswick label, and credited to The Crickets.

After That’ll Be The Day ended up topping the charts in the US and the UK, Buddy Holly ended up with two record contracts. One as Buddy Holly with Coral, and another with The Crickets at Brunswick. Petty was now his, and theirs, manager and producer, and managed to snatch up a lot of songwriting credits along the way. This was not taken care of until long after Holly’s death when Paul McCartney bought Buddy’s publishing catalog from a bankrupt Petty, and it wasn’t until then Holly’s family saw money from the work Buddy had done. A terrible story, but not uncommon in the music business back then.

Buddy Holly and The Crickets went on to release tracks like Not Fade Away, Everyday, Listen To Me, Oh Boy!, Peggy Sue, Maybe Baby, Words Of Love, I’m Gonna Love You Too, It’s Too Late, Send Me Some Lovin’, Rave On, Heartbeat, and It’s So Easy, to mention some, and their popularity grew. They appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, toured the UK, appeared on some TV shows on the island, and got immensely popular in the UK. Much more so than in the US. After extensive touring, the relationship with The Crickets turned sour, and they eventually went their separate ways. Buddy moved to New York with his wife Maria Holly (born Maria Elena Santiago) where he recorded a bunch of demos supposedly meant to be recorded again in a studio later, but Buddy Holly’s plane crashed as he traveled with his new band on the «Winter Dance Party» tour, and a brilliant young man was taken away from everyone.

«Reminiscing» is one of the first post-humously released albums by Buddy Holly. Norman Petty took Holly’s demos and got the band The Fireballs to play along with them. The finished product is a great rock/rockabilly album that does Buddy Holly justice in every way. It’s packed with great songs like the title track Reminiscing, Slippin’ And Slidin’, Bo Diddley, Brown Eyed Handsome Man, and the self-penned Baby Won’t You Come Out Tonight, I’m Gonna Set My Foot Down, Changing All Those Changes, and Rock-A-Bye-Rock. All in all a pretty excellent album well worth having in your collection.

DUKE ELLINGTON, MAX ROACH, CHARLIE MINGUS – MONEY JUNGLE

I stumbled upon this album a while back when I was writing about ‘61 or something, and I immediately wrote it down in my notebook to make sure I didn’t miss it. Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach are some pretty heavy-hitting names in jazz, so the fact that they made an album together almost made me drool. And now the time has finally come, it’s released, and it doesn’t disappoint.

Ever since its release the album has gotten great reviews, and as with many others, the reviews have gotten better with time. By now it’s fair to say that this album has influenced a bunch of artists, not only because it is a great album, but also because of the difference in playing styles and the amount of freedom of individual expression. The generational gap is also worth mentioning, as Duke is 63 years old and the others have barely reached 40. Not that age ever matters, but still, it could create some interesting problems. Like the fight Duke and Charles had, that ended with Charles leaving the studio. But then again, that could happen to anyone.

I would say that this album brings me back to my statement that some of these jazz guys were the first punk rockers. The way this album is recorded, and how rough and unscripted it sounds, would be evidence enough to back that up. And the fact that they just don’t follow the rules set by the pop industry on anything from structure and form, from melody to vibe. And I kinda love it.

Out of the three gentlemen, there’s only Max Roach who hasn’t gotten much attention from me yet, but he is said to be one of the most influential jazz drummers in history. He has worked with people like Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and Dinah Washington, and has released a bunch of records as a leader or co-leader. And just considering the fact that he’s the drummer of choice for this album with Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus speaks volumes.

I’m a big fan of this album and would recommend it highly. A great piece of jazz history, and as punk rock as it gets in 1963. Check out tracks like Caravan, Wig Wise, Fleurette Africaine, and the opener Very Special to get a feel for it.

SAM COOKE – MR. SOUL

Sam Cooke seems to be doing all the right things business-wise at the moment. He started his own record company, SAR Records, in 1961, he has started his own publishing and management firm called Kags Music, and he has negotiated a deal at RCA Records that looks pretty solid. In his personal life though, he has suffered some loss that anyone could do without. In 1958 his ex-wife was killed in a car accident, and later this year his son, barely two years old, will drown in the family swimming pool. I can’t even imagine what that can do to a parent.

His music is thriving, however. Sam has been focused on singles during his career, and he’s had a string of Top 40 hits since 1957, but his albums haven’t really been all that. «Twistin’ The Night Away» has been his best-selling album so far and by far the best in my opinion, but the others I’ve written about have lacked a lot when it comes to the material. His distinctive vocals filled with soul and passion are top-notch, but that alone has never been able to impact the albums with sub-par material and has actually been kind of a disappointment.

