It’s prom season so I thought this 2-CD set of classic songs would bring back a lot of memories. Love “All I Have to Do is Dream” by The Everly Brothers! Does anyone remember Shelley Fabares? Her “Johnny Angel” was a huge hit. And who can forget “To Know Him is to Love Him”– hijacked for another purpose in Sister Act.
Do you remember your prom? I went to three proms over two years. GRADE: A
TRACK LIST:
| Ben E. King– | Stand By Me | 2:58 | |
| The Everly Brothers*– | All I Have To Do Is Dream | 2:17 | |
| Poni Tails*– | Born Too Late | 2:17 | |
| Bobby Vee– | Devil Or Angel | 2:17 | |
| Brian Hyland– | Sealed With A Kiss | 2:38 | |
| Pat Boone– | Love Letters In The Sand | 2:12 | |
| Bobby Vinton– | Roses Are Red (My Love) | 2:36 | |
| Sam Cooke– | You Send Me | 2:42 | |
| The Platters– | Smoke Gets In Your Eyes | 2:39 | |
| Lenny Welch– | Since I Fell For You | 2:53 | |
| Shelley Fabares– | Johnny Angel | 2:15 | |
| The Righteous Brothers– | You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin | 3:40 | |
| The Four Freshmen– | Graduation Day | 3:01 | |
| Ritchie Valens– | Donna | 2:21 | |
| The Shirelles– | Soldier Boy | 2:37 | |
| Mark Dinning– | Teen Angel | 2:38 | |
| Paul & Paula– | Hey, Paula | 2:27 | |
| The Paris Sisters– | I Love How You Love Me | 2:07 | |
| Little Caesar And The Romans*– | Those Oldies But Goodies | 3:20 | |
| Tune Weavers*– | Happy, Happy Birthday Baby | 2:25 | |
| The Four Lads– | Moments To Remember | 3:14 | |
| Fleetwoods*– | Mr. Blue | 2:21 | |
| The Diamonds– | Silhouettes | 2:44 | |
| Connie Stevens– | Sixteen Reasons | 1:55 | |
| Dickey Lee– | Patches | 2:54 | |
| The Teddy Bears– | To Know Him Is To Love Him | 2:20 | |
| Frank Wilson & The Cavaliers*– | Last Kiss | 2:18 | |
| Brook Benton– | It’s Just A Matter Of Time | 2:25 | |
| The Danleers– | One Summer Night | 2:12 | |
| Connie Francis– | Where The Boys Are | 2:40 | |
| The Fireflies– | You Were Mine | 1:53 | |
| The Lettermen– | When I Fall In Love | 2:26 | |
| Tommy Edwards– | It’s All In The Game | 2:34 | |
| Rosie & The Originals– | Angel Baby | 3:30 | |
| Phil Phillips With The Twilights– | Sea Of Love | 2:23 | |
| The Crests– | Sixteen Candles | 2:50 | |
| The Angels (3)– | Til | 2:25 | |
| The Skyliners– | Since I Don’t Have You | 2:35 | |
| Tab Hunter– | Young Love | 2:24 | |
| Troy Shondell– | This Time | 2:32 | |
| Brenda Lee– | I’m Sorry | 2:40 | |
| Jimmy Clanton– | Just A Dream | 2:30 | |
| Johnnie & Joe– | Over The Mountain, Across The Sea | 2:11 | |
| Jimmy Charles– | A Million To One | 2:27 | |
| Paul Anka– | Put Your Head On My Shoulder | 3:15 | |
| Jim Reeves– | He’ll Have To Go | 2:16 | |
| Earl Grant– | (At) The End (Of The Rainbow) | 2:18 | |
| Cathy Jean & The Roomates*– | Please Love Me Forever | 2:50 | |
| Jody Reynolds– | Endless Sleep | 2:25 | |
| The Crescendos– | Oh Julie | 2:41 |
I graduated in 1966. None iof these would have been played then. Some decent songs here but a lot of crap like The Four Freshman, Pat Boone, Dickie Lee, Connie Francis The Four Lads, Cathy Jean, Tab Hunter and the always odious Paul Anka. I do like Brenda Lee, Righteous Brothers (1964-a little later than the others), Everly Brothers, Sam Cooke. Most of these songs were geared to teenage girls. The things I listened to pre British Invasion were Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Everly Brothers, Del Shannon, Bo Diddley, Link Wray, Duane Eddy, Sandy Nelson, etc.
