Music Blogs

It's 1964 and sex is finally being invented. The Beatles have to pretend they've never heard of it and can be content with holding hands, but plenty of other people are getting in on the ground floor of a societal shake-up of unprecedented style and scope. Forty-five years a long time and was once the speed at which "singles" spun. Back when everything was provably better, including those things that are provably worse. Somewhere there's a name for this phenomenon, but you don't actually care and neither do I. It's more fun to look at what actually happened.

Pop music was showing some signs of life for the first time in quite some time and that crazy little thing called jazz kept plugging along as well. 

25) Tuli Kupferberg--No Deposit, No Return: Beatniks might be better known in the 1950s, but they didn't just dry up and go home. Tuli, along with Ed Sanders, formed the Fugs and started messing with society. Even back then, though, bandmates made sure to have their solo careers all figured out.

24) Annette Funicello--At Bikini Beach / Annette's Pajama Party: Like the Hannah Montana of her day but with a harder name to spell, Funicello made movies where it was as if she lived on the beach. Just goes to prove, you can never sell enough "shore."

23) Bye Bye Birdie Soundtrack: Everyone likes to talk about how great this decade was and how innovative and challenging it could be. Then you look at this thing and figure, not everyone was interested in overthrowing the government. Some people just wanted to star in a musical.

22) Del Shannon--Handy Man: What these days would be known as a "latch-key" kid, Del Shannon slipped into prominence at a time when people weren't paying as much attention as before or after. So while his own music is top-notch and deserving of its sky-high praise, he often gets looked over because the Beatles were on their way to save humanity.

21) The Yardbirds--Five Live Yardbirds: Back in 1964, there was no such thing as a rock band whose guitar players mattered more than their lead singers. Keith Relf would change all that. Or would be stuck being the guy that people don't remember half as well as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, the three guys who would assume the position of "lead guitarist" for this group at some point in the 1960s.

20) Billy Preston--The Most Exciting Organ Ever: Times sure were changing when you could announce you had the most exciting organ ever. Billy was just a young kid at this point, a prodigy, a kid who could play a musical instrument. These days they'd give him a reality show and an entire entourage of annoying people to help make you hate him. Back then it was all about the love.

19) James Brown--Pure Dynamite / Showtime: James Brown was already a legend at this point and on his way to becoming far more legendary. Brown was essentially a show-er and a grow-er, so to speak.

18) Sandie Shaw--Sandie: The women don't know what the little boys understand? Teen idols have been around forever. Good teen idols are harder to explain because they do all the same things as the bad teen idols, but better. It's a bit like explaining why certain processed cheese is awesome and other stuff is junk.

17) Jan And Dean--The Little Old Lady From Pasadena: I always forget about these guys because I never did learn to surf and the Beach Boys usurped their status but in 1964 when the world was just growing accustomed to color film, these young men looked colorful and exciting and while not likely to start a riot, likely to cause problems.

16) Dusty Springfield--Dusty / A Girl Called Dusty: Here was a teen idol who would go on to artistic credibility because...she looked more serious? She sang Carole King songs? She kept her career moving for a few years when others stalled in the water? Life is full of unfair appraisals and certain people can do no wrong no matter what while others can't do anything right. Some people take their "loser" status and turn it into "winning," while others just turn it into more losing. Gordon Lightfoot had a theory on this.

15) My Fair Lady: I don't know what this is and I don't want to know. It sounds awful just looking at it. But then I've never been a Broadway kind of guy. Never liked musicals where people start singing the dialogue. Can't get into it. It's always felt like it was meant for "other people."

14) The Ronettes--Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica: If I had been in the Ronettes, I'd be pretty annoyed at how much attention "Veronica" got. I don't care if she was the most "talented." If I'm a member of a band that's pretty much groomed around her and they call the band the "Ronettes" and still have to point out that it features "Veronica," what's going to be next? She's sleeping with the producer?