«Mr. Soul» is yet another one of those albums. It shows that the people in charge (or maybe it is Sam himself) are aiming at something that doesn’t work very well for him. The crooner/soul persona that is on display here, a kind of Nat King Cole type, just doesn’t do him justice. And again it is the material that drags him down. Cause he sounds amazing, don’t get me wrong. But tracks like Willow Weep For Me, These Foolish Things, and I Wish You Love are just wasted on Sam Cooke. Then again, this isn’t all bad. Send Me Some Lovin’, Chains Of Love, All The Way, and Nothing Can Change This Love are tracks that shine with Sam Cooks’s beautiful voice. And the track Cry Me A River, which Barbra Streisand also recorded for her album last month, works a lot better for him than it did for her at least.

So yeah, this album doesn’t become much more than a footnote in Sam’s career, and I would choose any of his singles released earlier any day of the week. But damn, he does sound great.

DIONNE WARWICK – PRESENTING DIONNE WARWICK

Like so many others, Dionne started in gospel music. She sang in a gospel group, the Drinkard Singers, that her mother managed, and formed a group called the Gospelaires with her sister, Dee Dee, and her aunt, Cissy Houston (soon to be the mother of Whitney Houston) before they started to appear as backing singers for artists like The Drifters and Garnet Mimms. It was through that kind of work she got her first record contract at Scepter Records, and also how she got in contact with the songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Her first single, Don’t Make Me Over, written by the songwriting duo, was released last month and it really opened my eyes to this artist.

Dionne started her career with a bang with the release of her debut album, «Presenting Dionne Warwick». It’s a gem of an album with great tracks all around. Bacharach and David continue to write songs that fit perfectly with Dionne and have written three-quarters of the songs incorporated on the album. Dionne excels on every single one of the songs and proves to be a vocalist at the very top of the bunch. Her debut single is included and shines as one of the best cuts, but believe me, there are so many other great songs here; This Empty Place, Wishin’ and Hopin’, Make The Music Play, It’s Love That Really Counts, I Smiled Yesterday, and Make It Easy On Yourself are among the absolute best ones, and the rest are not far behind. Which makes this album fucking great.

An obvious contender for album of the year, even though we’ve only reached February, but come on, it’s not every day I get to hear such quality as this. Love it!

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The Four Seasons’ «Big Girls Don’t Cry And 12 Other Hits» is built around their second #1 hit Big Girls Don’t Cry and contains a lot of cover songs. I’m not a big fan of this band, but the album has its moments. Silhouettes is ok, and Walk Like A Man is easy to sing along to.

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IKE & TINA TURNER – DON’T PLAY ME CHEAP

Ike & Tina Turner is a massive success when it comes to live music, with their raw, hard-driven, funky soul and rock music. A Tina Turner never stops moving and mesmerizes their audience with her powerful and energetic singing. An Ike who has his band on a tight leash and never misses a beat. Showing up with a revue that blows everyone away. They still struggle with their album sales. They’ve released some singles that have charted well, and a couple of million-sellers too, but with the nomad approach to labels, never finding a home, it has been difficult for them to really find their groove. I have liked almost everything they have released so far though (except the last instrumental one), and the fact that reviewers and sales say otherwise, won’t stop me from cheering them on.

Ike grew up in Clarksdale, Mississippi, a racist town. When he was a child, his father was abducted by a white man who beat him so badly that he died from his injuries when he was rejected at an all-white hospital. This sound god damn awful of course, and completely unthinkable in Norway in 2024. But this was what it was like in the US back then, and I guess it still is in some sense. However, he might not have been rejected at the hospital.

Tina Turner grew up as Anna Mae Bullock in a place called Nutbush, Tennesse with her parents. But they apparently left her at some point, leaving the responsibility of raising her to her grandparents. When her mom separated from her father and moved to St. Louis, Tina, who was in high school at the time, joined her there and eventually met Ike Turner.

«Don’t Play Me Cheap» looks to be Ike & Tina’s fourth album and even though it might not be their best so far, and they’re probably still trying to figure out their thing, it has some cuts I really enjoy, like Wake Up, Mama Tell Him, the title track Don’t Play Me Cheap, The Real Me (written by Curtis Mayfield), and My Everything To Me. The album is a good mix of ballads and more pulsating R&B numbers, and Ike has penned most of the tracks himself. Like I said though, not their best, but still pretty good.