Steve, sadly, Duane Eddy just left us…
I was living with relatives temporarily when I graduated high school, so a prom was not a possibility! I heard that Shelly Fabares needed 111 takes to record Johnny Angel, and that the record was made from dozens of them spliced together! I don’t know if that’s true, but I like to think so! I graduated in 1965 and all of those songs are familiar to me! Cathy Jean and the Roommates’ version of Please Love Me Forever is a fab fave!
Bob, I had a feeling you’d be familiar with the songs on these CDs!
I was encouraged not to attend the Prom lest I scare away the decent folk.
Dan, the Prom was a Big Thing for the girls in my Senior High, but guys were fairly indifferent to it. I was on the bubble until a girl asked me to go.
I went to two proms: Junior year (1974) and Senior year (1975). The theme for 1974 was “The Way We Were”; the theme for 1975 was “We May Never Pass This Way Again”. After my mum passed away and my siblings and I were cleaning out her house, I found my 1975 prom picture: long reddish hair (I remember using Sun-In religiously for the week leading up to the big day) and platform shoes so high it’s amazing I could walk—let alone dance—in them. Ah, memories!
Deb, the theme for our 1967 Senior Prom was “The Look of Love” which was a Big Hit in 1967.
My high school memories are best left in the past.
Jerry, same here. I disliked High School and couldn’t wait to get to College.
About how it worked for me, though the last year of HS, taking AP courses and the like, was less dull than previous years.
Todd, the High School “culture” bored me. The sports obsession, the fashion obsession, the drinking obsession all did nothing for me. When I got to college, many students brought their High School obsessions with them, but I was focused on challenging courses, gifted professors, and the Library. Yes, I was a true nerd.
Worse things can happen. I was never one to overestimate the School Experience, but enjoyed some things about it…and took from it what I could.
My senior prom (1968) was past most of these songs’ expiration date, although “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling” (1965) probably made it into the mix. As I recall, the prom was pretty sedate. A few guys probably sneaked booze onto the grounds but if so, they consumed it quietly outside. In my conservative town (but not, overall, today’s far-right Trump conservatism), this was before pot and guns.
Fred, no pot or guns at my Proms either. Some guys had some booze but I steered clear of it since I was driving my date to the Prom and back to her home.
My parents moved us from the city to the country as I started ninth grade and my high school was literally in the middle of a corn field. I was so bitter about the situation I largely isolated myself for those four years and fancied myself something of an iconoclast (though I was really more shy and a bit of an immature dick) so no proms for me.
It was the late seventies and teenagers were truly ugly as hell and the music was even more hideous so I didn’t miss out on anything. The senior prom theme song was “Come Sail Away” if that’s any indication. I like to think I could have enjoyed the experience had I been born earlier, say anytime from the forties through the early sixties. On the other hand I never could stomach the whole high school social microcosm so I doubt it.
I confess I only recognize a few of the artists here but I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Byron, High School Proms are Big Business in Western NY today. Groups of High School Seniors rent limos and go to the Prom. Later, they stay out all night at night clubs, casinos, and bars. In the era of Tik Tok asking someone to the Prom is a Big Deal, too. It has to be staged (Niagara Falls is a popular spot to Pop the Question) and then posted online for the world to see. Also, after my High School Prom in 1967, a surprising number of my classmates married each other. That doesn’t happen as much today.
I still have my prom pictures although it was the guys’ proms because my Christian High School did not approve of dancing. We had a banquet-which was not fun at all.
I like exactly the opposite of the songs Steve liked. And I can sing JOHNNY ANGEL even now.
Patti, I remember dancing at my High School Prom and eating the “finger food” that the caterer put out. Loved Shelley Fabares and loved “Johnny Angel.” I’m not sure any of my Prom pictures still exist.
Our Sophomore Luau at Punahou was pretty dull, and I managed to evade the junior and senior proms partly as a result. Londonderry had no seniors when I started (as it was a new HS), and I’m not sure they sprang for a Junior Prom that year (1979), either, though I left the school early that year to move to Hawaii.
I went to my junior high school prom but not high school. My junior high was next door to an elementary school (though not the one I went to), and there was a plaza in between. The prom was held outdoors between the schools.
Of course I know Shelley Farberries (OK, Fabares) and “Johnny Angel.” Sheesh. I just heard “Those Oldies But Goodies” on Fifties Gold on Sirius yesterday. In fact, I know ALL the songs and like a lot of them. One I’ve always disliked, however, is “Ruses Are Red (My Love).” We’ve seen some of the artists in concert, doo wop in particular – Johnnie & Joe, Jimmy Vlanton, Brenda Lee, The Danleers, The Diamonds, The Shirelles (various), The Righteous Brothers, and The Everly Brothers.
