The Pop Memories I have of many of these songs are listen to my mother and father’s favorite Easy Listening radio station, WBEN, back in the early Sixties. My local rock n’ roll radio station, WKBW, played a few of these songs like Ruby and the Romantics’ “Our Day Will Come” and Dusty Springfield’s “Wishin’ and Hoping'”. But Jack Jones, Burl Ives, Patsy Cline, Dinah Washington, Ramsey Lewis Trio, and Engelbert Humperdinck mostly stayed on the Easy Listening station.
Of course, there was some crossover with songs that managed to get played both on our Easy Listing and rock n’ roll radio stations. Connie Francis songs were played on both. Surprisingly, Roger Miller songs played on both stations. The Righteous Brothers songs were popular, too.
Do any of these songs jog your Pop Memories of the 60s? GRADE: B
TRACK LIST:
DISC ONE:
- “Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes) — Dinah Washington
- “For You” — Rick Nelson
- “Sweet Dreams (Of You) — Patsy Cline
- “Funny Way of Laughing” — Burl Ives
- “Break It to Me Gently” — Brenda Lee
- “Green, Green Grass of Home” — Tom Jones
- “Our Day Will Come” — Ruby and the Romantics
- “At Last” — Etta James
- “The ‘In’ Crowd” — Ramsey Lewis Trio
- “Together” –Connie Francis
- “Still” — Bill Anderson
- “The Wedding” — Julie Rogers
- “You Don’t Have to Be a Baby to Cry” — The Caravelles
- “I’ll Never Smile Again” — The Platters
- “One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart) — Barry Young
DISC TWO:
- “Engine Engine #9” — Roger Miller
- “Am I that Easy to Forget” — Engelbert Humperdinck
- “Kiddio” –Brook Benton
- “I Want to Be Wanted (Per Tutta La Vita) — Brenda Lee
- “Ebb Tide” — The Righteous Brothers
- “Wishin’ and Hopin'” — Dusty Springfield
- “Come Saturday Morning” — The Sandpipers
- “Windy” — Wes Montgomery
- “The Impossible Dream” — Jack Jones
- “Diane” — The Bachelors
- “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own” — Connie Francis
- “Theme From Dr. Kildare (Three Stars Will Shine Tonight) — Richard Chamberlain
- “Young Lovers” — Paul & Paula
- “Call Me” — Chris Montez
- “More Than a Miracle” — Roger William
They might well have called their format Easy Listening, but programmers and such were more likely, by 1970 or so at latest, to call a radio format with this many pop vocalists MOR or “Middle of the Road”…The Sandpipers’ version of “Come Saturday Morning” (or the Capenters) would be about as purely pop as my parents’ EZ stations would get. I would’ve plumped for a station with the Washington, Montez, Montgomery and James songs over any of the 101 Strings-and-worse stations of the time. They were enough jazz fans, and my mother an early rocker, to go along with me when I asked them to leave the station on when Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” came onto one of their-ish stations on some long road trip we were taking…the first time any of us had heard it. Probably the first time I did so.
Todd, my parents played the radio all day long. I heard a lot of their music–Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, etc.–and the artists on this CD, too. Sadly, we did not have a radio in our car until I convinced my father to buy a Chevy Impala (aka, The Plum Avenger) in 1967.
Not so much default equipment, of the family cars were elder beasts?
Todd, car radios were an option in those days and my family regarded that as an “extravagance.” But, in 1967, the Impala came with a radio as standard equipment.
Or the family cars were old, that is…
That last was, the first time I asked them to leave a song on from a station they had settled on, since we were driving along several hundred miles from our home in New Hampshire in ’77 at that point in our trip, and they were settling on any signal they could find with not too much interference that they like the music at all.
What a very odd collection. I know a lot of them. I would take Patsy Cline singing anything, so that makes my list. Also “Wishin’ and Hopin’.” There are a few others I like, mildly.
Let’s see Deb’s take.
Jeff, your reaction to POP MEMORIES OF THE ’60s parallels mine. It’s more my parents type of music.
ta lot to like here, but also some music to scratch your head by. Favorites include Dusty Springfield, the Righteous Brothers, Paul and Paula, Etta James, Patsy Cline, Roger Miller, Ruby and the Romantics, and Brenda Lee. I always liked the sound of Burl Ives’ voice but he was a pure-dee slimeball. And Richard Chamberlain…really?
Jerry, I was surprised by the inclusion of Richard Chamberlain, too. But, back in the day, Chamberlain was a TV heart-throb and his show got high ratings.
Another one that’s all over the place. Some Top 10 tracks, some second- or third-tier selections from artists who had bigger hits, and one who draws a total blank, at least for me (Barry Young?). I like Ramsey Lewis’ jazzy take on “In Crowd” well enough, though I prefer Dobie Gray’s original. Julie Rogers recorded a demo track for “You Only Live Twice,” the title tune for the movie, but the filmmakers ultimately went with Nancy Sinatra instead.
Fred, the Bond movie folks trended towards Big Names to sing their theme songs: Paul McCartney, Carly Simon, Nancy Sinatra, etc.