THE CRYSTALS – HE’S A REBEL

The Crystals pretty much blew me away with their #1 single, He’s A Rebel. Funnily enough, it wasn’t the group themselves that recorded this song, but a session group named The Blossoms (as I wrote about when they released the single). The Crystals was one of Phil Spector’s first successful groups and the first act that signed to his Phillies Records.

The girls formed the group back in Brooklyn in 1961 and met Phil Spector in New York while auditioning. They released three singles before reaching the top of the charts, starting with There’s No Other (Like My Baby) which stopped at #20, continuing with Uptown (#13), and then their song called He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss) which was denied airplay because of the songs violent implications in the title and lyrics. All three are added to their debut album.

Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound is in its early stages here, but it really shines through already. The album has a great sound and a lot of great tracks, but for some reason, it doesn’t manage to be all that it could be. Other than the tracks mentioned, I guess I would only recommend He’s Sure The Boy I Love. And even more exciting than The Crystal’s debut album, is the rise of Phil Spector’s producing career. He might be a crazy mother fucker, but I guess that hasn’t surfaced just yet, so I’ll cut him some slack for now.

THE MARVELETTES – THE MARVELOUS MARVELETTES

The Marvels, as they were called when they auditioned for Motown, was started by 15-year-old Gladys Horton together with four friends from Inkster High School in Inkster, Michigan, on the outskirts of Detroit. Their debut single from 1961, Please Mr. Postman, was co-written by Gladys Horton as she got the song from her neighbor, and became Motown’s first #1 pop record. They have done pretty well for themselves since then as well with plenty of charting singles.

The Marvelettes was also a band that had more success with their singles than with their albums. Mostly because their albums were rushed to capitalize on a single, which meant that other than the single the material wasn’t all that. «The Marvelous Marvelettes», however, is a collection of singles (four to be exact) that has done well, paired with some new tunes that work pretty well.

We’re reunited with the hit single Strange I Know, their newest single, Locking Up My Heart, and other good tracks like Silly Boy, My Daddy Knows Best, and Too Strong To Be Strung Along. I’d say that this is a good collection of Marvelettes tunes, and could as well be their best album so far.

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WILLIE NELSON – HERE’S WILLIE NELSON

(unknown release date)

Good old Willie seemed to be on the rise at the start of his career in the early ‘60s. After he was invited to tour with Ray Price as a part of his touring band, the Cherokee Cowboys, things started to happen for this aspiring artist as multiple artists recorded his songs and charted with them. He even formed his own touring band and scored a couple of hits himself with the tracks Willingly and Touch Me. His debut album, which I wrote about back in September 1962, was a good start in my opinion, and I felt like Willie was gonna start strong as hell from there on.

«Here’s Willie Nelson» does not paint the same picture, unfortunately. It’s not bad, but maybe more mundane? The material is ok I guess, it just never really seems to get going. I do like a couple of his self-penned tracks, like Half A Man and Second Fiddle. Other than that I can’t really hear any stand-out tracks.

And as it happens, Willie will struggle a bit from here on. He’ll still produce some charting singles, but they will be below the Top 40. However, the fact that his chart position isn’t all that and that other people don’t like it is not proof. So I guess I’ll see for myself when he releases new music. I believe in Willie, as we all should.

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The Norwegian band The Monn Keys, are out with their second album since I started writing, and they’re still not for me. It feels pretty ancient in the ‘60s, but I guess it’s too much to ask for from a small country like Norway that they would be able to know what’s going on out there. «The Monn-Keys» spent nine weeks on the Norwegian chart, and that’s about as much as I’m gonna say about this album.

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THE ORLONS – ALL THE HITS BY THE ORLONS

(unknown release date)

The Orlons have had three major hits since they started releasing music in 1961, but according to Allmusic.com, they released four ‘Best Of’ albums in 1963. I’m not sure that three hit singles warrant that, but I guess someone did. The three hit singles in question are The Wah-Watusi, Don’t Hang Up, and South Street. The first one is a sort-of novelty song about a dance (cause of the dance craze that might actually be over), «Don’t Hang Up» is a classic, and the latter is pretty good.

What’s funny about this compilation though, is that they’ve only added one of their own hits (the classic). Other than that it’s all cover songs that The Orlons hasn’t charted with at all. We’ve got He’s A Rebel by The Crystals, Big Girls Don’t Cry by The Four Seasons, Stubborn Kinda Fellow by Marvin Gaye, and so on. They do alright versions of all the songs, and I guess the title of the album is meant to describe the fact that The Orlons sing hits, not that The Orlons sing all their own hits. I still think that a cheap way to market this album, and you can color me unimpressed.