I’m not sure songs about suicide (Patches, Endless Sleep) or Death on the Highway (Teen Angel, Last Kiss) are appropriate for prom night, although maybe they are.
Some favorites:
It’s All in the Game
Sea of Love
Since I Don’t Have You
You Send Me
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
I should probably include “Sealed With a Kiss” because I can still remember dancing to that with my first girlfriend at the End of Camp dance in 1962.
Yopu reminded me that Jackie bought a two -CD set called Prom Night Favorites. There is some crossover (* indicates same), plus some older material.
One:
Penguins, Earth Angel
The Andrews Sisters, I Can Dream, Can’t I?
Crew Cuts, Sh-Boom
Al Hibbler, Unchained Melody
The McGuire Sisters, Sugartime
The Diamonds, The Stroll
Phil Phillips, Sea of Love *
Tab Hunter, Young Love *
Mark Dinning, Teen Angel *
Tommy Edwards, It’s All in the Game (the only #1 song co-written by a former Vice President of the United States; you could look it up) *
Connie Francis, Who’s Sorry Now (I’m sure Deb will be thinking, “You know the Rainbow Motel on Old Mill Road?”)
Brook Benton, It’s Just a Matter of Time *
Patti Page (who I always disliked), The Tennessee Waltz
The Platters, My Prayer
Two:
Lesley Gore, It’s My Party
Connie Francis, Where the Boys Are
Brenda Lee, I’m Sorry *
Brian Hyland, Sealed With a Kiss *
Ruby & the Romantics, Our Day Will Come
The Righteous Brothers, (You’re My) Soul and Inspiration
Diane Renay, Navy Blue (“‘Cause my steady boy said ‘Ship Ahoy’ and joined the Na-a-vy”)
The Walker Brothers, The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore
The Supremes, Baby Love
The Four Tops, (I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)
Dusty Springfield, You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me
THe Mindbenders, A Groovy Kind of Love
PS – My prom, like The Cap’n’s, was 1965. I graduated high school at 16.
Jeff, two of my sisters skipped their Senior Year of High School and went to College. I sometimes wish I had done that, too.
I was 17!
I had a friend and an acquaintance who did as much (the friend actually ducked out halfway through junior year and made it into St. John’s College’s Annapolis campus), but I was unlikely to get any support for that, and did what amounted to a college frosh year in my senior year with AP courses and similar ones (I’d taken the AP English exam in my junior year…there were no AP English courses per se at my Honolulu HS).
There were no lack of pretty and even beautiful young women at all three of my HSes (counting the Kailua public school where I took a summer Driver’s Ed course), but I was a sea of acne from age 10 into my earliest adult years, so That didn’t help. And no few cool ones whom I liked as well (not a few who were seen as Not Pretty by the fools around me).
Jeff, I might have PROM NIGHT FAVORITES around here somewhere. CD TWO includes many of the songs I listened to in the Sixties. “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration” is my favorite song by The Righteous Brothers. One of the first albums I bought was Take It Easy with the Walker Brothers in 1965.
Most of these songs were hits before my time (I graduated in 1970).
I never went to prom but don’t think I missed much. Most of my friends took a pass on it as well. Senior year our principal called an assembly and berated my class for having no school spirit. Voting for the prom court and actual prom attendance were at an all time low. We were scum.
Beth, I think the popularity of Proms have waxed and waned over time. Right now, they’re very popular! It has a lot to do with Social Media.
Proms had started losing their popularity in the mid sixties. Just like when I went to college in the late sixties fraternity’s were having a hard time getting members. Jeff’s Prom Night Favorites I find mostly cringe worthy. Our prom in 66 consited of mostly Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, Kinks, Motown and Stax Volt artists. God forbid anyone would play a record by some group called the Crew Cuts. How unhip can you be.
Steve, my Prom in 1967 featured some Beatles music, and mostly TOP 40 hits.
Well, I know nearly all these songs…never liked Paul Anka much, but, say, Brook Benton was pretty good (and don’t remember the lyrics well enough at the moment to recall if any were offputting).
Jim Reeves’s “He’ll Have to Go” would be a more 20th reunion dance than prom song, I’d think. And weird even there,
Todd, most of these Prom Songs were popular in the early 1960s. By my High School Prom in 1967, musical tastes had changed.