Friday, January 23, 2009

I adore my '64

Before the next one comes out, I should mention that Scott Miller seemed to hit all the right tunes in his latest "Music: Wha'Happen?" (from 1964).



Unlike his list from the following year, he only included one Beatles track ("If I Fell", one of the fillers from A Hard Day's Night) but includes many of the other first wave British Invasion bands (Stones, Animals, Kinks, Zombies), early Beach Boys and Dylan tracks, Phil Spector songs, Motown songs by the Temptations, Four Tops, and the Supremes, even a jazz track from John Coltrane.

The entire list looks like something that would make a great CD, so I created this dozen song playlist on 8tracks.com.


1. Iko Iko - Dixie Cups
2. Secret Agent Man - Johnny Rivers
3. House Of The Rising Sun - The Animals
4. Where Did Our Love Go? - The Supremes
5. Time Is On My Side - The Rolling Stones
6. Gloria - Van Morrison & Them
7. Pink Panther Theme - Henry Mancini
8. Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss) - Betty Everett
9. Don't Worry Baby - The Beach Boys
10. She's Not There - Zombies
11. You Really Got Me - The Kinks
12. If I Fell - The Beatles



Random notes about MWH:1964

1) I knew "Iko Iko" from the Dr. John and Dead versions. Hearing the Dixie Cups version was the best thing about the movie The Big Easy.

2) For another 1964 song from an 80s movie, I would have included Manfred Mann's version of "Do Wah Diddy" (made famous in Stripes).

4) Thanks to Marc Almond, I can't listen to "Where Did Our Love Go?" without hearing it tagged onto the end of "Tainted Love", so I would've prefaced it with Gloria Jones' original version of "Tainted Love" (also from 1964).

6) Scott included "Gloria" in both his 1964 and 1965 lists. He must like the song.

7) Since I was raised on Saturday morning cartoons, I can't hear the "Pink Panther Theme" without singing the jingle from Pink Panther Flakes ("Pink Panther Flakes, are pink!"), a breakfast cereal that would turn your milk pink.

10) I tried to sing "She's Not There" at a karaoke place once. I thought it would be easy, but the chorus ("well, let me tell you 'bout the WAY SHE LOOKS!") is hard to sing. Colin Blunstone is a better singer than me.

11) Two songs on Scott's 1964 list ("You Really Got Me" and "Oh, Pretty Woman") were later covered by Van Halen. I was glad when the originals started getting more airplay than the VH covers of these songs.

2 comments:

2fs said...

Don't worry - Colin Blunstone's a better singer than most people. I heard that performance (unless you've done that one several times), and while it's true you didn't quite get the high notes, you delivered the tune with conviction and intensity. That's gotta count for something!

Anonymous said...

I think I WAS there when you sang "She's Not There" - in Columbus right? - and it remains one of the greatest karaoke performances I have ever seen. It is also possible I wasn't there but I have conjured a memory of it at your suggestion. Either way - dude, you ROCKED!