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Jim Waller & The Deltas released their one and only album, «Surfin’ Wild», sometime in 1963, and as you can guess by the title it’s a surf rock album. It’s not bad, but it’s not that interesting either.

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THE SINGLES

The Shadows evolved out of a group called the Five Chestnuts to become Cliff Richard’s backing band the Drifters. By 1958 the line-up was complete, and they changed their name to the Shadows. They transformed from being a backing band to establishing themselves as artists in their own right when they knocked Cliff Richard off the top spot on the UK chart with their single Apache. Since then they have produced lots of hits, and their new single Foot Tapper made it to #1 in the UK and and #5 in Norway, to mention a couple of chart positions. The track was written for a French filmmaker and his new movie, but the film was delayed and they ended up releasing it as a single after it was added as a background track in a scene in the movie «Summer Holiday» (in which the Shadows had a small role). The B-side, The Breeze And I, was written and released by the Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona under the name Andalucia in 1928.

There are a lot of artists out there who put all of their effort into releasing great singles, and Roy Orbison seems to be one of them. Cause so far his albums have been kinda mediocre, but he keeps on releasing great singles. I’m not sure if that’s on purpose for him though, but it definitively seems like it. In Dreams does at least prove that he knows how to make great songs, and it will eventually rise to #7 on the pop charts. Roy has perfected the doom-laden ballad format, songs that might actually make you cry, and his voice is made for the kind of music he produces. I could talk in length about how remarkable his singing voice is, but I guess anyone can hear that by listening to this song. In Dreams, like other songs he has written, doesn’t follow the usual structure with verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus, but instead takes us on a journey where no part is exactly the same. Another great track from ‘The Big O’! It is paired with the B-side Shahdaroba, which is not written by the man himself, but it still suits him perfectly.

A band that used to call themselves the Supremes released their first hit single, Our Day Will Come, as Ruby and the Romantics. The single will rise to the top of the charts at some point this year, and it’s a fairly good love song/ballad. The band changed their name to Ruby and the Romantics when Ruby Nash Curtis joined the line-up and the band signed with the New York label Kapp.

I believe I wrote about Dick & Dee Dee’s first hit single, «The Mountain’s High», back in 1961, and if I remember correctly, I wasn’t a big fan. The singer/songwriter duo met while in high school and started to perform together. They will be successful up until the mid-‘60s, and their latest single, «Young And In Love», does sit better with me than the first one I heard.

When Martha Reeves started working as a secretary at Motown Records, her Detroit group, the Del-Phis, was offered a one-off single release at one of Motown’s subsidiary labels, Melody. The group was renamed the Vels for the release, but the single flopped. They did, however, get a second chance and released the song I’ll Have To Let Him Go in 1962, when Mary Wells, who was supposed to record it, didn’t show up for the session. At this point, they had been renamed Martha And The Vandellas and did mostly backing work for other Motown artists. They can be heard on Marvin Gaye’s Stubborn Kinda Fellow, just to mention one. But from now on, after their latest release Come And Get These Memories hits the Top 30, their days as a backing group are over. The song is written by the songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland, and this relationship will be the start of something great for Martha And The Vandellas. I like the song quite a lot.

While Martha And The Vandellas got their breakthrough at Motown this month, The Supremes are still struggling to get into the charts. Their newest single, My Heart Can’t Take It No More, does chart at something called the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, but it doesn’t seem like that was such a big deal. The Supremes started singing together in their teens back in Detroit and were originally called the Primettes. In 1961 they signed with Motown and so far they haven’t had any significant success.

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UNKNOWN RELEASE DATE

«The Pink Panther» movie starring David Niven and Peter Sellers will be set for release later this year, and Henry Mancini’s score creates the soundtrack to the film. The Pink Panther Theme was the only single from the soundtrack, and has followed the Pink Panther through decades. The theme is easily recognized and I believe everyone born before the ‘90s knows this tune well. Henry Mancine received nominations for the Grammy Awards for Best Album or Original Score, and Best Pop Instrumental Performance. The album was also nominated for an Academy Award for the best score. I believe the last time I wrote about Mancini was when he released the soundtrack to «Breakfast At Tiffany’s», and from what I remember, that one had some major success as well. I guess it’s fair to say that Henry knows how to put music to films.