13) Grachan Moncur III--Some Other Stuff: Here at List Of The Day, we always cherish the fan mail that asks for more information on Grachan Moncur III and understand your frustration when those requests turn into more info on Kings of Leon. Messages get garbled and things happen. We try. We don't always know how it happens. But quality control is on the case. When they're not drunk.

12) Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass--South Of The Border: Everyone owns a Herb Alpert album, either by accident or inheritance. Everyone puts it on in the background when they're doing something else. Which is an interesting distinction to have made about your music. "Well-liked when people are busy doing other things."

11) Simon & Garfunkel--Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.: This actually wasn't a successful album the first time around. No one had gotten around to adding drums and electric instruments to "Hello, Darkness, my old friend, it's the Sounds of Silence," so folk-rock hadn't technically been created. People were left waiting and ignoring this album that sounded like the guys involved should've been thinking about changing their names. I mean, Garfunkel? That's bad show-biz. Bring on Artie Diamond!

10) The Beach Boys--All Summer Long: Again, I was never much of a surfing kind of guy so some of this is lost on me. But I do understand sunshine and low humidity and while "Be True To Your School" doesn't strike me as being very much along my lines of thinking, "In My Room" sounds about right for when you're a teenager and the rest of the family is hogging the den.

9) Jerry Lee Lewis--Live At The Star Club, Hamburg: Jerry Lee Lewis always rocked harder than people imagined and he didn't need huge amplifiers to do it or dry ice machines. He could levitate the piano by lifting it himself and if he was spitting blood it was because he was working too hard not because he bit into the "fake blood" packets jammed between his cheek and gum.

8) Muddy Waters--Folk Singer: Muddy Waters was already a legend but it was going to take the hardcore worship of British rockers to make it official. You always need people from outside your circle to let you know that you're special. Why do think people plan on being "Big in Japan"? I'm working on solidifying my fan base in New Zealand!

7) Chuck Berry--St. Louis To Liverpool: Chuck Berry was about to watch an entire generation of British rockers steal his licks and become more famous than he ever would. He would eventually take this out on Keith Richards many years later. Can't say I blame him.

6) The Rolling Stones--England's Newest Hitmakers / 12x5: In 1964, the Rolling Stones were one of way too many British bands clogging up the music scene. They were noticeably better than Freddie and the Dreamers and not as good as the Kinks or the Animals, both whom at this point were rocking harder and playing fewer crappy covers.

5) The Kinks--The Kinks: At this point in time, the Kinks were rocking harder than the Rolling Stones, whose guitar tone wasn't nearly as good. Davies was already plotting his entrance into British "Tea Time" society but he wasn't letting anyone else know, lest he be beaten up and rolled up like an old carpet into the moving van.

4) Otis Redding--Pain In My Heart: Otis would be dead in a few short years but in 1964 he was one of the most amazing singers alive. He wasn't yet a pop sensation. "Dock of the Bay" wouldn't be a hit until he was gone. But people who looked around and sought out talent could find him out there waiting in line for something to happen.

3) Bob Dylan--The Times They Are-A Changin' / Another Side Of Bob Dylan: Was anyone really buying these albums back then? Let's face it, he does sound like a cow with his leg caught in the fence. I like that kind of thing. But then I like lots of music no one else does. I've grown accustomed to this happening. But in 1964 people wanted to buy "protest" music with six minute songs about people with names like Hollis Brown and Hattie Carroll? Man, times have been a-changin' since then. Now, people don't like nothing!

2) The Animals--The Animals: Eric Burdon was a better blues singer than Mick Jagger and that's what most of these British bands were trying to do back then--sing the blues. Had the Animals better management or a more focused "corporate" approach, there's a chance they could've bested The Rolling Stones, Ltd. and rewritten history quite dramatically.

1) The Beatles--Meet the Beatles, Second Album, Something New, A Hard Day's Night, Beatles '65: Their manager put them in suits and made it look as if they'd be content to hold hands with girls and nothing more. Never mind that the Lennon kid was already married. They managed to put out five albums in one year and a double album called The Beatles' Story that was awesome if you wanted to buy an album of other people talking about how great the group was. Lots of extra reverb was added to the records to make them more exciting. It worked.