HITS OF THE SIXTIES!! (VOLUME 2)

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Back in the 1960s, I listened to my transistor radio all day long. All of these songs became the soundtrack of my teen years. Loved The Dixie Cups’ version of “Chapel of Love.” And The Shirelles’ “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?”

The Drifters’ “Under the Boardwalk” was a favorite. As was Martha Reeves and The Vandellas’ “Heat Wave.” I couldn’t get enough of The Archies’ “Sugar, Sugar”. The Sixties also featured instrumentals like The Ventures’ “Walk, Don’t Run” and The Champs” “Tequila.”

Do you remember these songs of the Sixties? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+

TRACK LIST:

1-1The Beach Boys–Surfin’ Safari
1-2The Dixie Cups–Chapel Of Love
1-3Fats Domino–Blueberry Hill
1-4The Diamonds–Little Darlin’
1-5The Chiffons–He’s So Fine
1-6The Crests–Sixteen Candles
1-7The Shangri-Las–Leader Of The Pack
1-8Gene Pitney–Town Without Pity
1-9Chubby Checker–Limbo Rock
1-10The Shirelles–Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
2-1Jan & Dean–Surf City
2-2Gary Puckett–Young Girl
2-3John Fred & His Playboy Band–Judy In Disguise
2-4The Drifters–Under The Boardwalk
2-5Martha Reeves–Heat Wave
2-6The Diamonds–Why Do Fools Fall In Love?
2-7The Champs–Tequila
2-8The Archies–Sugar, Sugar
2-9The Ventures–Walk, Don’t Run
2-10The Swinging Blue Jeans–Hippy Hippy Shake

22 thoughts on “HITS OF THE SIXTIES!! (VOLUME 2)”

  1. Deb

    A good volume with some real classics—the majority of them either pre-Beatles or concurrent with the British Invasion—but then, “Sugar, Sugar” which was late-1969/early-1970. Don’t get me wrong, as a piece of bubblegum, “Sugar, Sugar” is nonpareil, but it seems rather out-of-place alongside all these greats from much earlier in the decade.

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    2. george Post author

      Deb, I never get tired of “Sugar, Sugar”! No Big Names in this Volume–no Beatles, Stones, Who–and inclusion of some sketchy artists.

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  2. Jerry House

    Except for “Leader of the Pack,” all of these are in my wheelhouse, even “Sugar, Sugar.” Each song, at various times, was a favorite of my teen years. Today, my favorite might be “Little Darlin’;” tomorrow it might be “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” I’m changable. Luckily, there songs are not.

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  3. Todd Mason

    No songs I couldn’t hear again, either, but for me, as well, “Sugar, Sugar” and “Leader of the Pack” wouldn’t be the songs that sold it to me. And “Blueberry Hill” is actually a song of the ’40s, which Fats Domino made the most durable recording of in ’56. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueberry_Hill

    The Glenn Miller Orchestra with Ray Eberle’s lead vocal was a #2 on the charts in 1940…it definitely sways rather rocks: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=PA2xwgWPdVM Gene Autry even took a slow twang at it in ’41…sadly, one can see the was time appeal.

    And I can see the attraction in the album as a whole. Did you mosrlty have a handheld or desk-model transistor AM radio in those years?

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    1. george Post author

      Todd, thanks for the link! I had a handheld, very light, transistor radio that I took with me everywhere in the early Sixties. What a great era for music!

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      1. Todd Mason

        Particularly, from my perspective, for jazz, to some extent for country, and for international musics to be introduced or further introduced to US audiences, even if they were too often done up in goofy “exotic” packaging. Miriam Makeba alone…even if she hit first in the US in the mid ’60s, with “Pata Pata”…as a Beach Boys fan among one of other work, the pre-British Invasion era in US rock is better than it’s often bruited (let’s see what the WP spellcheq makes of That) to be…but the BI certainly didn’t hurt most matters. No lack of good and adventurous new classical coming out in that era…and even the 101 Strings managed to record some of that last, when not doing the usual unpleasant muzak. (Kids getting out of the nearby elementary school just now…I do wonder if my peers and I screamed that much at age 9. Rather hope not, and certainly hope these are exuberant screams, particularly coming so often in the morning and afternoon…)

      2. Todd Mason

        Indeed, though in one country or another longer than he (and what part of his bands stuck with him) deserved…several of his minor hits (or major abroad) were variations on the theme of not being able to tell one’s girlfriend was 13 when one was twenty…or rarin’ to get back at her when she hit 15/16 or whatever age of consdent might be where the listener was. As with “I Can Help”, eager or tortured creep boyfriend songs tended even then, as a kid, to really put me off. The Beatles “Getting Better” at least admits that it is one, putting it ahead of these others.

  5. Jeff Meyerson

    Of course I remember them all – that is my era. But I need to say this:

    Tequila (and can you think of this without thinking of Pee awee Herman?) was recorded in December 1957 and released in January 1958, so not ’60s

    Similarly:

    Blueberry Hill was 1956
    Little Darlin’ February 1957
    Sixteen Candles 1958
    Why Do Fools Fall in Love? of course was a Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers song. Both versions were 1956.

    You’d think with all the choices it wouldn’t be that difficult finding songs that were actually, you know, from the ’60s, but people are lazy.

    I have noticed on Sirius XM that certain pre-British Invasion songs from the early ’60s get played on Fifties Gold, where they sound like they should be.

    Favorites? Tequila, Heat Wave, Under the Boardwalk.

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  6. wolf

    I enjoyed most of these songs as a student and much later found some of them on youtube -it’s still fun for an old man like me to see and listen to Leader of the Pack.

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