Stranger Cole is a Jamaican singer nicknamed Stranger by his family because they thought he didn’t resemble any of them. He had his breakthrough as a songwriter but started his own career as an artist in 1962. Rough And Tough is his debut single and according to Wikipedia, he was successful with it. Stranger is one of the pioneers in ska music, and even though I haven’t heard about him, I’m looking forward to seeing what he can bring to the table. Rough And Tough is at least a promising start.

The second Norwegian act I get to write about is the one and only Wenche Myhre. She’s gonna become one of Norway’s biggest international artists even though she kinda just sings show tunes (the genre is called ‘slager’ in Norwegian, and can be translated to ‘hits’, but that doesn’t cover what this is). Keep in mind that when I say international, it mostly involves Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. She got her first recording contract from the producers Arne Bendiksen and Egil Monn-Iversen (from the band The Monn Keys) when she was thirteen years old, and her debut single was Åh, det er søndag (a Norwegian version of Don Gibson’s Oh, Lonesome Me). But in 1963 she released her first gold single (gold in Norway is not the same as gold in the US. I believe gold in Norway is around 20.000 copies sold), «Gi meg en cowboy til mann», and it’s a fun song, I guess. I’ve never been a fan of Wenche Myhre’s music, but I dearly appreciate her for her grand career and all that she has achieved here in Norway.

Hush, Little Baby a nursing rhyme from which Inez & Charlie Foxx created their latest single, Mocking Bird. And given the fact that it might come off as a novelty song, I would say that it’s pretty damn good. The rhythm and the way they sing this one are really cool, and almost make me want to dance, so I gotta give credit where credit is due. This is the brother/sister duo’s debut single and it did pretty well on some charts around the world. Artists like Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, and Etta James will at some point cover this song, and it will end up as being the Foxx’s biggest hit.

The Maytals started their recording career in 1963, but it isn’t very easy to figure out which single was released when, so I just decided to start with Six And Seven Books Of Moses, which is coupled with the B-side, Fly Butterfly. The Maytals will go on to become one of the most important groups coming out of Jamaica, and they will be instrumental in the rise of reggae music. This single is a good introduction to the band, and while it might not be the best songs I’ve ever heard, they are still pretty cool. Especially if you like ska music. I’m not gonna write too much about The Maytals just yet, cause I haven’t really got much information about these early years, but I’ll get back to that in due time.

And then there’s this guy, Otis Redding. A legend in the making. I realize that I missed four singles from Otis, so I gotta mention them all here. She’s All Right was released in 1960 by Otis Redding and The Shooters, and it’s a great fucking tune that should have made him a star right away. Just listen to that voice, that rhythm! The single was paired with The Shooters’ Tuff Enuff. Gettin’ Hip / Gamma Lama was also released in 1960, and is a bit more rock’n’roll than I would’ve expected. Both songs are cool, and it’s interesting to hear Otis Redding in this way. His voice is actually amazing for this kind of music as well, but he still sounds a lot better when he is mesmerizing me with soul music.

In 1961 he released Gamma Lama as a single but with the new title, Shout Bamalama, paired with the B-side Fat Gal. The B-side is another rock’n’roll song that works quite well, even though it might be a bit more generic. These Arms Of Mine, released in 1962, brings Otis onto the soul track and closer to what has made him a legend. The B-side, Hey, Hey Baby is more rockabilly than anything else and might be the track that I like the least of the Otis tracks that I’ve missed. No matter though, cause the fact that his career has started is more than enough.

I’ll start him off in 1963 with the song That’s What My Heart Needs, and it’s a beautiful one. It’s as soulful as it can get, and I’m finding it hard not to brand him as the king of soul already. But seriously, his singing voice is one of the best I’ve ever heard, and it really gets to shine on this here track. Can’t fucking wait to see what he has in store for us in the years to come.

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THE CHARTS

Johnny Thunder enters the Top 10 this month with his one and only Top 40 hit. The song in question is Loop De Loop, which feels like a mix between novelty and pop. It’s not necessarily my cup of tea, but it’s not terrible. Gil Hamilton is his given name, and he started singing in church and on street corners in his youth, and after a move to New York, he sang with The Drifters (when they were touring) and did some backup singing for artists like Dionne Warwick. But even though this is his only real hit, there are some rumors that he might release a pretty good song in 1969. I guess I’ll figure that out soon enough.

It feels like I’ve written about Up On The Roof by The Drifters before, but I didn’t when it was released in September 1962, and a quick search through my site didn’t amount to anything either. So I guess it’s fair that it gets some attention here since it has broken into the Top 10. The Drifters has had it going on for a while now, and they’ve been changing their line-up pretty consistently, but so far that hasn’t had the negative effect one would expect. Since Ben E. King left, and Rudy Lewis took over, they have released at least one good album and had maybe a couple Top 10 hits. And they continue in that direction with «Up On The Roof». The song was written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin and has been somewhat lauded for its lyrics. In 1980 Rolling Stone Magazine said this about the lyrics: «From the internal rhyme of ‘stairs’ and ‘cares’ to the image of ascending from the street to the stars by way of an apartment staircase, it’s first-rate, sophisticated writing.

Ruby Baby was originally recorded by The Drifters back in 1956, and it peaked at #10 on the R&B chart. Now it’s Dion’s time to take it into the Top 10, but this time in the so-called pop chart. Dion has had a great career so far, starting out with Dion and The Belmonts and then making waves as a solo artist. Ruby Baby is another good song from this guy, and he has certainly impressed me so far.

COUNTRY CHART

Jim Reeves almost signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in his youth (he played three years for their farmer team), but his baseball career was cut short when he severed his sciatic nerve while pitching. After his sports career ended he started focusing on music and scored his two first gold records in 1953 with Mexican Joe and Bimbo. In 1955 he joined the Grand Ole Opry and started recording for RCA Records, and in 1957 he had an enormous hit with Four Walls which crossed over into the pop chart and became a template for his future work. His newest addition to the charts is Is This Me, hitting #3 this month, and it’s a pretty good country ballad.

Patsy Cline goes to #8 with Leavin’ On Your Mind which again showcases just how good Patsy is at what she’s doing. The song was originally recorded by a Canadian singer, Joyce Smith, but it did not chart as well as Patsy’s version. This will be Patsy Cline’s last single before she passes in a plane crash, and luckily for her, it’s a good one. It didn’t necessarily do very well on the charts (except for this one), but the song is now considered a country classic.

Not What I Had In Mind is George Jones’ addition to this month’s chart, and it will only go as high as #7. George had his first country #1 with White Lightning in 1959, and has released songs like Tender Years (his second #1), The Window Up Above, She Thinks I Still Care, and Who Shot Sam?. George Jones is a dull-looking country legend, and his career will be somewhat of a sideshow at some point, so I would dare to say that there’s a lot of entertainment to come from this guy.

The last addition to the country chart is Ray Price’s Walk Me To The Door. It’s not as good as the others, and even though I really like the last album of his I wrote about, I gotta say that I’m not a big fan of this one.

R&B CHART

Jan Bradley hits #8 on the R&B chart this month with the Curtis Mayfield penned Mama Didn’t Lie. After graduating, Jan auditioned for Curtis Mayfield and recorded the song Wet Girls (also written by Mayfield) which became a regional hit in the Midwest. Mama Didn’t Lie was released nationally by Chess Records, and after the single’s success, Chess and Mayfield got into a legal battle over the publishing rights, which resulted in Jan Bradley not being able to work with Curtis anymore. As a result, she would never score a bigger hit than this, and she stopped making music in the early ‘70s.

Rhythm Of The Rain by The Cascades did one better and ended at #7, but if it really is a better song I am not so sure. I’ve come to like both of them, but I do believe that Mama Didn’t Lie is the cooler one. Of course, where Jan Bradley delivers a more up-tempo pop/R&B tune, The Cascades serves up a ballad, so I guess that’s a good reason why I like Jan’s song better. But Rhythm Of The Rain is a nice song about heartbreak that is easy to be caught singing along to. In addition to the R&B chart the single also went to #3 on the Hot 100 chart, #1 on the easy listening chart, top 5 in the UK, #1 in Ireland, #1 in Canada, and #2 in Australia, so I guess it could be called a hit song. It is also the group’s best-known song.

I’m not sure if he still is, but Bobby Bland was illiterate when he got into music, and because of that, he was fucked over when signing his recording deal with Duke Records, getting only a third of what was common in royalties. I don’t know if this hiccup was taken care of later, but it’s at least another time the record industry has taken advantage of great artists. Bobby Bland’s first hit was called Farther Up The Road and was released in 1957, and the one he’s charting with this month is called Call On Me. The song is great, but it didn’t lock on straight away. It will peak at #6 on the chart and is a good testament to Bobby as the great artist he is.

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Petter Milde

This Band Could Be Your Life